■■■MHBBBBMBHttMMaMM ■KVWWWMaMM MMMMMM »- -•- *•" •- • ■ *#•»• «•»',- IHTfl j | IjHp! I I ! .-. .-. ... .-. A C™ £ STORY ofthe • SP 1 ^ ii • ' i'miii.i . iimwiwiwi iiiii mil hi iw imii nj mi hi ■■■i—imiMiM & V J.AM "1/ I Cbe &totp of fte iftattong. GERMANY THE STORY OF THE NATIONS. Large Crown 8vo, Cot//, Illustrated, $s. i. ROME. Arthur Gilman, M.A. 2. THE JEWS. Prof. J. K. Hosmer. 3. GERMANY. Rev. S. Baring-Gould, M.A. 4. CARTHAGE. Prof. A. T. Church. 5. ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J. P. Mahaffy. 6. THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole. 7. ANCIENT EGYPT. Canon Ra\v- LINSON. 8. HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vambkry. 9. THE SARACENS. A. Oilman, M.A. 10. IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless. 11. CHALDiEA. Z. A. Ragozin. 12. THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. 13. ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 14. THE TURKS. Stanley Lane-Poole. 15. MEDIEVAL FRANCE. Prof. GUSTAVE MASSON. 16. HOLLAND. Prof. J. E. Thorold Rogers. London : T. FISHER UNWIN.26, Paternoster Square, E.C. BUST OF A GERMAN, BY TRADITION, HERMANN. (The Capitoline Museum, Rome.) GERMANY BY S. BARING-GOULD, M.A. /■ITTHOR OF J 1 GERMANY PRESENT AND PAST," " CURIOUS MYTHS OF THE MIDDLB AGES," ETC. WITH THE COLLAHOKATION OF ARTHUR GIL MAN, M.A AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF ROME," ETC. THIRD EDITION T. FISHER UNWIN 26 FATERNOSTER SQUARE NEW YORK : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS MDCCCLXXXIX Entered at Stationers' Hah By T. Fisher Unwin Copyright by G. P. Putnam';; Sons, i386 (For the United States of America .) BS'S s ^^* & tifej^ usT j FT v kj r/ r & ^ ^^7 JV3 PREFACE. Germany is the heart of Continental Europe, and influences have gone forth from her which have deeply affected every one of her neighbours. The present volume traces the life of this powerful na- tion from the time when imperial Rome was baffled by her valiant Hermann down to the hour when France fell before her, and the idea of Empire { which had been a delusion and a terrible embarrass- ment since the crowning of Charlemagne) became, under William the First, a power making for peace and strength. The absorbing story begins with pictures of the surgings of the nations, — the Huns, the Sclavs, the Goths, the Saxons, the Franks ; it tells of the throes by which the heroes of old brought the great peo- ple to its independent life ; recounts the struggles of the various Teutonic families among themselves, and of all of them with their neighbours , and brings up vividly the power of an idea, as it shows the strife and perplexities arising from the Imperial spectre, as well as the dire contest that followed the schism of the Church and in a short time in- volved all Christendom in disputes touching the highest interests of humanity. The reader of the story of Germany is thus iii j v PREFACE. brought face to face with problems of the deepest moment, with which men of deadly earnestness were struggling through the ages, putting forth all the power of their intellect and the force of their vigorous bodies, intensified by the deep-seated re- ligious convictions which they nourished in their hearts. The story of such a people as the Germans could not fail to possess intense interest for anyone ; but for us of another branch of the Teutonic familv. it has the additional charm that it is the history of our blood-relations. On their experience we have built, and to the light of their example we look for guidance; in their triumphs we rejoice; to the grandeur of the genius of their poets and prose writers, of their scientists and theologians, we look with pride and admiration, congratulating ourselves that we, too, are Teutons. We stood with their Hermann, as he said to the Roman Varus, " No farther!" just as we stood with the barons before King John on the field of Runnymede. It has been the endeavour in preparing the fol- lowing pages to keep before the mind this unity of the Teutonic peoples, as well as to indicate the steps by which the idea of Empire has progressed to the present German Unity. T R I *-* ^ h R Y GERMAN EMPIRE I8S5 EHCL^H MILLS If Ifl O JB J> W » JM T. FISHER UNWIN, 26. PATERNOSTER SQUARE. LONDON. EC. CONTENTS. I. PAGE The First Germans, . . . 1-6 Invaders from the North, i— The Romans defeated, 2— Marias at Aix, 4— The victory over the invaders, 6. II. What was Old Germany Like ? . . . 7-14 Hill-country and plain, 7 — Traces of early inhabitants, 8 — The Germans spearmen, 9 — The Swabians, 10— Freemen and slaves, 11 — Donar and the other gods, 12— S. Noth- burga, 14. III. How Hermann Met the Romans, . . . i5 _2 3 Caesar in Gaul, 15— Hermann's thoughts, — Varus and his legions, iS— "Give me back my legions '."20 — Thusnelda captured, 22 — Hermann the typical German, 23. IV. The Fierce Huns Appear, .... 24-28 Puss in the Corner, 24 — People from Northern Asia, 26— The Niebelungen Lied, 27— Attila dies, 28. V. The Migrations of the Tribes, . . . 29-33 Wasps in a beehive, 29— Goths, W^st Goths and Slavs, 31— The Burgundians and Franks, t,^. VI. Clovis, King of the Franks. . . . 34-4- Confusion, 34— The cathedral at Rheims spoiled, 35— Clo- V v i CONTENTS. TAGE tilde wooed by Clovis, 37 — Baptism of a son of Clovis, 38 — Clovis prays, 39 — The Allemani beaten, 40 — Three thou- sand Franks baptised, 41 — Clovis dies, 42. VII The Mayors of the Palace, ..... 43-45 The Merovingians, 43, — Pepin the Short, 44 — Pepin dies, 45. VIII. The Germans Hear the Gospel, . . . 46-5 1 Irish manuscripts in Germany, 46 — Fridolin, the Irishman, 48 — Boniface, the Good-doer, 50 — Pagans murder Boniface, IX. A Man of Mark, , . ... . . 52-62 Charlemagne, 52 — His kingdom, 54 — Wittekind flees to Denmark, 56 — Wittekind and the Saxons overcome, 57 — Charlemagne divides his kingdom, 58 — The Church under Charlemagne, 59 — Good acts of Charlemagne, 60 — Charle- magne crowned at Rome, 61 — His death, 62. X. The " Holy Roman Empire." . . 63-66 The old Empire, 63 — Conversion of the Romans, 64 — Italy overrun by the Lombards, 64 — Who was Emperor? 615 — Importance of the idea of the Empire, 66. XI. A King Pious but Narrow, . . , 67-71 Louis, the narrow-minded, 67 — Jutta accused of witchcraft, 68 — War between brothers, 70 — Treaty at Verdun, 71. XII. The New System of Government, , , 72-74 How the Germans held their lands, 72 — How fighting men were furnished, 73 — The feudal system, 73. XIII. Trouble Coming, 75—77 Successors of Louis the Pious, 75 — The invasions of the Magyars or Hungarians, 76 — End of the race of Charle- magne, 77. CONTENTS. vii XIV. PAGE How Henry the Fowler Ruled, . . • . 7 8 - 8 4 The great vassals elect the king, 78— Conrad chosen, 79— Henry the Fowler chosen, So— Tribute to the Hungarians, 8i— Protecting the frontier, 82— The Hungarians baffled, 83 —Knighthood instituted, 83— Rules of the Order, 84. XV. The Hungarians Burst in Again, . . 85-93 Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg, 85— Count Kyburg puzzles the Hungarians, 86 — Otto comes upon their rear, 88 — Otto the Great crowned, 90. XVI. Some Trials of a King, .... 94-105 A Plot against a King, 95— The King's Guardians, 97— An Appeal to the Pope, 99— A Hand cut off, 103— A broken heart, 105. XVII. A Bad Son Makes a Strong King, . . 106-108 XVIII. How They Fought the Saracens, . . 109-112 A great awakening, in. XIX. How a New Dynasty was Begun, . . 113-119 The two-headed eagle, 119. XX. Frederick of the Red Beard, . . . 120-124 Frederick Barbarossa, 120 — His army almost cut to pieces, 122 — Henry the Lion under the ban of the empire, T22 — A crusade against Saladin, 124. XXI. A Cruel King Put Under the Ban. . 125-155 Terrible work in Sicily, 125 — A child-king, 127 — The power of the nobles, 129 — Trouble from the imperial idea, 131 — Another crusade, 132 — Pope against emperor, 133 — The em- peror excommunicated, 131— A prince in a cask, 1 3- v iii CONTENTS. XXII. I'AGE The Robber-Knights, .... 136-140 Germany's ruined castles, 136 — Nobles and knights quarrel, 138 — What work the knights did, 139 — Lordly innkeepers, 140. XXIII. How the Germans Wrote Romances, . 141-145 The Minnesingers, 141 — The old heroic legends, 142 — Gun- thur and Kriemhilcl, 143 — Brunhilde quarrels with Kriem- hild, 144 — Attila, King of the Huns, marries Kriemhild, MS- XXIV. How the Cities Gained Power, . . 146-147 Guilds and hereditary burghers, 146 — The Hanseatic League, 147. XXV. A Good King from a Swiss Castle, . . 148-150 The castle of Hapsburg, 148 — Rudolph founds a dynasty, 150. XXVI. Did William Tell Shoot? .... 1 51-153 Albert of Hapsburg, 151 — William Tell, 152 — The battle of Morgarten, 153. XXVII. The Golden Bull, 154-163 Henry of Luxemburg chosen emperor, 154 — Civil war, 156 — The election of emperor settled by the Golden Bull, 156 — Wenceslas comes to the throne, 158 — His savage hounds, 159 — Huss appears at Prague, 160 — The one-eyed leader of the Hussites, 161 — Saxony wasted, 162 — Bohemia and the country generally pacified, 163. XXVIII. A Sleepy King, 164-170 The Austrian house of Hapsburg comes into power, 164 — The Graubiinden, 166 — Peasants with pitchforks, 166 — Wheat fields ravaged, 167 — Maximilian the Handsome, 168 — The Flemings revolt, 170 — Maximilian a prisoner, 170. CONTENTS. IX XXIX. PAGE Between the Old and the New, . . 172-178 Hans Burgkmair's wood-cuts, 172 — Maximilian a boundary- stone, 174— A diet at Worms, 175 — An imperial post-office, 176— Trouble with the Turks, 176 — Money going to the Pope, 177 — Too much ambition, 178. XXX. Men Begin to Print Books, . . . 1 79-1 81 Water-marks, 179 — The invention of printing, 179 — The Bible printed, 180. XXXI. A Great Stir in the Church, . . 182-188 Beginning of Protestantism, 182 — The Pope wants money, 1S3 — Indulgences, 1S4 — Martin Luther appears, 185 — Justi- fication by faith, 1S6 — Archbishops in armor, 188. XXXII. Walled Cities and their Importance, . 189-195 Cities begin to be important, 1S9 — Timber houses, 189 — ('■lass windows, 191 — Stables under the houses, 191 — Beauty of the cities, 192 — Street fights, 193 — Music and singing, 194. XXXIII. High German and Low, .... 196-198 How Germany is divided, 196 — The hill country and plains, 196 — How Luther fixed the literary dialect, 197 — Compari- son with England, 198. XXXIV. A Mighty Emperok, ..... 199-204 Charles the Fifth and his traits, 199 — His ambition, 201 — Another diet at Worms, 203 — The princes seize church property, 204. XXXV. How the Peasants Waked up, . . 205-210 The new ideas permeate society, 205 — Gathering straw- berries and snails, 206 — Little Jack and Black Hoffman, X CONTENTS. l'AGE 207 — Hacked to pieces, 207 — Terrible deeds, 208 — Shall the chains be re-riveted? 209. XXXVI. The Sad Fate of Bernard Knipperdolling, 21 1-220 Meyerbeer's opera, 211 — League against the Catholics, 211 — Minister converted to the Go-pel, 212 — Anabaptist trou- bles, 213 — Vagaries, 214 — Knipperdolling's death, 217 — Titles to tradesmen, ?iS — Minister reverts to Catholicism. 219. XXXVII. How the Protestants Protested, . . 221-231 The Reformation at Zurich, 221 — A diet at Spires, 221 — The Protestants uncompromising, 222 — Council at Trent, 225 — Victory for king Charles at Miihlberg, 225 — Maurice rewarded by Charles, 226 — Maurice unmasks, 227 — The Pacification of Passau, 228 — The Pope jealous of King Charles, 228 — Death of Charles V., 230. XXXVIII. Thirty Years of War about Religion, . 232-239 Persecutions on both sides, 232 — Gloomy Rudolph II., 233 — The Protestant Union and the Catholic League, 233 — A High Fall, 235 — Vienna besieged, 235 — A battle at Prague, 238 — The Winter King, 239. XXXIX. A Bohemian Gentleman, .... 24C-246 Count Tilly comes to the front, 240 — Albert of Wallenstein appears, 242 — Bethlen Gabor disbands his troops, 244 — Wallenstein baffled, 244 — He retires to Bohemia, 246. XL. A Swedish King in Germany, . . . 247-256 Gustavus Adolphus appealed to, 247 — Dreadful scenes in Magdeburg, 247 — Outrages by the Swedes, 250 — The em- peror appeals again to Wallenstein, 251 — Wallenstein's magnificence, 252 — Gustavus attacks the Bohemian gentle- man, 253 — A difficult retreat, 254 — A battle at Liitzen, 254 — What two Scotchmen and an Irishman did, 256. CONTENTS xf XL1. PAGE Peace After the Long War, . . . 257-259 The Peace of Westphalia, 257 — The Reichstag, or Imperial Diet, 258— How the population decreased, 258. XLII. Two Strokes by a Man in Yellow, . 260-264 The long reign of Leopold, 260 — Rhineland wasted by the French, 261 — The man in yellow, 261— The Turks stirred up, 263 — Two great men, 263. XLIII. A Noble Ruler, 264-267 The Great Elector, 264 — His pedigree, 265 — A fortunate escape, 266 — The Swedes take to flight, 267. XLIV. Bitterly Fighting the Turks, . . . 268-269 Prince Eugene appears, 26S — Louis XIV. attempts to gain Eugene over, 269 — The Prince wins his soldiers' hearts, 269. XLV. All Europe at War, 270-274 A claim to the crown of Spain, 270 — War begins in Italy, 271 — The battle of Blenheim, 271 — Marlborough in the Netherlands, 272 — Ramilies and Oudenarde, 274 — Rastadt, 274. XLVI. Powdered Wigs and Patches, . . . 275-277 Rococo, 275 — A strange " deformity," 276 — Threatrical stat- ues, 2f 6 — Manufacturing " nobles," 277. XLVII. The Troubles of a Noble Queen, . . 279-282 War with Maria Theresa, 279 — In spite of the Pragmatic Sanction, 280 — Rude royalty, 2S1 — Insolence of king Fred- erick, 282. XLVIII. The Queen's Baby Boy, .... 283-287 " Moriamur pro rege nostro Maria Theresa," 283 — A brief b x ii CONTENTS. PAGE reign, 2S5 — Frederick the Great uneasy, 2S6 — An angry prince, 287. XLIX. The Hardships of a Young Prince, . . 288-292 Doings in a " Tabagie," 2S8 — Royal whimsies, 289 — A flying prince, 290— Close confinement, 291 — A reconciliation, 292. L. The Army of Cut-and-Run, . . . 293-295 A confederation against Prussia, 293 — The battle of Ross- bach, 294 — The charge of Seidlitz, 295. LI. Old Fritz Repairs Ruins, .... 296-300 Terrible results of the war, 296 — Traits of the king, 208 — Anecdotes, 299 — Frederick the Great, 300. LII. The Doings of Two Hundred Princes, . 301-305 Culture nearly extinguished, 301 — Manufactured towns, 302 — Mannheim described, 303 — A palace at Wurzburg, 3°4- LIII. Good King Joseph, 306-311 Character of Joseph II. , 306 — Arbitrary reforms, 307 — Con- dition of the peasants improved, 30S — Religious orders put to work, 309 — A visit from pope Pius VI., 310 — A tottering throne, 311. LIV. Genius Comes to the Front, . . . 312-317 Lessing breaks away from foppery, 312 — Goethe and Schil- ler appear, 313 — Weimar a German Athens, 314 — Schiller's Robbers, 315 — Other writers, 316 — Music improves, 317. LV. An Up-turning in France, . . . 318-327 The fashion to be vicious, 318 — Influence of America, 31c; — The Third Estate, 320 — Storming the Bastille, 321 — The peasants rise, 322 — The Jacobins and Robespierre, 324 — Louis XVI. executed, 326 — Marie Antoinette executed. 327. CONTENTS. x iii LVI. r AGE The Man from Corsica, . . . 328-339 The First Coalition, 328 — Girondists guillotined, 329 — End of the Reign of Terror, 330 — Napoleon advances into Italy, 331 — Threatened in the rear, 332 — Treaty of Campo Formio, 333 — Nations like children, 334 — France prepares for more war, 336 — The French in Egypt, 337 — The Second Coali- tion, 337 — Battle_of Hohenlinden, 33S — Peace concluded at Luneville, 339. LVII. Napoleon as Emperor, .... 340-347 Napoleon wins popular favour, 340 — The Empire estab- lished, 341 — The Third Coalition, 341 — Battle of Auster- litz, 342 — Peace of Pressburg, 344 — Prussia chastised, 345 — Austria against Napoleon, 346 — Peace of Vienna, 347. LVIII. The Heroes of the Tyrol, . . . 348-357 Hofer the Landwirth, 34S — His picturesque dress, 349 — " It is time!" 350 — A secret kept, 351 — Berg Isel, 353 — The woman with the cask, 354 — Austria abandons the Tyrol, 357. LIX. The March on Moscow, .... 358-36: Napoleon against England, 358 — Against Russia, 359 — The retreat from Moscow, 361 — Napoleon deserts his own army, 361. LX. Napoleon Falls and Germany Rises, . 362-366 Hope in Europe, 362 — Germany roused, 364 — Bliicher wins success, 365 — Napoleon's last victory on German soil, 366. LXI. The Battle of the Nations, . . . 367-372 A foreboding, 367 — The position of Leipzig, 36S — How the battle there began, 369 — Victory apparently for the French, 370 — All lost, 371 — " It was a glorious victory ! " 372. LXII. Napoleon Checked, . 373~378 Napoleon refuses peace, 373 — He is forced to renounce the French crown, 375 — The First Peace of Paris, 375 — Sudden return of Napoleon, 376 — A second abdication after Water- x i v CONTENTS. PAGE loo, 377 — The Second Peace of Paris, 378 — A new partition of Europe, 378. LXIIL Germany Struggles for Freedom, . . 379-383 Men desire more freedom, 379 — The Holy Alliance, 380 — The Burschenschaften 381 — Memoirs of Baron Trenck, 382 — The Zoll-verein, 383. LXIV. Another Revolution, c . . 384-387 Louis Philippe flees to England, and Louis Napoleon ap- pears, 3S4 — Every German state in commotion, 385 — A National Assembly at Frankfort, 3S6 — Frederick William IV. declines to be emperor, 3S6 — The peasants rise again, but government keeps the upper hand, 387. LXV. A Quarrel about Two Duchies, . . 388-394 Schleswig-Holstein, 388 — Denmark crushed, 390 — General Benedek makes a mistake, 391 — The battle of Koniggratz, 392 — The Peace of Prague, 394. LXVI. A Terrible Struggle with France, . . 395-414 A dispute over the throne of Spain, 395 — Napoleon III. declares war, 396 — The contending armies, 397 — The French routed at Worth, 39S — Great agitation in Paris, 399 — The position of Metz, 400 — Masterly plans and movements, 402 — The Germans occupy Gravelotte, 403 — A battle there, 404 — MacMahon in a corner, 405 — Defeat at Sedan, — Napo- leon surrenders, 406 — Rapidity of the movements, 408 — The Germans at Versailles, 409 — The siege of Paris, 410 — Gam- betta in a balloon, 410 — Gambetta's operations, 412 — Peace, 413 — The Commune, 414. LXVII. The New Empire, 415-422 William, king of Prussia, crowned Emperor at Versailles, 415 — First diet of the new Empire, 416 — Composition of the empire, 416) — What is the German Fatherland? 41S — The lesson of Unity, 420 — Crushing military drill, 421 — Advantages of the study of history, 422. Index, .,.«.... 4 2 3 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The larger proportion of the illustrations in this volume are based upon the excellent designs in the comprehensive and authoritative "Deutsche Geschichte," by L. Stacke, to the publishers of which, Messrs. Velhagen & Klasing, of Bielefeld, we desire to express our cordial acknowledgments. PAGE MAP OF EUROPE IN THE NINTH CENTURY MAP OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE, 1885 BUST OF A GERMAN BY TRADITION HERMANN, Fl'0?ltispiece ROMANS AND CIMBRI IN COMBAT A GERMAN CAVALRY MAN (ROMAN RELIEF) ANCIENT GERMAN DWELLINGS (ROMAN PERIOD) SAXON COLONIST WITH CAPTIVE WEND . A GERMAN COUNCIL (ROMAN PERIOD) GERMANS ON THE RHINE .... CAESAR ........ GERMAN HORSEMEN FIGHTING ROMAN LEGIONS ROMAN SOLDIERS DESTROYING A GERMAN VILLAGE STATUE SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT THUSNELDA GERMAN CAPTIVE (ROMAN PERIOD) BOUNDARY WALL (ROMAN PERIOD) . GERMAN SKIRMISHERS (gEFECHT'S-EROFFNEr) MARCUS AURELIUS PARDONING GERMAN CHIEFS ROMANS BESIEGING A GERMAN FORTRESS GERMAN PRIESTESSES FOLLOWING THE ARMY . GERMAN BODY-GUARD OF THE LATER CAESARS xv 3 5 9 10 11 !3 16 17 *9 21 2 5 27 3° 32 36 39 40 XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. INVESTITURE OF A BISHOP BY A KING TREATY OF ALLIANCE BETWEEN GERMAN TRIBES A JUDGMENT OF GOD GERMANY CAPTIVE . CHARLEMAGNE (dUREr) . charlemagne in council Charlemagne's signature . silver pieces of charlemagne st. michael, the patron saint of the empire election of a king the heerbann calling out of the militia. henry ii. and cunigunde build churches . otto ii. and his spouse blessed by christ . henry ii. receives from god the crown, holy lance, and imperial sword otto iii. and representatives of nobles and CLERGY IMPERIAL HOUSE AT GOSLAR (HENRY III.) HENRY IV. WITH SCEPTRE AND IMPERIAL GLOBE RUDOLPH OF SWABIA ..... CONRAD, SON OF HENRY IV. HENRY V. RECEIVES INSIGNIA FROM POPE PASCHAL A TEMPLAR ....... AN ASTROLOGER (HOLBEIN) . IMPERIAL GLOBE A HOHENSTAUFFEN KNIGHT . CONRAD HUNTING WITH FALCONS „ HENRY THE LION AND SPOUSE STATUE OF FREDERICK BARBAROSSA barbarossa's PALACE AT GELNHAUSEN . barbarossa's PALACE AT KAISERWERTH SEAL OF OTTO IV. ..... . MONUMENTAL LION TO HENRY THE LION 45 47 49 S3 55 57 62 66 69 81 86 87 89 9 1 97 99 101 103 107 108 m "3 114 IJ 5 117 121 123 126 -27 128 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XV11 SILVER PIECE OF OTTO IV, HENRY Vir ...... PEASANTS BUILDING A VILLAGE (13TH CENTURY) A BISHOP IN ROBES THE DRESS OF THE GERMAN LORDS, WORN BY HENRY OF THURINGIA, A.D. 1241 KNIGHT AND ATTENDANTS PEASANTS AND PLOUGH (13TH CENTURY) RUDOLPH OF HAPSBURG .... FORTIFIED CAMP (15TH CENTURY) . SEVEN ELECTORS CHOOSE FOR EMPEROR HENRY OF LUXEMBURG THE MARTYRDOM OF HUSS JOHN, COUNT ZISKA, OF TROCZNOW SCENE FROM THE HUSSITE WARS ARTILLERY OF THE 15TH CENTURY MAXIMILIAN AND BRIDE, MARY OF BURGUNDY FREDERICK III. KING JOHN OF BOHEMIA FREEING THE BURGHERS OF MAINZ FROM THB BAN IN 1332 . LUTHER (CRANACH) A GERMAN CITY IN THE ] FERDINAND I. . MELANCTHON (dUREr) THREE PEASANTS, 16TH CENTURY (DURER) LUTHER AND MELANCTHON (CRANACH) . SCHOOL-ROOM IN 16TH CENTURY CONSECRATION OF A CHURCH, 1530 WOMAN'S COSTUME, 16TH CENTURY JOHN FREDERICK THE BOLD, ELECTOR OF SAXONY GERMAN PATRICIANS IN 1550 . . VIENNA EARLY IN THE 17TH CENTURY . 5TH CENTURY PAGE 129 I30 *33 135 i37 139 147 149 155 157 iS9 161 162 165 169 171 178 184 186 190 200 202 208 210 212 216 218 224 228 237 XV111 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. JEAN TZERCLAES, COUNT TILLY ALBERT VON WALLENSTErN .... A VILLAGE FESTIVAL IN THE l6TH CENTURY . BERLIN IN l66o ...... MEN OF WAR OF THE GREAT ELECTOR THE GREAT ELECTOR AND WIFE FREDERICK I., KING OF PRUSSIA JOSEPH I., EMPEROR OF GERMANY . FREDERICK THE GREAT MARIA THERESA ONE OF FREDERICK WlLLIAM's GRENADIERS . FREDERICK THE GREAT ..... LEOPOLD II. IN IMPERIAL ROBES FREDERICK WILLIAM II KARL WILHELM, BARON VON HUMBOLDT . ALEXANDER, NAPOLEON, AND FREDERICK WIL LIAM III ANDREAS HOFER CLEMENS WENZEL, PRINCE VON METTERNICH . THE BATTLE OF LEIPZIG (map) GEBHARD LEBRECHT VON BLUCHER TABLE OF THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN SUCCESSION THE BATTLE OE KONIGGRATZ (map) METZ (MAP) ....... KARL-OTTO, PRINCE VON BISMARCK-SCHOENHAUSEN MAP OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR WILLIAM I., EMPEROR OF GERMANY . PRINCE WILLIAM, CROWN PRINCE . PAGE 241 243 249 263 265 266 271 274 2 80 284 29O 297 323 325 335 343 349 363 369 3 T 4 389 393 401 407 409 4i7 419 ™vq9^W&&!& ^ *i_7'6J**<' ■HpS tS'ZrWngw' B£*BH8 sL^^^^s^sfij 9** r--> V""* * T^*3 p**.-* ■^SSJw. 1 ' i*~j£syJL B^s? Jj >H(«^ &^& ^^gft ■IgLro I. THE FIRST GERMANS. (B.C. i 13-102.) In the year 113 before Christ was born, the inhab- itants of Northern Italy were startled to see multi- tudes of savage men sitting on their great shields, shooting down the snow slopes of the Alps upon them. They had fair hair, thick and long ; some had shaggy red hair. They were tall, strong men ; their eyes were blue. They wore the heads of wolves and bears and oxen on their helmets, the latter with the horns ; and others again had the wings of eagles spread, and fastened to their iron caps. Who were these ? They belonged to two different races, and spoke different languages ; and though both were fair-haired, yet one set of men was taller, sturdier than the other. These invaders called themselves the Cimbri and Teutones. They had lived side by side in the Swiss valleys till the valleys could no longer support them, and then they burst their way over the snowy passes to conquer and colonize the sunny plains of Italy. At the present day the mountains of Switzerland 2 THE FIRST GERMANS. will not support all its inhabitants. The men go out as masons, and waiters, and pastry cooks, and clock and watchmakers, and the girls as nurses and cooks. In those days they went out only in one way — to fight and conquer themselves new homes. If you were to travel through Switzerland to-day you would find that in one canton French is spoken, in the next German ; that in the town of Freiburg, French is spoken in the lower and Ger- man in the upper town. This is because two dis- tinct races live together in Switzerland now, as they did 113 years before Christ. The French-speaking people represent the Cimbri and the German-speak- ing people represent the Teutones. The Welsh call themselves Cymri, which is the same as Cimbri. They belong to the same great Keltic family. The Germans call themselves Deutsch, which is the same as Teut-ones. The Romans sent armies against these warriors who came down on Italy from the snowfields, but the Cimbri and Teutones defeated them. They fought with desperation ; starvation was behind in their mountain valleys ; they must conquer or die. They destroyed the villages they came upon, they took and burnt the cities, they overran the plains. They killed the horses they took, and hung their cap- tives to trees as sacrifices to Wuotan, the god of the air, after whom Wednesday (Wuotans-tag) takes its name. Italy was filled with dismay. If the Cimbri and Teutones had known how to profit by the terror they inspired, and by their victories, they ivould have soon taken Rome ; but they turned t GERMAN HORSEMEN FIGHTING ROMAN LEGIONS. (From the Column of Antoninus, in Rome.) r7 1 8 HO W HERMANN ME T THE ROMANS. had come, and took advantage of this circumstance to draw Varus and his great army into the hilly re- gion of the Teutoberger Forest, where he rightly thought that the numbers and the strong bodies of his fellow-countrymen would be more than a match for the better drilled and heavily-armed co- horts of the invaders. It was the autumn of the year 9 A.D. There were no roads, and Varus was obliged to cut down trees to make a way for the slow march of his army. Almost before he knew it he found himself in a trap. To add to his dismay and confusion a great storm arose. The mountain torrents, swollen by the rain, overflowed their banks ; and whilst the Ro- mans, encumbered by their baggage and by hosts of camp-followers, and wearied by the toilsome way, passed in irregular columns through the wet marshes and narrow valleys, the thunders of the German war- cry suddenly burst upon them from all the hills around, and they were struck down by showers of ar- rows that seemed to drop from the clouds. Panic- stricken, and not knowing which way to turn, they halted, and were, as in a moment, surrounded by the hosts of their assailants, who were perfectly at home in the most intricate passes. All day long the battle raged, and then the invad- ers tried, under cover of darkness, to throw up a protecting earthwork, but they were too much worn to accomplish anything. Hundreds were lost in the morasses ; their eagles were taken from them ; they were entirely without provisions, and it was plain that there was no safety but in retreat. The only 2o HOW HERMANN MET THE ROMANS. question was which direction they should take. Inch by inch they gave way, but very few escaped to tell the story of the fight in the terrible German forests. Varus, who had marched into the treacherous fastnesses as if bound on a holiday excursion, threw himself on his own sword in despair, and when the news reached the great emperor, Augustus, that his army had been destroyed, — the army of the proudest people in the world, the people who were then chief among the nations, — he clothed himself in mourn- ing, let his hair and beard grow, and cried again and again in the bitterness of his heart, " Varus, Varus, give me back my legions ! " The capitol was stirred as it had been when, after " tearful Allia," the Gauls threatened the city, for the people thought that the victorious Germans would surely march that way.* Hermann had no such plans ; he did not fight for conquest, but for freedom ; he had the first vis- ion of a united Germany. He had won indepen- dence for his native land, and had put a stop to Roman conquest in one quarter of the globe. He had given the nations of German blood an example that was to bear fruit on the peaceful field of Run- nymede, when the English barons wrung the Magna Charta from King John ; for it was from the region in which Hermann fought that our ancestors came, and we may take pride in him and in the great statue erected in his honor hundreds of years after his day * For some account of the terrible victory of the Gauls over the Romans at the river Allia, see " The Story of Rome," pp. 101, 136. STATUE SUITOSED TO REPRESENT THUSNELDA. (In Florence.) 2 I 22 HOW HERMANN MET THE ROMAA T S. by the princes of Germany on the culminating point of the Teutoberger Alps. Hermann's wife was Thusnelda, daughter of an old chief named Siegast, who was friendly to the Romans. She was renowned for her beauty as well as for great patriotism. Her spirit was rather like that of her husband than that of her father, for Siegast had treacherously warned Varus to be on his guard against Hermann, and when opportunity came he even delivered up his daughter to her coun- try's enemies. The feelings of the Germans was strong against such a man, so strong, in fact, that Siegast was attacked, and only found safety by flee- ing to the enemy. A few years later Thusnelda and her son adorned a triumphal procession in Rome. It may well be imagined that Hermann was strengthened in his hatred of Rome by the loss of his wife and son ; and when, five years after the de- feat of Varus, another army was sent against the Germans, he met it with a strong force and effectu- ally resisted it. Once and again the attempt to con- quer the land failed, and at last the effort was aban- doned. When there was no longer fear from that quarter Hermann suffered the fate of many others who have striven to do good for their fellow-citizens. Like Camillus, Manlius, and the Gracchi among the Romans, his motives were not understood. His own people rose against him, and at the early age of thirty-seven he fell by the hands of his near rela- tions. It was reserved for a Roman historian to speak his praises and for after ages to raise his mon- ument. Tacitus says that it was his honour to have THE WANING ROMAN POWER. 33 successfully met the arms of Rome in the pride of its imperial power, and to have had his paeans chanted hi the songs of his countrymen. He be- came the typical War-man, the " Man of Hosts," the deliverer of Germany, and he was remembered by our own Anglo-Saxon ancestors after they had removed to the British Isles. Hermann and Thusnelda stand out as the representatives of the true love between husband and wife, for which the early Germans were celebrated. After this the Romans held possession of a very small portion of the soil of Germany, which they called the Titheland. It lay between the Danube, the Main, and the Rhine, and was protected by a moat and wall, with towers at intervals. The wall was a mound with palisades at the top. The traces are still to be seen, and are called by the peo- ple " The Devil's Walls." IV. THE FIERCE HUNS APPEAR. (375-45 2 -) In the year 375 a great change began in the posi- tions of the peoples who were settled in Germany. A game of puss-in-the-corner was played there on a very large scale, and with no laughter, but many tears. The cause of this was the appearance of the Huns. The Huns, or Calmucks, wandering shepherd tribes, were natives of the North of Asia, and in- habited the vast plains between Russia and China. They had no houses. They lived in tents, in which they also stabled their horses. From being con- stantly on horseback their legs were crooked. They were short men, broad shouldered, with strong, mus- cular arms ; had coarse, thick lips, straight, black, wiry hair, little, round, sloe-like eyes, yellow com- plexions, and sausage noses. They were filthy in their habits ; their horrible ugliness, their disgusting smell, their ferocity, the speed with which they moved, their insensibility to the gentler feelings, made the Goths, with whom they first came in contact, believe they were half demons. They ate, 24 GERMAN CAPTIVE. (ROMAN PERIOD.) (From Statue in Vatican Museum.) 25 26 THE FIERCE HUNS APPEAR. drank, slept on horseback. Their no less hideous wives and children followed them in waggons. They ate roots and raw meat. They seemed insensible to hunger, thirst, and cold. In the year 375 after Christ they crossed the Volga in countless hordes, and poured down on Germany. The East and West Goths, unable to resist their numbers and savagery, deserted their lands on both sides of the Dnieper, and, crossing the Danube, descended into the Roman empire with the entreaty that they might be accommodated with lands there. At last these barbarians spread over Dacia, which has since been called after them Hungary, where they were well content to ramble over the grassy plains that reminded them of their Asian steppes. But about the middle of the fifth century there rose among them a prince of very remarkable character, called by the Romans Attila, and by the Germans Etzel, but who was best pleased to be called " The Scourge of God." This man murdered his own brother, so as to unite the sovereignty of the Huns under himself. He is introduced in the Nibelungen Lied, the great national epic poem of Germany. Kriemhild, the widow of Siegfried, and daughter of a king of the Burgundians, was married to Attila. Her dearly loved husband, Siegfried, had been mur- dered treacherously by order of her brother, the Bur- gundian king, Gunther, who was jealous of him. When Kriemhild became Queen of the Huns she persuaded Attila to invite her brother and all his nobles to Buda, and, unsuspicious of evil, they ac- THE BATTLE OF CHALONS. 2 7 ceptcd the invitation. But the queen meditated revenge for the slaying of her dear Siegfried, and when her' brother and the nobles were banqueting her guards fell on them. There was a furious fight, the palace caught fire, and Kriemhild saw her brother, and all those who had counselled and as- sisted in the murder, perish by sword and flame. After that she died herself. The story is only possi- bly founded on fact. History tells us nothing about this deed of revenge. BOUNDARY WALL. (ROMAN PERIOD.) In the year 451 Attila broke up his camp at Buda and marched West, at the head of an enor- mous host of Huns. They overran the South of Germany, crossed the Rhine, and resolved to con- quer their way to the Atlantic. Those who could not escape were either killed or had to join the army. But the Franks, the West Goths, the Bur- gundians, and the Romans united in one great host under the general Aetius, and withstood the on- slaught of the Huns in the plains of Chalons on the Marne. The battle was furious, and ended in the 2 S THE FIERCE HUNS APPEAR. defeat of the Huns. Attila was forced to retire with the loss of half his men, and the Western Em- pire was saved. Next year Attila descended into Italy, but re- treated toward his own country and died through the bursting of a blood-vessel, A.D. 453. V. THE MIGRATIONS OF THE TRIBES. YOU may well imagine that the arrival of the Huns was like the introduction of a wasp into a bee- hive. It created an enormous commotion, and many of the German races changed their habitations. About the middle of the third century the numer- ous German tribes had united into great confedera- cies. The most important of these were — I. The Allemanni ; 2. The Franks ; 3. The Saxons ; 4. The Goths. 1. The Allemanni were so called from the custom of those in the South to own land in common. To this da}-, in Switzerland and Baden, there is much common land belonging to the parishes, as well as forest and quarry, and this goes by the name of the Allmend. The Allemanni lived in the South of Germany, in the Black Forest, and in German Switzerland, and in Wiirtemberg, about the Lake of Constance. 2. The Franks occupied the banks of the Rhine and the Main, to Niirnberg. The Ripuarian Franks lived on the Rhine, the Salic Franks on the river Saal. 3. The Saxons spread over a great part of North 29 GERMAN SKIRMISHERS (GEFECHT'S-EROFFNER). (ROMAN PERIOD.) 3C THE MIGRA TIONS OF THE TRIBES. 3 x Germany, taking the places vacated by the Lom- bards and the Burgundians. 4. The Groths were divided by the Dnieper into the East Goths (Ostrogoths) and the West Goths (Visigoths), and were the most cultured of the Ger- man peoples. They had been converted to Chris- tianity by a bishop named Ulphilas, who translated the Bible into old Gothic, and his translations of the Gospels, written in silver letters on a purple ground, is still preserved, and is one of the treasures of the library of Upsala in Sweden. The appearance of the Huns in Germany created the utmost confusion. As already said, the Ostro- goths crossed the Danube and entered the Roman Empire. After awhile they made themselves mas- ters of Italy, under the famous King Theoderic. The Visigoths, or West Goths, descended on the South of Gaul, and made Toulouse their capital. The Vandals left their old home between the Elbe and Oder, invaded Spain, crossed over to Africa, and formed a kingdom on the north coast, with Car- thage as their capital. The Angles and a portion of the Saxons took ship in 449 for Britain, which they conquered. The Longobards, or Lombards, deserted the old watery, peaty region about the Middle Elbe and descended on the North of Italy. The Burgun- dians left their homes between the Oder and the Vistula, and formed the Burgundian kingdom be- tween the Rhone, the Saone, and the range of the Jura. As the Germans deserted the cold, sandy plains of North Germany, the Sclavs from the north-east crept 32 MARCUS AURELIUS PARDONING GERMAN CHIEFS. (Triumphal Arch at Rome.) THE BEGIXXIXG OF FRANCE. 33 after them, and occupied all Pomerania, Mecklen- burg, and Oldenburg. Those German peoples who had left Germany settled down in their new countries among popula- tions more civilized than themselves, and so they gradually acquired their habits, and lost their own: language and peculiar institutions, even their Ger- man appearance and characters. Thus they dis- appeared, sinking into, and becoming absorbed by, the people they conquered, and the Burgundians, Goths, Vandals, and Lombards disappear com- pletely. The Franks, who had spread into Northern Gaul, gave to it the new name of France, but ceased on its soil to be Germans. tig. »\ VI. CLOVIS, KING OF THE FRANKS. (481-51 1.) THE Franks had extended themselves over the north of Gaul. They had a capital at Tournay, but they had gained power over what we now call Normandy. There was none to resist them. Gov- ernment in Gaul had fallen into confusion since the fall of the Roman Empire. The Salic Franks came from what is now called Lower Franconia, and take their name from the river Saal, which flows into the Main. It is a bare and not a productive country, and so a portion of the Franks pushed their way into Belgium, and Flanders, and Normandy. I am using, you must understand, modern names. Thirty years after the battle of Chalons the Franks were not united into one nation ; there were several tribes of their name, independent one of another. In the year 48 1 Clovis became king of the Salic Franks in Belgium. The French call him Clovis, the old Germans, Clodwig, which is the same as the modern German Ludwig, and the French, Louis. He was fifteen years old when he became king, a proud, cunning, ambitious man, but with some natural good qualities. He determined to extend his power, so 34 RUE I MS PLUNDERED. 35 he led his men against the Roman governor of Soissons, drove him out, and took the place, which he thenceforth made his capital. He and his people were pagans, and when they took a town they plun- dered the churches. On one of his expeditions he took Rheims, and when the spoil of the Cathedral was brought out and spread before the king and his nobles, the bishop of the place, Remigius, came to Clovis, and entreated that one beautiful chalice might be spared from the plunder, for the service of the altar. Clovis replied that by their rules all the spoil was divided into lots, and then lots were drawn for each division. However, if the chalice came to him, he would return it to the bishop, who had written him a kind letter, full of good advice, when he was made king. But as S. Remigius urged his request very earnestly, the king turned to his chiefs and asked them to grant him the goblet over and above his proper share. All consented but one man, who suddenly swung his axe, and brought it down on the precious cup, saying, " No ! I will not consent ; all shall share alike." The king bore the affront without a word. The man had acted within his right. A year after Clovis held a grand parade, at which his nobles were to show their equipments. After having passed all in review, and examined their arms, the man came who had refused to give up the chalice. He was a truculent, ill-conditioned fellow, and his harness was rust}- and dirty, and when he showed the king his battle-axe it was not clean. Then Clovis threw it down, and when the man 36 HOW CLOVIS WOOED. 57 stooped to pick it up the king raised his axe and cleft his skull, saying, " Thus didst thou to the chalice of Rheims." It was an act of revenee, but the king was careful to act within his right. The man was bound to appear at the parade with all his equipments in perfect order. Clovis heard that Gundebald, King of Burgundy had a niece called Clothild, at Geneva. Gundebald had murdered her father and her brothers, who stood in his way to the throne. Now Clovis was a very crafty man, and he wanted to pick a quarrel with Gundebald, so as to get hold of Burgundy. So he resolved to marry Clothild and make her quarrel his own ; but he did not want to marry her if she was not very beautiful. So he gave his ring to a friend, a Roman, called Aurelian, and told him to go in disguise to Geneva, and see Clothild, and if she were really beautiful to give her his ring and get hers in exchange. Aurelian dressed himself in rags, and went to Geneva, and knocked at her door and begged for food. Clothild at once invited him in, and brought water, and began herself to wash his travel-stained feet. "Whilst she was thus engaged Aurelian stooped and whispered into her ear, " Lady, I must speak to you in secret." Then he showed her the ring, and said, " Clovis, King of the Franks, asks for you in marriage." Clothild considered a moment, then drew off her own ring and gave it to Aurelian. " Go back," she said, " to your master, and tell him if he takes me he must carry me away as fast as he can fly, for my •uncle has a friend called Aridius, now away, who will advise him not to give 33 CLOVIS, A'/.YG OF THE FRANKS. me to Clovis." Then Aurelian hasted back to Soissons, and Clovis sent to Gundebald and asked for the hand of his niece. Gundebald, glad to be rid of her, consented that she should go. So Clo- thild started from Geneva. Clovis had sent a sort of waggon richly decorated for Clothild to travel in. She went in it some little way, and then became uneasy. She got out and said to the Frank lords who attended her, " I pray you give me a horse and let us leave the waggon in the road, and ride at full gallop, night and day, till we get out of Burgundy." She was right. After the consent had been given Aridius returned to Metz, where Gundebald was, and the king told his friend what he had done. Then Aridius exclaimed, " This is no bond of friend- ship, but the beginning of strife. Send troops at once in pursuit and bring your niece back." The king did so, but was too late. They came on the deserted waggon, but Clothild had escaped. The consequences were what Aridius had predicted. Clovis made war on Gundebald and made him kjs tributary. Clothild bore a son to Clovis. She was a Christian, and she begged her husband to let the child be baptized. He consented, but the boy died soon after. "There," exclaimed Clovis, "that is what comes of baptism." After some time she bore him another, and had much ado to get this one bap- tized. Soon after this boy also fell ill, and Clovis was very angry. But when the child recovered he began to think that perhaps Christian baptism was not as dangerous as he had supposed. Clothild was a very pious woman, and she often spoke to her CLOJ'/S PRAYS. 39 husband about Christ, but he did not seem to pay much heed to her words. At last,- in the year 496, the Allemanni, — that is, the Germans of the Black Forest and Switzerland, and the Vosges — burst into the territories of the Franks, and Clovis marched against them and met GERMAN PRIESTESSES FOLLOWING THE ARMY. (Column of Marcus Aurelius at Rome.) lllllft$ tnem in the plain of Tolbiac, now called Zulpich, near Cologne. He had with him Aurelian, whom he had made Duke of Melun. The battle was go- ing ill ; the Franks were wavering and Clovis was anxious. Then Aurelian, who rode near him, sud- denly exclaimed, " My lord, there is no hope for us now but in the God of Queen Clothild." When Clovis heard this he dropped the reins, and holding up his hands to heaven cried, " Christ Jesus, whom 40 CLOVIS, KING OF THE FRANKS. Clothild believes in, I have called on my gods, and they have withdrawn from me. Help thou me ! " Then the tide of battle turned : the Franks recov- ered confidence and courage ; and the Allemanni, beaten, and seeing their king slain, surrendered themselves to Clovis. When Clovis was on his way back he came to Rheims, where the old bishop, Remigius, was, who had written good advice to him when he was a boy, GERMAN BODY-GUARD OF THE LATER CAESARS. (Column of Trajan, Rome.) and who had asked for the chalice. The king was touched by the danger he had been in, and thank- ful for the victory. His wife came to him to strengthen his good resolutions, and he resolved to become a Christian. We have a very interesting and curious account of the baptism of King Clovis, written by Hincmar, who was Bishop of Rheims some years after the death of Remigius, and who probably took it from an account by an eye-witness. " The bishop," he says, " went in search of the king at early morning to his bed-chamber, in order that he might communicate to him the truths of THE BAPTISM OF CLOVIS. 4 ! the Gospel before his mind was occupied with secu- lar cares. The chamberlains received him with great respect, and they went into the chapel of S. Peter near the palace. When the bishop, the king, and the queen had taken their places on the seats prepared for them, the bishop began his instructions on the way of salvation. Meanwhile, preparations were being made along the road from the palace to the baptistery ; curtains and valuable stuffs were hung up ; the houses on both sides of the street were dressed out ; the baptistery was sprinkled with balm and all kinds of perfume. The procession moved from the palace ; the clergy led the way, carrying the Gospels, the cross, and the banners, and singing hymns. Then came the bishop, lead- ing the king by the hand ; after him the queen ; lastly the people. On the road the king is said to have asked the bishop if that was the kingdom of heaven promised him. ' No,' answered the prelate, 1 it is the beginning of the road to it ! ' When the king bared his head over the baptismal water, the bishop thus addressed him : ' Bend thy head, Sicam- brian,* adore what thou hast burned, burn what thou hast adored ! ' " Three thousand Frankish men, together with women and children, were bap- tized the same day. Though Clovis had joined the Christian Church he was but a poor Christian. He led a life of war, and was brought under no other Christian influence * Clovis belonged to the tribe of Sicambri, which was in the Frank confederation. ^2 CLOVIS, KING OF THE FRANKS. than that of his wife, and he did not think it manly to give ear to her best advice. The Ripuarian Franks had their capital at Co- logne, and their king -was Siegbert. Clovis sent to the kind's son this message : " Your father is old, and lame of a leg. When he is dead I will be your friend, and you shall be king." That stirred up the young man to kill his father treacherously one day, as the old man was walking in a beech wood. Then he sent a messenger to Clovis to say that his father was dead, and that he would send him some of the old king's treasures. But when the wicked son was showing the messenger of Clovis the precious things in the treasure-house, he came to a great battle- axe. " See," said the young man, " this was my father's weapon." " And so does it avenge its master ! " said the messenger, and he brought it down on the young man's head, and clove it. After that, the realm of the Ripuarian Franks fell to Clovis, as well as that of the Salic Franks, and Burgundy and a large portion of Gaul. He died in 511, at Paris, which he had made his capital ; and he left behind him a great Frank king dom, which was divided between his four sons, VII. THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE. (751-768.) The successors of Clovis, called, after an earlier Frank king. Merovingians, were weak creatures. They left the management of their kingdom to their Mayors of the Palace, and only showed themselves to their people once a year, at the March parliament, riding on a car drawn by oxen, after an old Frank custom, wearing their fair hair down to their waists, combed out and adorned with crowns. As they did nothing but eat and drink and enjoy themselves they went by the name of the sluggard kings, and all the real power was in the hands of the Mayor of the Palace for the time being. Among these mayors, Pepin of Heristal made himself conspicuous. His home was near Spa, in the pretty woodland country about Liege. He made the office hereditary in his family. His he- roic son, Charles Martel, or the Hammer, was still more famous, because he utterly routed the Arabs in a great battle at Tours in 732, who had con- quered Spain and the south of France, and threat- ened the whole of France. 43 44 THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE. His sons, Pepin the Short and Karlomann, suc- ceeded him, but Karlomann resigned his authority into his brother's hands, and, tired of fighting, entered a monastery. Pepin had much to do ; the Saxons, Bavarians, and Arabs were all menacing or revolting, and he had to fly from one part of the kingdom to another, defending its frontiers, and get- ting no help from the stupid sluggard king at Paris. At last, impatient of the farce, he sent this question to the Pope : " Who is king, he who governs or he who wears the crown?" "He who governs, of. course," answered the Pope. " That is myself," said the little man with a great will ; " so the sluggards shall go to sleep forever," and he sent the last of them, Childeric III., into a monastery. Then his nobles put their shields together, and the little man was seated on a chair, on their shields, and they marched with him thus, shouting and raising their shields as high as they could, thrice, round the par- liament, and then he was anointed by S. Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, A.D. 752. Pepin did not forget that he owed a debt of gratitude to the Pope for the answer he had given to his question, and when, shortly after, the Pope sent to complain of the trouble occasioned by the Lombards, Pepin crossed the Alps, chastised the Lombards, took from them all their territory about Rome and gave it to the Pope, to belong to him and to the bishops of Rome forever. That was the beginning of the Papal sovereignty. " The States of the Church," as they were called, remained under the sovereignty of the Popes till 1871. A NEW KING. 45 Pepin died in 768, and left behind him two sons, Charles and Karlomann. The latter died a few years after, and then, with the consent of the great nobles, Charles became sole king. INVESTITURE UK A BISHOP BY A KING. (From a Codex in St. Oiuer.) VIII. THE GERMANS HEAR THE GOSPEL. WHERE should you suppose that the earliest Irish manuscripts are to be found? Not in Ireland, but in Switzerland and Germany. The reason of this is that the Irish were the first preachers of the Gospel in Germany. In the 6th and 7th centuries a perfect passion to do missionary work fired the monks of Ireland. In dreams and ecstasies they thought they saw the barbarous Germans crying to them from the gloom of their sombre pine woods to come over and bring them light. Then they got into rude boats of wicker-work covered with tanned hides, and paddled, or were blown across, to Eng- land. They traversed England and took boat again, and pushed up the Rhine, and Scheldt, and other rivers, till they found places where the people were all heathens, and there they established them- selves and taught. In 590 S. Columbanus ap- peared at the court of Guntram, King of Burgundy. He came from Ireland, and he established himself at Luxeuil, under the Jura, and when he was driven out he settled himself at Bobbio, in North Italy. His disciple, S. Gall, made himself a home in Switz- erland, in a forest, where he had difficulty to hold his own against the bears. He preached at Bre- 46 47 4 g THE GERMANS HEAR THE GOSPEL. genz at the head of the Lake of Constance, and threw the idols he found there into the lake. An- other Irishman, called Fridolin, planted himself at Seckingen, an island in the Rhine, under the slopes of the Black Forest. Another, Beatus, made him- self a home in a cave in the face of a precipice, above the Lake of Thun. Another, Fintan, who had been carried off by pirates and taken to Bel- gium, escaped from them, mounted the Rhine, and made Rheinau, near Schaffhausen, the place whence he taught the heathen. Foilan and Ultan, two Irish brothers, established themselves on the Meuse. Kilian, Colman, and Totnan made Wiirzburg the centre from which they taught, and there Kilian was martyred. Frigidian went further, and died at Lucca. Fursey preached among the Franks at Lagny, a little north of Paris. Thus it was that Christianity was brought among the Allemanni and the Franks. The Saxons were still heathen ; so were the Frisians, who occupied the present Holland. But though Christianity was brought into the heart of the land, and here and there a bishopric was established, everything was in disorder in those disturbed days, and in some places Christianity died out for want of a succession of missionaries; and in others, those who were Christians, and even bishops and priests, were under no discipline, had received little instruction, and lived very little better than heathens. Then it was that S. Boniface, or, as he was called in his Devonshire home, Winifred, sailed from Ports- * J V X> I C I O. V O M E A JUDGMENT OF GOD. (Title-Page of Missal in Bamberg Library.) 49 5Q THE GERMANS HEAR THE GOSPEL. mouth for Germany, with a band of devoted men. He found that the little Christianity there was among the Germans was of very poor quality. So he went to Rome to ask the Pope to authorize him to bring some order into the German church. Furnished with authority, and consecrated and appointed Archbishop of Mainz, and having re- ceived the name of Boniface, " Good-doer," from the Pope, he returned to Germany, and sent home to England for helpers. Many came, men and women, and he planted them where were most suitable cen- tres. At Geismar, in Hesse, stood a huge old oak, dedicated to the god Donnar. The heathens made pilgrimages to this oak, and even converted Christians regarded it with religious awe, and told wonderful stories about it, and visited it to hear oracles from its dark whispering branches. One day when there was a great assembly at this oak on a festival of Donnar, Boniface went boldly to the place, unattended by armed men, but with an axe in his hands, and before all the pagan crowd began to hack at the tree. They drew back in dismay, expecting lightning to fall and consume him. Bon- iface did not rest till the oak w r as cut down, and fell with a crash. Then the heathen recognized the powerlessness of their gods, and their faith in them fell with the oak. Boniface did not content himself with preaching. He said that the only way in which the Germans could be made good Christians was to civilize them ; accordingly, he established schools and monasteries where he could. The monks taught, but did not THE MONKS AS FARMERS. 51 teach only ; they drained the morasses, felled the trees, ploughed the soil, sowed corn, planted fruit trees, and carried on various trades. Those whom they converted they settled in cottages round their monasteries, and so, in time, these settlements grew into towns. \\ hen Boniface was old he went to carry the Gos- pel to the heathen Frisians. The pagans fell upon him and murdered him in the year 755, A.U. r,SR?IANY CAl'TIVF IX. A MAX OF MARK. (768-814.) We come now to one of the greatest men of all times, Charles the Great, son of Pepin the Short, a man who has left his mark on history for all times. Charles — (called by the French Charlemagne) — was great in many ways, whereas most great men are great in one or two. He was a great warrior, a great political genius, an energetic legislator, a lover of learning, and a lover also of his natural language and poetry at a time when it was the fashion to despise them. And he united, and displayed, all these merits in a time of general and monotonous barbarism, when, save in the Church, the minds of men were dull and barren. From 769 to 813, in Germany and Western and Northern Europe, Charlemagne conducted thirty- two campaigns against the Saxons, Frisians, Bava- rians, Avars, Slavs, and Danes ; in Italy, five against the Lombards ; in Spain, Corsica, and Sar- dinia, twelve against the Arabs ; two against the Greeks; and three in Gaul itself, against the Aqui- tanians and Bretons. In all, fifty-three expedi- tions in forty-five years, amongst which those he 5 2 CHARLEMAGNE. (From the painting by Durer.) 54 A MAN OF MARK. undertook against the Saxons, the Lombards, and the Arabs were long and difficult wars. The kingdom of Charles was vast ; it comprised nearly all Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and the North of Italy and of Spain. He had, in ruling this mighty realm, to deal with different nations, without cohesion, and to grapple with their various institutions and bring them into system. The first great undertaking of Charles was against the Saxons. They were still heathen, and were a constant source of annoyance to the Franks, for they made frequent inroads to pillage and destroy their towns and harvests. In the line of mountains which forms the step from Lower into Upper Germany, above the West- phalian plains, is one point at which the river Weser breaks through and flows down into the level land, about three miles above the town of Minclen. This rent in the mountains is called the Westphalian Gate. The hills stand on each side, like red sandstone door-posts, and one is crowned by some crumbling fragments of a castle ; it is called the Wittekinds- berg, and takes its name from Wittekind, a Saxon king, who had his castle there. Wittekind was a stubborn heathen, and a very determined man. In 772 Charles convoked a great assembly at Worms, at which it was unanimously resolved to march against the Saxons and chastise them for their in- cursions. Charles advanced along the Weser, through the gate, destroyed Wittekind's castle, pushed on to Paderborn, where he threw down an idol adored by the Saxons, and then was obliged to 50 A MAN OF MARK. return and hurry to Italy to fight the Lombards, who had revolted. Next year he invaded Saxony again. He built himself a palace at Paderborn, and sum- moned the Saxon chiefs to come and do homage. Wittekind alone refused, and fled to Denmark. Xo sooner had Charles gone to fight the Moors in Spain than Wittekind returned, and the Saxons rose at his summons, and, bursting into Franconia, devastated the land up to the walls of Cologne. Charles returned and fought them in two great bat- tles, defeated them, erected fortresses in their midst, and carried off hostages. Affairs seemed to pros- per, and Charles deemed himself as securely master of Saxony as Varus had formerly in the same country, and under precisely the same circumstances. Charles then quitted the country, leaving orders for a body of Saxons to join his Franks and march to- gether against the Slavs. The Saxons obeyed the call with alacrity, and soon outnumbered the Franks. One day, as the army was crossing the mountains from the Weser, at a given signal the Saxons fell on their companions and butchered them. When the news of this disaster reached Charles he resolved to teach the Saxons a terrible lesson. Crossing the Rhine, he laid waste their country with fire and sword, and forced the Saxons to sub- mit to be baptized, and accept Christian teachers. Those who refused he killed. At Verdun he had over four thousand of the rebels beheaded. At Detmold, Wittekind led the Saxons in a furious bat- WITTEKIXD IS BAPTIZED. $7 tie, in which neither gained the victory. In another battle, on the Hase, they were completely routed. Then Wittekind submitted, came into the camp of Charles, and asked to be baptized. A little ruined chapel' stands on the Wittekindsberg, above the Westphalian Gate, and there, according to tradition, near the overturned walls of his own castle, the stubborn heathen bowed the neck to receive the yoke of Christ. Charles' two nephews, the sons of Karlomann, were with Desiderius, the Lombard king, and Desiderius tried to force the Pope to anoint charli-:m.\<;.\e s signature. them kings of the Franks, to head a revolt against Charles. When the great king heard this he came over the Alps into Italy, dethroned Desiderius, and shut him up in a monastery. Then he crowned himself with the iron crown of the Lombard kings, which was said to have been made out of one of the nails that fastened Christ to the cross. Duke Thassilo of Bavaria had married a daughter of Desiderius, and he refused to acknowledge the authority of Charles. He also stirred up the Avars who lived in Hungary to invade the Frankish realm. Charles marched against Thassilo, drove 58 A MAN OF MARK. him out of Bavaria, subdued the Avars, and con- verted the country between the Ems and Raab — that is, Austria proper — into a province, which was called the East March, and formed the beein- ning of the East Realm (Oesterreich), or Austria. Charles also fought the Danes, and took from them the country up to the river Eider. When we consider what continuous fighting- Charles had, it is a wonder to us that he had time to govern and make laws ; but he devoted as much thought to arranging his realm and placing it under proper governors as he did to extending its fron- tiers. Charles constituted the various parts of his vast empire — kingdoms, duchies, and counties. He was himself the sovereign of all these united, but he managed them through counts and vice-counts. The frontier districts were called marches, and were under march-counts, or margraves. Count is not a German title ; the German equivalent is graf, and the English is earl. The counties were di- vided into hundreds ; a hundred villages went to a vice-count. He had also Counts of the Palace, who ruled over the crown estates, and send-counts (missi), whom he sent out yearly through the coun- try to see that his other counts did justice, and did not oppress the people. If people felt themselves wronged by the counts they appealed to these send-counts, and if the send-counts did not do them justice they appealed to the palatine-counts. Every year Charles summoned his counts four times, when he could, but always once, in May, to LIBERAL ARTS PROSPER. 59 meet him in council, and discuss the grievances of the people. As the great dukes were troublesome, be- cause so powerful, Charles tried to do without them, and to keep them in check. He gave whole princi- palities to bishops, hoping that they would be sup- porters of him and the crown against the powerful dukes. He was also very careful for the good government of the Church. He endowed a number of mon- asteries to serve as schools for boys and girls. He had also a collection of good, wholesome ser- mons made in German, and sent copies about in ali directions, requiring them to be read to the people in church. He invited singers and musicians from Italy to come and improve the performance of divine worship, and two song-schools were estab- lished, one at Gall, another at Metz. His Franks, he complained, had not much aptitude for music ; their singing was like the howling of wild beasts, or the noise made by the squeaking, groaning wheels of a baggage waggon over a stony road. Charles was particularly interested in schools, and delighted in going into them and listening to the boys at their lessons. One day when he had paid such a visit he was told that the noblemen's sons "were much idler than those of the common citizens. Then the great king grew red in the face and frowned, and his eyes flashed. He called the young nobles before him and said in thundering tones. " You grand gentlemen ! you young puppets ! You puff yourselves up with the thoughts of your rank and wealth, and suppose you have no need of letters ! I 5q A MAN Op MARK. tell you that your pretty faces and your high no. bility are accounted nothing by me. Beware ! be- ware ! Without diligence and conscientiousness not one of you gets anything from me." Charles dearly loved the grand old German poems of the heroes, and he had them collected and copied cut. Alas! they have been lost. His stu r pid son, thinking them rubbish, burnt them all. The great king also sent to Italy for builders, and set them to work to erect palaces and churches. His favorite palaces w r ere at Aix and at Ingelheim. At the latter place he had a bridge built over the Rhine. At Aix he built the Cathedral with pillars taken from Roman ruins. It was quite circular, with a colonnade going round it ; inside, it remains almost unaltered to the present day. He was very eager to promote trade, and so far in advance of the times was he that he resolved to cut a canal so as to connect the Main with the Regnitz, and thus make a waterway right across Germany, from the Rhine to the Danube, and so connect the German Ocean with the Black Sea. The canal was begun, but wars interfered with its completion, and the work was not carried out till the present century, by Louis I., of Bavaria. Charles was a tall, grand-looking man, nearly seven feet high. He was so strong that he could take a horseshoe in his hands and snap it. He ate and drank in moderation, and was grave and dig- nified in his conduct. In the year 800 an insurrection broke out in Rome against Pope Leo III. Whilst he was riding C HARLEM A GNE CRO IVA'ED A T ROME. 6 1 in procession his enemies fell on him, threw him from his horse, and an awkward attempt was made to put out his eyes and to cut out his tongue. Then, bleeding and insensible, he was put in a monastery. The Duke of Spoleto, a Frank, hear- ing of this, marched to Rome and removed the wounded pope to Spoleto, where he was well nursed and recovered his eyesight and power of speech. Charles was very indignant when he heard of the outrage, and he left the Saxons, whom he was fight- ing, and came to Italy to investigate the circum- stance. He assumed the office of judge, and the guilty persons were sent into prison in France. Then came Christmas Day, the Christmas of the last year in the eighth century of Christ. Charles and all his sumptuous court, the nobles and people of Rome, the whole clergy of Rome, were present at the hieh services of the birth of Christ. The Pope himself chanted the mass ; the full assembly were wrapt in profound devotion. At the close the Pope rose, advanced towards Charles with a splendid crown in his hands, placed it upon his brow, and proclaimed him Caesar Augustus. " God grant life and victory to the great emperor ! " His words were lost in the acclamations of the soldiery, the people, and the clergy. Charles was taken completely by surprise. What the consequences would be to Germany and to the Papacy, how fatal to both, neither he nor Leo could see. So Charlemagne became King of Italy and Emperor of the West — the successor of the Caesars of Rome. 62 A MAX OF MARK. When Charles felt that his end was approaching he summoned all his nobles to Aix, into the church he had there erected. There, on the altar, lay a golden crown. Charles made his son, Ludwig, or Louis, stand before him, and, in the audience of his great men, gave him his last exhortation : to fear God and to love his people as his own children, to do right and execute justice, and to walk in in- tegrity before God and man. With streaming eyes, Louis promised to fulfil his father's command. " Then," said Charles, " take this crown, and place it on your own head, and never forget the promise you have made this day." A few months later, Charles died (814). He was buried robed in full imperial raiment, with -a crown on his head, the purple mantle over his shoulders, girded with his great sword, the book of the Gospels on his knees, seated on a marble throne, and with a pilgrim's pouch at his side. He was buried under the dome of the church at Aix, and there to this day may be seen the great stone that covers his tomb, with nothing engraved on it but Carolo Magno. In the year 1165 the tomb was opened, and the body found as thus described. SILVER PIECES OF CHARLEMAGNE. THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. BEFORE we go any further with the history of Germany it is necessary that we should get some clear idea of the empire of which Charles the Great was constituted head when the Pope on Christmas Day crowned him in S. Peter's Church at Rome. The old Roman Empire, of which Augustus had been the first imperial head, had fallen into decrepi- tude, and Constantine had transferred the capital from Rome to Byzantium. Since his death many emperors had succeeded to the title, but none had been able to maintain the Empire in its ancient integrity and splendour. Before Constantine the Empire had been heathen, Rome and her princes had been enemies of the Church, drunk with the blood of the saints. But from the conversion of Constantine onward Rome and Christianity had formed so close an alliance that the names Roman and Christian had become almost synonymous. The emperors presided at councils of the Church, and protected the faith with edicts and with the sword. Thus the Empire, which had once been the bitterest foe of the Gos- pel, now became inseparably connected with its 63 (x| THE HOL Y ROMAN EMPIRE. profession. The Empire became holy, and a spe- cial sanctity was thought to be attached to the emperor as temporal head of the great Christian body. " The successor of Mahomet inherited alike the temporal and the spiritual functions of the prophet. In the Mahometan system, Church and State needed not to be united, because they had never been distinct. But closely as the Roman Empire and the Christian Church became united, one might almost say identified, traces still re- mained of the days when chey had been distinct and hostile bodies. The bishop's commission was divine, proceeding neither from the prince nor from the people. Of such an organization the emperor might become the patron, the protector, the exter- nal rule, but he could not strictly become the head." * Italy was overrun by the Lombards. The em- perors in Constantinople became weaker, less able to maintain their dignity and to protect their do- minions. At last the imperial crown rested on the head of a woman, Irene, who had raised herself to power by deposing and blinding her own son. That a woman should occupy the throne of Augustus was preposterous to the nations of the West, already indignant at the weakness of the emperors in By- zantium. And then, Charles seemed to the eyes of those in Italy the grandest and most suitable figure to fill the imperial throne. The coronation of Charles was a revolt, a justifiable revolt of the * Freeman : Historical Essays. "The Holy Roman Empire." THE CHRISTIAN EMPERORS. fr West against the feeble " rois faineants " of the East. As Pepin had been declared by the Pope the true sovereign instead of the sluggard Merovin- gians, so now the Pope declared the son of Pepin true emperor, instead of the sluggard Byzantines. Thenceforth, in the eyes of the West and of the Church in the West, Charlemagne and his successors, who were crowned by the Pope, were regarded as the true emperors of the Christian world, the true successors of Augustus and Antoninus, as the true temporal heads of the Holy Roman Empire. Not every king of Germany was emperor, but only such as were crowned by the Pope. The Pope claimed to be the spiritual head of the Church, the viceroy acting for Christ in His king- dom. Before His death Christ said : " He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." Then the disciples said to Him, " Lord, behold, here are two swords." And He said unto them, " It is enough." Upon this text a theory was founded that Christ gave to His Church, and to the Pope as the spiritual head of His Church, the two swords of spiritual and temporal power, but that, as it was inexpedient for the Pope in his spiritual capacity to wield the sword of temporal menace, he delegated it to a temporal sovereign, and that thus the Pope in sacred matters remained the spiritual ruler, whilst the emperor exercised the delegated authority in temporal matters. The Pope cut off with the sword of excommunication, and the emperor with the sword of justice. You must bear this theory well in mind, or you will S 66 THE HOL Y ROM AX EMPIRE. never get a right notion of what is meant by the Holy Roman Empire, and if you do not lay hold of this you lose the key to the history of Germany in the Middle Ages. ST. MICHAEL, THE PATRON SAINT OF THE EMPIRE (Sculpture in the Cathedral of Bamberg, 12th Century .) BSKr 1 ^^w B^$^> HTi lll(f^.r^ CS^S^ i ; v , fHO Eglfa ' &lJ$& gS /.^BB '\ _iSta^^ vto XI. A KING PIOUS BUT NARROW. (814-840.) LOUIS, the son of Charles the Great, resembled his father in size, but hi that only. He was a nar- row-minded and irresolute man, giving way to his violent passions and then being filled with remorse ; a man sincerely desirous of doing what was right, but without self-control. He had not the genius of his father to manage the great empire he had founded. One instance of his character will show the sort of man he was. Louis had a nephew, Bernard, son of his elder brother, Pepin, whom Charles the Great had made King of Italy. He was suspicious of Bernard and ordered him to appear before him at Chalons. Pepin was dead, and Bernard was dan- gerous, or might be, as a rival. Bernard hesitated, so Louis got his wife, the Empress Irmgard, to send Bernard his solemn assurance that he would be allowed to come and go in safety. Relying on this promise Bernard came to court, when Louis caused his eyes to be torn out in so barbarous a manner that he died a few days after. That was in April, 818. A little later the Empress Irmgard fell ill and died. Louis was passionately attached to her, 67 68 A KING PIOUS BUT NARROW. and her death brought home to him the crime he had committed, and he was stung with remorse. Grief for what he had done never left him, and it made him earnest in his prayers and efforts to do good, so that he was given the name of " The J 10US. His next wife was Jutta, daughter of a certain Welf, the Count of Bavaria, a clever woman, who at once did all in her power to reconcile the friends of the murdered Bernard. Louis had three sons by his first wife, Irmgard. Their names were Lo- thair, Pepin, and Louis. By Jutta he had another, Charles, who was his favorite. Before Louis married Jutta he divided his great empire into three parts, one for each of his sons by Irm- gard ; but when Charles was born, he wanted to make a change, and divide it into four, so that Charles might have a share. This made the three elder angry, and they rebelled against their father, seized him, and brought charges of witchcraft against their step-mother, Jutta. But this out- raged the feelings of the great nobles, and the peo- ple murmured threateningly. Lothair was obliged to let his father go. In his rage, however, he took the town of Chalons, which held to his father, burned it, and murdered the son and daughter of Duke Bernard, of Septimania, who was the adviser of his father and guardian of the little Charles. The poor girl was at school in a convent. He fast- ened her up in a wine cask and threw her into the river. Lothair's brothers, Pepin and Louis, were jealous ELECTION OF A KING. (Heidelberg MS.) 6 9 yo A KING PIOUS BUT NARROW. of him, and they leagued against him, under the pretext that they could not countenance his con- duct to their father. Thereupon, a new division of the empire was made, between Pepin, Louis, and Charles, to the exclusion of Lothair. The weak-minded emperor was thenceforth pow- erless. The rest of his reign was spent in vain en- deavors to reconcile his quarrelsome sons. After the death of Louis the Pious, which took place in 840, war broke out between the brothers, of whom, fortunately, there was now one less, for Pepin had died. But Pepin had left a son, with the same name, who inherited his kingdom of Aqui- taine. Louis — called, to distinguish him from his father, " The German " — and Charles wanted to snatch Aquitaine from him, but he was supported by Lothair, his other uncle. A great battle was fought in 841 at Fontenay, in Burgundy, between Louis and Charles, united against Lothair. A hundred thousand men fell, and Lothair was defeated. He fled to Aix, where he melted up the great silver tables of Charle- magne into coin, and with bribes and promises stirred up the Saxons to a general revolt. In view of this danger Charles and Louis met at the head of their armies near Strasburg, and made a solemn alliance. The words of the oath have been pre- served. Louis and his soldiers took it in German, Charles and his in French; and this is the earliest specimen we have of the French language, which was thus forming out of a mixture of the Gaulish, Latin, and German dialects, which were melting up GERMANY INDEPENDENT OF FRANCE. 71 and fusing in the country we now call France. This was in 842. Next year a treaty was concluded between all three 'brothers at Verdun, by which Lothair was granted the imperial crown, and the Netherlands, the Rhine country, Burgundy, and Italy, which was called after him — Lotharingia. That portion of his kingdom which afterwards came to be held to- gether was called by the French Lorraine. Louis the German was given all Germany east of Lo- tharingia, and Charles, who was nicknamed " The Bald," had as his share all France west of Lotha- ringia. Thus, through the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Germany became an independent kingdom, and its history detaches itself from that of France. XII. A NEW SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. As you have already heard, the North Germans had always been in the habit of holding lands and handing them on to their sons. This was not the case in South Germany ; there, no one had as much land as he could put his foot on. The land was held to belong to the community, and was parcelled out every year in lots among the various house- holders who made up a village. This was all very well in a rude state of society, but it was most in- convenient after agriculture had been- introduced, and it was modified in various ways. The Frank monarchs combined the principle of the North German and the South German tenure. They proclaimed that all the land belonged to the crown, but the crown gave it back to the land- holders on certain conditions, to have and to hold, from generation to generation, so long as they ful- filled these conditions. These land-holders were the nobles, — barons. These barons, in like manner, parcelled up their land into farms and let the farms to farmers on the same condition, to have and to hold, from generation to generation, not to be dis- possessed so long as they fulfilled the conditions. 72 RELA TION OF THE PEOPLE TO THE KING. 73 The conditions were these : the farmers were bound to furnish so many fighting-men, and so much food to the baron, and to work for him so many days in' the year. The baron on his part had his castle, and he was bound to furnish the king with so many fighting-men and to administer justice on the land of his barony. He was responsible to the count, and the count to the king. When a baron died without a son, his barony fell back to the crown, and was given away to another. The count had to see that the barons administered justice ; and the send-counts appointed by Charlemagne went about the country seeing that the counts did their duty. This was the feudal system. Even- man was bound by duties, and no man could call anything his own unless he discharged his duties. In the south of German}-, the nobles did not like this new system at all. Welf, Count of Bavaria, had a son, Henry. Louis the Pious, who had mar- ried Jutta, Welf's daughter, offered to give Henry some land on the new principle ; but the old Bava- rian forbade his son to take it. However, Jutta persuaded her brother to do as the emperor of- fered, which was that he should have and hold as much land as he could run a gold plough round whilst the emperor slept. When the old Welf heard that his son had done this he was so offended that he hid himself for the rest of his days in the Black Forest. You see by this feudal system no man could sell his property out and out ; he could only sell it sub- ject to the king's consent, and subject to the duties 74 A NE IV SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. it entailed, or pawn what he got from it, without freeing himself from the responsibilities. We shall see later how the towns were governed on the same principle. XIII. TROUBLE COMING. (840-911.) The successors of Louis the Pious were Charles the Fat, Arnulf, and Louis the Child. One day Charles the Great was looking from his window by the sea, when he saw some white sails on the far horizon, shimmering along like sea-gulls. Those who were in the room with him heard him sigh heavily. " Sire, what troubles you ? " He pointed to the white sails. " I see a coming trouble there," he answered. The sails belonged to the Northmen. After the death of Louis the Pious, the incursions of the Northmen became indeed a trouble. In France, as you know, they conquered and formed Normandy. They made sad havoc in England, and Alfred had hard battles to fight before he could drive them back ; but there also they founded a kingdom in Northumbria. Charles the Fat was too lazy to meet and fight the Northmen ; he bought them off with gold. This created general disgust ; a great assembly of the nobles and pe'ople was held at Tribur on the Rhine, and he was declared incapable of governing and was deposed. His brother's son, Arnulf, succeeded him. He was 7- ;6 TROUBLE COM J AC a good king, very courageous and active, but was cut off by poison after a short reign. He was suc- ceeded by his son Louis, aged six. Under him Germany went through many years of suffering. The Magyars, or Hungarians, invaded the country nearly every year, ravaging it, plundering the churches, burning the towns, and butchering or carrying away into captivity the unhappy people. The Germans fought on foot with long two-handed swords, or with balls covered with spikes which were attached by chains or thongs to a stick, and which they swung about and brought down on the heads of their enemies. The Hungarians were mounted on fleet horses and were armed with bows, so that the Germans could not come to close quarters with them. Then the great vassals took advantage of the fact that the king was a child to enlarge their own dominions and reduce his power. "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child," said Solo- mon of old, and Germany experienced the truth of his saying. One little anecdote of the times may be quoted. Ulric, Count of Linzgau, was carried away a prisoner by the Hungarians. His beautiful wife remained behind. She believed him to be dead. Years passed and she heard nothing of him. She refused to marry again, but lived quietly in her castle, doing good to all who were near. One day a poor beggar came to her door, dressed in rags, with bare and bleeding feet, and hair almost white. The countess at once came down to give him food, when, with a cry, he threw his arms round her neck and kissed her. The attendants rushed to interfere. COUNT ULRIC RETURNS. 77 but he waved them away with his hand, and the tears ran down his brown, furrowed cheeks. " Let me hold her to my heart once more. I have suffered blows and famine these many years, and had no love. I am Ulric, your lord." The young king died in 911, before he had come of age to rule, and with him ended the race of Charlemagne in Germany. ^PP- ^^^lj^™™5^^"'? v^>^lfl itu.^T** Sp\W^ 5^P5§ ■V ^ 3S ten B' 1, ~JSfO ran ■^ ..<'dsE§k \ h^sL^ -J3BP Ivflp XIV. HOW HENRY THE FOWLER RULED. (919-936.) From the time of the death of Louis the Child the crown ceased to be hereditary. The great vassals elected the king. Though the kingship was not hereditary, it was usual to elect the son or some near relative of the late emperor, so long as a suitable person was found in the family to hold the office. Also the kings, during their lives, did what they could to insure the succession to their own families. By this change one great advantage was gained : the Germans made sure that they should be governed by able princes ; but, on the other hand, this great disadvantage came of it, that the vassals were able to make themselves too powerful, and to rule almost quite independently of the emperor in their own lands. The kings were obliged to bribe and favour the great nobles to secure them to vote for their sons, and so the central power of the crown was weakened and the unity of Germany dissolved. It must be remembered that the German kings claimed also to be kings of Italy, and, by virtue of their coronation by the popes, to be emperors of Rome. So they were crowned twice, once at Aix — in aftertimes at 73 A DANGEROUS NECKLACE. 79 Frankfort, as kings of Germany — afterwards at Rome as emperors. So they were ever distracted from what should have been their chief care, — to bring Germany into unity and subjection, — by the craze that they were the descendants of the emperors of Rome, and by their efforts to re-establish the great old Empire, not now as a pagan power, but, as they called it, a Holy Roman Empire. When Pope Leo III., on Christmas Day, 800, crowned and proclaimed Charles the Great as emperor, he did, without know- ing it, the greatest mischief he could to Germany. He diverted the ambitions of the kings of Germany for seven hundred years from their proper duties at home, and sent them wild-goose hunting in Italy. The first king who was chosen, after the death of Louis, was Conrad, a Frank duke. He got into contest with Henry, the young Duke of Saxony. Archbishop Hatto, of Mainz, sent Henry a present of a necklace for his throat, made of twisted gold formed to act like a spring, so that he could pass it over his head and it would close tight on his throat. Henry put it on, and the gold shrank so tight as nearly to throttle him. He had never seen a spring coil before, and the chain had to be broken off him. He was very angry, and declared that the bishop wanted to strangle him by this ingenious artifice. So he entered some of the bishop's lands with an army ; thereupon the emperor marched to protect the archbishop. A battle was fought and the Franks were defeated. Then a peace was patched up. Not long after Conrad died, without leaving any sons. On his death-bed he called to him his 8o HOW HENRY THE FOWLER RULED. brother Eberhard, and said : " My hours are num- bered. I know that no man is worthier to take the throne than my enemy, Henry of Saxony. Do not you think of yourself in opposition to the general good. We Franks have might, and strong cities, and all that royal splendour requires ; but something more than that is needed : great prudence and wis- dom, and that Henry has. When I am dead take him the crown and the sacred lance, the gold arm- lets, the sword, and the purple mantle of the old kings, and so make Henry your friend. Tell him and the princes that my dying advice is, that he should succeed me." Directly Conrad was dead, the electors met and /chose Henry. They sent Eberhard and others to announce Tiis election to him, and found him out bird-catching, with a hawk on his wrist, in the Harz Mountains. He was thenceforth called " The Fowler." He obeyed the call of the nation without delay. The error he had committed in rebelling against the state he firmly resolved to atone for by his conduct as emperor. Of lofty stature, although slight and youthful in form, with a handsome face, a clear eye, and a pleasant smile, his very appear- ance won hearts to him. Besides these personal ad- vantages, he was intelligent, eager for knowledge, and had much good sense. His wife, Bertha, was an excellent woman, who wove and spun, and there are seals remaining that represent her spinning, seated on her throne as an empress. His first idea was how to protect the land from that incessant plague, the Hungarian incursions. THE HUNGARIANS BOUGHT OFF. 8 1 He formed his plan, which was not liked by his nobles at first, because they did not understand what he aimed at. He bought peace of the Hun- THE HEERBANN — CALLING OUT THE MILITIA. (Heidelberg MSS.) garians for nine years by promising them a yearly tribute. But this was not through cowardice ; he wanted to gain time. During those nine years he occupied himself in building strong fortresses dot- 6 82 HOW HENRY THE FOWLER RULED. ted about along the frontiers, and filling them with munitions of war and well-trained soldiers. These were called burgs, and were placed under the com- mand of counts, called burgraves. Hitherto the Germans had not lived in walled towns, and had a great dislike to doing so. Henry ordered that out of every nine freemen who lived on their lands, one should be always on guard in the burg, and that the other eight should support him. By degrees, the Germans on the frontier saw what protection these burgs gave them, and they gathered about them, and closed walls round their collection of houses, and formed the walled towns of Germany. When the nine years were elapsed, and Henry stopped the tribute, he was ready for the Hunga- rians. They sent to him as usual the tenth year for the money, but he threw a dead mangy dog at their feet, and told them that was all they should have from him and his Germans for the future. The ambassadors returned with fury in their hearts, and the Hungarians poured over the fron- tier in two enormous hordes. They found them- selves troubled with the strong burgs, which they could not take, and which menanced their rear if they advanced. Moreover, Henry's men were full of confidence, for they could always fall back within walls if they found the Hungarians too strong for them. Henry had a great banner painted of St. Michael trampling on the dragon, with wings of blazen gold, and had it carried before his army. A furious battle was fought near Merseburg, and thirty thousand Hungarians were killed. The re- KXIGHTIIOOD INSTITUTED. 33 mainder fled. The terror of the Hungarians now equalled that with which they had formerly inspired the Germans. In their belief, the Angel Michael was the German god of victory, and they made golden wings like those borne by the angel on the banner and fastened them to their own idols, in hopes thereby of making them like Michael. From the fact that Henry had been the builder or founder of so many cities that grew up about his burgs, he got the name of Henry " the City Builder," as well as "the Fowler." Another institution of Henry's was the knight- hood. There were at that time a good number of freemen, younger brothers of those holding land, who hired themselves at different courts, or who robbed on the highways. They did not know ex- actly what to do with themselves ; there were not then many openings for men, and they were too proud to serve as foot soldiers. Henry offered those who had been robbers a free pardon, and in- vited the rest to come and serve the empire. They were to be called knights, — that is, servants of the crown, — and he organized them into a body of mounted cavalry, and imposed on them certain con- ditions, which made the rank of a knight one of honour. The story goes that Henry and some of his nobles were discussing the proofs required to show that a soldier deserved this rank. Then said Henry, " First, he must not, by word or deed, wrong the Mother Church." " Nor," added the Count Palatine Conrad, " nor hurt the Holy Roman Empire." Then Berthold of Bavaria said 8 4 HOW HENRY THE FOWLER RULED. " He must not be a liar." " Nor," said Hermann of Swabia, " have injured a weak woman." " No, nor run away in battle," said Conrad of Franconia. So these were made the laws of knighthood, to be true to church and country, true in everything, gentle to women, and courageous. XV. THE HUNGARIANS BURST IN AGAIN. (936-9730 TWENTY-TWO years after the Hungarians had been defeated at Merseburg they once more burst into Germany. They were so numerous that they boasted that their horses would drink the rivers dry and stamp the towns to dust. They pushed up the Danube to where the river Lech joins it, and there turned south and followed up this river to the great and wealthy city of Augsburg. They had been disappointed of spoil. They had traversed long tracts of rubble of white limestone with willows sprouting between the stones; no rich towns, only poor villages, few and far between. They were hun- gry for spoil, and they knew that Augsburg would furnish abundance. Augsburg stood on the great trade road from Italy into the heart of Germany, It was full of merchants who were as wealthy as princes. It was an old Roman town, and had, no doubt, at one time been surrounded by walls. At this time it had a very prudent bishop, named Ulric. For some time he had suspected mischief was brewing, before others were aware of the danger, and he persuaded the citizens to rebuild their walls. *5 86 THE HUNGARIANS BURST IN AGAIN. These were fortunately finished just before the Hungarians attacked the place. As soon as Ulric heard that they were coming he sent to his brother, who was Count of Kyburg,* and to Duke Burkhard HENRY II. AND CUNIGUNDE BUILD CHURCHES. (From an Illuminated MS. in Bamberg.) of Swabia, to fly to his aid, and they hastily came into the city with their men before the barbarians appeared. There was a moat round the walls and the river Lech had been made to send a stream into it. This puzzled the Hungarians, and they stood * The family of the Count of Kyburg became extinct in 1264, and their possessions passed first into the hands of the counts of Haps- burg and then to the House of Austria, one of the present titles of the Austrian emperor being Count of Kyburg. OTTO II. AND HIS SPOUSE BLESSED BY CHRIST. (From an Ivory Carving in the Hotel Cluny.) 87 83 THE HUNGARIANS BURST IN AGAIN. looking at the water and the walls beyond. Then their chiefs whirled their long whips and slashed at their men to drive them into the ditch, and force them through. A gigantic Hungarian stood on the bank blowing a horn. Then, all at once, a gate was opened in the walls, a bridge- was dropped, and out rushed the weavers of Augsburg, armed with pikes, fell on the enemy, surrounded and killed their king, and went back in triumph, carrying the shield of the king with them. Ever after, to this day, the shield has been preserved by the guild of the weavers. The Hungarians were detained outside Augsburg- unable to take it, and unwilling to leave it, till Otto, the emperor, the son of Henry, had collected an army and come swiftly upon them in the rear. Then a great battle was fought, on the ioth of Au- gust, 955. The sun was blazing, and very hot. The great bare plain of rolled white limestones was glar- ing. The fight was a desperate one. Those in the city sallied out and helped the emperor. For some time the fate of the day was uncertain. Indeed, the German troops were wavering, when the day was turned by the heroism of the gallant Conrad of Franconia, the brother-in-law of the emperor. But he who saved the fortunes of the day was himself slain. Unable to bear the heat of the sun, which made his helmet burn his head, he took it off for a moment, and at that instant an arrow pierced his neck. A hundred thousand Hungarians fell ; others plunged, mad with fear, into the river, to escape the pursuit of the Germans, and the stream swept them away and drowned them, and along its course HENRY II. RECEIVES FROM GOD THE CROWN, HOLY LA.NCE, AND IMPERIAL SWORD. (From Henry's Missal. 1 ) 89 g THE HUNGARIANS BURST IN AGAIN. for many miles, among the willows and rushes and rolled stones, dead Hungarians were washed up in great numbers. Those who managed to get over the river were hunted in the bushes with pitch-forks and flails, and killed by the peasants without mercy like wolves. Never again did the Hungarians ven- ture an invasion of Germany. Otto I., called the Great, was the son of Henry the Fowler. He succeeded him in 936. He was a very fine man. Wittckind, an historian of the times, says: " His demeanor was full of majesty. His white hair waved over his shoulders. His eyes were bright and sparkling. His beard was of ex- traordinary length." He was crowned at Aix, with great splendour, in the grand circular church Charlemagne had built. The gigantic crown of Charles the Great, the scep- tre, the sword, the gold-embroidered mantle, and the sacred lance were used. This lance was supposed to have been that employed by the centurion to pierce the side of our Lord ; and it was one of the things always put into the hands of the king when he was crowned. It is now at Vienna, in the treas- ury of the Emperor of Austria. Otto was seated on the throne of Charles the Great, which was cov- ered with plates of gold. He was anointed by the Archbishop of Mainz, and the great dukes and princes stood about him, invested with honorary offi- ces in the palace. The Duke of Lotharingia was his chamberlain, the Duke of Franconia his carver, the Duke of Swabia his cup-bearer, the Duke of Bava- ria his marshall, or master of the stables. Edith, OTTO III. AND REPRESENTATIVES OF NOBLES AND CLERGY. (From an Illustrated Codex Title-Page.) 91 9 2 THE HUNGARIANS BURST IN AGAIN. the daughter of Edmund, King of England, his wife,- was crowned with him. When the dukes went home from the coronation they w r ere pleased with the state, and thought to copy it, so they appointed counts under them to be butlers, and servers, and chamberlains, and marshals to them. Then those of the bishops who were princes did the same, and made these offices hereditary in certain noble fami- lies on their lands. Our w r ord constable means count of the stables, and a sheriff is a count of a shire (shire-graf). If there were some pomp and state observed by Otto I. there was more introduced into the court by his son, Otto II., who married Theophania, a Greek princess, accustomed to the elaborate cere- monial of the court at Constantinople. Never had the Germans seen any one so lovely as this beauti- ful princess. She appeared among them as a being from another world. When she arrived, we are told that the trappings of her horse were en- riched with feathers and gold, her Greek dress was encrusted with jewels and embroidered over w r ith pearls, and her hair was confined in a golden net. Yet all this splendor was outshone by the beauty of her features and the brilliancy of her eyes. She did, however, something better than introduce mere ceremonial. She brought in a love of letters, and she polished and refined the somewhat rough and boorish manners of the court. Otto I. was crowned King of the Lombards at Milan, and emperor at Rome. THE SAXON DYNASTY ENDS. 93 Otto II., and his son, Otto III., died after short reigns, and with Henry Uncalled "the Saint," a great-grandson of Henry I., the Saxon dynasty came to an end. • 9 W^^f^^^^^^W^S^^-M W' : 2^£s&; ( lH^ SL W ^Bt -^Pv^^*^ ' ^* r^? /> jV ') ^* J J?* -^-^*w ^* " S " J^hMFw^L ^-.w^^^^r »r™5p' : *f^-^rc^^^^^C^^^^^C XVI. SOME TRIALS OF A KING. (1053-1106.) THE first king of the race of the Salic Franks was Conrad II. He and his son, Henry III., were good sovereigns, holding the reins of government with a firm hand. Unhappily for Germany, the lat- ter died in the vigor of manhood, and his son Henry was proclaimed king, at the age of six. We have come now to one of the saddest periods in the his- tory of Germany. Agnes, the empress mother, a good woman, was left by Henry guardian of his infant son, and regent during his childhood. She had not sufficient strength of character for what was required of her. She sought to rule the turbulent spirits of the age by gentleness and persuasion. Charles the Great had made some of the arch- bishops and bishops secular princes, that is, he had given them dominions over which they might reign like sovereigns, and he did this in the hope that they would stand by the throne against the violent and ambitious dukes. But his scheme answered badly. The archbishops of Cologne and Mainz were sovereigns, raising armies, making laws, im- 94 A PLOT AGAIXST A KING. 95 posing taxes, exercising the power of life and death. Consequently, their minds were turned as much, if not more, to the advancement of their power. as princes than to their duties as bishops. Indeed, it came to this, that they kept bishops under them, like curates, to do all their sacred functions, and devoted themselves to their secular duties as sovereigns. Moreover, because these great bishop- rics and archbishoprics were principalities, the great nobles coveted them for their sons, and got the kings to give them to their sons when they got ordained, just for the sake of taking them, without the slightest regard for their fitness for a sacred office. Now at this time the Archbishop of Cologne was a man called Anno. He was not a great nobleman. Henry III. had elevated him to the archbishopric in the hope of attaching him to himself and his house, but by birth he was a member of a small and needy family of gentlemen. When he became archbishop he was ravenous for power and wealth to bestow on his relations He was not a bad man, but he was a greedy man, greedy of power. He and the Archbishop of Mainz thought that if they could only get hold of the young king they would be able to squeeze what they liked out of him. So they made a plan to seize him. One Whitsuntide the Empress Agnes was spend- ing the pleasant spring weather on the island of Kaiserswerth in the Rhine. The trees were in their first leaf, and the buds were bursting. The two archbishops came to pay her a visit in a beautiful 9 6 SOME TRIALS OF A KING. new ship with painted and gilded bows. After they had dined they asked Henry if he would like to see the boat. He was only too delighted, so they took him to where it was moored, got him on board, and then, at a signal, the rope was cut, the sail was spread, the rowers dipped their oars, and away darted the ship into the middle of the stream. Henry thought that he was going to be killed or put in prison, and jumped overboard, but the Margrave of Meissen, who was in the plot, jumped after him, and brought him back into the vessel. In the mean time, the empress ran along the beach wring- ing her hands and crying, and others shouted and stormed at the treachery ; but the archbishops did not care ; they pushed up the river to Cologne, and arranged that the king should spend half his time with Archbishop Anno and half with Arch- bishop Siegfried, of Mainz. The news spread like wildfire, and the whole of Germany was in agitation. The Archbishop of Cologne, who had charge of the king first, was obliged to bribe the great vassals right and left to stop their mouths, and this he did by making the young king give them estates which belonged to the crown, and to the bishops who rebuked him he gave other bishoprics, to keep them quiet. Anno was a hard, stern man, and he kept Henry under very severe discipline. He gave him no amusements, held him hard at lessons, and separated him from young lads of his own age who might have made agreeable companions. He was always cross, and scolding, and Henry acquired a perfect hatred THE KING'S GUARDIANS. 97 of him. It was much the same with the Arch- bishop of Mainz. So the archbishop saw that he must put him with some one else, who was a IMPERIAL HOUSE AT GOSLAR. (HENRY III.) friend, and would not act against him. He therefore handed him over to Adalbert, Arch- bishop of Bremen. Now Adalbert was just the opposite sort of man to Anno. He was very fond of splendour, kept a grand court, ate and drank of the best, and was a thriftless, good-natured person. He 7 9 8 SOME TRIALS OF A KING. allowed Henry to do what he liked, spoiled him, let him make friends with worthless young noble- men, and throw about his money on any folly, as he pleased. The consequence of this sort of bringing up — at one time treated with harshness, at another with in- dulgence ; at onetime refused rational pleasures, then allowed every indulgence unreproved — was that Henry's natural good disposition was com- pletely spoiled. After he had been some years with Adalbert, Anno wanted to get him back again, as Adalbert was wasting, or allowing Henry to waste, all the rev- enues of the crown. So another plot was formed. A diet — that is, a parliament — met at Tribur, which was attended by the king, and the arch- bishop, and many of the great nobles. All at once the young king was surrounded, and ordered to dismiss Adalbert from his court or abdicate the throne. Henry was obliged to throw Archbishop Adalbert over. Anno was guilty now of a very stupid act. He forced the young king, when he was only sixteen, to marry Bertha, daughter of the Margrave of Susa, a plain-faced, uninteresting girl, whom he could not abide, and whom he treated in consequence with positive unkindness at one time and neglect at another. Moreover, it increased his detestation of Anno, so that Anno behaved in this matter imprudently for his own interests. On the king the effect was very bad, because, as he disliked his wife, he became more disorderly and subject to the leading of all sorts of persons, whereas, if he AN APPEAL TO THE POPE. 99 had had a wife whom he loved and who was sensi- ble, he might gradually have been brought into better ways. But this was not all; his sons grew up to see their father rude and unkind to their mother, and they lost all respect and regard for him. What that led to, you shall hear presently. No sooner was Henry his own master than he turned on those who had leagued with Anno against him — and these were the Saxon nobles —and treated them : o with contumely and severity ; indeed, he drove them into insur- rection. At last, un- able to endure his treat- ment, they appealed to the Pope. The Pope at this time was Greg- !_; ory VII., a carpenter's henry iv. with sceptre and son, whose head had „ imperial globe. lF rom an Illuminated Manuscript.) been turned by his ele- vation to the Papacy, and who was puffed up with pride and love of power. He summoned the emperor to come to Rome, that he might decide between him and the Saxon princes. Henry laughed at the summons. Charles the Great had gone to 100 SOME TRIALS OF A KING. Rome and called the Pope before him, and tried the case between him and those who had thrown him off his horse and tried to cut out his tongue ; and should he, the emperor, go and be tried by the Bishop of Rome ? He was then aged twenty-five, full of pride and in the plenitude of his power. He at once called some of the bishops together at Worms, and, urged by him, they deposed the Pope. This was a very thoughtless act on his part. He had to do with a much cleverer man than himself, and Gregory was delighted that he had thus given him a handle wherewith to humble him. Gregory at once pronounced excommunication against him, that is, he cut him off from the Church as com- pletely as if he were a heathen, and bade all Chris- tians hold aloof from him. He released all his sub- jects from their allegiance and declared him un- worthy to reign. Henry only laughed at the sen- tence when he heard it, but the laugh died away on his lips when he saw the effect it wrought. He had behaved so badly in Germany, had been so despotic, had offended so many — the powerful princes by his insolence, the good people by his disorderly life, and the general mass of the peo- ple by his neglect of good government — that they were glad to seize the excuse to fall away from him and give themselves a better emperor. Henry found himself deserted by every one but his despised wife Bertha. The great vassals pro- ceeded to elect Rudolf, Duke of Swabia, who had married his sister, to be emperor in his place. There was nothing for it, Henry thought, but for RL'DuLI'H UK SWABIA. (From his Tomb.) IOI IQ 2 SOME TRIALS OF A KING. him to hasten to Italy and make his peace with the Pope. The winter of this year (1076) happened to be colder than any within the memory of man, and the Rhine remained frozen over from the middle of November to April, 1077. It was in this dreadful weather, about Christmas time, that Henry set off secretly, attended only by Bertha, his infant son, and a solitary knight. They crossed the Alps to the Lake of Geneva ; then they trav- elled over the St. Bernard pass, and Bertha, whom neither danger nor distress could separate from her husband, was drawn over the ice seated on an ox-hide, whilst the emperor scrambled among the rocks like a chamois-hunter. The Pope was then in the castle of Canossa, sit- uated on a rocky spur of the Apennines. With the insolence of a beggar exalted to unlimited power, Gregory treated the humbled emperor ignomin- iously. He refused to see and absolve him till he had undergone a degrading penance. On a dreary winter morning, with the ground deep in snow, the king, the heir of a line of emperors, was forced to lay aside every mark of royalty, was clad in the thin white linen dress of the penitent, and there, fasting, he awaited the pleasure of the Pope in the castle yard. But the gates did not unclose. A second day he stood, cold, hungry, and mocked by vain hope. At the close only of the third day did Gregory receive and pardon him. But Gregory had now, for his part, done more than was judicious from his own point of view. His severity, and the humiliation of their king, roused the A HAND CUT OFF. 103 indignation and excited the disgust of the Germans and the Italians alike, and Henry found himself now surrounded by those who had forsaken him. At the head of an army he marched against his brother-in-law, Rudolf of Swabia, who had assumed the crown, and defeated him in a battle near Gera, on the Elster. When the duke was dying, some one showed him his right hand, which had been cut off by an axe. " It is well," said the duke, " I raised this right hand to heaven in token of fidelity when I took the oath of allegiance to Henry. God has punished me aright by suffering it to be smit- ten off." Now it was Henry's turn to chastise the Pope. He crossed the Alps at the head of an army, took Rome, deposed Gregory, who fled to Salerno, and ap- pointed another Pope in his room, who crowned him in S. Peter's Church, Emperor of the Romans, A.D. 1084. Henry had now crushed his worst enemies, but the remain- (From an illuminated ms.) der of his life was not to be spent in quiet. He had sown the wind and must reap the whirlwind. CONRAD, SON OF HENRY IV. 104 SOME TRIALS OF A KING. His reign was very long, fifty years ; his old age was embittered by the revolt of his own sons. Conrad rebelled against his father in Italy, and Henry in Germany. Conrad died before his father. It was in 1 104 that Henry, the best loved son of the old emperor, raised his hand against his father. The touching appeals of the emperor to his son having been disregarded, Henry IV. put himself at the head of his troops and marched against him, but discover- ing that he was betrayed by his followers, he fled in sorrow of heart. Then occurred an incident which has been versified by a German poetess. If ever you go up the Rhine, look at the ruins of the Castle of Hammerstein. In it, at the time of which I am telling you, lived a knight who had been true to Henry, in all his troubles, but he was now very old and unable to take the field for his king. The knight was bitterly dissatisfied because he had no son, only two gentle daughters, and he could not abide to see them, as they were useless, he thought, whereas a son could have borne arms for the king. One night there came a knock at the castle door, and the old man was told that a stranger begged admission. He was shown in, and, lo ! the knight saw his white-haired sovereign, come to him for refuge from his enemies, begging for shelter, if only for a night. " Ah ! well is thee ! " said Henry, looking at the two daughters of his host, "well is thee that thou hast gentle daughters to cling to thee, to love thee, and cherish thee in thy old age. I — I have had two sons, and both have risen against me." A BR OKEA ' NEAR T. ! - The emperor was taken by his unnatural son and shut up in the castle of Bingen, and was required by delegates from him to surrender the crown jewels. The aged emperor placed the crown of Charlemagne on his head, threw the imperial mantle over his shoulders, and holding the sceptre and orb, appeared before the messengers, and defied them to touch the ornaments worn by the ruler of the world. But to these men nothing was sacred : the crown and mantle of Charlemagne were plucked off him, and carried to Mainz to adorn his rebellious son. The fallen emperor was given into the hands of Gebhard, Bishop of Spires, who took a fiendish pleas- ure in humbling and tormenting him. He kept him without sufficient food,, so that the old emperor was obliged to sell his boots in order to procure bread. He was forbidden the use of a bath, and of a bar- ber to shave him. At length he found ways of es- caping to Liege, where the bishop received him and treated him with great kindness till he died of a broken heart. From his death-bed Henry sent his ring and sword to his son in token of pardon for his rebellion. ^k?r»*HMie ^^^^v"^*^ ^fe iuik^. y*^ GS^iffc ^S^%k »v 4 ^85 EhH'^S^j — -^fil^^&S ^8 — J* - ^ 8^»^g^ / .,-,i^g|B ')t d£gl ^VTOI XVII. A BAD SON MAKES A STRONG KING. (1099-1125.) HENRY V. married Matilda, daughter of Henry I. of England, but he never had any children. He saw clearly enough that there was no hope for Ger- many to become united and great so long as the dukes, and margraves, and archbishops were so powerful and independent, and his father's long minority, and the incessant contests that followed, had made them so strong that the emperor could do little unsupported by them. Accordingly, he directed his efforts to reducing their power. But now again appeared one of the fatal consequences of the gift of the imperial crown to Charlemagne by Leo II. The popes were afraid of the emperors. The kings of Germany, who were also kings of Italy and Lombardy, were tremendously strong, and the popes were afraid of being completely at their mercy and being forced to do just what the emperors ordered. So it became a part of the settled policy of the popes to stir up strife at home to keep the empire weak and occupy the emperor in Germany. In order to help the vassals to weaken Henry, the Pope excommunicated him, and his reign was spent 106 HENRICVS QUINT. HENRY V. RECEIVES INSIGNIA FROM POPE PASCHAI. (From the Ekkehard Manuscript.) I07 ioS A BAD SON MAKES A STRONG KING. in fighting first one vassal, then another. He was sometimes victorious, -sometimes defeated, and a fugitive, just as he had made his father a fugitive. In the end he died a disappointed man, having utterly failed to do what he designed. A TEMPLAR. XVIII. HOW THEY FOUGHT THE SARACENS. (1096-1291.) It was customary in the Middle Ages for pious men to visit Jerusalem and Bethlehem, to see and pray at the spots where Christ was born, and died, and rose again. The Arabs, who ruled in Syria after the Romans had lost that province, did not dis- turb the pilgrims. But when the Seldjucs, a savage Turkish race, conquered Palestine, the Christians were oppressed and persecuted ; pilgrims were mal- treated, churches desecrated, and Simon. Patriarch of Jerusalem, was thrown down at the foot of the altar, and his hair plucked out. A pious hermit, Peter of Amiens, saw these suffer- ings, when on a visit to Jerusalem; he returned to Europe with an appeal from the patriarch to Pope Urban II. The Pope sent Peter into France and through Italy to stir up the people to fight for the recovery of the Holy City. In 1095 the Pope held a council at Clermont, in France, and besought the faithful to take up arms to wrest Jerusalem from the hands of the unbelievers. " It is the will of God ! " shouted the crowd, and they hasted to fasten little crosses of red cloth to their shoulders, in token that 109 HO HO W THE Y FO UGHT THE SARA CENS. they enlisted in the enterprise. Thence these ex- peditions took the name of crusades. The first army started in August, 1096, under the generalship of Godfrey de Bouillon. When the host crossed over from Constantinople into Asia Minor it num- bered 300,000 fighting men. On its way through Asia Minor and Syria, privations, incessant fighting, and disease had thinned it so that when it arrived in the Promised Land only a tenth remained. This remnant, however, inspired to enthusiasm by the sight of Jerusalem, stormed and took the city. Godfrey de Bouillon was the first to leap from the walls into the town. The gates were thrown open and the Crusaders poured in, to massacre all they encountered. Godfrey de Bouillon was proclaimed King of Jerusalem ; but he refused to wear a crown, where the Saviour had been invested with a wreath of thorns, and for his title chose " Guardian of the Holy Grave." Next year, 1100, Godfrey died, and his brother Baldwin took the government and the title of king. The new Christian realm was not, however, se- cured by the capture of Jerusalem. The city was repeatedly threatened ; and for its protection six great armies went out of Europe. Jerusalem fell back into the hands of the Saracens. With Ptolemais, or Acre, the Christians lost, in 1291, the last of their possessions in Asia. Thenceforth, the Holy Land remained in the power of the Turks. The conflict for the Holy Sepulchre lasted two hun- dred years, and cost Europe six millions of her best fighting men. Nevertheless, the Crusades were an A GKEA T A WAKENING. Ill advantage to the West. Minds were roused by- contact with strange sights, interest quickened in geography, history, and natural science. A multi- tude of hitherto unknown products, as silk, sugar, spices, dyes, found their way into the West. More- over, some of the most turbulent spirits went out " s55C>fv ""tS5^ ^^ AN ASTROLOGER. (HOLBEIN.) of Europe, as by a voluntary banishment, to exhaust their powers of doing mischief in the East, and the nobility were so weakened that the cities were able to develop commerce and manufacture unim- peded. During the period of the Crusades, chivalry be- came more and more a flourishing and organized institution. Knighthood was not inherited like 112 HOW THEY FOUGHT THE SARACENS. titles ; it was granted to a man for his worth, after hard trials and proof that the aspirant deserved the honour. w- XIX. KOW A NEW DYNASTY WAS BEGUN. IMPERIAL GLOBE. (H38-II52.) If you look on the map you will see that at Stuttgart the River Neckar comes from the east and turns abruptly north, where it receives another river from the east called the Rems. Now between the Rems and the Neckar rises a tableland of dry limestone, and here and there this plateau is capped with the queerest hills, for all the world like thim- bles put down by giants on the table. These con- ical hills with stumpy tops are not of limestone ; they are volcanic, and have been driven up through the lime by the fires in the heart of the earth. One of these is called Hohenstaufcn. You will remem ■ berthat when Henry IV. went over the Alps in win- ter to Pope Gregory VII. one faithful knight attended him. This knight is said to have been Frederick of Biiren. In consideration of his fidelity, immediately that affairs seemed prosperous, Henry created him Duke of Swabia, and gave him Agnes, his daughter, to wife. He thereupon built himself a castle on the 8 113 , i 4 HOW A NEW DYNASTY WAS BEGUN. hill I mention, and thenceforth called himself " Of Hohenstaufen." There had been Frank and Saxon emperors , no\v there was to be a Swabian dynasty. A HOHENSTAUFEN KNIGHT. (From an Almanac of the 12th Century.) In 1 1 38, at Mainz, Conrad, the son of this Fred- erick of Hohenstaufen, was elected to be king of the Germans. Besides Hohenstaufen, the family had a town, Waiblingen on the Rems, and as people then took their names from their estates, they were called variously " of Biiren," " of Hohenstaufen," and " of Waiblingen "; but as Waiblingen was a town, CONRAD HUNTING WITH FALCONS. (From a Minnesinger Manuscript of the 14th Century.) 115 jj5 110 W A NE IV D YNASTY WAS BEGUN. whereas the other places were only castles, they were commonly called the Waiblingers. There was a strong opposition party in Germany to the Swabians, and that was headed by the Duke of Bavaria. The Bavarian dukes were called Welfs, from an ancestor of the name. This was a very powerful family, which held both the duchies of Bavaria and Saxony. As the policy of the Pope was to weaken the power of the emperor, he sup- ported the~Welfs. The Lombard cities also took the same side. In Italian mouths (unable to pro- nounce the W) Welf became Guelf, and Waiblinger became Ghibelline, and in Italy the Papal faction was called Guelf and the emperor's party was called Ghibelline. The Waiblinger family has long ago died out, but the Welf remains. It is represented by Queen Vic- toria of England and the Duke of Brunswick. It is one of the most ancient reigning houses that ex- ists. It dates back in unbroken pedigree to that old Welf, Count of Swabia and Bavaria, the father of Jujtta, the wife of Louis the Pious, who sulked and hid himself in the Black Forest because his son took a feudal holding under the emperor. This Welf died about the year 824. Conrad, the Waiblinger, did not succeed to the throne immediately after the death of Henry V. Lothair, the Saxon, was the next emperor, but Con- rad came to the throne on his death, and at once the contest with the Welfs broke out. During- this contest the little town of Weinsberg held out gal- lantly for the Welfs against the emperor. Exas- |Bi3fMffiM& HENRY THE LION, AND SPOUSE. (From their Tomb.) 117 ! ! 8 HOW A NEW D YNASTY WAS BEGUN. perated at the persistency of their defence Conrad threatened to kill all the men when he took the place. When at length Weinsberg was forced to yield, the provisions therein being exhausted, the emperor consented that all the women should be allowed, unmolested, to leave the place and to carry with them their choicest valuables. Then the gate was thrown open, and out through it, and down the hill to where Conrad sat before his tent, came the Countess Ida,* carrying her husband, Welf, on her back, followed by all the women of Weinsberg, carrying their husbands, and fathers, and brothers, and lovers on their backs. Some of the army of Conrad were angry, and wanted to stop this strange procession and kill the men, but the emperor was touched at the devotion of the women, and he answered, " Not so ; I gave my word, and an emperor's word must never be broken." The Welf whom the Countess Ida carried was Welf VI., of Bavaria, uncle of the Duke Henry, sur- named the Lion, who was then only twelve years old. After that, Welf VI. was made Duke of Spo- leto and Margrave of Tuscany. Conrad was forced by public opinion, against his good sense, to head a crusade. He started at the head of a large army in 1 147 for the Holy Land, but his whole march was one of disaster and loss. As the Crusaders were crossing a river near Constanti- nople, agents of the Greek emperor tried to count * She was a daughter of the Count Palatine of the Rhine. THE TWO-HEADED EAGLE. IIO them, but after reckoning 900,000, desisted. Not one tithe of this vast horde ever reached their des- tination. They died either of disease, starvation, or by the' swords of the Moslems, in Asia Minor. Conrad returned home, in confusion and despon- dency, to find that Welf and Henry the Lion were stirring up a new revolt against him in Germany and Lombardy. When he was at Constantinople he saw that the Byzantine emperor bore on his imperial standards a two-headed eagle, to represent the double empire, East and West, which had for a while been united under Constantine and his successors. Conrad was struck with the idea, and when he came home he assumed the double-headed eagle as the arms of his empires, and you will see it on the coins of both the Emperor of Germany and the Emperor of Austria at the present day. There is a story told, — but it is, of course, only a story, — that one of the grand dukes of Austria was out shooting in the Tyrol some years ago, and the huntsman with him brought down an eagle. When the grand duke picked it up, " Why," said he, " what a queer eagle! It has only one head!" He had seen the imperial eagle all his life on banners and coins, and thought all eagles had two necks and heads. ffiP^^ ^Fv^fl '""'<-* *" i""^- ^'•OT/ ^T^-^5 JwV^ ^SJ fella's v*J£&t& §!ife BffiP J'lf'Tyf ' » uO XX. FREDERICK OF THE RED BEARD. (1152— 1190,) FREDERICK I., or Barbarossa, was certainly the greatest and strongest of the German emperors after Charles the Great. He pacified the Welfs by giv- ing Henry the Lion back the Duchies of Bavaria and Saxony, which Conrad had taken from him. But the great Welf duke was not grateful for this act ; he repaid it with treachery. If Frederick had only contented himself with the government and discipline of Germany all would have been well, but he could not forget that he was King of all Italy and Emperor of Rome, so that he continually crossed the Alps with armies to quell the revolts that broke out there ; and when he was in Italy disturbances burst forth in Germany, which forced him back to subdue them. Duke Welf VI., the uncle of Henry the Lion, in his old age became blind. He lived at Memingen, on the Lech, and was very extravagant. He invited all the noblemen of Swabia and Bavaria to come and eat, and drink, and dance for weeks at a time at Memingen. He got deep in debt, and the emperor helped him ; but his nephew, Henry the Lion, never sent him any 120 STATUE OF FREDERICK BARBAROSSA. (In the Cloister of St. Reno. Reichenhall.) I?T 122 FREDERICK OF THE RED BEARD. money. When he died he left all his estates to the emperor. This made Henry the Lion furious, and he resolved to be revenged. Frederick called on Henry as his vassal to assist him in a campaign in Italy. Henry obeyed. At the Lake of Como Frederick fell ill. Then Henry went to him and told him he would desert him unless the emperor yielded to his extortionate demands. The Lombards in insurrection were drawing near. The time was critical. Frederick entreated the duke to be true to him and his country. He even went down on his knees to entreat him, but Henry turned scornfully away. Then the Empress Beatrice raised her hus- band, saying, " God will help you, and remember the Welf's insolence some future day." A battle was fought with the Lombards, who far outnum- bered the faithful Germans. Henry withdrew with his men, and left Frederick's army to be almost cut to pieces. The emperor escaped with difficulty and returned to Germany, where the indignation against the treachery of Henry was so general that Frederick put him under the ban of the Empire — that is, outlawed him — and gave the duchy of Ba- varia to his faithful friend, Count Otto of Wittles- bach, who is the ancestor of the present King of Bavaria. The duchy of Saxony was divided, and to the Welfs nothing was left, after Henry the Lion had come on his knees and implored pardon of the emperor, but the territory of Brunswick, and it is thus, through the House of Brunswick, that the Queen of England descends from the ancient Welfs. barbarossa's palace at gelnhausen. (reconstructed plan.) 123 I2 4 FREDERICK OF THE RED BEARD. So that act of treachery at Como was the ruin of the greatness of the Welfs for many generations. In his old age Frederick made a crusade against Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, who had retaken Jerusa- lem. As he was crossing a river Seleph he was carried off his horse by the current and drowned. When the news of his death reached Germany no one would believe it. There sprang up a story among the people that the red-bearded king is not dead, but sleeps in the Kyffhauser Mountain, sitting at a stone table, and that his beard has grown through the table. They say also, that in the hour of peril to Germany Frederick will start to life and come forth to be the deliverer of Fatherland. ^&&H$$T s*Y ■tf^^'v t^ S^Sgt, ^fcv ^Sran 9/^JV gg^fcg XXI. A CRUEL KING PUT UNDER THE BAN. (i 196-1250.) FREDERICK the Red-Bearded was followed by his son, Henry VI., a cruel, hard man, who succeeded in making the rule of the Hohenstaufen more hated in Italy than that of the earlier emperors. At Christmas, 1194, the season of peace and good-will, this cruel tyrant deluged Palermo with blood, on the pretence that he had discovered a plot against his supremacy. Bishops, nobles, members of the royal family of Sicily, none were spared ; some were hanged, some burned, others buried alive.* Rich- ard, Count of Palermo, was tied to a horse's tail, dragged through the streets of Capua, then hung up by one leg to a gallows, till the emperor's fool, after two days of misery, put an end to his pain by tying a great stone to his neck. In the midst of these scenes of horror the Empress Constantia be- came mother of a son, Frederick Roger, afterwards the Emperor Frederick II., and the last emperor of the race. It would almost seem as if the judgment of Heaven, outraged by the crime of the father, was * A Count Jordan was placed on a red-hot iron throne, and a red- hot crown was nailed to his head. 1^5 barbarossa's palace at kaiserswerth. (reconstructed plan.) 126 A WEDDING AND A PLAGUE. 127 to follow Lhe son. Two years later Henry was dead, and the little child succeeded to the crown, under the regency of his gentle and pious mother. It ■would have been well for him had she lived, but she died shortly after her husband, when Frederick was scarce four years old. The poor little king was brought up among rough and ambitious nobles, in SEAL OF OTTO IV. the midst of intrigue, violence, and conflict, at Pa- lermo. He grew to be a very handsome, graceful youth, with a face full of intelligence, benevolence, and nobility. At the age of fifteen he was mar- ried to Constantia, daughter of Peter, King of Ar- ragon. The wedding was performed with great magnificence, but in the midst of the festivities, whilst bells were ringing, and soldiers parading, the plague broke out. People fell dead in the streets. Alphonso, the bride's brother, rose from table, 128 MONUMENTAL LION TO HENRY THE LION (IN BRUNSWICK). DISTURBANCES. 129 staggered from the hall, and died. Others of the banqueters fell ill also, and before many hours had elapsed were corpses. Frederick and his young bride were obliged to fly. During his minority there had been sad disturb- ance in Germany. Two opposition emperors had started up, Philip of Swabia and Otto IV., of Bruns- wick, the son of Henry the Lion, and for ten years they had devastated Germany by their rivalries. At last, in 121 5, Frederick got the upper hand, and was crowned at Aix. This grand- son of the Red Beard was a noble scion of his race, full of courage, chivalry, and strength of purpose ; but, al- though so great a man, he never did great things, be- cause his energies were ex- hausted in incessant contest with the popes. It was the old story over again. You must consider that in France, in England, in Germany, the crown was not all-powerful. The nobles were very strong and much inclined to have their own way, and their own way meant fighting each other, and disturbing the whole land. In France, the kings, by a compromise with the people, got the upper hand and crushed the nobility. In England, the nobles, by a compromise with the people, formed a check on the power of the crown, and founded a constitutional monarchy ; but in Germany the great- est emperors squandered their talents and exhausted 9 SILVER PIECE OF OTTO IV. 130 HENRY VI. (From a Minnesinger MS. of the 14th Century.) THE IMPERIAL IDEA. j -, j the best strength of their country in pursuit of a fancy, and never learned by the experience of their predecessors to desist from the dangerous pursuit. Instead of turning their attention to the develop- ment of their country, to the curtailment of the powers of the nobility, to the establishment of their throne on enduring foundations, they were bewitched with the dream of a Roman-imperial world-mon- archy, which was impossible to be realized when every nation was asserting more and more its charac- teristic peculiarities, and arriving at consciousness of national and independent life. The emperors were always divided between distinct callings, as kings of Germany and emperors of Rome. The Italians hated them, the popes undermined their powers and involved them in countless difficulties at home and in Italy, so that they could not establish their au- thority as emperors, and neglected to make good, or were impeded in attempting to make good, their position as kings in Germany. The bat in the fable was rejected by the birds because he was a beast, and by the beasts because he had wings as a bird. This, that I have insisted on so strongly, must be borne well in mind by all who would master German history. The imperial eagle has two heads, turned in opposite directions, and the heads of the emperors shared this division and opposition. Frederick was now King of Lombardy, of Naples and Sicily, as well as King of Germany. The popes were very uneasy, feeling as though placed in a vice, and they naturally sought to diminish the power of Frederick. One of the simplest expedients was to 132 A CRUEL KING PUT UNDER THE BAN. send him off crusading to the East, so they urged him to this, and got him to vow a crusade. Pope Gregory IX. had the satisfaction of seeing him start at the head of a great host, but fever broke out in it ; the pilgrims perished by thousands. Frederick himself fell ill, and his ship was obliged to put back to Italy, that he might recruit his health on the mainland. The Pope was furious in his disappoint- ment, and excommunicated the emperor. Freder- ick sent three bishops to the Pope to assure him of his illness. Gregory refused to receive them. That was in September, 1227. Next year, when Frederick was well, he started on his crusade. One would have supposed that this would have contented the Pope : but no ; he cared for the crusade only as a means to weaken the em- peror, and he picked a fresh excuse for continuing the excommunication of Frederick. He ordered the Templars and Hospitallers to hold aloof from him ; he forbade the paying of taxes to help him, and he did everything in his power to bring the crusade of Frederick to an ignominious break-down. Yet Frederick succeeded by this expedition in effecting more than any other that had had the advantage of the blessing of popes. By a treaty with the Sultan of Egypt he recovered all the holy places. He en- tered Jerusalem in triumph, took the crown of the Christian kings of Jerusalem from the altar of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and placed it on his head. After his return, the strife with the Pope began again. The Lombard cities were in revolt. The POPE AGAINST EMPEROR. 133 Pope had raised an army of mercenaries against him, who bore as insignia St. Peter's keys, and were nicknamed accordingly the key-soldiers. The emperor was nearly always victorious, but a series of unhappy circumstances combined to embitter his life. His opponents in Germany had stirred up his son Henry to revolt against him. Frederick was forced to cross the Alps into Ger- many and quell the rebellion. Henry was deposed PEASANTS BUILDING A VILLAGE (13TH CENTURY). (Heidelberg Manuscript.) and condemned to seven years' imprisonment in Italy. He died in prison before his father. Pope Innocent IV., who succeeded Gregory IX., continued to resist the emperor, and for precisely the same reason. The claims of the German kings to be emperors did as much harm to the popes as to the kings themselves, for it diverted the attention of the popes from their spiritual cares to plotting how they might upset the emperors, or, at all events, curtail their authority. Innocent, afraid of the im- !34 A CRUEL KING J'UT UNDER THE BAN. mense power of Frederick, fled to France, and excom- municated him again, and deposed him from all his offices. When Frederick heard this he laughed, and exclaimed, " Has the Pope deposed me ? Bring me my crowns that I may see of what I am deprived." Then seven crowns were brought him, the royal crown of Germany, the imperial diadem of Rome, the iron circlet of Lombardy, the crowns of Sicily, Burgundy, Sardinia, and Jerusalem. He put them on his head, one after the other, and said, " I have them still, and none shall rob me of them with- out hard battle." But the deposition and excommunication had its effect in Germany. It served as an excuse for the proud and ambitious to rise and set up an opposi- tion emperor. An old historian says of that time : " After the Emperor Frederick was put under the ban, the robbers rejoiced over their spoils. Then were the ploughshares beaten into swords, and the reaping hooks into lances. No one went anywhere without steel and stone, to set in blaze whatever he could fire." Italy also was in insurrection. The emperor's son Enzio, was captured by the Bolognese and im- prisoned. The old emperor, crushed by his trou- bles, died in the arms of his son Manfred, and was succeeded by his son Conrad, who reigned only four years, and was never crowned emperor. Con- rad left an only son, Conradin, not three years old, the one legitimate heir of the Red-beard and of Frederick II. As soon as Frederick was dead, the Pope gave A PRINCE IN A CASK. '35 away the kingdom of Naples to Charles, Count of Anjou.* He had no right whatever to do this, but he did it out of self-preservation, so as to have some one on 'one side of him to assist him against the Germans. Conradin, when aged sixteen, marched against the French holding Naples, to attempt to recover his kingdom, but was taken, and his head struck off, by order of the cruel Charles of Anjou. Enzio was still in pris- on in Bologna ; he was now the last of the Ho- henstaufen, and heir to all the seven crowns. He contrived to be hid- den in an empty wine cask, and thus to be car- ried out of the prison. But as he was being taken, one of his long golden locks fell out of the bung-hole, which had been left open that he might have air to breathe. This attract- ed the attention of the guards ; the cask was stopped, broken open. Enzio was enclosed in an iron cage, and there died in 1272, the last of the noble Hohenstaufen race, after a mis- erable confinement of twenty-three years. A BISHOP IN ROBES. (Codex of 12th Century.) * Brother of King Louis IX. of France. XXII. THE ROBBER KNIGHTS. If you have travelled in Germany you will have noticed the abundance of ruined castles scattered over the country ; not a rocky hill, not a spur of mountain, but is crowned by one, not always large, some consisting of little more than one tower and a few outer walls, others possessing several towers. Most of these castles belong to the period of which we shall have need to treat, a time when there was no strong emperor, when the firmament was with- out a sun, and every little star set up to be indepen- dent. When the Hohenstaufen race died out, the glory of the empire was gone from Germany. No Ger- man prince would take the crown ; all were afraid of it. Then the great bishops thought of electing a foreigner. Some chose Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III. of England, and son of King John ; others chose Alphonso, King of Castile, in Spain. Richard came to Germany very rarely ; Al- phonso not at all. It was as though there were no king in the land. This was the saddest time that ever was in Germany. Every one did what he liked. The fist and the sword decided between right and 136 THE DRESS OF THE GERMAN LORDS, WORN BY CONRAD OE THURINGIA, A.D. 1 24 1. I 37 *3$ THE ROBBER KNIGHTS. wrong. The princes and the cities were in constant feud. The knights made themselves strong castles, and lived in them on plunder and murder. From their fortresses they swooped down on the mer- chants travelling from town to town and robbed them, or levied on them heavy tolls. They went plundering over the level land ; they robbed the far- mers of their cattle, devastated their fields, and burnt their houses. Moreover, the neighboring nobles and knights quarrelled with each other and fought, so that the country was one battle-field. How Germany could have got through this terrible time but for two things it is hard to say. In the first place, the towns had become very strong. They had taken advantage of the crusades, which had drawn away a number of the knights, to buy their lands, and to become wealthy, and organize large bodies of fight- ing men. If, therefore, any knights proved trouble- some, and meddled with the caravans passing from town to town, they attacked their fortresses and burned them, and hanged the robber knights from their own towers. Then, again, the church inter- fered, and ordered that a truce should be kept from all fighting for four days in the week, that is, from Wednesday evening to Monday morning. This was called the " Truce of God," and whoever broke it became an outlaw. It is, however, a mistake into which travellers in Germany often and very generally fall, to suppose that all the castles were nests of robber barons, and that they always subsisted by robbery. The THE WORK OF THE BARONS. 1 39 •owners had certain duties which they fulfilled : those on the Rhine, and other rivers that are naviga- ble, maintained the towing paths, and kept relays •of horses or oxen to drag the boats against the KNIGHT AND ATTENDANTS. (From a Drawing of ngo.) stream through their lands. For this a toll was paid. Those not on rivers kept up the roads, and entertained travellers, and furnished them with horses, and, if necessary, an escort, till they left the lands over which these barons exercised sway, and for this they were paid something. The barons, in peaceful times, did not receive the HO THE ROBBER KNIGHTS. travellers in their castles perched on high rocks, for indeed they did not care to live in them themselves except in times of danger. They had other houses below, in the little towns or villages, and over the doors of their houses they hung their shields ; so the travellers knew the houses where they might lodge, and where they could get a change of horses, by the shields, with the arms of the baron or knight. This it is which originated the signs hung above inn doors, signs of the red lion, the white hart, the brown bear, etc. The inn-keepers were the lords of the place. Now, if you happen to travel in the Tyrol, where old customs linger on, you may find that in a good many places the inn-keepers are still noble- men, and that the signs of their inns are still their coats-of-arms. If you go into the church-yards you will see the tombstones of the family of your host, with the arms, and with coronets over them, show- ing him to be a baron, or a count. I know a good many such inns. Elsewhere it is not so; the houses have been sold, and though they still keep their signs, the signs have no connection with the new owners. SP^^a fcPHiti Wl »flg*^^ ^D^tfTt 5 ^3$k RSJH.vrwjNW " ! ^W%&^ ^■-^s i> u^$%sS& 'J] " %^ XXIII. HOW THE GERMANS WROTE ROMANCES. The Germans of the 13th and 14th centuries were not only active soldiers, dealing and tak- ing hard blows, but their minds were as active as their hands ; and so it comes about that we have a series of really grand poems that belong to this period, in the German language ; and not great poems only, but also short and beautiful pieces. The poetic art was cultivated first in Provence by the knights and gentlemen, and those who composed poems and sang them were called troubadours, which means " discoverers," from trouver, to find. They found out tunes as well as invented poems. The Germans were not slow to follow the ex- ample ; their poets were called " minnesingers," or " love-singers " ; because their lays were mostly love songs. Some of their songs are beautiful. But they did not content themselves with short lays, they composed also long poems. At first they took their subjects from abroad, from the stones of King Arthur and his knights, and so some of the finest and longest of the metrical romances of this time have their scenes laid in Britain. But, fortu- nately, they were not satisfied with borrowing from ia.1 142 HOW THE GERMANS WROTE ROMANCES. abroad, and they composed heroic poems on old German legends. Charles the Great had made a collection of the national poems, but this was destroyed by Louis the Pious. Though he destroyed the collection he had not destroyed the remembrance from men's- minds, and the old stories lingered on and were passed from mouth to ear, from one generation to another, till at length the poets of Germany, about the time of which we are speaking, were induced to take them up, and invest them in new poetic garb, and give them a fresh spell of life. Of these old heroic legends there are several distinct cycles, or groups, belonging to different branches of the German family. The first of these is the Burgundian cycle, of Gunther the king, his wife Brunhild, his henchman Hagen, his sister Kriemhild, and his brother-in-law Siegfried. This forms the topic of the grand Niebelungen-Lied. The second of these is the Frisian cycle, to which belong King Hettel and his daughter Gud- run ; and on their adventures turns the noble Gud- run-Lied. The third of these is the Anglo-Saxon cycle, con- cerning Beowulf, the Jute king, and Wayland the Smith. This was never recast after the 8th cent- ury. The fourth of these is the Lombard cycle, con- cerning kings and heroes of South Tyrol, and the Rose Garden of Laurin the Dwarf, above Botzen. This was put into form in twelve poems, which com- GVNTHER AND BRUXHILD. H3 pose the Helden-Buch much later, in the 15th cent- ury. The most famous of all these poems is the Niebelungen-Lied, a grand epic in two parts, which may take 'rank beside the Iliad. It is the great- est monument of German national poetry in the Middle Ages. Gunther was King of the Burgundians. He lived at Worms. He had a beautiful sister called Kriem- hild. Away in the North, at Xanten, on the Rhine, lived a Netherland king, Siegmund, who had a brave son called Siegfried. Siegfried had been into the Niebelungen land, where he had slain a dragon and carried off a vast treasure the dragon guarded. He had, moreover, bathed in the dragon's blood, which made him invulnerable, except at one point between the shoulder-blades, where a linden leaf rested whilst he bathed in the blood. He heard of the beauty of Kriemhild and came to Worms to see her. Now Gunther had heard that in Iceland was a princess called Brunhild, who was beautiful, and wealthy, and strong, and would not marry any one who could not throw a spear, and heave a stone, and jump farther than herself. Gunther thought he would like to make her his queen, so he persuaded Siegfried to accompany him to Iceland, and help him to win her. Now, in the treasure of the Niebelungen was a cap which made the wearer invisible. So Siegfried put on this cap. and stood behind Gunther and helped him to throw the stone and hurl the spear and leap. Thus Brun- hild was surpassed, and she consented to marry !44 HOlv THE GERMANS WROTE ROMANCES. Gunther, and she did not know how he had been assisted. When Siegfried returned to Worms he was given Kriemhild to wife, and Gunther brought home his queen. One day when Brunhild and Kriemhild were going to church Brunhild wished, as queen, to enter the door first, but Kriemhild thrust her aside, and mockingly said that she should enter first, as her husband had helped Gunther to win Brunhild, and without his aid she never would have become queen. Brunhild was furious and meditated re- venge. Now, not long after this, a great hunt was to take place. Kriemhild was anxious about her dear hus- band ; she was afraid lest he should be wounded in the only vulnerable place. So she called Hagen, the henchman of Gunther, to her, and confided to him the secret, and made him promise in battle and in the chase to put his shield over Siegfried's back. She also marked a little red cross in his dress to show the place where alone he cculd be hurt. Now Queen Brunhild egged on her husband to have Siegfried killed, and they took counsel with Hagen. So, when they were out hunting, and Siegfried, who was thirsty, stooped to drink at a fountain, Hagen ran him through with a spear where Kriemhild had marked his garment. Then they took his body and laid it on the door- step of Kriemhild's house, so that, next morning, when she came forth early, the first thing she saw was her dead husband, stark and cold. , After that she brooded on revenge. Hagen A GENERAL MASSACRE. 1/} r feared what she might do, so he persuaded King Gunther to let him carry away the Niebelungen treasure and throw it into the Rhine, lest she should use the wealth to stir up enemies against the king. After some years, Attila, or Etzel, King of the Huns, asked for her hand, and she consented to marry him. When she was Queen of the Huns she got her- husband to invite Gunther and Hagen to visit him at Buda, on the Danube ; and Gunther accepted the invitation against the advice of Hagen. When they arrived at Buda, and were feasting in the palace, some armed men, at the in- stigation of Kriemhild, rushed upon the Burgundi- ans and began to slay them. A furious contest ensued, and when the Burgundians seemed to be gaining the upper hand Kriemhild had fire put to the banqueting hall and set it in a blaze. The Burgundians fought their way out through the fire and smoke, but were taken. Then Kriemhild sent an executioner to Gunther and had his head struck off, and she carried her brother's head to show it to Hagen ; then with Siegfried's sword she cut down Hagen himself, whose hands were bound. An old warrior, Hildebrand, enraged at her per- fidy and cruelty, then smote her with his blade. And so the story ends, amidst general massacre and in volumes of flame. 10 XXIV. HOW THE CITIES GAINED POWER. As you have already heard, the cities had begun to flourish during the crusades ; they became busy nurseries of art and learning, as well as of trade and manufacture. By degrees they acquired great privileges and power, and some were made by the emperors "free cities," that is, they were under no princes, but under the emperor only. You will remember now that when Henry I. built the castles for defence against the Hungarians the noble families about were required to maintain some of their men in the fortresses throughout the year. In time these families became very domineer- ing. The towns grew in size and importance, but the families originallv charged with the defence of the burg remained the holders of power in it, and managed the affairs of the town. When trades in- creased, each trade managed its own affairs by a ziinft, or guild, and the guilds combined against the noble burgers to obtain some share in the man- agement of affairs. After much rioting and fighting they carried their point, and so the council was formed of an Upper House of hereditary burgers, who in the 15th century were called patricians, and of a Lower House, to which members were 146 THE HAXSEATIC LEAGUE 147 elected. If you go to Germany and walk through the aisles and cloisters of the great town churches you will see them crowded with splendid monu- ments, emblazoned with heraldic achievements. These are the tombs of the hereditary patricians, men who held themselves as proudly as the coun- try aristocracy did in their castles. The troubles occasioned by the interregnum, the interference with trade, the way in which the trav- ellers were plundered, became insupportable, and in 1 241 Hamburg and Lubeck agreed together to keep order in their neighborhoods. Then Bruns- wick and Bremen joined, and at last a hundred towns were leagued together, and formed so strong a body that the disturbers of the public peace were cowed into order. This league was called the Hansa. It maintained armies and fleets, and even carried on Avars with the kings of Norway and Den- mark, in which the Hansa was victorious. Its fleets swept the sea of pirates, and its troops taught the robber knights to cultivate peace. TEASANT AM) PLOUGH (13TH CENTURY). XXV. A GOOD KING FROM A SWISS CASTLE. (1273-1292.) AT last the condition of affairs became so intol- erable that the German princes assembled to elect a new emperor, who might bring order out of the universal confusion. Their choice fell on Rudolph, Count of Hapsburg, a simple, courageous, and shrewd man. Kapsburg, or Habsburg, is a little cas- tle near Konigsfelden, in Switzerland. It was built in 1020 by Count Radbocl of Altenburg, an ancestor of the family. The ruins still stand of this cradle of the Austrian imperial family, of which they were deprived by papal law one hundred and fifty years after Rudolph's elevation, and it has quite recently been restored to them, as a wedding gift, by the Canton of Aarau, on the marriage of Rudolph, the prince imperial, with a Belgian princess. From the broken tower the eye takes in at a single glance the whole Swiss patrimony of the Hapsburgs, — an es- tate far more limited than that of many a British peer, — from which Rudolph was called to wield the sceptre of Charlemagne. The first act of Rudolph was to march against Ottocar, King of Bohemia, who had gained posses- 148 RTIioU'H OF HAPSBURG. 149 j 50 A GOOD KING FROM A SWISS CASTLE. sion of Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. A great battle was fought in 1278 on the Marchfeld, near Vienna, in which Ottocar was defeated and killed. Rudolph then appropriated to himself the duchy of Austria, together with Styria and Carin- thia, and they have remained ever since the patri- mony of the Hapsburgs. ^z» 37 ^2 NSO^Hl «<(£* *P&M£ \p^^^^ ~ 'jf \jY^yw raiffi %Z ^^ E ri t a&Sm. S^Sanis! trJjM XXVI. DID WILLIAM TELL SHOOT? Rudolph's son Albert was not acknowledged emperor till he had defeated his rival, Adolph of Nassau. Albert was the second son. The eldest had died early, leaving an infant son, John. Albert laid his grasp on the Hapsburg county in Switzer- land, and refused to give it up to his nephew John. Albert was a stern, cruel man, who had been em- bittered by his disappointment at not being recog- nized as emperor immediately on the death of his father. Albert was not content with depriving his nephew of his inheritance, he tried to unite Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden with his Swiss family posses- sions; but the simple Alpine shepherds claimed to be free under the imperial crown. Then Albert despatched governors to crush them into subjection. Among them was Gessler, appointed to rule Uri. He treated the people with great cruelty. At last the Swiss rose in revolt, and expelled the governors ; Gessler was shot by William Tell. The story of Tell having been ordered to shoot an apple off his son's head is fabulous, but there really was such a man, and he got his name of Tell (Toll, Tolpel) from being half-witted. When Albert heard of the revolt he was filled with fury, and resolved on i5i !C2 DID WILLIAM TELL SHOOT? administering to the rebels a terrible chastisement. His revenge, however, was prevented by his own death. He was journeying one day within sight of his castle of Hapsburgwith his nephew John, whom he had deprived of it, and some Swabian knights, when he crossed the river Reuss, and was separated from his retinue. John of Swabia, his nephew, and three others, all in the plot, were with him. No sooner had he stepped out of the ferry-boat, than, at a word from John, one of the knights clove the emperor's skull with an axe. The retainers on the further bank, terrified, took to flight, leaving their dying master to breathe his last in the arms of a poor peasant girl who happened to pass. ' A peasant girl that royal head upon her bosom laid, And, shrinking not for woman's dread, the face of death surveyed. Alone she sate. From hill and wood, low sank the mournful sun ; Fast gushed the fount of noble blood. Treason his worst had done. With her long hair she vainly pressed the wounds, to staunch the tide, Unknown, on that meek humble breast, imperial Albert died." A direful vengeance was wreaked by the children of the murdered monarch ; not, however, upon the murderers, for, with one exception, they had escaped, but upon their families, relations, and friends ; and one thousand victims are believed to have expiated, with their lives, a crime of which they were totally innocent. Agnes, Queen of Hungary, daughter of Albert, and heir to his gloomy, cruel spirit, is said to have presided at the executions. When sixty-three unfortunate men were butchered before her, " Hah ! " she exclaimed, " now I bathe in May-dew ! " Al- though this is asserted by most historians, yet we S WTTZERLA ND INDEPENDENT. x 5 3 are glad to say that recent investigations by Swiss historians have completely disproved the part of Agnes in the tragedy, and we are rejoiced to think that such a stain does not rest on the character of the queen. The Swiss remained resolute in their determina- tion not to become serfs of the House of Hapsburg. Leopold of Austria, six years after his father's death, marched an army against them, but was completely defeated at Morgarten. Still more disastrous was the defeat of Leopold's grandson, Leopold III., at Sempach, in 1386. But it took another battle, nearly a hundred years later — that of Morat, in 1476 — to prove to the world that the time of fighting in armour on horseback was over; that men on foot, lightly armed, were more than a match for knights clothed in steel. The weight of a charge of ar- moured men was great, but a knight, once dis- mounted and thrown down, lay like a log on the ground, unable to raise himself. Although the Swiss had proved their power to maintain their inde- pendence, it was not till the peace of Westphalia, in 1648, that Switzerland was finally and fully separ- ated from the German Empire, 1 a ^o Ri~^v% Im^v ^Swr y0s^ KT^*S^^fiSj wiilm&'Ji s^g^B" mM£^4 |pr^^^ ISSi XXVII. THE GOLDEN BULL. (i347- I 437-) On the death of Albert, the princes of Germany resolved again to commit the same blunder that they had made in electing Rudolph of Hapsburg, that is, to choose a petty noble and exalt him to be emperor. The little counts of Hapsburg had man- aged pretty well to enrich themselves, and make themselves very powerful. The choice fell now on Henry, Count of Luxemburg, a gallant knight, but that was all. He at once married his son John to Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Wenceslas, King of Bohemia. The usual fatal attraction of Italy drew Henry VII. over the Alps. Brescia stood out against him, and his brother fell under the walls. Then Henry vowed he would cut off the noses of all the men in Brescia when he took the town ; but plague broke out among his troops, whilst famine ravaged the besieged. Then a compromise was agreed to. Brescia would open her gates, and Henry would content himself with knocking off the noses of all the male statues in the city. Shortly after he was poisoned, whilst unsuccessfully besieg- ing Siena. On his death, in 1313, discord broke out 154 DISCORD BREAKS OUT. *55 in Germany. One party elected Louis the Bavarian, the other chose Frederick of Austria, son of Albert I. Louis belonged to the Wittelsbach family, which had got the duchy of Bavaria after the ex- pulsion of the Welfs. As neither would withdraw his claims, a long and tedious contest ensued, that FORTIFIED CAMP ( I 5TH CENTURY). (From a contemporary Chronicle.) lasted eight years, till at Muhldorf Frederick was defeated and taken and imprisoned. His imprison- ment, however, did not bring peace, for his brothers continued the contest. Then Louis went to him in his prison, and Frederick promised that he would resign his pretensions, and. if he were unable to bring his brothers to agree to this, that he would return to prison. On these terms Louis set him free. At the instigation of the Pope, who dreaded the power of the Bavarian, Leopold, brother of 1 5 6 THE GOLDEN BULL. Frederick, refused submission to the compact- Thereupon Frederick honorably returned to cap- tivity. Louis was touched by his integrity. He received him with affection and agreed to divide the realm with him. Thenceforth they reigned together, united with such cordial affection that they ate at the same table and slept in the same bed. Frederick- died in 1330, and Louis in 1347. Then Charles IV., of Luxemburg, King of Bohemia, grandson of Henry VII., was elected. From him comes the so- called Golden Bull (1356). This takes its name from a golden seal (bulla) appended to the deed. The Golden Bull was issued to determine who were to elect the emperors, and reduced the number of electors to seven — the archbishops of Mainz, Cologne, Treves, and the temporal princes of Bohemia, Bran- denburg, Saxony, and the Palatine of the Rhine — the King of Bohemia as butler, the Palatine as sewer, the Duke of Saxony as marshall, and the Margrave of Brandenburg as chamberlain. Frankfort was ap- pointed as the place where elections were to take place, and Aix as the place where the emperors were to be crowned. Sometimes you may see in muse- ums, sometimes in old curiosity-shops, metal plates of ancient German casting, with a circle in the middle, in which is seated a figure of the emperor, and round the rim seven medallions, in each of which is a figure representing an elector. The idea was, that as the sun was the centre of a system of seven plan- ets, so should the German emperor, the sun of the earthly system, be the centre of a political planetary world, of which these seven electors were to be the 157 158 THE GOLD EX BULL. great luminaries. Charles hoped by this means to se- cure the imperial crown to his own family. He had already got the crown of Bohemia, and he was aim- ing to get hold of Brandenburg. He considered the Palatine of the Rhine easily managed. He was a shrewd man, and was the first to see the danger Italy was to the emperor, so he made no attempts to recover it for the empire, and he kept on good terms with the popes, who, thus relieved of anxiety for themselves, favored him. Charles did all in his power to aggrandize his family. He bribed the electors to choose his eldest son, Wenceslas, as his successor ; he married his second son, Sigismund, to Mary, daughter of the King of Hungary and Poland, in the expectation of succeeding to those countries. Wenceslas, who followed his father, was, if not a madman, as little suited as one to be emperor. He was addicted to drunkenness and sports. At one moment he jested, at another burst into insane fits of rage. The Germans thought him a fool ; the Bo- hemians regarded him as a maniac. As he coveted the possessions of the Bohemian nobles he invited them to meet him at Willamow, where he received them under a black tent that opened into two others, one white, the other red. The nobles were introduced one by one, and were required to cede their lands, and receive them back as fiefs of the crown. Those who consented were sent into the white tent, where they were well feasted ; those who refused were dragged into the red tent and put to death. He was surrounded by savage hounds, which accompanied him to the chase, and constantly at- AN EMPEROR'S DOGS. 159 tended him. Of these the two largest shared his bedroom. One night his wife, Queen Joanna, a Bavarian princess, rose from her bed, when one of THE MARTYRDOM OF HUSS. (From a wood-cut at Prague.) the hounds sprang on her and so tore her that she died of the wounds. At last his uncles and brother Sigismund, con- scious of the ruin into which his crimes and folly j6o THE golden bull. were hurrying the family, seized him and imprisoned him in a castle in Austria. His brother Sigismund succeeded him, a vain, arrogant, and deceitful man. Under him the great council of Constance was held, and the Hussite wars began. Not only in the German Empire but throughout the whole Western Church the general disorder had affected religion ; discipline was relaxed, and abuses had crept in. Moreover, there were at the same time three opposition popes, and some countries recognized one pope, some another, and others again the third. Accordingly, a council of the Church was summoned to assemble at Constance to put an end to these scandals. To restore unity to the Church the Council deposed all three popes and elected a new one, who took the title of Martin V. At this council appeared John Huss, a professor of the University of Prague, who had denounced the corruptions of the Church, and was bitterly opposed to the Church being endowed with temporal goods. This last ground embittered the bishops against him especially, and without a proper hearing, on the most frivolous charges — such as that he had main- tained the existence of four gods — he was con- demned and burnt. The flames of his pyre set Bo- hemia in conflagration. Huss had strongly opposed the withdrawal of the cup from the laity in com- munion. The cup was made the badge of the party of Huss, which was called after it Calixtine. The Bohemians armed, embroidered banners with a gold- en cup, met in tents, where they celebrated the A ONE-E YED LEADER. 161 communion and distributed it in both kinds. Zis- ka" with the Flail," a man with one eye, put himself at their head, entered Prague, and flung the burgo- master and the councillors out of the windows of the town-hall, on the pikes and pitchforks of his followers. Frightful confusion followed. A party, tftJg & ffiT JOHN, COUNT ZISKA, OF TROCZNOVV. (From an engraving.) more extreme, separated from Ziska, and settled in an island of the Moldau. The one-eyed leader of the Hussites fell on them and cut them to pieces, with the exception of two. The strife which had begun about communion in two kinds soon became one of Bohemian against German, and the country ran with blood. The imperial army was defeated. Ziska, at the head of his Hussites, burst into Ger- ii l62 THE GOLDEN BULL. many, besieged towns, stormed castles, and butch- ered and burned without compunction. At Brod he burned two hundred people in the church, and SCENE FROM HUSSITE WARS. (From a contemporary Chronicle.) an unfortunate man, who was secretary to the chap- ter at Prague, had his flesh torn off, and he was then roasted in a tar barrel. Saxony was wasted by the Hussites to the gates of Dresden. "SET FIRE TO THE VILLAGES!" 163 The free imperial city of Altenburg fell into their hands. The citizens who were taken with arms were tortured to death. Men, women, and children were drawn into the blazing cathedral and burnt by hundreds. The sick and infirm were thrown into fires made in the streets. " This is John Huss's wake," said the Bohemians. " Oh ! " exclaimed one of the sufferers, " the Catholics burnt one goose (Huss, in Bohemian, means a goose) and you are giving us the same." The fairest regions of Germany, Bavaria, Fran- conia, as well as Saxony and Bohemia, were devas- tated, and the terror of the Calixtines surpassed that with which the Germans of old had regarded the Hungarian marauders. A splinter struck Ziska's remaining eye. Though blind, he still led his Huss- ites. On one occasion, having compelled his men to march day and night, they murmured, and said to him, " Although night and day be one to you, they are not so to us." " How ! you cannot see ! " exclaimed Ziska, " set fire to the villages and walk by the blaze they give." At last, in 1433, another council met at Basle, and at it communion in both kinds was granted to the Bohemians. Ziska was then dead. The country was worn out with war, and peace was proclaimed. XXVIII. A SLEEPY KING. (1440-1493.) THE Hapsburg or Austrian house succeeded that of Luxemburg, having recovered the imperial crown on the death of Sigismund, and thenceforth it re- mained in their family, almost exclusively, till the dissolution of the German empire in 1806. Albert II. reigned but one year. He was succeeded by Frederick III. No emperor wore the crown so long as he, and none cared less for its duties than he. He often fell asleep whilst the most important affairs of the state were being discussed, which acquired for him the nick-name of " Emperor Night- cap." The robber-knights began again their dep- redations, quarrelled with and fought each other, as if there were no emperor above them to keep order in Germany. Huge bands of robbers swept the country, and Frederick bought them off. His discontented citizens of Vienna besieged him in his own palace. He had an adviser, Caspar Schlick, whose only idea of policy was to patch up a com- promise and put off settling difficult matters to a future day. Indeed, one may say that Schlick's doctrine was composed of two maxims, " Never do 164 ARTILLERY OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. (From Froissart's Chronicle "> '0 1 66 A SLEEPY KING. to-day what can be done to-morrow," and "Never do yourself what can be left to be done by an- other." This was just what suited Emperor Night- cap. The peasants of the Rhcetian Alps asserted their independence, and formed a confederacy de- nominated the Grey-Band, from the grey frocks worn by the peasants, and this has given name to the canton of Grisons, or Graubiinden. Their exam- ple was followed by Zurich and Schwyz. As the emperor was too lazy to take the field himself he invited a body of French mercenaries, called the Armagnacs, to invade Switzerland ; but though they killed fifteen thousand brave Swiss they lost so many of their own men that they retired dispirited. On the south-east the Turks threatened Ger- many. They created havock in Hungary, and en- tered and devastated Austria ; but Frederick did nothing to repel them. He amused himself in his garden, picking caterpillars out of his roses and catching slugs with buttered cabbage leaves, and let the Turks destroy the villages and harvests of his people. At last an Italian friar, S. John Capistran, put himself at the head of three thousand peasants, armed with flails and pitchforks, and fell on the Turkish host which was besieging Belgrade, when the town was hardly able to hold out another day. At the head of the peasants he routed the Turks and relieved the city. The Hungarians gave themselves a valiant king, John Hunyadi, and his son Matthias ; and the EXRAGED PEASANTS. jfy Bohemians placed themselves under the gallant George of Podjebrad. But this did not trouble Frederick ; the loss of two kingdoms was nothing to him. His indolence so exasperated his wife Eleanor, that she said to her son, Maximilian, one day in a fit of impatience, " On my word, if I thought you would be like your father, I should be ashamed of being the mother of such a king! " Fritz the Palatine also rebelled against the em- peror, and built a tower to his castle at Heidelberg, which he named Flout Kaiser (Trutz Kaiser), as a mark of insolence to Frederick. The Margrave of Baden and the Duke of Wittemberg, however, marched against him, and, to devastate the har- vests of the Palatinate more completely, tied branches of trees to their horses' tails as they rode among the wheat. The enraged peasants rose to a man and helped Fritz ; he beat the imperial army and took the duke and margrave prisoners. He gave them a sumptuous entertainment, but placed no bread on the table. The prisoner-guests asked to have a little bread with their meat. "Very sorry there is none," answered Fritz, " but you have spoiled all the corn, and so must do without." Frederick was too lazy to put his hands to the doors, turn the handles, and open them. He went up to them with his hands in his pockets and kicked at the doors till some one came to open them, or he burst them in. He hurt his foot one day by so doing, and as mortification threatened, the surgeons cut off his foot. "Ah, me," said Fred- T 68 A SLEEPY KING. crick, " a healthy boor is better than a sick em- peror." Fortunately for Germany, his son Maximilian was the reverse of his father in everything. He was full of energy, intelligence, and with a noble heart. For once a good idea came into the dull head of Frederick ; but perhaps it was not his idea, his wife may have thought of it. This was the idea, to get Ihe sweet young princess, Mary of Burgundy, the only child of the duke, as wife for the gallant young prince. Maximilian was the handsomest man of his time ; he had bright, honest eyes, full of life, and long, fair, silky hair that fell over his shoulders. His nose was aquiline. If his face had a fault it was in the long lower lip, which he inherited from his father, and which is called the Hapsburg lip. You see it in the pictures of most of the princes and emperors of that house. Perhaps you have been so fortunate as to see Albert Durer's engraved por- trait of the Emperor Maximilian, or to have seen his figure 'in bronze on the great tomb he erected for himself at Innsbruck. These likenesses were taken when he was much older, but we can see from them what a royal and noble face he had. Also, Mary of Burgundy was. very lovely. She was as good as she was beautiful. She was, moreover, heiress to all Burgundy and the Netherlands. The young Max went to Ghent to meet her. He rode into the town with a wreath of flowers over his long fair hair, with pearls twisted with the flowers, dressed in a suit of silver armour richly enamelled with gold, mounted on a fine bay horse. Mary MAXIMILIAN AND BRIDE, MARY OF BURGUNDY. (From a Drawing in the Nuremberg Museum.) 169 j ~ A SLEEPY KING. came to meet him, on a white horse with silver trappings. When they met in the street of Ghent both dismounted, and whilst the bells of the town hall and the churches rang, and the people cheered and waved their caps, the beautiful young prince and princess met and kissed each other. They were married in 1477, when Max was only eighteen. Unfortunately, a very few years later, in 1482, poor Mary was hurt by a fall from her horse when hunt- ing, and died of her injuries, in the bloom of life r but not till she had borne him a son, Philip, after- wards Philip I. of Spain. The death of Mary was the signal for a revolt in the Netherlands. The Flemings refused submis- sion to the Hapsburgs, and seized the person of the little Philip, whom they alone recognized as Mary's successor. A revolt broke out at Bruges, where Maximilian was taken prisoner by the citi- zens and shut up in the castle. His jester formed a scheme for his liberation ; he provided horses for flight, and a rope-ladder, by which Max might de- scend from the window of his prison. Then the jester plunged into the canal which encircled the castle, to swim across. But the town kept swans in the moat, and when these swans saw the man swimming, they rushed at him with their great flapping wings and beaks, and so beat and pinched and frightened the poor fellow that he made the best of his retreat. Max was kept a prisoner for four months, and was only set at liberty when he took a solemn oath not to chastise the citizens for having held him in bonds. FREDERICK III. (From the statue on his tomb at Vienna.) i/i m*Pfsyj££^ L-^JSigfe, V>Cv ^tLwV Hr^ \ *j mm ml&m §y^l kSL&Ss ^^^/^SLtf^ - > K«» W^5^ XXIX. BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW. If ever you get a chance of seeing Hans Burgk- mair's " Triumph of Maximilian," look well and patiently at the series of 135 wood-cuts. It rep- resents the procession of the emperor after the fashion of an old Roman imperial triumph, with groups of figures depicting the different events of his reign. This was the idea of Max himself, who was filled with the old craze that he was the rep- resentative of the Caesars, the head of the earthly power, as the Pope was the head of the spiritual power. Before you hear the history of the reign of Maximilian you must be told something about the set of pictures illustrative of his reign. Hans Burgkmair was ordered to make a series of draw- ings personifying the life, endeavours, and fame of the emperor; glorifying his wars, conquests, and alliances, and giving testimony to the splendours of the Holy Roman empire, and the far extended possessions of the House of Hapsburg. Burgkmair began his work by making a series of miniature paintings on parchment, to the number of 109. Each of these was to be reproduced in two wood- 172 BURG KM AIR 'S FLA TES. 173 cuts, so that the work, when completed, would have made 218 plates. However, when the wood en- graving was begun, the artist touched up and improved his designs, so that the engravings are not exactly like the miniatures. The latter are all preserved in Vienna. The work was begun in 1 5 16, and was stopped forever by the death of the emperor in 1519- Only a few proof copies had been struck off when the wood blocks, no one knows how or why, were dispersed. The few copies of the engravings were become very rare and fetched large prices, when some forty of the wood blocks were discovered in the castle of Ambras, near Innsbruck, and then ninety-six more were found in the Jesuit College at Gratz, in Styria. Thus 135 of the blocks have been recovered, but all search for the remainder has been in vain. In the year 1796 a few copies were printed from the original wood blocks, and may still be had, but at a high cost. One or two of the plates have, however, been re- produced of late years. Perhaps the most beautiful of the groups is that of the three standard-bearers, three knights in armour, bearing the banners of the Archduchy of Austria, a white fesse on a red field, of the Margraves with eagles, and of Styria with a panther. The faces of the knights are noble and beautiful, and we can get an idea from them of what good and generous knights were in those days. Another plate represents a princess on horseback, attended by ladies, and the bridle held by gentlemen with laurel wreaths round their heads. It is supposed that the princess is Mary -'74 BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW. of Burgundy, and, if so, we can understand how Max loved her, and all his life long thought of her. The figure is graceful, and the face simple and sweet. Her hair is done up in a silk net, or cap, over which is a golden crown, but little, light ringlets curl down from her brow on either side of her lovely face. She wears three gorgeous necklaces, very wide, made of plates of gold set with jewels, and so fitted as to set, one round the throat, the next over the bosom, and the third over the shoul- ders. She wears white linen sleeves gathered in twice between the shoulder and elbow. Her skirt is of the most superb silk and gold brocade, repre- senting pomegranates in the leaf, and bursting fruit and flower. The caparison of the horse is of red velvet, embroidered with gold pomegran- ates, and over the saddle is cast a mantle of ermine. The gentlemen leading her white horse have magnificent chains round their necks, and ermine tippets, short cloaks, and tunics richly em- broidered. They are both shown turning their heads and looking back and up at the lovely girl- ish face,, as if that was the thing best worth see- ing in the whole procession. Maximilian married a second time Bianca Sforza, daughter of the Duke of Milan, but not till twelve years after the death of his dear Mary of Burgundy. He never really loved Bianca, who was a cold, hard woman, very proud, and without grace of mind or of disposition. Maximilian stands as a boundary stone between the old and the new, between the mediaeval and VARIOUS REFORMS. 175 the modern times. He was brave and noble as a perfect knight, the pattern of chivalry, and he had an ea^er and active mind, a love of what is beau- tiful and what is good. He tried to improve what was bad and decaying, and he would have done more had the power been his to do so, but the em- pire was a magnificent sham. His father's weakness, the growing power of the vassals, the hostility of the popes had broken its strength, and he was hampered throughout his reign by his want of means to carry out those schemes which he planned for the good of the country. Even his enemies acknowledged his virtues and ability. Once when a courtier in the presence of Louis XL of France sneered at the emperor, and called him " the Bur- gomaster of Augsburg," Louis, who was the bitter foe of Maximilian, answered, " You fool, to scoff at Max ! Do you not know that when this burgo- master pulls the bell all Germany springs to arms, and France trembles? ,: In order to put an end to the incessant quarrels which went on between the little princes and nobles, in 1495, at a diet or par- liament at Worms, the emperor made a law that no man should be suffered to redress his wrongs, real or imaginary, by violence ; if he had a com- plaint against another, he must bring it before the imperial courts. In order to improve the admin- istration of justice the empire was divided into ten districts, or circles, — Swabia, Bavaria, Franconia, the Upper Rhine, Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Aus- tria, Burgundy, the Rhenish Electorate, and Upper Saxony. Maximilian wanted to organize and gov- iy6 BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW. ern the empire through these divisions, but was so opposed that he was unable to carry out his idea. Under him the post was first arranged. An Ital- ian, Count de la Torre, was at his court, and he was entrusted with the organization of a postal system. This was gradually perfected, and was left under the control of the family which originated it, and which became princely, and was entitled Turn und Taxis. If you look through a collection of postal stamps you will see that the early German stamps bear the "Turn u. Taxis " and the arms of that family on them ; and the family only lost the post- office in late times, bit by bit ; the last control was taken from them in j866. To manage the post-office in the empire was no easy task, as all the little princes and petty states and free towns had to be brought to agreement. The roads had to be put in order, post-horses pro- vided in relays along them, and the post-messengers had to be protected from robbers. As the empire comprised two thousand independent territories the Turn and Taxis family had enough to do. A great debt of gratitude is owed them by Germany, but the postal monopoly enriched them. They now possess large estates and several palaces from the profit of the post-office, which they held for three hundred years. The great enemies of Germany at this time were the Turks, the French, and the Pope. The Turks were a constant menace, and the emperor was obliged to call the princes together separately, and entreat for men and money wherewith to oppose MARRIAGE 01 PHILIP AND JOANNA. 1 ^y them. But they did not care ; they thought that it was a long way from Constantinople to West Ger- many, and there was all Hungary and Austria between. The French king was jealous of the emperor because he had got hold of Burgundy, so that Maximilian had foes on his east and west. Moreover, Italy was disturbed, and he had to enter that with a small army — he was unable to scrape together a large one. The French had overrun the North of Italy, and had carried off Ferdinand, King of Naples, in chains ; but Maximilian could do noth- ing to oppose France. The popes, moreover, were draining Germany of money, and they kept the empire weak by embroil- ing it with other kingdoms, and by stirring up discord within it. Maximilian had the happiness to unite his son Philip to Joanna, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, heiress of all Spain, and of the newly-discovered continent of America. More- over, by agreement, the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia were re-united under the House of Haps- burg. Thus it did seem likely that the empire would fulfil its dream and become a world-wide sover- eignty, embracing all Germany, the Netherlands, Burgundy, Italy, Spain, and America. This was flattering to the ambition of the emperor, who did not see that it was really sowing the seeds of ruin for the empire and for his own house. When a man has a small capital he can manage a small farm, but, if he is ambitious, and tries to secure three and even four farms in the hopes of prospering on 12 178 BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW. them, when he has not the means of properly culti- vating them, it is pretty certain that he will soon be bankrupt. Now this is precisely what the Haps- burgs were doing. Instead of contracting their ambition within their means, and trying to farm Germany well, they took on all these other farms, which they could not supervise, and which drained their money away, exhausted their energies, and distracted their attention. KING JOHN OF BOHEMIA. (From his seal.) XXX. MEN BEGIN TO PRINT BOOKS. BOOKS had hitherto been written with the hand, and this made them very costly. They were writ- ten on parchment, on waxed tables, or on papyrus. At last a German, at the beginning of the 14th cent- ury, discovered how to make paper out of linen rags. If you hold paper sheets to the light you will see that there are peculiar marks on them, called water-marks ■ these were originally the badges of the makers. The very earliest of these marks is a circle with a cross on it, and was adopted by the first inventor in 1301. Man)' of the water-marks are the badges of noble families, whose tenants made the paper. Thus the letters P and Y, some- times separate and sometimes conjoined, are the initials of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife, Isabella of Portugal. Other symbols are the fleur-de-lys, the unicorn and the anchor. Fools cap paper is so called because paper of that size was originally marked with a jester's cap and bells, and post paper takes its name from a bugle which was in use as a water-mark on paper of this size by the manufacturers from 1370. It some- times appears on a shield, and in the 17th century 179 I go MEN BEGIN TO PRINT BOOKS. is surmounted by a ducal coronet, in which form it is still used on ordinary writing paper. The first paper factories in Germany were between Cologne and Mainz, about the year 1320. In Nuremberg a factory worked by water-power was established in 1390 which was quite a novelty. Printing was discovered by John Gutenberg in 1436. Already wood-cut pictures, and even written sentences, had been printed, but no one had thought of making movable letters. At first the paper was pressed down on the engraved block, and printed on one side. The outlines only of figures were printed, and then they were painted in by hand. At last John Gensfleisch, of Sulgeloch, known as Gutenberg, which was the maiden name of his mother, saw how much better it would be to have movable types. As he was a poor man he went to a rich goldsmith, John Fust, of Mainz, and to Peter Schoffer, a professional copyist, of Gernsheim. to get help. Schoffer drew and wrote beautifully, and he was to design the letters, and Fust was to find the money for casting them. They also invented printers' ink, and in 1457 issued the first printed book, the Latin psalter, and five years later the first printed Bible. Fust behaved very badly to the inventor. As soon as he had the secret, and saw that the experiments were likely to be success- ful, he asked Gutenberg to pay him back the money he had advanced him, and when he was unable to do this brought an action against him, and seized his printing-press and blocks. Poor Gutenberg was • VF OF FAi'ST. IjI forced to leave Mainz, and then Fust and Schoffer finished printing the Bible without him. The rapidity with which copies were turned out of the press, the exact resemblance one bore to another, created astonishment and suspicion, so that it was reported that Fust was in league with the Devil, who helped him to multiply copies of the Bible. Thus came about the story of John Faust, who sold himself to the Devil for wealth, a story which was afterwards used by the greatest of German poets as the foundation of the greatest of German poems. XXXI. A GREAT STIR IN THE CHURCH. ABOUT this time began that first crack or schism in the Church, which, after a little while, spread and separated a large part of Christendom from the Catholic Church. This large part that separated itself was called Protestant, whilst that part which remained was called Catholic. This schism arose because there was great cause of discontent with the conduct of the popes, and this discontent was well founded. At last the Germans had come to see that the Pope was the enemy to their national unity. But the popes were only so because they dreaded the power of the emperors, who claimed to be kings of Naples and Sicily, — and so had a claw cutting into the popes from the South, — and also to be kings of Lombardy and Rome, and so drove a long sharp claw into their hearts over the Alps from the North. They did not want to be made the domestic chap- lains of the emperors, so they worked against them with might and main ; and as Germany was a very loosely compacted state, where every prince set up to be independent, and many of the bishops and some abbots were sovereign princes also, the popes were able to stir up confusion in Germany with the 182 SALE OF INDULGENCES. i S3 greatest ease. The archbishops and bishops had been made sovereigns by Charles the Great, in the hope that they would help the emperor against the other princes ; but instead of that they were always ready at the call of the Pope to head oppo- sition against the emperor. The archbishops of Cologne and Mainz, of Treves and Salzburg, the bishops of Wurzburg, Eichstadt, Minister, Pader- born, Bamberg, etc., the abbots of Fulda, Berchtes- gaden, etc., were all independent sovereigns, owing very slight obedience to the emperor, and the em- pire was reduced to little more than a high-sound- ing name, without cohesion. The emperor was head of the state, but the members moved inde- pendently of the head. The condition had become intolerable. Law, order, everything was in confu- sion, and suddenly Germany woke to see its misery and resolve to bring it to an end, and, to begin, it determined to have done with the interference of the Pope, and to get rid of the archbishops and bishops and abbots who acted as his henchmen. It happened at this time that the Pope was in want of money wherewith to build St. Peter's Church at Rome, which he desired to make the most magnificent cathedral in the world, as became the Mother Church of Christendom. He set about it by the sale of indulgences. These were farmed out to certain men, who went through Christendom disposing of them. In Germany appeared a Do- minican friar, Tetzel by name, who sold them in great quantities, and was unscrupulous in the way in which he did it, trading on the ignorance and z -. » M « r" ^-N s ■n •j fc J3 -. w u i > ^ z " a ri > S < 7, ■ +■* c N1 / «+-■ <| U2 -S u< Ed PC [/) n/ s u U fe -J 2 3 w 184 A NEW DOCTRINE.. 1 35 credulity of the people, to the great scandal of right-feeling men. You must understand what indulgences really were, because a great deal has been said about them which is not true. Accord- ing to Catholic teaching, when a man docs that which is wrong two results follow : he becomes guilty in the sight of God, and he incurs conse- quences to himself that are painful. For instance, if you were to become drunk, you would incur sin and suffering, the suffering being a headache. Now the Catholic Church taught that all sin entailed suffering, and that however much the guilt might be put away, the suffering remained to be gone through in this life or in the next. The Church taught that the guilt was expiated by true repent- ance, which is made up of three parts, contrition, confession, and amendment. But though a man might be restored to God's favor by repentance he was not let off the chastisement. The popes claimed the power of remitting the suffering consequent on sin, and indulgences were releases from these conse- quences ; but they were only granted conditionally on true repentance, and this condition was always printed or written on them. Now it is easy to see what use unscrupulous men would make of these, and it was a startling thing to see the popes claim- ing to grant them. A Wittenberg monk, named Martin Luther, wrote to the Archbishop of Mainz to complain of the harm done to ignorant people by the sale of in- dulgences, and then he fastened up to the door of the castle church at Wittenberg ninety-five theses, 1 86 A GREAT STIR IN THE CHURCH. or reasons against indulgences, which he declared he Avas ready to maintain in disputation. This was the beginning of the great strife which speedily involved all Western Christendom- LUTIitK. (From a Miniature by Lucas von Cranach.) But this was not all. Luther propounded a new doctrine, which was like a little packet of dynamite: wherever it was dropped it blew to pieces the whole structure of Catholicism. You will never really understand what the Reformation was unless you get hold of this. Hitherto, the Catholic Church had taught that no JUSTIFICA TION B Y FAITH. i §y man could be certain of pardon for his sins, of be- ing justified before God, and of eternal salvation. Everything was conditional. A man was pardoned his sins {/"he was truly sorry, if he confessed them, and if he did his utmost to make amends for the wrong done. Justification was the becoming per- fectly good and pleasing to God, and man was to aim at this all through life, with hard struggle, helped by divine grace, and the sacraments were the means whereby divine help was given him to push on to perfection. So this, also, was conditional. Lastly, salvation was certain to none without final perseverance. Now, Martin Luther was a very eager, anxious-minded man, and he could not be happy unless he were quite certain of pardon, justi- fication, and salvation. He suffered great distress of mind, through fear of falling short and losing heaven, knowing himself to be a man of violent passions. All at once a new idea struck him, which made all easy and secure. If a man felt that he was pardoned, justified, and saved, then the certain- ty was his. To this feeling of assurance that all was right he gave the name of faith, and called the change from a state of uncertainty to one of confi- dence, — justification by faith. No more condi- tions were required, no more chance of fall re- mained. This doctrine made immense way; it was seized with eagerness. Of course it did away, in- evitably, with sacraments and with the priesthood, for help is no more needed by those who are secure ; but Luther did not follow this to its legitimate con- clusion. If sacraments and priests were no more l88 A GREAT STIR IN THE CHURCH. needed then bishops were also unnecessary; and here the very thing was found which would enable the Germans to get rid of the bishops. That the bishops were of any good might well be doubted in Germany, where they lived in royal state, and neglected their spiritual duties or devolved them on others. If ever you go up the Rhine, look into the Cathedral of Mainz. There, along the red sand- stone pillars, you will see the monuments of the dead archbishops. They are represented on them clothed in armour, with spurs on their heels, holding- a sword in one hand and a shepherd's crook in the other. On their heads they wear mitres surrounded by crowns. These tombstones give you an idea of what the archbishops were, in reality :. secular princes, at home on horseback, clad in mail, and with only so much of the religious character about them that they bore the title and wore the insignia of spiritual princes. Now the Germans, knowing bishops such as these, only said with reason, What a farce this is ! These men are not pastors over their flocks, they are kings masquerading as bishops. Away with them ! We have too many sovereigns already in Germany ! XXXII. WALLED CITIES AND THEIR IMPORTANCE. It was only about the beginning of the 15th cent- ury that the cities of Germany rose to great im- portance, and became remarkable for their stately buildings, for their wealth and influence. They were all enclosed within walls, with a moat surrounding the walls. At intervals in the ring were towers of various shapes. Indeed, the fancy was indulged of making all different, so as to add to the beauty of the appearance of the town. Very few of the great German towns remain walled in with their towers, but some have these ornaments intact. Ratisbon had fifteen towers, variously capped, making the distant view of the city a vision of beauty. All have been pulled down but one. At the beginning of the 13th century the houses were all built of wood and plaster, and thatched with straw. But such fires ensued, consuming large parts of the towns, that the inhabitants were driven to build of better material, and to use tile or slate instead of thatch. Nevertheless, a good many old timber and plaster houses remain. Indeed, even the castles were only partly built of stone ; they were to a large extent composed of buildings of more per- ishable material. A little way up a tributary of the 1 3 9 ig WALLED CITIES AND THEIR IMPORTANCE. Moselle is an old castle, Schloss Elz. It is one of the few castles that has escaped being destroyed. It has its tower of stone and walls of stone, but the principal buildings for the inmates, hall of banquet A GERMAN CITY IN I5TH CENTURY. (From a Pencil Sketch in the Library at Erlangen). and bedrooms, are of black timber with plaster fill- ings. At first, in the towns, only the churches and town- halls and other public buildings were of stone, but in the beginning of the 15th century the patricians — HO IV GERMANS FORMERL Y LIVED. \ g r that is, the ruling families and merchants, who were very wealthy — began to build themselves handsome stone houses. Even in such an important place as Frankfort-on-the-Main nearly all the houses, down to the end of the 14th century, were of combustible materials, and were without chimneys, the smoke escaping through a hole in the roof. The streets of Paris were paved in 1185, but though some at- tempts at paving were made in Germany in the 13th and 14th centuries, it was not till later that they were systematically paved. Passengers picked their way in the mud as best they might. In the life of S. Elizabeth, the Landgravine of Thuringia, we read of how, as she was thus trying to get along a street in Eisenach, a rude woman pushed her off the stepping-stone on which she had lighted, and she fell down into the black slough and was splashed from head to foot. There were not many windows filled with glass before the 15th century. Even at Zurich, where the town-hall was built in 1402, the windows were filled with oiled linen strained to frames. In Zurich the first fountain was erected in 1430, and this is about the date of most of the fountains that deco- rate so many of the German towns. The houses in the towns were very different in plan from old English houses. Let me tell you what I saw one summer's day at Villingen, in the Black Forest. This is a walled town, the walls nearly perfect, with all the towers standing, but with the water let out of the moat, which is turned into gardens. When I visited the place it was at the time of hay har- JG2 WALLED CL TIES AND THEIR IMPORTANCE. vest, and wains laden with hay were coming into the town. The old houses have very steep roofs, and the gables are towards the street, with a large door in the attic, and a crane over it. The chain from this contrivance was run down and the bundles of hay were raised and piled up in the garret of the house, which served as a great hay store. Later, the corn would be brought in, and the flax, and stored away in the same place. The roof of the house formed the barn. Then the cows and horses were driven into the ground floor rooms — they were reaily stables, vaulted with stone, and to enter the house where the people lived one had to ascend steps. As the citizens of a small town were landowners and farmers they thus made their houses compact farm dwellings. That was how they managed in small towns. In large cities they used the roof for stores of merchandise and the basement for shops. When you ascend the stairs you find in these old houses that there is a great deal of room given up to passage, and that this passage is paved, and sometimes vaulted. It served as a place for the children to play in wet weather, and meals were also taken in it when the company was large. These corridors are called Laubcn. The rooms open out of these corridors and are comparatively small. In old times, before fire-engines were in- vented, the only way by which fires could be ex- tinguished was with pails. The first fire brigade was established at Frankfort in 1439, anQl tne ^ rst fire-engine used at Augsburg in 15 18. We have many accounts from the 15th centur}' SPLENDOUR OF GERMAN CITIES. 193 of the social and architectural condition of the German towns. Nuremberg especially was regarded as the ideal of a beautiful mediaeval town, and to the present-day, with its stepped gables, solar windows, corner turrets, and rich sculpture, it retains more of its mediaeval character than any other town. Italians, however, declared that a more beautiful city than Cologne could not be found, a verdict we in the present day would be far from endorsing. It is now a collection of hideous and vulgar houses surrounding many preciously beautiful churches. The illustrious Frenchman, Montaigne, declared that Augsburg was more lovely than Paris. yEneas Silvius Piccolomini (afterwards Pope Pius II.) could not find terms in which to praise the wealth and splendour of the German cities. There is some exag- geration when he says, " Where is a German inn at which silver plate is not used ? What citizen woman — not necessarily noble — does not adorn herself with gold ornaments?" Of Vienna he says: "The town lies in a crescent on the Danube ; the city wall is 5000 paces long and has double fortifications. The town proper lies like a palace in the centre of the suburbs, several of which rival it in beauty and size. Nearly every house has something to show, some- thing remarkable in or about it. Each dwelling has its back court and front court, large halls and smaller, good winter apartments. The guest-rooms are beautifully panelled, richly furnished, and warmed with stoves. All windows are glazed ; some have painted glass, and have iron-work guards against thieves. On the basement are large cellars J 3 194 WALLED CITIES AND THEIR IMPORTANCE. and vaults, which are devoted to apothecaries, ware- houses, shops, and lodgings for strangers. In the halls many tame birds are kept, so that in passing through the streets one hears the sounds of a green pleasant forest. The market places and street:; teem with life. Without reckoning the children and those under age there are 50,000 inhabitants and 7000 students. Enormous is the commerce of traders, and enormous the sums of money here earned and spent. The whole district round Vi- enna is like one vast and beautiful garden covered with grapes and apples, and studded with the most charming country houses." There is, however, another side to the picture, -tineas Silvius says : " By night and by day there is fighting in the streets. Sometimes the artisans are assailing the students, sometimes the court people are quarrelling with the citizens, and sometimes it is citizen who has sword drawn against citizen. A festival rarely concludes without bloodshed." You have heard how poetry and romance flour- ished with the nobles. The citizens did not cul- tivate these arts, they were too practical ; but they produced chronicles, and some of them were in verse. For instance, Gottfried Hagen, of Cologne, wrote a rhymed history of his city between 1250- 1270. Many of the large towns of Germany pro- duced their chroniclers, and it is needless to say of what importance their writings are to the historian. But if the cities did not cultivate poetry they nursed music. They all had their master-singer guilds, and on Sunday afternoons the performers SCHOOL SINGING. 195 sang in the town-hall or the churches. Prizes were given for the best compositions. The highest prize was a representation of King David playing on the harp, stamped on a gold slate. The others consisted of wreaths of filigree wire of gold or silver. This performance was called " school singing." The last performance at Nuremberg was in 1770, and the very last of all at Ulm in 1839. BrvE ^■rCv — &03I XXXIII. HIGH GERMAN AND LOW. GERMANY is not divided by great rivers. It has, indeed, two main arteries, the Rhine and the Danube, the former flowing north, then west into the Ger- man Ocean, the latter flowing east into the Black Sea. The Rhine is a great main artery of trade, and always has been since Germany was civilized, from Mannheim to the mouth. Above Mannheim the river is too rapid and too full of shifting rubble-beds to be safely navigated. The Danube is only navi- gable below Linz. Above, it rushes at a pace so headlong that boats can be drawn against the stream only with infinite labour. If you travel up or down the Rhine you pass numerous villages and towns ; but the Danube, between Passau and Linz, runs between great wooded hills, where scarce a village spire, hardly a castle is to be seen. The Danube and the Rhine, though their sources are not so very far apart, and though the violence of their streams is considerable, were not connecting links of trade. Trade passed along roads rather than rivers, and the difficulty of navigation in the higher courses of the two great rivers did not tend to bring the peo- ples seated about them into commercial, social, and political unity. 196 PHYSICAL DIVISION. 19/ Germany is physically divided into two great sections, determined by elevation. If you had a raised map of Germany, marking the hills and plains, you would see that all the North of the coun- try is one vast flat, and that the South is ele- vated. To the south are numerous chains of mountains, or rather hills, and between these chains are elevated plateaus. The hill country of Germany is richer than the plain country. The latter is mostly sandy, pebbly, boggy land. Moreover, the South is more blessed with a bright sky. All over the flat North land fogs from the cold Baltic Sea roll and form a grey canopy. The dreary plain, the dull sky, the ungrateful soil have combined to make the North German less cheerful than the German of the South. Moreover, the conquering Saxons of the Northern plains found them peopled by plodding, sad, Sclavonic races. There is a certain difference in characteristic, therefore, between the German of the high land and the German of the low land. Moreover, there is a difference in dialect. The low land German is called Platt-Deutsch, — that is, flat or Low-Dutch, — and the high land German is called Hoch-Deutsch, or High-Dutch. Dutch is Deutsch, that is, German. We call the inhabitants of Hol- land Dutch, but they belong to the Low German race, and have no proper exclusive claim to that designation. In mediaeval times the literature was both high and low, according as the author of a book was a High German or a Low German ; but now-a-days the literary and spoken language of the nation is I98 HIGH- GERMAN AND LOW. High German. This came about, to a great extent, through Luther's having been a High German, and having translated the Bible into High German. There were earlier translations of the Bible than that of Luther. For instance, there was one by a monk of Halle, Martin Von Beheim, a very good translation, which no doubt formed the ground-work of Luther's more modern version. But the Refor- mation caused the Bible to be much more read than previously, and its language became familiar in every household in Protestant Germany ; and this gave an immense advantage to High German. Moreover, at the period when German literature was taking its definite and final cast, the greatest writers issued from South Germany, so that now High German is alone recognized as the literary language. In England there are many dialects, but no sin- gle dialect has, in like manner, imposed on the rest and become the literary tongue. The court and aristocracy in England have, ever since the court was Norman, had their own peculiar dialect. The dialect of English culture, and the literary language of the English people, is the language of the upper class of society ; whereas, in Germany, it is the lan- guage of the upper elevation of the soil which has mastered all classes, and made court and aristoc- racy submit to speak and read in it as the sole dia- lect which is allowed to be regarded as literary. fSS ^ ** Wi ««e*^y^ S*SVTf% V' •» 6b(H^3k > lfcSite55£ m^jS&L\ * r H»K\ .Jfea^ ^L XXXIV. A MIGHTY EMPEROR. CHARLES V., the grandson of Maximilian I., was the mightiest of the emperors since Charles the Great. He reigned over more lands than any other prince in Christendom. He was King of Spain, Naples, Sicily, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and the Netherlands. In the New World the colonies there established looked to him as their sovereign, so that it may be said that his empire was one on which the sun never set. Yet his career was not a happy one. His life was spent in fighting the King of France, and the Pope, and the Protestant princes of Ger- many. He was not fond of splendour ; he had not the beauty of Maximilian, but he was a fine man, with dignity in his bearing. He had the long lower lip and underhung jaw of the Hapsburgs. His character was cold, and his demeanour grave. He had a ready insight into men's characters, and, as Prescott says, " to the end of his reign he employed no general in the field, no minister in the cabinet, no ambassador to a foreign court, no governor of a province whose abilities were inadequate to the trust which he imposed on them. He placed un- 199 PROXIMV5 -A- S VMMOjJE RT> NANDV5 - CAE SARE - CARLO KI.X■J^^l^NOKY^^SlC'JSrLlJ k oB i l\■GENAS ANN - . Jil -.D .-'XXXL & ! . 4 • J£&je^^E55 ^ , a FERDINAND I. (From an Engraving by Beham.) 200 THE POPE 'S BULL. 2 1 bounded confidence in his generals; he rewarded their services with munificence ; he never envied their fame, nor discovered any jealousy of their power. There were, nevertheless, defects in his political character which must considerably abate the admiration due to his extraordinary talents. Charles' ambition was insatiable, and his desire of being distinguished as a conqueror involved him in continual wars, which not only exhausted and op- pressed his subjects, but left him little leisure for giving attention to the interior government and improvement of his kingdoms, the great objects of every prince who makes the happiness of his people the end of his government." On the death of Maxi- milian the Austrian territories fell to Charles and his brother Ferdinand conjointly ; but as Charles was occupied in Spain, in 1521 he ceded to his brother Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and in the ensuing year Tyrol. By this cession the House of Austria was divided into two separate branches — the Spanish branch, under Charles ; and the Ger- man, under Ferdinand. In the mean time the split in the Church was wid- ening. Pope Leo X., in 1520, issued a bull — that is. a deed — whereby he excommunicated Luther, or cut him off from communion with the Catholic Church as a heretic ; and all Christian princes and states were warned against his doctrine, and exhorted to arrest him and put a stop to his teaching. One December morning, in the same year, Luther made a pile of wood outside the eastern gate of Wittenberg and burnt on it publicly the Pope's bull. VlVENTlS OP OTVlT-DVRERIVS « ORATHILIPPi /VYENTEAVNON'-P OTviT-PlNGEICEr-DO CIV jVYANVS gRsss^; MELANCTHON. (From a painting by Durer.) 202 DIET OF WORMS, 203 He did this by the leper-hospital, on the spot where the rags infected with leprosy were burned, and he did this to show his contempt for the Pope's bull. Next day he mounted the pulpit and said, " The burning of yesterday was a matter of little import- ance ; better were it had the fire consumed the Pope, or rather the See of Rome." To put a term to the agitation of spirits Charles V. called together a diet, or assembly of the states, at Worms. It met on January 6, 1521. Luther was cited to appear at it, and the states prepared a long list of grievances against the Papacy, which they required the emperor to redress. Luther's journey to Worms was like a triumphal procession. Crowds assembled to see and cheer him ; on his arrival at Worms his apartments were thronged by persons of the highest rank. When he appeared before the diet he absolutely refused to recant his opinions. Charles found that jnany of the princes, notably the electors of Saxony and of the Rhenish Palatinate, favored him. He was compelled to wait till the latter had withdrawn from the diet before he could pass an edict against Luther, placing him under the ban of the empire. As Charles had given him a promise of safe-con- duct he was dismissed unmolested, with an imperial guard to protect him. As soon as Luther had sent back the officer, he was taken charge of by some masked horsemen, sent by his friend and supporter, the Elector of Saxony, who carried him to the cas- tle of Wartburg, where he remained nine months in concealment. 204 A MIGHTY EMPEROR. Whilst there, a disciple of his, called Carlstadt,, headed a mob of people and broke into the churches of Wittenberg, where they tore down the altars and destroyed the crucifixes and statues. This was go- ing much further than Luther approved, so he left his place of hiding and suddenly appeared at Wit- tenberg to stop the disorder. Other reformers appeared about this time, as Me- lancthon, QEcolampadius, and Zvvingli. Melancthon's real name was Schwarzerde (Black Earth), but he turned it into Greek to sound grander. So CEcolam- padius' real name was Hausschein. The princes now began to lay their hands on the church property. They turned out the monks and nuns and seized on their lands. They carried off the gold and silver vessels from the churches and melted them into coin to relieve their own necessities. The Margrave of Brandenburg was Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. This was an order of warrior- churchmen, which had been instituted to hold the frontier against the heathen Sclavs. They had con- quered Prussia, and ruled it like princes. The mar- grave took advantage of his position to make him- self sovereign over Prussia, and annex the posses- sions of the order to his family. After the holding of the diet of W r orms Charles had gone back to Spain, and in his absence there was no one to enforce the edict against Luther. Indeed, Luther had far too many protectors for the emperor to have enforced it, had he been in Ger- many in person. 7?3 RSlfc 4*£«E!fev s v^>^ift "■''^™ ^^Di.if^ EH»'^w»^w3£ ^~— ■» *\j&ii -^C-^EI — m ** >1mK8 wl£$p J5d Ifc^ffc, u^Zi^El )i Sto^P^ .roagS XXXV. HOW THE PEASANTS WAKED UP. (1524-1526.) The peasants were influenced by the new ideas, and as they suffered under grievous wrongs they rose in revolt over the whole of Germany. The entire burden of taxation fell on them. You may see in farmhouses in Germany a curious picture, which represents a triangle of steps, resting on the back of a farmer who ploughs. At the top of the pyramid sits the emperor, and from his mouth proceeds the sentence, "All these sustain me." On a step below is a soldier, saying, " I am paid to fight"; on another, a lawyer, saying, "I plunder all alike " ; on another, a parson, with the legend, " I live on the tithe " ; on another, the noble, say- ing, " I pay no taxes " ; and below, the peasant groans, " All these are sustained by me." So it was. The gentleman paid no taxes. All the burden was on the farmer, or peasant — the German term is baucr. When the Reformation began to make way in Germany the peasants came out in swarms, armed with pitchforks, scythes, and flails, with the double intention of abolishing Catholicism and the feudal system. This latter was turned into a 205 206 HOW THE PEASANTS WAKED UP. system of cruel oppression. The bauers were mulcted of their time, their produce, and their money, and were treated little better than slaves.* Their wrongs were very real and very grievous. The first outbreak of the peasants arose out of a very small matter. The Countess of Lupfen or- dered the peasants on her estates to spend the Sundays in summer in gathering strawberries for her table, and snail-shells for making ornamental pin-cushions. They refused to do so, and in a few days the country round was in arms. In a short time the insurrection extended through the South and East of Germany; it spread along the Main, the Rhine, the Danube. The peasants of the Odenwald rose to a man. Franconia was in a blaze, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order was driven from his domains. Towns were threat- ened, and threw open their gates. The Palatinate was in insurrection ; so were Hesse and Thuringia. The mountaineers of Styria, of Tyrol, of Salzburg were in arms. Austria was in commotion. The peasants of Bavaria alone remained unstirred. The insurgent farmers called themselves " the Chris- tian Army," or "the Gospel Brotherhood." They burned the castles and monasteries, and plundered the churches. You will see everywhere in Ger- many, especially in the South, ruined castles, and if you ask when they were ruined, you will receive * Instead of paying rents in money for their farms, they mostly- paid by supplying farm produce, and giving free labor to their landlords. TAKING OF WEINSBERG. 2 0J the almost invariable answer, "In the Peasants' War." You shall hear of the taking of one little town by the peasants, the town of Weinsberg, as an ex- ample of the scenes which were enacted through the land. Weinsberg was under the command of the Count of Helfenstein. who had married a daughter of the Emperor Maximilian. On Easter morning, 1525, a black wave of peas- ants appeared rolling down the hill sides upon the town, and speedily surrounded it. They were under the command of two men, Florian Geyer and Little Jack (Jacklein Rohsbacker). As their standard, they carried a pole with a shoe on top of it. Before the host hovered a black-draped hag, screaming her incantations, to make the rebels invulnerable. This was the " Black Hoffmann," a witch possessing great influence over the minds of the peasants. When they surrounded the walls they summoned the place to surrender. " Open your gates," they shouted, "or you shall all be put to the edge of the sword. Every person and thing will be burnt or killed." A shower of bullets was the reply. Soon, however, the peasants swarmed over the walls, and the count and the soldiers retired to the castle, whilst the citizens fled to the church. They were unable to hold out. The garrison offered to surrender if their lives were spared, and promised to pay a ransom. " A ton of gold would not suffice," was the answer, "we want your flesh." The soldiers were butch- ered. One was ordered to jump from the top of 208 HOW THE rEASAXTS WAKED UP. the tower on the lances and pitchforks below. "I would rather jump up than jump down," he answered. This elicited a roar of laughter and his THREE PEASANTS, l6TH CENTURY. (DURER.) life was spared. The insurgents stood in two rows, armed with scythes, swords, and pitchforks, forming a lane, and the prisoners were ordered to run down this lane, to be hacked to pieces by the weapons. Count Louis of Helfenstein, " said Little Jack, SEVERE DOINGS. 2Q g " you shall open the dance." At that moment the countess, with her babe in her arms, burst through the crowd and flung herself at the feet of the cap- tain, imploring pardon for her husband. " Friends," shouted Little Jack, "look at me, how I treat the daughter of an emperor." He threw her down and knelt on her breast. Then a peasant, standing by, threw his sword at her, and wounded the babe, whose blood spirted over its mother's face. Then Little Jack ordered the men to raise and hold up the countess, and force her to see the murder of her husband. He also commanded a fiddler to strike up a dance tune and go before the count, capering down the lane. Count Helfenstein had not gone far before he fell ; then the Black Hoffmann, the witch, rushed after him, and literally tore him to pieces with her hands. Then a cart was heaped with dung, and the poor countess, hugging her bleeding babe, was mounted on it, and so driven away, among the jeers and yells of the insurgents. The peasants, finding that the princes were arm- ing against them, gave the command of their host to a notorious robber-knight, Goetz with the Iron Hand ; but the host was quite undisciplined, and. when they had plundered a castle or a town, or an abbey, hastened home with their booty. The Truchsess (steward) of Waldburg marched at the head of an army against the rebels and succeeded in defeating them. Other princes also met them and routed them, and at last the insurrection was put down ; but it was subdued with great and un- necessary severity. The poor peasants had been 14 2IO HOW THE PEASANTS WAKED UP. driven to rebellion by their wrongs, and the only idea their victors had was to re-rivet the chains they had struggled to cast off. Even Luther wrote a pamphlet against them, calling on the princes " to strangle and stab them, as a man would treat a mad dog." LUTHER AND MELANCTHON. (From a painting by Cranach.) J'^SBf^^g ?r"^ jlSf^JH RjF^ ft 1 1 (r\!fil wH&*L i^r rr ''/^_^R3 Kys^i^p^w i& %m LBlij IjlHlft^w'^S! E^Efl XXXVI. THE SAD FATE OF BERNARD KNIPPERDOLLING. (>5 2 4-i53 6 -) I MUST now tell you of an extraordinary event that took place in Westphalia. There is a grand opera by Meyerbeer, " The Prophet," founded upon it, the overture and the grand march in which you are sure to know, as they are favorite instru- mental concerted pieces. Meyerbeer has not stuck to historical truth in his opera ; what the real facts were you shall now be told. Minister is a town in Westphalia, the seat of a bishop, walled round, with a noble cathedral and many churches ; but there is one peculiarity about Miinster that distinguishes it from all other old German towns ; it has not one old church spire in it. Once it had a great many. How comes it that it now has none ? In Minister lived a draper, Knipperdolling by- name, who was much excited over the doctrines of Luther, and he gathered many people in his house, and spoke to them bitter words against the Pope, the bishops, and the clergy. The bishop at this time was Francis of Waldeck, a man much inclined himself to Lutheranism ; indeed, later, he proposed 21 I 212 THE FATE OF BERNARD KNIFPERDOLLING. to suppress Catholicism in the diocese, as he wanted to seize on it and appropriate it as a possession to his family. Moreover, in 1544, he joined the Protest- ant princes in a league against the Catholics ; but he did not want things to move too fast, lest he SCHOOL-ROOM IN l6TH CENTURY. (From a wood-cut by Hans Leonard Schauffelin.) should not be able to secure the wealthy See as personal property. Knipperaolling got a young priest, named Rott- mann, to preach in one of the churches against the errors of Catholicism, and he was a man of such fiery eloquence that he stirred up a mob, which rushed through the town, wrecking the churches. The mob became daily more daring and threatening. They drove the priests out of the town, and some of the wealthy citizens fled, not knowing what would follow. The bishop would have yielded to all the ENOCH AND ELI AS. 2 i$ religious innovations if the rioters had not threat- ened his temporal position and revenue. In 1532 the pastor, Rottmann, began to preach against the baptism of infants. Luther wrote to him remon- strating, but in vain. The bishop was not in the town ; he was at Minden, of which See he was bishop as well. Finding that the town was in the hands of Knip- perdolling and Rottmann, who were confiscating the goods of the churches, and excluding those who would not agree with their opinions, the bishop ad- vanced to the place at the head of some soldiers. Miifister closed its gates against him. Negotiations were entered into ; the Landgrave of Hesse was called in as pacificator, and articles of agreement were drawn up and signed. Some of the churches Avere given up to the Lutherans, but the cathedral was reserved for the Catholics, and the Lutherans were forbidden to molest the latter, and disturb their religious services. The news of the conversion of the city of Miinster to the Gospel spread, and strangers came to it from all parts. Among these was a tailor of Leyden, called John Bockelson. Rottmann now threw up his Lutheranism and proclaimed himself opposed to many of the doctrines which Luther still retained. Amongst other things he rejected was infant bap- tism. This created a split among the reformed in Miinster, and the disorders broke out afresh. The mob now fell on the cathedral and drove the Cath- olics from it, and would not permit them to worship in it. They also invaded the Lutheran churches, 214 FA TE OF BERNARD KN1PPERD0LLING. and filled them with uproar. On the evening of January 28, 1534, the Anabaptists stretched chains across the streets, assembled in armed bands, closed the gates and placed sentinels in all directions. When day dawned there appeared suddenly two men dressed like Prophets, with long, ragged beards and flowing mantles, staff in hand, who paced through the streets solemnly in the midst of the crowd, who bowed before them and saluted them as Enoch and Elias. These men were John Bockelson, the tailor, and one John Mattheson, head of the Ana- baptists of Holland. Knipperdolling at once asso- ciated himself with them, and shortly the place was a scene of the wildest ecstacies. Men and women ran about the streets screaming and leap- ing, and crying out that they saw visions of angels with swords drawn urging them on to the extermi- nation of Lutherans and Catholics alike. Many Lutherans and Catholics, frightened, fearing a gen- eral massacre, fled the town. Mattheson mounted a pulpit, and cried out that Heaven demanded the purification of Zion, and that all who did not hold the right faith should be put to the sword. This would have been carried into effect but for the in- tervention of Knipperdolling, who persuaded the rabble not to kill, but to expel those who refused to be re-baptized. Accordingly, a great number of citizens were driven out, on a bitter day, when the land was covered with snow. Those who lagged were beaten ; those who were sick were carried to the market-place and re-baptized by Rottmann. " Never," says a witness, " did I see anything RULE OF MUNSTER B Y FANA TICS. 2 I 5 more afflicting. The women carried their naked babes in their arms, and in vain sought rags where- with to cover them ; miserable children ran bare- footed, -hanging to their father's coats, uttering piercing cries ; old people, bent with age, and sick women, tottered and fell in the snow." This was too much to be borne. The bishop raised an army and marched against the city. Thus began a siege which was to last sixteen months, dur- ing which a multitude of untrained fanatics, com- manded by a Dutch tailor, held out against a numer- ous and well-armed force. Thenceforth the city was ruled by divine revela- tions, or rather, by the crazes of the diseased brains of the prophets. One day they declared that all the officers and magistrates were to be turned out of their offices, and men nominated by themselves were to take their places ; another day Mattheson said it was revealed to him that every book in the town except the Bible was to be destroyed ; accord- ingly all the archives and libraries were collected in the market-place and burnt. Then it was re- vealed to him that all the spires were to be pulled down ; so the church towers were reduced to stumps, from which the enemy could be watched and whence cannon could play on them. One day he declared he had been ordered by Heaven to go forth, wkh promise of victory, against the besiegers. He dashed forth at the head of a large band, but was surrounded and he and his band slain. The death of Mattheson struck dismay into the hearts of the Anabaptists, but John Bockelson took o ^ nj 3 « K >. u ^ < I 8 2 * D rt H S 2; D BOC KELSON 'S JiE VELA TION. 2 1 7 advantage of the moment to establish himself as head. He declared that it was revealed to him that Mattheson had been killed because he had disobeyed the heavenly command, which was to go forth with few. Instead of that he had gone with many. Bockelson said he had been or- dered in vision to marry Mattheson's widow and assume his place. It was further revealed to him that Minister was to be the heavenly Zion, the capital of the earth, and he was to be king over it. Then he ordered all the people in the place to bring him every article of value they possessed, gold and silver and jewelry; also all provisions they had, and he arranged that all meals should be taken in com- mon. Then he had another revelation that every man was to have as many wives as he liked, and he gave himself sixteen wives. This was too out- rageous for some to endure, and a plot was formed against him by a blacksmith and about two hundred of the more respectable citizens, but it was frus- trated, and led to the seizure of the conspirators and the execution of a number of them. Twenty- five were shot and sixty-six were decapitated by Knipperdolling, whom John Bockelson had consti- tuted his executioner. With the death of these men disappeared every attempt at resistance. It may be asked how it was that there were still so many peo- ple in the place. The reason was that before it was invested Anabaptists had swarmed into it from Hol- land and the North of Germany, thinking it was a favoured city of Heaven. Next, Bockelson created twelve dukes, to whom woman's costume. i6th century. (From a painting by Holbein.) 218 HUNG IN CAGES. 219 he gave titles to as many parts of Germany. They were all tailors, shoemakers, coopers, and bakers. He also appointed twenty-seven apostles to go through' Europe, converting people and calling on them to come to Zion. In the market-place a pulpit and a throne were erected, and thrice in the week Bockelson adminis- tered justice from the throne, clad in royal apparel, surrounded by his dukes and pages gorgeously dressed. When the court was over a sermon was preached from the pulpit, and when that was con- cluded, the king, his sixteen queens, the preacher, and the court danced to the strains of the royal band. One of his wives, disgusted with the profanity and her degradation, entreated leave to depart from the town. King John cut off her head with his own sword before all the people. One of the bishop's soldiers, having been taken prisoner, was urged to embrace the doctrines of the Anabaptists. He had the audacity to reply that whatever their doctrines might be their practice was devilish ; whereupon King John, foaming with rage, hacked off his head with his own hand. At last, on midsummer eve, 1536, after a siege of sixteen months, the city was taken. Several of the citizens, unable longer to endure the tyranny, cru- elty, and abominations committed by the king, helped the soldiers of the prince-bishop to climb the walls, open the gates, and surprise the city. A desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued ; the streets ran with blood. John Bockelson, instead of leading 220 FATE OF BERNARD KNIPPERDOLLING. his people, hid himself, but was caught. So was Knipperdolling. When the place was in his hands the prince- bishop entered. John of Leyden and Knipperdol- ling were cruelly tortured, their flesh plucked off with red-hot pincers, and then a dagger was thrust into their hearts. Finally, their bodies were hung in iron cages to the tower of a church in Minister. Thus ended this hideous drama, which produced an indescribable effect throughout Germany. Mini- ster, after this, in spite of the desire of the prince- bishop to establish Lutheranism, reverted to Ca- tholicism, and remains Catholic to this day. XXXVII. HOW THE PROTESTANTS PROTESTED. ( I 53°- I 547-) TlIE Reformation, which had been successful in Germany, spread with equal rapidity in the neigh- boring countries. At Zurich was Zwingli, a man of more daring mind than Luther ; his equal in intre- pidity, and his superior in learning. He went much further than Luther, and completely overturned the whole fabric of established worship. As early as 1524 the canton of Zurich renounced the supremacy of the Pope; and in 1528 Bern, Basle, and Schaff- hausen, and part of the Grisons, Glarus, and Appen- zel, followed the example. In Geneva Calvin took another line from Luther. He did not accept his doctrine of free justification, but he taught that some men were predestined to eternal life and oth- ers to eternal damnation ; that the former could not fall away, and that nothing that the latter did could gain them heaven. Luther and Calvin looked on each other with great hostility. In some parts of Germany Calvinism spread, in other parts Luther- anism. The Lutherans were called Protestants, and the Calvinists were called Reformed. The name of Protestant was thus acquired ; 221 1 222 HOW THE PROTESTANTS PROTESTED. Charles V. summoned a diet (that is, a parliament of the states) to meet at Spires in 1529, to discuss the means of resisting and driving back the Turks, who had overrun Hungary, and threatened the Austrian dominions ; and also to settle something relative to the religious contests. By a majority of voices a decree was passed which forbade further innovation in religion, and ordered that the Catholic subjects of Protestant princes should be allowed to exercise their religion in freedom ; that no hostilities were to be committed under pretence of religion, and that the ministers of the Gospel were to preach the word of God according to the interpretation of the Church, and to abstain from ridiculing and abus- ing the doctrines hitherto held as sacred. The Lutherans, upon this, drew up a. protest, which they delivered to the diet. They argued that Protestant princes could not tolerate the exercise of a religion in their lands which they held to be against God's word, and that the ministers could not follow the interpretation of the Church, which they regarded as antichristian. This protest was signed by the Elector of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg — Anspach, the duke of Brunswick, the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, the Prince of Anhalt, and fourteen free imperial cities. It is from this protest that the Lutherans acquired the name of Protestants, which has since been applied to all who separated from the Church of Rome. Charles V. made many efforts to pacify the strife without coming to severe measures. He called to- gether another diet, to meet at Augsburg in 1530. THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 223 At the very opening of the diet, evidence appeared of the uncompromising character of the Protestants. The parliament began with a mass, attended by the emper6r and his high functionaries. The Elector of Saxony was grand marshall and bore the sword of state. At first he refused to attend, and was only persuaded by one of the Lutheran pastors, who reminded him that the prophet Elisha permitted Naaman to bow himself in the house of Rimmon. However, though he and the Landgrave of Hesse attended, they refused to kneel, and remained stand- ing upright whilst the whole congregation was bowed. When the diet began proceedings the Lutherans presented to it a formulary of their belief as far as they had settled it at the time. This was drawn up by Philip Melancthon, and goes by the name of the " Augsburg Confession." On November 16th Charles published a decree, insisting that all things should remain on their ancient footing till a council of the Church assembled, which was to be in six months' time ; and also order- ing the restoration of all the lands and buildings seized by the nobles and princes which had belonged to the Church. Charles gave the Protestants till April to consider, and if they then refused submis- sion he threatened them with the ban of the empire. Thereupon the Protestant princes assembled in the little Hessian town of Smalkald (December, 1530") and made a league with one another for mutual sup- port against the emperor. They also entered into a secret treaty with Francis I., King of France, and they received promises of help from the kings of JOHN FREDERICK THE BOLD, ELECTOR OF SAXONY. (From portrait by Cranach.) 224 SUCCESS FOR THE IMPERIALISTS. 2 2$ England, Sweden, and Denmark. Both parties pre- pared for war, and the imperial chamber commenced proceedings against the Protestant princes for the restitution of the ecclesiastical states they had con- fiscated. The heads of the league were the Elector, fohn Frederick of Saxony, a hearty supporter of Luther and a sincere man, and the Landgrave, Philip of Hesse, a man with two wives, and of bad charac- ter, whose reforming zeal sprang chiefly from greed after the spoils of the Church. In the year 1545 a council of the Church assem- bled at Trent, to correct the abuses in religion, but the Protestants would take no part in it. This opposition angered the emperor, and he prepared for hostilities. When the army of the Smalkald league marched against him he pronounced the ban of the empire against the leaders, that is, declared them outlaws, deprived of imperial protection and of their prin- cipalities. The confederates replied by a letter re- nouncing their allegiance, and refusing him the imperial title. The Protestant princes were weak- ened by internal dissention and jealousies, and Charles found himself deserted by the Pope, who was, as usual, jealous of his power in Italy. Fran- cis I., of France, moreover, sent money to the Smal- kald union. Fortunately for Charles, Francis died, and when the league were least expecting his attack he hastened to assail their forces on the Elbe. He threw a bridge of boats over the river at Miihlberg, though the enemy occupied the highest bank, and the river was three hundred paces wide. Whilst 15 226 HOW THE PROTESTANTS PROTESTED. his bridge was being constructed he suddenly- crossed the river by a ford, at the head of his cavalry, in a fog which concealed his movements, and burst on the Protestant army at the same moment that a light wind dispersed the vapors and the sun blazed out. The battle that ensued ended in the success of the Imperialists. John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, was wounded in the face and taken prisoner. When brought before Charles he bowed to kiss his hand, saying, " Most powerful and gracious emperor, the fortunes of war have rendered me your prisoner — " " Hah ! " exclaimed Charles, 11 now you entitle me emperor, the other day you styled me Charles of Ghent." Charles then made his triumphal entry into Wit- tenberg, and conducted himself with great mag- nanimity. The elector was deprived of all his dominions except Gotha, and they were given to Maurice of Saxony. There were then two Saxon ducal houses, called the Ernestine and the Albertine, descended from two brothers, Ernest, who died in i486, and Albert, who died in 1500. These brothers had divided the paternal inheritance between them. The Ernestine dukes retained the title of electors of Saxony, the Albertine dukes were called dukes of Saxony. John Frederick, who was deposed after the battle of Miihlberg, was the grandson of Ernest, and Mau- rice of Saxony was grandson of Albert. Maurice was a very crafty man. He had quarrelled a good deal with John Frederick, as his dominions were intermixed with those of the elector, and as he THE REVOLT OF MAURICE. 227 possessed a joint share in some rich mines. When the Smalkald union was formed he refused to join it, though he was a Protestant, and he courted the favour of the emperor without vigorously fighting for him. In return for his loyalty Charles now gave him the electorate of Saxony, with the lands from which John Frederick had been ousted. This was what Maurice had been aiming after. No sooner had he got all he wanted from the emperor than he turned against him, and became his most bitter and dangerous opponent. Charles gave him occasion. The Landgrave of Hesse had given himself up and been imprisoned, when he found himself deserted and powerless. Charles, it is said, had sent him private assurance that he would be set free if he made his submission, but Charles still kept him in confinement, and this angered Maurice, who had married the landgrave's daughter. When, as he supposed, the war was at an end, Charles retired to Innsbruck, and dismissed the army he had collected. Maurice now secretly made a league with Henry II., King of France, by which it was arranged that the French were to attack Lor- raine, and find Maurice a large monthly sum of money as long as he continued in arms against the emperor. At the same time he did all he could to throw dust in the eyes of Charles. He hired a house at Trent for his reception, and had it magnifi- cently furnished, and declared his intention of going to the council. Then, when all was ripe, and Charles lulled into unsuspicion, Maurice suddenly 228 HOW THE PROTESTANTS PROTESTED. threw off the mask, uttered a proclamation, in which he declared that he took up arms in defence of Protestantism, to oppose the emperor becoming- absolute monarch, and to release the landgrave. GERMAN PATRICIANS IN 1550. (From a wood-cut by Ammann.) He swept at once through Bavaria, without suffer- ing the emperor time to collect an army against him. No words can express Charles' astonishment and consternation at the revolt of Maurice. He saw PA CIFICA TIOaY OF FASSA U. 2 2Q a great number of German princes in arms against him at a moment when he had despatched a large body of his troops into Hungary to resist the Turks. At the same time Henry II. invaded Lorraine, captured Toul, Verdun, and Metz, and threatened Strasburg. Augsburg surrendered to Maurice. Nuremberg joined the confederacy. Charles threw a few soldiers into Fuessen to guard the Scharnitz pass, but Maurice, advancing with rapid marches, dislodged them, advanced up the Lech valley, crossed into the Inn valley, and would have surprised and taken the emperor had he not made his escape in a litter — for he was ill at the time with gout — across the mountains, by roads almost impassable, in a dark and stormy night, only a few hours before Maurice entered Innsbruck. Maurice gave up the palace and property of the emperor at Innsbruck to pillage. Dismayed by this disaster, unable to gather to- gether an army to fight at once the Turks in Hun- gary, the French in Lorraine, and the Protestants in the midst of the empire, Charles was forced to come to an agreement with Maurice and the Prot- estant princes, which was concluded on the 2d of August, 1552, and this is called the " Pacification of Passau." By it he agreed to release the landgrave, and to allow liberty to the Protestants in Catholic lands ; and the Protestants on their side agreed to allow Catholic worship to be performed for Catholics in their territories. When the agreement had been signed Maurice marched against the Turks, and 230 HOW THE PROTESTANTS PROTESTED. Charles, anxious to wipe away his recent disgrace, collected an army and entered Lorraine. But for- tune had deserted him. He was unable to retake Metz, and in the Low Countries also his troops met with reverse. In Italy, moreover, his inveterate enemy, Pope Paul IV., joined with France in a league for the conquest of Naples. Paul was like the German prelates, a great prince as well as a prelate, and he cared more for his temporal power than for the welfare of the Church. Conse- quently, though Charles strove hard, and exhausted himself for the good of the Catholic religion in Germany, he was hampered and countermined by the Pope, who was jealous of his power. But for the Pope it is by no means improbable that Charles would have re-established Catholic supremacy through Germany. At last, sick at heart and failing in health, the great emperor resolved to lay down the crown that had been to him a burden through life. In 1555 he gave up to his son, Philip II., the Netherlands, Naples, Spain, and the rich colonies of America. To his brother, Ferdinand I., who was already King of Bohemia and Hungary, he gave over the Ger- man-Austrian lands and the imperial title. Then he withdrew into the monastery of S. Just, in Spain, where he died, three years later. His death was brought about in a very strange way. He took it into his head that he would like to have his funeral service performed over him be- fore he was dead. He was dressed in a winding sheet and laid in a coffin, whilst his attendants, in DEA Til OF CHARLES V. 231 deep mourning, holding tapers of unbleached wax, stood around him. The funeral service was said, and the hollow voice of the monarch was heard joining' in the prayers from the coffin. But the grave-clothes were damp ; he caught a chill which produced fever, and hurried him to his grave on the 2 1st of September, 1558, in the fifty-ninth yeax of his age. XXXVIII. THIRTY YEARS OF WAR ABOUT RELIGION. (1618-1648.) Notwithstanding the Pacification of Passau and its subsequent ratification at a diet held at Augsburg in 1555, quarrels continued between the Catholics and Protestants, and between the Luther- ans and Calvinists, and even between discordant factions among the Lutherans themselves. In Sax- ony the Lutheran elector, Augustus, cruelly perse- cuted the Calvinists, and in the Palatinate the Cal- vinist prince expelled all the Lutherans, and cut off the head of a pastor who denied the doctrine of the Trinity. On his death his son, who was a vehe- ment Lutheran, called back the Evangelicals and ordered all the Calvinist ministers who refused to recant to be driven out of the country. In the mean time Alva, the Spanish governor of the Netherlands, was subjugating the Low Countries for Philip II. with great cruelty, and driving out the Calvinists. Gebhard of Waldburg had been elected Arch- bishop of Cologne. He fell desperately in love with a beautiful maiden, Agnes of Mansfeld, and turned Calvinist, and wanted to make the arch- 232 RUDOLPH IL 233 bishopric the property of himself, to descend to his children by the beautiful Agnes, whom he married. But the people of Cologne were against him ; the Lutheran princes would not help him because he had turned Calvinist ; however, he got promise of help from the Palatine, and from the Dutch and French, and carried on a desultory war to obtain possession of Cologne. At last he was completely defeated, and retired to Strasburg. All the bishoprics in North Germany had been seized and annexed to their dominions by the princes of Brandenburg, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, and Sax- ony. In the hereditary possessions of the House of Hapsburg the Reformation was suppressed. The maxim had been formulated that as was the prince so should be the people, and so the princes every- where insisted on making their people believe, or disbelieve, or change about like themselves. Ferdinand I. and his son, Maximilian II., were gentle and good emperors, so that the general antag- onism did not break out into violent hostilities under them ; but it was otherwise when the gloomy Rudolph II. came to the throne. He was the son of Maximilian II. He was an apathetic man, ut- terly unsuited to govern, fond of horses, of which he kept a great many, though he never mounted their backs, and very fond of chemistry, and alchemy, which was then allied to chemistry. He had been educated in Spain, and the Protestants were alarmed at his appointment, fearing that he would use his power without moderation, and with intolerance. They accordingly formed an union, 234 THIRTY YEARS' WAR ABOUT RELIGION. and placed the Elector Palatine Frederick at the head. Thereupon the Catholic princes also united, and bound themselves to assist each other and de- fend the Catholic religion. At the head of their League was Maximilian of Bavaria. And now, with the Protestant Union on one side, and the Catholic League on the other, armed and watching each other suspiciously, only a signal was wanted to make them draw swords. That signal was given on May 23, 161 8. On the death of Rudolph II. (1612) his brother, Matthias, succeeded, but he was an old man, and un- able to cope with the forces gathering to explosion in the empire. Accordingly, he committed the gov- ernment to his nephew, Ferdinand, whom he caused to be proclaimed King of Bohemia. Ferdinand went \ at once to Prague, and nominated seven Bohemian Catholic nobles and three Protestants to form a council to govern the country. The most influen- tial of these were Slawata and Martinitz, the former of whom was especially disliked by the Protestants because he had become a Catholic after having been brought up as a Lutheran. Rudolph II. had issued an imperial manifesto, granting freedom of worship in Bohemia to Luther- ans, Calvinists, Calixtins, and Catholics alike. The Protestants began to erect two new churches for themselves. Impediments were thrown in their way. They appealed to the emperor, Matthias, and received a curt reply. It came to their ears that this was not dictated by the emperor himself, but proceeded from his council in Prague. They rose HELP FOR VIENNA. 235' tumultuously, took arms, and, led by Count Mat- thias of Thurn, attacked the imperial castle at Prague, burst in, and flung Slawata and Martinitz, with their secretary, out of the window of the coun- cil chamber, and fired at them as they fell. The height was ninety feet, yet, marvellous to relate, they were not killed. Under the window was a heap of litter, and old papers, and the mud of the ditch. Slawata was indeed dreadfully shattered, but recovered. The poor secretary tumbled upon Martinitz, and is said to have apologized for his ap- parent rudeness. He was afterwards ennobled and given the name of Hohenfall, or "High Fall," This act of violence brought on the terrible Thirty Years' War, which lasted through three reigns, those of Matthias, Ferdinand II., and Ferdinand III., and caused almost unparalleled misery in Germany. Ferdinand at once raised two bodies of troops, placed them under foreign generals, Dampierre and Bouquoi, and prepared to chastise the insurgents. But Count Thurn felt that the die was cast, and open war was inevitable. He gathered a large army, was assisted by the Silesians and Lusatians, defeated Dampierre and Bouquoi, and laid siege to the cities of Bohemia that remained faithful to the emperor. The elector palatine and the Protest- ant Union sent a body of mercenaries into Bohe- mia, under the command of the able general Mans- feld. At this juncture of affairs Matthias died, and his nephew, Ferdinand, succeeded. Count Thurn left Mansfeld in Bohemia to hold Bouquoi in check and marched swiftly through 236 THIRTY YEARS' WAR ABOUT RELIGION. Moravia, increasing his army, and entered Upper Austria. Ferdinand was in Vienna with a small garrison, and no prospect of help. He knew that the loss of Vienna would be the loss of his crown and the ruin of his house. The Bohemians sur- rounded the city ; the cannon battered the walls of his palace; many of the citizens were in secret cor- respondence with the besiegers. Sixteen members of the states burst into his apartment, and with threats and reproaches insisted on the gates being- opened to the insurgents, but Ferdinand never wav- ered for a moment. He had been kneeling in prayer in his cabinet when all seemed lost, when suddenly the conviction came over him that his delivery was at hand. At the very moment when all hope seemed gone, and the mutinous citizens were preparing to open the gates, a peal of trumpets announced the arrival of succour. It was only five hundred horse- men sent by Dampierre, who had effected an entry into the city unperceived by the besiegers. Their ar- rival operated like magic. The students, the burgh- ers flew to arms; additional succour arrived. The news speedily followed that Bouquoi had de- feated Mansfeld, dispersed his army, and was march- ing upon Prague. Count Thurn hastily broke up the siege and hastened back into Bohemia. Fer- dinand now went to Frankfort, where he was elected emperor, the Protestant electors being too divided in interest to oppose him. The Bohemians, how- ever, refused to acknowledge him as their king. They elected the Count Palatine Frederick, who Z W u H z z 2.37 2 q S THIR TY YEARS ' WAR ABOL 'T RELIGION. ■3 had married Elizabeth, daughter of James I., of Eng- land. The Hungarians also revolted, under Bethlen Gabor, prince of Transylvania. Gabor obtained possession of Presburg by treachery, where was pre- served the crown of Hungary, and marched upon Vienna, which was again besieged. Dampierre and Buquoi menaced the Hungarian rear, and Gabor was obliged to fall back ; but he caused himself to be crowned King of Hungary. Ferdinand found himself excluded from nearly every town in Bohemia and the greater part of Hungary. Frederick, elector palatine, was a vain and ambitious man, void of genius, and fond of dis- play. He was inflated with pride at his election to the throne of Bohemia. He went to Prague, where he gave offence to the Lutherans by destroying the -.acred representations which they admitted into their churches, and by his levity and folly. The Catholic League was not idle. It had gath- ered an army under Maximilian of Bavaria, which marched to Prague, and finding the troops of Fred- erick and the Union outside the city on the "White Mountain, rt attacked and completely routed them (Nov. 8, 1620). The battle lasted little more than an hour. With the loss of only three hundred men the army of the League took all the standards and cannon of the enemy, left 4000 of them dead on the field, and drove a thousand more into the river Moldau ; and thus, at one blow, dissipated the hopes of Frederick, and decided the fate of Bohe- mia. Frederick mounted his horse and galloped FREDERICK ESCAPES. 230 away, leaving his crown and treasure to fall into the hands of the Imperialists. One winter had seen him flourish and fade, and thence he received the nick-name of the " Winter Kin6 5 longs now to the emperor, who has rebuilt the cas- tle with great splendour. You may remember also how you were told that Albert of Brandenburg, Grand' Master of the Teutonic Order, became a Lutheran and seized on Prussia, which was the possession of the Order, and made it his own as a MEN OF WAR OF THE GREAT ELECTOR. (From model in Berlin.) hereditary state. Albert left granddaughters, and Joachim Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg, mar- ried Eleanor, the younger, and his son, John Sigis- mund, married Anna, the elder, and secured the Duchy of Prussia to their family. The relationship was strange. Eleanor was thus stepmother to her elder sister, and the stepmother was seven year^ younger than her stepdaughter. Frederick William, the Great Elector, was grandson of John Sigismund and Anna. Under him a great deal of additional 266 A XOBLE RULER. territory was got, but he gained his name of " The Great Elector " partly by his wise government of his states, and partly by his brilliant military achieve-, ments. He stood faithfully by the side of the em- peror and resisted all the overtures of the King of France. Louis XIV., to keep his dangerous oppo- nent engaged at a distance from the Rhine, made a league with the Swedes, and induced them to attack Brandenburg whilst the elector was on the Upper THE GREAT ELECTOR AND WIFE. (From a medal.) Rhine. But no sooner did he hear of their descent than he hastened home with forced marches and encountered them when they least expected his presence. A battle was fought at Fehrbellin. Dur- ing the fight his equerry, Frobenius, observed that the enemy's fire was mainly directed against the elector himself, who was distinguished by the white horse he rode. Frobenius induced the elector to change mounts with him. Scarce had he done so and gone two paces from his master when a can- non-ball struck him dead. Shortly after, Frederick THE SWEDES DEFEATED. 267 William saw himself surrounded by the enemy, but he had nine dragoons with him, and they hewed their way through. After a desperate struggle the Bran- denbufgers won the day, and the Swedes, who had been thought invincible, were obliged to take to flight. In the winter of 1678 the Swedes again in- vaded Prussia, but were repulsed by the elector, who pursued them in sledges over the frozen Gulf of Courland, caught them again at Riga, and again de- feated them. XLIV. BITTERLY FIGHTING THE TURKS. PRINCE Eugene of Savoy was a small man of no presence, whose mission it was to check the ad- vance of Louis XIV. in Germany on the West, and in the East to break the power of the Turks. On account of his feeble body he had been designed for the Church, and was nicknamed "the little Ab- bot." But Eugene felt no call for the religious life, and a very great desire to be a soldier. He first offered his services to Louis XIV., but that king dismissed him contemptuously, and then he left France and took part in the Austrian wars against the Turks. During the siege of Vienna, in 1683, he displayed such heroism that the emperor gave him the command of a regiment of dragoons. The great dragoons scoffed at their officer and said,. " Hah ! the Abbotikin in his grey cloak won't reach the chins of the Turks to pull their beards."' But they were mistaken. He not only pulled their beards, but pulled them over and made them bite the dust. In 1697 he was given his first command over an army, and was sent to oppose the Turks, who had invaded Hungary under the lead of the sultan. Eugene came on them as they were crossing 268 PULLING THE TURKISH BEARDS. 269 the river Teiss on a temporary bridge, and with the loss of only 500 men completely routed the Turks, who lost 30,000 men, and sent the sultan flying back to Constantinople. Louis XIV. now did all in his power to gain the little man. He offered him the title of field-marshal, the governorship of a French province, and a large sum of money. But Eugene sent the messengers back with the answer, " Tell your king that I am field-marshal to an emperor, which is quite as hon- ourable an office as that he offers me. As for money, I do not want it. As long as I faithfully serve my master, he will not suffer me to lack." Prince Eugene completely won the hearts of his soldiers. He looked carefully after their wants, and when their pay was in arrear he would pay them out of his own pocket. He was frank and kindly in address ; and when the little man called to his sol- diers to show their metal, it was like sending an electric shock through them ; they would go any- where, do anything he told them. He gained great renown through his success against the Turks, who were not only the enemies of Austria, but of Chris- tendom. He defeated them in several battles, and at length forced them to conclude a peace greatly to the advantage of the emperor. Eugene was soon to gain even greater renown by his victories over the French. XLV. ALL EUROPE AT WAR. (1701-1714.) After the death of Charles II. of Spain, without children, Louis XIV. of France, the emperor, Leo- pold I., and Joseph Ferdinand, Elector of Bavaria, all put in a claim to the crown of Spain. This occasioned a war of thirteen years, in which the principal European states were involved. It began under Leopold I., was carried on by his son, Joseph I., and only came to an end under Charles VI., the brother of Joseph I. On the side of the emperor were Holland, Eng- land, Portugal, the Elector of Hanover, and the Elector Frederick of Brandenburg, who, with the consent of the emperor, assumed the title of King of Prussia. The command of the allies was given to Prince Eugene and the illustrious English general, the Duke of Marlborough. Against such able com- manders the French could do nothing. They were beaten in Germany, beaten in the Netherlands, and beaten in Italy. Their allies were the Elector of Bavaria and the Pope. Moreover, an insurrection broke out in Hungary at the very time that they FREDERICK I., KIM. OF PRUSSIA. (From the painting by Wenzel.) 271 2/2 ALL EUROPE AT WAR. were invading Germany, so as greatly to distract the imperial forces. Prince Eugene began the war in Italy, but speedily Germany became the scene of conflict, as Louis XIV. poured an army over the Rhine, across the Black Forest to the Danube, threatening Vienna. This great army, which was joined by the Bavarians, numbered 56,000 men, and Marlborough and Eugene were only able to oppose 52,000 to them. The great and decisive battle, upon which the fate of the House of Austria hung, was fought at Blenheim, a village on the Danube, between Ulm and Ingolstadt. The French were drawn up behind the small stream, the Nebel- bach, which forms swamps and marshes, before it falls into the Danube. In addition to these swamps ninety pieces of cannon protected the centre. On the right the French had the village of Blenheim ; and the left rested on a thick wood. Marlborough and Eugene drew up before the swamp, in order of battle, Marlborough on the left and centre, and Eugene on the right. The battle began with an attack by the British infantry on Blenheim, but they were repulsed, after repeated encounters, with great slaughter. Then Marlbor- ough suddenly gathered them together and drove them like a wedge against the centre, scrambling, floundering through the swamps, but going on as Englishmen will go, although the 90 cannon pounded them. A cannon-ball grazed his horse and threw Marlborough to the ground ; the troops trembled for their leader ; the fate of Austria hung suspended on the life of the general. But SUBMISSION OF DUKE OF BA VARIA. 2 73 next moment he was seen mounted again. A ring- ing cheer burst from the British, and on they went, flinging bundles and faggots before them into the marsh, and stepping over on them. Marlborough got the cavalry over first and charged up the slope at the French and Bavarians. After the cavalry came the infantry. The centre gave way, recoiled ; the enemy's force broke up, and nothing remained but a disorganized multitude. Of the enemy 40,- 000 men were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. They lost 300 standards and 120 pieces of cannon. The present post-road has been carried over the battle-field, and, to make a foundation, heaps of bones of horses and men have been shovelled in that were found there when the road was con- structed. Broken, dispersed, and ruined, the wretched remains of that army which had threat- ened Germany with bondage, and spread terror to the gates of Vienna, made the best of its way back to the Rhine and Vosges, pursued by the allies. The first result of this victory was the submission of the Duke of Bavaria ; the next was that the emperor was able to send troops into Hungary to quell the insurrection there. The battle of Blen- heim was fought on Aug. 2, 1704. The scene of warfare now passed to the Netherlands ; but Marl- borough remained inactive all 1705, watching the French, who contemptuously invented and piped a song, " Marlborough s'en va t'en guerre," which was played before his lines to fire him into activity ; but Marlborough knew what he was about, and on May 12, 1706, he went to war in good earnest, IS JOSEPH I., EMPEROR OF GERMANY. 74 TREATY OF RASTADT. 275 met the French at Ramillies and totally defeated them. He beat them again in 1708 at Oudenarde, and again with great loss at Malplaquet in 1709. At the s'ame time Eugene was defeating the French in Italy. Overwhelmed by these disasters Louis XIV. tried to make peace. He offered to give up all claim to Spain, and even to supply money to help the allies to expel his grandson, Philip of Anjou, the new king, out of Spain. But the allies were not satisfied with these offers. They insisted on Louis himself driving his grandson out of Spain, and binding himself to do it within two months. This was asking for the impossible, and Louis XIV. said, with reason, " Well, if I must fight, let it be against my natural enemies, not against my own children." " Pride," says the proverb, " goes before a fall." This proved true now. Fortune turned quite unex- pectedly, and favoured the French king. The emper- or Joseph I. died without children, and the Austrian inheritance passed to his brother Charles, who claimed the throne of Spain. But European sover- eigns did not want to have an emperor with the dominions of Charles V., so he was forced to give up his claims to Spain, and the grandson of Louis XIV. was acknowledged as king and took the title of Philip V. This was the result of the agreement come to by the powers at the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, and the emperor was obliged next year to con- sent to >t at the Treaty of Rastadt. XLV1. POWDERED WIGS AND PATCHES. We are now at the period of powdered wigs and patched faces. It is called the period of rococco, from roche and coquille, rock and shell, as the orna- mental work in architectural decoration affected a combination of rock and shell work. There was a general reaction against the stiffness of former times. All straight lines were avoided ; gentlemen even studied to stand in curved attitudes. The ladies in the 1 6th century had worn rich and thick damask silks, embroidered till they were stiff. At the mar- riage of a princess of one of the Saxon families she found it impossible to kneel, and was obliged to be married standing, like an extinguisher, with her skirts hard as board. But now the ladies wore light silk and satin, with their skirts looped up in paniers, showing petticoats of another colour. Their heads of hair were, however, piled up and interwoven with ribbands and chains of pearls, and feathers and flowers were stuck into them, so that before going out in such array they could not lie down to sleep in their beds. Gentlemen wore white powdered wigs, velvet coats richly frogged, and long satin embroidered waistcoats, satin breeches-, and silk stockings. They had their faces closely shaved. The story is told of 276 LUXURY AND EXTRAVAGANCE. 277 a duchess, Louise Maria Gonzaga, niece of Louis XIV., when she was shown the portrait of Ladislas, King of Poland, whom she was to marry, that she exclaimed: — "But — he is deformed! He has two great moles, like rats' tails, growing on his upper lip ! " — These were his moustaches. She had never seen, or supposed it possible, that men's hair grew thus. A great deal of building went on in Germany at this time, and the churches in the Catholic parts, which had been half wrecked by the Swedes, were restored. Statues were sculptured in theatrical attitudes, and cov- ered with tinfoil washed over with colour to represent sat- in. Everything that could be gilt was overlaid with gold leaf. It was a splendour- loving time. In the courts, luxury and extravagance 11; \d-dresses. (time of were unbridled, and the Frederick william 11* peasantry were ground down with taxes to supply funds for this prodigality. During the Thirty Years' War most of the old country nobility had died out or been impoverished. The only people who had gained by these wars were the princes, who were left alone, with no one to stand between them and the people, and they ruled by caprice, levying taxes as they wanted money. 2 ;8 POWDERED WIGS AND PATCHES. The emperor took to issuing patents of nobility and selling titles to raise money, and the princes did the same. Any one who could find money was able to obtain what title he desired. The poetry of the period is pompous and unnat- ural, but to this rococco age one art owes its birth, that of music. XLVII. THE TROUBLES OF A NOBLE QUEEN. (1740-1745.) GERMAN history enters on a new epoch in the year 1740. In this year Frederick II. became King of Prussia, and Maria Theresa became sovereign in Austria. Then the insatiable greed of increasing their power, which seems to have been inherent in the Hohenzollerns, impelled Frederick into war with Maria Theresa at the very beginning of their reigns, costing many thousands of men their lives and wasting many fair provinces. The occasion was this :— The emperor, Charles VI., died without male issue. His efforts had been directed during his reign chiefly to one point, to secure the Austrian dominions to his admirable daughter, Maria Theresa. To this end he contrived that an agreement should be signed both by the estates of the empire and the Austrian monarchy, and also by the reigning princes of Europe. This agreement was called " THE PRAG- MATIC Sanction." When Charles VI. died, in 1740, Maria Theresa, who was married to Duke Francis of Lorraine, seized the reins of government of all the lands belonging to Austria, that is, Bohc- 279 28o THE TROUBLES OF A NOBLE QUEEN. mia, Hungary, Austria proper, Tyrol, Styria, Car- inthia, etc. But, in spite of the Pragmatic Sanction, various claims were made for several of these lands. The ambassador of Charles Albert, Elector of Ba- FREDERICK THE GREAT. (From a Drawing by Chodowiecki.) varia, entered Vienna to announce that his sover- eign could not acknowledge the young queen as heiress and successor to her father, because the House of Bavaria laid claims to the Austrian inher- itance. Frederick II. of Prussia, also, seeing that he had RUDE ROYALTY. 2 8l to do with a young and feeble woman, bluster- ingly demanded some of the Silesian principalities. As Maria Theresa had sufficient spirit to refuse these insolent demands war broke out, in which France, Spain, and Poland took part with Bavaria and Prussia against her. These wars go by the name of the "War of the Austrian Succession," and the "Three Silesian Wars." Maria Theresa is one of the noblest and best of women who have made themselves a name in his- tory. In the spring of her life, nobly built, her dignity of majesty and charm of womanhood com- bined to turn the scale of her fortunes at the most critical period in her career. The Elector of Cologne acknowledged her only by the title of archduchess. The Elector Palatine sent her a letter by the com- mon post, superscribed, " To the Archduchess Maria Theresa," and the King of Spain refused her any other title than Duchess of Tuscan}-. Her hus- band was a poor creature, who treated her without regard, and was no strength to her in her trials. At first only the King of Prussia seemed to stand by her ; he promised his support whilst collecting his troops for a descent on Silesia. It was with surprise, therefore, that the young queen re- ceived an insolent demand for Silesia from the rude messenger of Frederick II. Even the minis- ters of the Prussian king blushed at their master's conduct. A battle was fought at Molwitz. The right wing of the Prussians was broken ; whereupon King Frederick galloped away as hard as his horse could 282 TROUBLES OF A NOBLE QUEEN. carry him, in spite of the entreaty of his officers to stay, and never drew rein till he came to Oppeln, where, to his dismay, he found a party of Austrian hussars, who fired, but before they could gain their horses the king galloped back to his troops, and found to his astonishment that they had gained a complete victory during his absence. After this victory his insolence was unbounded. The English sent an ambassador to mediate, and spoke of magnanimity. "Magnanimity! Bah!" he shouted, "I care only for my own interests." Maria Theresa offered to yield three duchies in Silesia. " Before the war they might have con- tented me. Now I want more," said Frederick. " What do I care about peace ? Let those who want it give me what I want ; if not, let them fight me, and be beaten again." „_— ^ ^jyt,,,,,— jnna ^iWfl ■X^^^. ^™ ff ^^ B ^^fcT"^iN. s. ^ -ivMi •* ^^Jfl —^^^^>*- ^SM\ V' ^K^v^oa ^5!\lf^ Zs^^^^= Ju Mffl'^Dffl^^ - ^ ^f£§#" ^jBtof &&2r^J^ XLVIII. THE QUEEN'S BABY BOY (1741-1748.) WHEN things had come to this pass, the Elector of Bavaria, supported by the French, advanced his claims by force of arms. He marched upon Vienna. At Linz he had homage done to himself as Arch- duke of Austria. He was within three days' march of Vienna, and Maria Theresa was without an army, for that in Silesia was held in check by Fred- erick of Prussia. Her treasury was empty. She fled from her capital to Presburg in Hungary, convoked the magnates, and appeared among them attired in Hungarian costume, the crown of S. Ste- phen on her head and his sword at her side. Radi- ant with beauty and spirit she addressed the diet, and called on the nobles as cavaliers to stand by a woman in her jeopardy. Then she held up her baby boy in her hands before the assembly, and the tears came welling out of her beautiful eyes. The answer came. The whole diet rose and flashed their swords from their scabbards, and as a roll of thunder roared, " Moriamur pro rege nostro, Maria Theresa ! " (" We will die for our sovereign, Maria Theresa.") 283 MARIA THERESA. (From a painting by Kilian.) 284 A BRIEF REIGN. 285 In England the unprovoked aggression of the King of Prussia had excited general indignation, and Parliament granted 300,000 pounds to the queen. In a short time a considerable army of Hun- garians and Croats was assembled, which in a few weeks cleared Austria of the Bavarians and French, and pursued them into Bavaria, and took the capi- tal, Munich. The French, who were in possession of Prague, were blockaded, but broke out in the depth of winter and escaped over the snowy fields, leaving their course strewn with frozen corpses. Out of forty thousand men who had entered Bohe- mia only 3000 survived the miseries of the retreat and returned to France. But the Austrians opposed to Frederick II. had been less successful. The king defeated them again, and then, alarmed at the gathering power of Maria Theresa, concluded a peace with her, by which she made over to him a large portion of Silesia. On the very day on which the Austrian army entered Munich the elector was crowned emperor at Frankfort, under the name of Charles VII,, but the new emperor was unable to show himself in his own dominions. His reign was short, and full of trouble, which he had brought on himself. The war continued, with varying fortune. George II. of England himself took part in it at the head of an army of Hanoverians and Hessians, which, united to the imperial army, gained a signal victory over the French at Dettingen. The news of the victory reached Vienna before the queen heard it. She was far down the Danube, but on her return she 2 §5 THE QUEEN'S BABY BOY. found the banks for nine miles lined with people cheering, the cannon on the fortifications were boom- ing, and the bells of the churches pealing. She entered her capital in a sort of triumph, and went at once to the cathedral to return thanks to God. Shortly after, other good news came to her : Egna Neumarkt was taken, and all her hereditary posses- sions were secured to her. Frederick II., "the Great," was uneasy at these successes, and feared that Maria Theresa would be demanding back the Silesian duchies. Accordingly, with great secrecy, he intrigued with the English, and drew them away from the Austrian alliance, and then suddenly and unexpectedly invaded Bohe- mia, and defeated the imperial generals in several battles. He was greatly helped by a very odd man, a relative, the Prince of Dessau, a rough soldier, gaunt in shape and long in limb. Prince Eugene was wont to call him the " Bull-dog." He would not let his sons have a tutor, as he said he wanted them to make themselves, and not to be manufactured by others. He had a French chamberlain, called Cha- lesac. One night the prince came in very drunk, and his chamberlain ventured to remonstrate with him. The " old Dessauer " seized a pair of pistols, and aiming at Chalesac's head, roared, ''You dog! I will shoot you ! *' " Do so if you will," answered the chamberlain, " but it will look ugly in history." The prince thought a moment, laid down the pistols, and said, "Yes, it would not read respectably." One day, in church, the preacher gave out the first verse of a hymn : — AN ANGR Y PRINCE. 287 " Neither hunger nor thirst, Nor want nor pain, Nor wrath of the Great Prince Can me restrain." The prince, thinking he was alluded to, grasped his walking-stick, and made a rush up the pulpit stairs to thrash the pastor for his insolence. The minister screamed, " Sire ! I mean Beelzebub, Beel- zebub, not your highness ! " and scarce pacified the furious prince, ar d saved his own hide. The first Silesian war was from 1740 to 1742. The second war was from 1744 to 1745, and was con- cluded by the treaty of Dresden, whereby Maria Theresa was once more compelled to cede Silesia to the victorious Prussian. In this year the em- peror, Charles VII., whom Maria Theresa had re- fused to recognize, died, whereupon her husband was elected emperor, under the title of Francis I. Maximilian, the son of Charles VII., received back the duchy of Bavaria, and gave up his claims on the Austrian inheritance. In 1748 peace was concluded at Aix, whereby Maria Theresa lost two provinces in Italy. Silesia was already lost, as you have heard. You have not heard of the fighting that went on in Italy, but the war had raged there, as well as in Germany and the Netherlands, and the King of Sar- dinia had been the queen's great adversary in Italy. XLIX. THE HARDSHIPS OF A YOUNG PRINCE. Frederick William I.,* King of Prussia, the father of Frederick the Great, was a brutal, hard man, but not without some good points in his character. He hated ceremony, but not ceremony only, — the very decencies of life. His great amusement was to get foreign guests into his Tarbagie, or smoking-room, and there ply them with beer till he made them sick. He despised and hated learning, and when Baron Gundling, a very learned man, was invited to dine with the king, Frederick William had an ape intro- duced, dressed exactly like the savant, and made the ape sit by him at table. To show his scorn for learning, he moreover insisted on having Gundling, when he died, buried in a cask, instead of a coffin. His daughter, in her memoirs, says, " My brother Frederick told me that one morning, when he went into the king's room, our father seized him by the hair, flung him down, and after he had exhausted the strength of his arm on the boy's poor body he dragged him to the window, took the curtain rope, and twisted it round his neck. The prince had * Frederick William I. was grandson of Frederick William, "the Great Elector." 288 ROYAL WHIMSIES. 289 presence of mind and strength to grasp his father's hands and scream for help. A chamberlain came in and plucked the boy away from the king." As Frederick William was riding round Berlin one day he saw a poor Jew slink out of his way. He stopped, seized him, and asked him his reason. " Sire ! I was afraid of you ! " said the scared He- brew. The king caught him by the nape of the neck, and, laying on to him with his riding whip, with fury roared, " Love me ! You shall love me ! I'll teach you to love me ! " His great ambition was to make of Prussia a war- like state. His recruiting officers went everywhere, securing very big men for his grenadier guard, whom they obtained by the most underhand means. He hated the French, their language, their culture, their manners, and to show his detestation of them he ordered the jailors to be dressed in the last Parisian fashions. The young prince, Frederick, was hated by his father because the boy was timid, and shrank from him. He mistook this timidity for cowardice, and sought to make the poor child love him by beating him, after the way of his teaching the Jew. The young Frederick took eagerly to French, read French books, and played the flute. Unfortunately, the books that fell in his way were those of Vol- taire, who held up religion and morality to ridicule, and scoffed at all that Christians hold sacred. Frederick was forced by his father to attend long- winded Calvinist sermons. He was denied innocent pleasures, such as his flute, and the result was that 1 j 290 THE HARDSHIPS OF A YOUNG PRINCE. he became, whilst quite young, dissipated and unbe- lieving. The king went out of his way to insult the prince in public, and to show him and all the court how he hated him. But when the king tried to force him to surrender his claim to succession to the throne, the prince re- plied, " I would rather have my head cut off than abandon my right.'' At last the situation became intolerable, and when, finally, the king was about to marry Fred- erick against his will, the prince resolved to fly to his uncle, the King of England. His sister, Wilhelmina, and two friends, Keith and Katte. were in the plot. He made his attempt to es cape when attending his father on a journey to the Rhine. But the plan was divulged to the king, and he was arrested. When brought before his father, Frederick William was in such a fury that he drew his sword and would have run him through ONE OF FREDERICK-WILLIAM S GRENADIERS. A BRUTAL FATHER. 29I the body with it had not one of his generals who was present sprung between, caught the king's arm, and cried out, " Sire ! run me through if you will, but spare your own son." Then the prince was thrown into prison at Kustren. His friend Katte was condemned to death, and the king forced his son to see his friend hanged before the window of his prison. Keith had saved himself by flight. The king had sentence of death pronounced against the prince. Then an old general exclaimed, " Sire ! if your Majesty will have blood, take mine, and wel- come ; but as long as I have a voice to raise in pro- test you shall not have that of the crown prince." The emperor, Charles VI., also interfered, and in- formed the king that the crown prince could only be condemned capitally at an imperial diet. "Very well," said the king, "then I will hold my own court on him at Konigsberg, which is outside the confines of the empire, where no one can control me." A faithful servant boldly answered, " Only God, sire, will be over you there, to call you to task for shed- ding your son's blood." At these words the king became grave, and said no more about the execu- tion of Frederick. All this while the prince was in close confine- ment. He had a hard bench for his seat, the floor for his bed, and he was fed on prison fare. At last he wrote a penitential letter to his father, acknow- ledging that he had done wrong, and promising not to be disobedient for the future. In order thoroughly to crush his obstinacy the king did not give him his freedom at once, but kept him. 292 THE HARDSHIPS OF A YOUNG PRINCE. under watch at Kiistren for two years. At last, on the marriage of his sister Wilhelmina to the Prince Df Baireuth, his father allowed him to return to Berlin. Father and son were reconciled, and thenceforth Frederick William called him his " dear Fritz." The king bought for him the castle of Rheins- berg, near Neu-Ruppin, for his residence. There Frederick spent the happiest days of his life. He collected the most famous men of letters about him, and devoted himself to science and music ; and he carried on a correspondence with Voltaire and other celebrated French philosophers and poets. Both father and son learnt to regard each other with mutual esteem, and Frederick William exclaimed in his last illness, " I thank my God that I shall have so worthy a successor ; I shall die content." The treatment which Frederick had received left its fatal effects on his character ; it made him hard, selfish, and unscrupulous ; and so it came about that he behaved unworthily of a great man in the matter of the Silesian duchies. THE ARMY OF CUT-AND-RUN. (1756-1763.) MARIA THERESA could not forget Silesia snatched from her unjustly. Moreover, the growth of the power and influence of Prussia was a cause of envy to other princes. Maria Theresa was able by this means to unite a large confederation against Prus- sia. France, Russia, and Saxony took part against it ; and it was proposed to deprive the king of his royal title, and reduce him to be merely Margrave of Brandenburg. Prussia succeeded in securing; England as her ally. George II. himself disliked Frederick, and would willingly have continued the alliance with Austria, but the English parliament ranged itself on the side of Prussia. Following his usual tactics of making cat-Hke leaps before his en- emies expected an attack, Frederick, without even declaring war, invaded Saxony, defeated the Aus- trians, and surrounded and captured a Saxon arm)-. This was the opening of the Seven Years' War, or Third Silesian War. In this war Frederick proved himself a gen- eral of the first order. Although he had hall Europe opposed to him, yet he was almost always 2Q3 2 Q4 THE ARMY OF CUT-AND-RUN. conqueror. He defeated the Austrians at Prague and Leuthen ; an imperial and French army was routed by him at Rossbach ; a Russian army was put to flight by him at Zorndorf. However, he met with reverses at Kollin and Hochkirch before the Aus- trians. Moreover, he lost the battle of Runersdorf when opposed to Austrians and Russians united. But in spite of all his heroism and his many suc- cesses Frederick would certainly have been over- whelmed in the end if the allies had not gradually withdrawn their assistance from Austria, till at length Prussia and Austria were left alone, face to face. As both were exhausted by the long war, peace was concluded at the hunting lodge Huberts- burg, in Saxony, and Silesia was left in the hands of Frederick. It remains Prussian to this day. Among all the great and remarkable battles fought in the Seven Years' War, that of Rossbach deserves special notice. Late in the year of 1757 Frederick the Great had advanced at the head of 20,000 men to the River Saale, to drive the French and a division of the imperial army out of Saxony. The latter were thrice as numerous as the Prussians, and rejoiced at the prospect of a battle with such preponderance, thinking that now at last they would be able to surround and crush the king. Frederick had encamped on rising ground. The French marched round the hill with their bands playing, thinking to enclose the Prussians. With the capture of the king they trusted to bring the war to an end. The Prussians remained motion- THE CHARGE OF SEIDLITZ. 2 oc less ; the smoke rose from their camp-fires ; they were eating their breakfasts. Frederick was in the castle on the hill. He knocked a hole in the roof, climbed through, and sat there for an hour watch- ing the movements of the enemy, then he came down and ate a hearty breakfast. When he saw the heads of the enemy's columns opposite his left flank he gave the signal. At once the tents were furled, the soldiers sprang to arms, the drums rat- tled, the lines formed, the concealed cannon began to spout flame, and roar ; the cavalry general, Seid- iitz, charged down the hill at the enemy, hurled himself at their ranks, and broke them before they had time to form into line of battle. The enemy, unprepared for such rapid movements, gave way in panic, and in less than half an hour the battle was won, with the loss on the Prussian side of not more than 300 men, whilst on the side of the allies 4000 were killed and wounded, 7000, with eleven generals, were taken prisoners, and sixty-three can- nons and twenty-two standards fell into the hands of the conquerors. The French fled without re- forming, a broken, disorganized, panic-stricken rab- ble, and did not stop till they had placed the Rhine between themselves and the formidable Prussians. The popular humour nicknamed the French host thus defeated the Army of Cut-and-Run (Reiss- aus-Armee). LI. OLD FRITZ REPAIRS RUINS. AFTER the victorious conclusion of the Seven Years' War the king devoted his attentions to the repair of the ruin wrought by it. The war had caused his subjects terrible sufferings. It is said that 14,500 houses lay in ashes, and so many men had been consumed in his armies that there were not men to till the fields, nor horses to draw the harvest wanes. In Saxony 100,000 men had perished of famine alone ; in Bohemia 180,000 had died of hunger ; but Prussia and Silesia had suffered less from this cause, because the king and his minister, Schalaberndorf, had enforced the cultivation of the potato. At first, great prejudice had existed against this useful tuber, but Frederick saw its value and insisted on its growth. As many as twenty thousand persons emigrated from Bohemia, from the trampled and burnt corn-fields, to eat the po- tatoes in Prussia and live. The king had the ruined villages rebuilt. He provided the impover^ ished farmers with grain to sow, and he imported horses which he distributed among them. He had drains and canals cut to dry swamps, and he improved the roads. Every year he went the round of his land, to see how it was prospering, 296 FREDERICK THE GREAT. (From the Painting I y Cause.) 29/ 298 OLD FRITZ REPAIRS RUINS. and to remedy abuses. When he saw a tract under cultivation which had before been moor or marsh, he was wont to say, " I have gained a new province." He encouraged science and art, built schools, and improved the administration of jus- tice. He was familiar with his subjects, always had an ear open to their grievances, and a hand ready to rectify them. He was specially fond of the agricultural population. He liked to go among them, talk to the farmers, and learn their wants and their opinions. Consequently, he was greatly beloved by them, and they spoke of him as " Father Fritz," or as " Old Fritz." His early acquaintance with the infidel writers of France had driven all belief in Christianity out of his heart, and, believing nothing, he was tolerant. When he heard of a dispute about some hymn-books, which was referred to* him as head of the Evangelical Church in his lands, he said, " Bah ! Let them sing what tom- foolery they like." As he did not believe in religion, he had, unfortu- nately, no trustworthy standard of right and wrong. At his court was a Scotchman, named Keith, a man so honorable, truthful, and good that Frederick said of him, " That man almost makes me believe in virtue." Whether his care for the good of his people sprang from mere selfishness, a knowledge that their prosperity secured his own power, or whether his heart was better than his principles, one cannot tell. We will hope the best. He had stooping shoulders, wore a three-cornered laced hat en his head, and a long pig-tail. His NECESSITY TO BE BUSY. 299 uniform was threadbare, blue with red facings. He wore short black breeches and long boots. Many droll stories are told of him. The people of Pots- dam stuck up a caricature, representing him with a coffee-mill in his lap at a street corner. He saw it as he passed. " Put it lower, that it may be bet- ter seen," said the king, and passed on. One of his guards, too poor to buy a watch, attached a bullet to his chain and wore it in his pocket. The king once asked him the time of day. The officer pulled out the bullet and said, " My watch points to but one hour, that in which I am prepared to die for your Majesty." After that, of course, Fred- erick handed him his own gold watch. The king was fond of snuff, with which he stained his clothes. Once when he met the Austrian em- peror, he assumed, out of compliment, the Austrian uniform of white embroidered with silver. But the snuff got over the cloth and made a sad mess of the beautiful suit. He looked at the officers in splendid trim who surrounded the emperor, and said, " Gentlemen, I am not clean enough for your company ; I do not deserve to wear your colours." Here is one of his good sayings : " Nothing is nearer akin to death than idleness. It is not neces- sary that I should live, but it is necessary that whilst I live I be busy." As long as he lived he loved his flute, and when thinking over affairs of state he used to stride through the corridors and chambers of his palace at Potsdam playing on this instrument. By his prudent government he raised the king- 3oo OLD FRITZ REPAIRS R OVA'S. dom of Prussia to the level of Austria, France, and England, as one of the first-class powers in Europe. His army was certainly the best disciplined on the continent ; but he allowed the soldiers to be flogged for small offences. Louis XV. supposed that the success of the Prussians was due to the cat-o'-nine- tails, so he introduced it into his army. But when one of the subalterns was ordered to flog a private he killed himself rather than do so. When Frederick the Great died in 1706 the news of his death filled Germany with sorrow. He left to his successor a flourishing kingdom with six millions of inhabitants, a splendid army, and a full treasury. Frederick well merited the appellation of " the Great," for he set a great example to the sovereigns of Germany. His unfortunate bringing up, which both hardened his heart and killed his faith, were the cause of his not being the greatest of modern kings, or of being really, as he was called in French, " Sans pareil." LII. THE DOINGS OF TWO HUNDRED PRINCES. When the Thirty Years' War came to an end there were something like two hundred independent states in Germany, and the fashion set in to regard France as the pattern by which all must live and rule. The Thirty Years' War had nearly extinguished culture in the land, and France was highly cultivated, con- sequently there was much excuse for the princes. Unfortunately, French culture was not sound at core ; it was a glittering soap-bubble. Louis XIV. was a great monarch, but in exactly the opposite way to Frederick II. Louis gained a splendid name, and ruined France, and sowed the saeds of the revolution which destroyed the throne. Frederick made Prussia prosperous, and planted the basis of his throne so deep that it has stood un- shaken, and has become the centre of the new Ger- man empire. The princes of the 18th century did not see the mistake Louis XIV. was making • we can, because we have history to teach us. None of the princes could escape the fashion of copying France. Even Frederick the Great felt its influence as you have heard, and its influence was pernicious to him. When Louis XIV. built his palace at Versailles 301 302 THE DOINGS OF TWO HUNDRED PRINCES. and created a city in the midst of a sandy waste, most of the princelings of Germany followed suit, and sought to create towns in the most unsuitable places. George Samuel, of Nassau Idstein, unable to create a city in his diminutive county, resolved, at least, to call a village into being and give it his name ; so he erected Georgenborn on the top of a bald mountain. The village was built, and roads to it were engineered ; it was provided with a mayor and pastor, and then the wretched peasants were driven, by an edict of the count, from their old homes into the cold new houses. After a ling-erinsf life of thirty years, the successor of George Samuel issued an edict ordering the place to be destroyed, and its name to be blotted out of the map. But, queerly enough, just then a new industry had sprung up in Georgenborn, and the little village suddenly began to prosper. Georgenborn still exists, a mon- ument to all the world that villages are not to be created or extinguished by the caprice of rulers. More grotesque still was the attempt of Count William of Biickeburg, whose ambition it was not to have a palace and town like Versailles, but a fortress like Metz. His county was so small that a cannon-ball could cross it at a shot. At great expense he created a fortified place and mounted guns on the ramparts, but within were nothing to defend but a range of wooden huts, an observatory, and a potato field. You know by pictures, if you have not seen it, the beautiful castle of Heidelberg, the finest ruin of a MUSHROOM TOWNS. 303 palace in Germany. Heidelberg was the capital of the Palatinate, but the elector, Charles Philip, in 1720, made Mannheim his capital. He built it entirely, taking a chessboard as his plan. In it is a hideous palace, and the town is placed on a dead flat piece of ground. Baron Pollnitz, who wrote his memoirs at the time, says, " I have seen partridges where are now palaces. The whole town is laid out in a most regular and charming manner; and it is without dispute one of the prettiest places in Eu- rope." How taste alters ! We should say it was, with the exception of Darmstadt, the ugliest. Duke Eberhard Louis of Wiirtemberg also transferred his capital from Stuttgard to a new town he built and called after his name, Ludwigsberg. The cost was enormous, and r what was more grievous, it was undertaken at a time of famine. When the founda- tions were laid bread was thrown among the starv- ing peasants to still their murmurs. The palace contains four hundred apartments. The city was planned in square blocks, like Mannheim and Darmstadt, with seven squares, eight gates, and three parish churches. Now this town is only kept from falling into ruin by being converted into an arsenal ; but grass grows in the streets, and the palace is decaying. Karlsruhe was built by the Margrave of Baden- Durlach, Charles William, about his hunting lodge, which was in the depths of a forest, but which he converted into a palace. Baron Pollnitz says of this: " The present mar- grave, Charles, laid the plan and the foundation of 304. THE DOINGS OF TWO HUNDRED PRINCES. this city and its palace. Imagine the palace at the entrance of a great forest, in the centre of a star formed by thirty-two walks. Behind the palace is a lofty octagonal tower commanding the walks. On the other side of the palace is the town. Between the houses run five streets. The main street is in a line with the centre of the palace. At the end of the three chief streets, opposite the palace, are three churches, one for the Lutherans, another for the Calvinists, and the third for the Catholics." You will remember how that in the rococco period straight lines and stiffness were avoided ; now the fashion was run in the opposite extreme, everything was formal and regular. Darmstadt was rebuilt in the same detestable taste, about the same time, by the electors Louis I. and III., who laid out the town in the form it now wears. One street is just like another, one house the counterpart of another. At the head of the main street is the unsightly palace ; at the two ends of the cross street two unsightly churches, one for the Calvinists, the other for the Catholics. Those who did not build cities erected palaces. The Baron de Reichenbach, a Belgian traveller of the beginning of this century, says : " The princes seem to have been actuated by a feverish rivalry who should be best housed. No little potentate could pass muster who had not his Louvre and his Versailles." At Wiirzburg the bishop erected a splendid palace, the foundations of which were laid in 1720, although he had two others in the place, one the THE PALACE OF WURZBURG. 30S castle of Mancnberg, the second only finished the year before he began the third. This new palace contains two hundred and eighty-four apartments, one devoted to a merry-go-round for the amusement of the prelate, his chaplains, and court on rainy days. The prince-bishop occupied a little carriage in the whirligig, hung with episcopal purple velvet, embroidered with the mitre and arms of the See. One of the rooms is lined with looking-glass, so that when you stand in it you see yourself repeated over and over again infinitely. 20 LIU. GOOD KING JOSEPH. (1780-1790.) AMONG all the German princes who ascended the imperial throne Joseph II. takes one of the first places. He was the son of Maria Theresa and inherited from her the good qualities which made her the darling of her people. This well-intentioned emperor devoted his whole life to the service of the state, and at a time when gambling was the rage never played for money. On the occasion of a visit to Versailles he declined to take a hand at cards. " A prince who loses," he said, " loses the money of his subjects." He was not a drinker or a gourmand. He loved music, and played the violoncello. He was eager to redress wrongs, almost too eager, for he made sweeping changes before his people were prepared to accept them, and Frederick the Great was right when he said that Joseph always took the second step before he made the first. From youth up he was a great admirer of Fred- erick, whom he took as his pattern in his attempts at amendment. When he met Frederick for the first time at Neisse, he exclaimed joyfully, " Now my wishes are fulfilled, as I have had the honor of em- 306 A ROYAL REFORMER. * y bracing this great king and general." After a second meeting Frederick said to those who sur- rounded him, " I have seen the emperor, and am satisfied that he will play a great part in the affairs of Europe. He was born at a most bigoted court, and has shaken himself free from superstition. He was nurtured in pomp, and yet has simple habits. • He has had the incense of flattery burnt under his nose, and yet is modest. He glows with love of fame, yet sacrifices his ambition to duty. He has had pedants for teachers, yet his taste for the best books is healthy." You have been told how the princes built their new towns on plans of the strictest uniformity, making streets, houses, and churches all alike. Joseph II. tried to do the same thing in governing his territories, and so showed that want of common sense which Frederick II. possessed, and which, saved him from committing gross blunders. In the Austrian dominions ten principal languages, were spoken, and each nation had its own laws and administration. Joseph formed the scheme of uniting them all into one and ruling all by one sim- ple system ; and of abolishing all distinctions of re- ligion, language, law and manners. In the Aus- trian monarchy there were thirteen governments. He suppressed these, did away with the local parlia- ments, made the German tongue obligatory in all the public offices, and allowed the officers only two years for learning it, and abolished old customary forms, cancelled charters, and suppressed privileges. He meant well. It was very difficult to govern 308 GOOD KING JOSEPH. Hungarians, Bohemians, Germans, Moravians, Ital- ians, Flemings, Croatians, Tyrolese, Transylvanians, etc., by different laws, and it would facilitate gov- ernment greatly if they were all ruled directly from Vienna, by one system of government. But Joseph did not consider that these several nations mijjht be warmly attached to their own laws and traditional customs. So, instead of doing good, he threw the system of government into great confusion. Then he drew up a catechism of government for the people to be taught in the schools, in which he reduced his laws to a sort of table of command- ments, which was profane and absurd. Here are some of his commandments. " Thou shalt not send hare-skins out of the country. Thou shalt not keep useless dogs. Thou shalt not plant to- bacco without permission." But though Joseph made mistakes, he did avast amount of real good. His heart was in the right place. He was conscientious and earnest in his desire to rectify abuses, but his head was not strong enough to show him where to stop. The peasants had been kept under by feudal laws, and were almost bondsmen. He removed their bonds and cancelled all the intolerable restrictions which kept them from prospering. He encouraged the schools, and extended and improved the system of education. He also reduced the number of mon- asteries and convents from over two thousand to seven hundred, and he abolished all those which were of no practical utility. Monks, friars, and nuns must either teach, preach, or nurse the sick. He IMPRISONED CAPUCHINS. 303 would not allow any of the Religious Orders to remain which were idle. The principal orders were the Benedictines, who cultivated learning and kept schools; the Jesuits, who taught in schools and preached ; and the Franciscans or Capuchins, who lived on what they could beg. The Jesuits made themselves particularly obnox- ious by meddling with politics ; the Capuchins, re- cruited from the lowest of the people, were igno- rant, and great encouragers of superstition. The money and buildings acquired by the suppression of so many monasteries were devoted to useful purposes — schools, hospitals, libraries, etc. Joseph placed all the monasteries under the supervision of the bishops of the dioceses in which they were. This was an excellent rule, as hitherto they had been independent and had gone their own way and done what they liked, without any control. The occasion of this was the discovery of great cruelties committed in a Capuchin convent in Vienna. One. of the friars there, named Fessler, informed the emperor that there was a prison in it in which some of the friars had been kept locked up for many years. One had been there for fifty, another for forty, a third for fifteen, and a fourth for nine years. The emperor thereupon issued an inquisition and suppressed the begging orders. He lessened the icvenuesof the largest bishoprics, suppressed some, and created others, and granted the free exercise of their religion to all denominations. The Pope, Pius VI., alarmed at these high-handed proceedings, thinking that Joseph was going to emulate the course of ? l0 GOOD KING JOSEPH. Henry VIII. of England, made a journey to Vienna to remonstrate with the emperor in person. Joseph received him with slight courtesy, and kept him al- most as a prisoner. He had the doors of his lodg- ing walled up, with the exception of the front door, over which a guard was placed, to prevent the Pope from receiving private visits and stirring up discon- tent. After spending four weeks without effecting anything, Pius at length departed with a heavy heart. The emperor accompanied him as far as the abbey of Mariabrunn, and two hours after the Pope had left its shelter he ordered the monastery to be closed, to show how little the Pope had influenced him. His arbitrary interference with the usages and liberties of his states led to revolt. Belgium re- fused to pay taxes, and declared itself independent. In Hungary there were risings of the people, and the emperor was forced to withdraw his orders for changes in that kingdom. He made war with the Turks and met with disaster. The hereditary do- minions of Austria were in ferment, and revolution threatened him on all sides. Under these disap- pointments his health and spirits gave way. Short- ly before his death he wrote of himself, " I know my own heart. I am convinced of the sincerity of my purposes, and I trust that, when I am gone, I shall be impartially judged." That impartial judgment has been arrived at by all historians, No one doubts the good intentions of Joseph II. ; no one admits that he had the sound judgment to carry them out prudently. Joseph RESUL T OF PREMA TURE REFORMS. ' JjJM 3c^yE^aii28j XfTP LIV. GENIUS COMES TO THE FRONT. THE close of the 18th century -was a period of great literary waking. In the rococco time the general unreality invaded and pervaded litera- ture ; but now a change took place, and men of real genius came to the front who have made them- selves imperishable names. The first to break away from the fantastic foppery of the rococco style was Gotthold Lessing (i 729-1 781), who, though he tried at first to study theology and med- icine, was destined to give his life to pure litera- ture. He ridiculed the imitation of French writers, and demanded that German authors should develop originality in thought and style. Calling attention to the genius of Kant and Winckelmann, and op- posing the methods of Wieland and Klopstock, he urged that sentimentality should no longer infect religion nor frivolity debase art. He wrote Minna von Barnhelm, a comedy not free from the affecta- tions he opposed, and Emilia Galotti, a tragedy, in which he retold the story of Virginia but made the characters modern. His Laocoon is a critical dis- sertation on the limits of poetry and painting which has exerted and still exerts a vast influence every- where. Nathan dcr Weise is another powerful work 312 LESSING AND GOETHE. n of his independent mind, in which, in the guise of a dramatic story, he sets forth the philosophy of his religion. Before' Lessing died he saw the two greatest authors of Germany started on the literary career which has lent its chiefest glory to the period, — John Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and John Christopher Frederick Schiller (1 759-1 805). The former stands second only to our Shakespeare as a poet, and was a man of wonderful genius marred by intense vanity. The son of a gentleman of some fortune, he was educated with remarkable thorough- ness, and his personal attainments and manners caused the world to expect great things of him. In spite of this there was much surprise when, in 1773, his drama, Gotz von Berlichingen appeared. It was followed the next year by The Sorroivs of Young WertJicr. The literary world was intoxicated with the spirit of romanticism, and Germany entered upon a season of intellectual convulsion known as the Sturm und Drang, or storm and stress period. Gots was founded upon the old story of the hero of the Iron hand, a strong and manly but lawless baron of the sixteenth century ; and the Sorrows of WertJicr wove into one texture the unhappy pas- sions of the author and those of a student whose sad story Goethe had learned. With considerable mawkish sentimentality was mingled much admira- ble description ; the language was wonderful, and the whole so well accorded with the vague longing and discontent of the age, that, as Carlyle says, " the heart and voice of all Europe loudly and at once 314 GENIUS COMES TO THE FRONT. responded to it." The romance was greedily read by young and old, and some young fools even fol- lowed Werther's example and took their own lives, in order to excite for themselves the pity so freely accorded to the hero of the story. At the invitation of the grand duke, Charles Augustus, Goethe went to Weimar in 1775 ; and there he afterwards made the acquaintance of Schil- ler, whom he so warmly appreciated for his pure and healthy genius and noble mind, that he called the period a "new spring-tide " in his life. In this little place without trade or manufactures, Goethe was worshipped by everybody, especially by the women ; but the great men of the nation, too, gathered about him, and Weimar became a sort of German Athens. The poet gave himself up at first to social enjoyment, but afterwards he engaged in study, though for several years he published little. His study, travels, and varied experience in life bore fruit, however, and in after years he produced novels, poems, and plays that challenged the admira- tion of the world. Among his great works are the romantic drama Egmont , the tragedy of IpJiigenia von Tauris, the melancholy reverie Torqnatns Tasso, and the idyllic epic Hermann and Dorotlica. If Goethe's genius did not culminate in his wonder- ful poem founded upon the fable of Faust, in which with melody, wit, pathos, mystery, reverence, and irony he depicted the disenchantment of the intel- lect, it reached its greatest expression in his songs and ballads, the spontaneous outgushings of his mind in every variety of mood. Charming in sim- SCHILLER MEE TS C OE THE. ^ j ^ plicity, grotesque, weird, and haughty by turns, they are certainly human feeling " married to immortal verse." The genius of Goethe was recognized in England 'as well as at home, and on his last birth- day fifteen representative writers there, including Scott, Southey, Carlyle, and Procter, united in send- ing him a greeting accompanied by a seal, on which were engraved the words from one of his own poems, Ohnc Hast, Ohnc Rast, without haste, with- out rest. No contemporary had so much influence upon literature, and no other German author at all compares with him in this respect. Carlyle said that he and the first Napoleon were the two great- est men of their day, and that Goethe was " intrin- sically of much more unquestionable greatness" than the conquering soldier. Schiller was at many points a contrast to his older contemporary. Without the exceptional ad- vantages of Goethe he had prepared himself by stealth for the career of a poet. As early as his nineteenth year he had begun to compose a drama, afterwards published as The Robbers, which startled the literary world by its impassioned and fascinat- ing eloquence, and is said actually to have induced some persons of fortune to become amateur out- laws. He did not visit Weimar until his twenty- eighth year, and when he and Goethe met there was a mutual repulsion. He wrote to a friend that between persons of such different views of life no substantial intimacy was possible. Though each avoided the other the substantial intimacy grew, as has been intimated, and was fruitful for Germany, 316 GENIUS COMES TO THE FRONT. The one stood for the tyranny of the intellect and the other for the loveliness of the affections. Among the works of Schiller were the long drama of Wallenstevn, in three parts, of five acts each, ob- viously too long for acting ; Mary Stuart, The Maid of Orleans, The Bride of Messina, and William Tell. Though deservedly renowned as a dramatist Schil- ler is probably best known by his poems, among which The Song of the Bell, The Diver, The Glove, The Cranes of Ibycus, and Rudolph of Hapsburg are perhaps the most familiar. Schiller reflected the ideal yearnings of his age, and sought to encourage men to love and be led by the good, the beautiful, and the true. When he died, at the early age of forty-five, Goethe exclaimed, " In losing my friend I have lost half of my being." Thirty-seven years- later he calmly breathed away his own life, saying, "More light!" words that have sometimes been thought to express his longing for something better than this life afforded. While Goethe and Schiller ruled in the kingdom of letters they were surrounded by many disciples and imitators, as well as by original thinkers, who advanced every branch of learning. Humboldt and Ritter cultivated geographical science ; Herder and the brothers Schlegel went deep into history and criticism ; Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, and Kant car- ried the fame of German philosophy over the world ; Ranke and Niebuhr presented history in new phases ; Schleiermacher and Neander discussed deep principles of theology ; Jean Paul Richter soared to the mysterious heights of transcendental- ORCHESTRAL MUSIC. ^ x y ism; and Hoffmann, Fouque, and Tieck revelled in the realms of the imagination. If the rulers were royal the subjects were truly worthy of them. Music, which gave promise of becoming a great art in the rococco period, now sprang into full perfection. Some of the greatest musical geniuses of the world belong to this period : Mozart, Gluck, Haydn, and Beethoven. All of these wrote church music ; Haydn composed the beautiful oratorio The Crea- tion; Gluck wrote operas on classic themes; Mo- zart took more popular subjects ; Beethoven wrote one opera only, Lconore or Fidelio. Mozart's music is exquisitely melodious, but lacks the massiveness possessed by that of Beethoven. Mozart died at the age of thirty-five ; poor Beethoven became deaf, gloomy, and distrustful in his old age. With these composers the orchestra became of much greater importance than formerly. Handel, the great mas- ter of the previous generation, scarcely knew any- thing of the power and properties of the various instruments ; but now they were brought into use, parts were written for each, and all were woven into a whole, blending and governed by one idea, but each acting separately from the others. This may, therefore, be said to be the epoch of the develop- ment of orchestral music. IW , 'f^jmM HPiir^JiiTM'j^u^MiRTtj^Tii ILJ^S^^t^^w 1 ^^!?!^ ^•^^^-^^^^^^c l LV. AN UPTURNING IN FRANCE. Louis XIV. was succeeded on the throne of France by his great-grandson, Louis XV,, aged only five years and a half. On the death of the king the Duke of Orleans, as first prince of the blood, was appointed regent. The duke led a prof- ligate life, and set a bad example, which was only too readily imitated by those at court. By his extravagance he raised the national debt to danger- ous proportions. This wretched condition of affairs did not mend when Louis XV. attained his major- ity. The young king thought of nothing but his pleasures, and left the management of the affairs of state to his ministers and favourites. At this time it became the fashion to be, or to af- fect to be, vicious, and to scoff at religion and mor- ality. Many authors took up the pen to write profanities and to turn Christianity, the clergy, and virtue into ridicule. At the same time writings were distributed among the people showing up the badness of the Government, and urging the abolition of abuses and the introduction of reforms. The vices of the court, its extravagance, the growth of the national debt, the burden of taxation falling on the 3i8 IXFLUENCE OF AMERICA. 319 people made the latter ready to accept these teach- ings. Both the nobility and the clergy at this time had very extensive privileges. Neither paid taxes, so that the -whole burden fell on the farmers and tradesmen. This was a grievous injustice. It had been redressed in England long ago by the nobil- ity, voluntarily. In France and in Germany it remained as an intolerable wrong. Most powerful of all was the example of the English colonies in North America, who, in 1783, separated them- selves from their mother country, and founded a republic. France, intent on weakening her ancient foe, had sent numbers of her sons to America, where they had fought against the English, and these returned to their native land full of the novel ideas of liberty and of enthusiasm for a republican form of gov- ernment. They contrasted the fresh virtue of the new institutions in the United States with the de- crepid corruption of the French crown. Thus it came about that there grew up in what was called the Tiers c'tat, or Third Estate — i. e., the people themselves — an intense anger and bitterness against the nobles and clergy, who paid no taxes, and against the crown, which sanctioned such abuses. In this time of agitation of spirits Louis XVI. came to the throne of France. He was married to Marie Antoinette, daughter of Maria Theresa, and sister of Joseph II. The accession of Louis XVI. was greeted with great acclamations of joy from the ueople, for they hoped that with it would come 3 2< AN UPTURNING IN FRANCE. relief from their crushing taxation, and a return to better times. Louis, a well-intentioned, blameless man, with his heart full of love for his people, and desirous to be a just and good ruler, lacked the mental power and the energy of character to grap- ple with an evil of such long growth, and to take decisive and subversive measures. His queen was fond of gaiety, and by her example countenanced the most lavish extravagance. She was only fif- teen when she was married, and at Versailles she was surrounded by frivolous and pleasure-seeking courtiers, who hid from her the truth, so that she probably had no idea of the real condition of af- fairs. She was only nineteen when her husband became king. She iK-as a good woman, tenderly attached to her children and husband. She was very beautiful, and much flattered, and this per- haps a little turned her head. The evil condition of affairs increased to a fear- ful degree. The exchequer was robbed by those who had charge of it ; the taxes would not suffice to cover the outlay ; and the king, almost reduced to the necessity of declaring the state bankrupt, demanded aid from the nobility and clergy, who, hitherto free from taxation, had amassed great wealth. The aristocracy, blind to their true inter- est, refused to comply, and by so doing compelled the king to have recourse to the Third Estate. Accordingly, in 1789, he convoked a general as- sembly, in which deputies sent by the citizen and peasant classes were not only numerically equal to those of the aristocracy, but were their supe- THE BASTILLE STORMED. 3 2 * riors in ability and energy. When the nobility and clergy refused to share the burden of taxation, and even declined to sit together with the com- mons, the deputies of the Third Estate separated from the other two houses and declared themselves a competent national assembly. Many of the nobil- ity and the majority of the clergy, feeling the justice of the cause of the people, united with them, and gave up their privileges. The members of this assembly met in the Tennis Court of the palace of Versailles, and there swore not to separate till they had given a new constitution to the realm. The as- sembly was thenceforth called the Constitutional Assembly. The men who most distinguished them- selves at this conjuncture were Count Mirabeau, the Abbe Sieyes, and the Count of Lafayette. The news of this decided step created violent agitation in Paris, and the people broke loose. On June 14th, 1789, a mob attacked the Bastille, an ancient strong castle in Paris that served as a prison, took it by storm, and levelled its walls with the dust. Soon after, armed bands of men and women rushed off to Versailles, burst into the pal- ace, where they killed several of the guards, and forced the king to come to Paris. The National Assembly also, at the same time, transferred its sessions to Paris. Emboldened by its first successes the Assembly now undertook a thorough transfor- mation of the state, and in order to attain the object for which it had been assembled, that of procur- ing supplies, declared the aristocracy subject to tax- ation, and sold the enormous property belonging to 21 322 AN UPTURNING IN FRANCE. the Church. All distinctions and privileges were abolished, and all Frenchmen were pronounced equal. It went further still. The people were declared the cnly true sovereign, and the king the first servant of the state. At the first outbreak of the revolution the two brothers of the king and many of the nobility fled the country. All through France the peasants rose and set fire to the chateaux, and burned the ar- chives containing the title-deeds of the nobles to their lands. The Assembly continued its work. It divided France into eighty-three departments. It published a list of the rights of men without say- ing anything about their duties. Everywhere dis- turbances became worse. The royal family, feeling iio longer safe, attempted to fly, but were arrested at Varennes and brought back as prisoners to Paris (July 23, 1791). The rabble had now completely got the upper hand. At midnight of the 9th of October they broke into the Tuilleries, the royal palace, massa- cred the gallant Swiss guards who defended the king, and clamoured for his deposition. That he and his family might not fall into the hands of these savages the king, with the queen and his chil- dren, escaped to the hall where the National Assem- bly was collected, at nine o'clock in the morning of the 10th. The Assembly declared the king provisionally deprived of his functions, and con- signed him and his family to the Temple, one of the prisons of Paris. All the adherents of the king were then secured and thrown into the prisons. LEOPOLD II. IN THE IMPERIAL KOISES. 323 2 r>A AN UPTURNING IN FRANCE. Leopold II., Emperor of Austria, and Frederick William II., King of Prussia, now prepared for war. The French forestalled them by declaring war. The King of Prussia, at the head of 50,000 of his own men and 30,000 Austrians, took Longwy, and ad- vanced upon Verdun and Champagne. The news filled the rabble with fury. The Jacobins, as the most extreme of the revolutionists were called, from a club into which they had formed themselves, cried out, " Our most dangerous enemies are not the Germans at Verdun, they are to be found at Paris in our prisons." Thus instigated, the mob burst into one place of detention after another, and for four days in succession massacred all they found in them. The same horrors were perpetrated at Lyons, Rheims, Meaux, and Versailles. The massacre began on Sept. 2d, and the same day Robespierre was elected to the National Convention, as the third national assembly was designated. To protect the frontiers against the allied sover- eigns, and to carry the war into their territories, the Assembly ordered armies to advance. The French at once invaded the Netherlands and defeated the Austrians at Jemmapes. The Republican soldiers entered Brussels, pillaged the Netherland cities of all that was valuable, and after doing this effectually proclaimed liberty and equality and the rights of men. Another French army advanced to the Rhine and secured Mainz. The alliance of the German sovereigns against the Revolution precipitated the fate of the king. The National Convention condemned him to death, and FREDERICK WILLIAM II. OF PRUSSIA. (From the painting by Schroder.) 325 326 AN UPTURNING IN FRANCE. the execution was fixed for the 2ist February, 1793. After a heart-rending parting from his wife and children Louis XVI. mounted the scaffold with dignity and Christian resignation. On reaching the platform he advanced to the breasting to address the people. " Frenchmen," he said, "lam guiltless of the crimes whereof I am accused. I forgive those who have brought me to my death, and I pray God that the blood you are about to shed may not be required of France." His address was cut short by the rattle of drums. He allowed his hands to be bound without an attempt at resistance ; and as the Abbe Edgeworth, his confessor, exclaimed, " Son of S. Louis, mount to heaven ! " the axe fell. Then there was a rush of the people. They burst through the guards to sop their handkerchiefs in the royal blood. Thus died Louis XVI. His prime minister, Necker, a Swiss, said of him, " He was a sovereign good to the heart's core. He loved his people as a father loves his children. He did what was right when he saw what was his duty, and how to discharge it. He was a ready help to all in trouble. He released the peasants from serfdom, and abolished the irksome feudal duties. He put a stop to torture, and had the prisons placed under proper supervision and put into decent order. He restored to the Protestants their citizen rights. His whole life was spent in doing good. He suffered, not for his own sins, but for those of his forefathers. His people were, during the latter years, blinded to his excellence, and allowed his enemies to do what MARIE ANTOINETTE EXECUTED. 327 they willed with him. He died a martyr to his virtues." The execution of Louis was followed by that of the queen in October. She was taken to the scaf- fold in a cart, with her hands tied behind her. She was scarce 5S years old when she died. LVI. THE MAN FROM CORSICA. THE news of the execution of the king filled all Europe with horror and indignation, and in France several towns and the province of La Vendee rose against the National Convention. Most of the European powers formed an alliance against the French Republic (the ist Coalition, 1793), and their armies advanced on the frontiers. A very speedy termination to the Republic might have ensued had not the powers been filled with rivalries, and had their forces been led by competent generals. The Duke of Coburg was at the head of the main body of the Austrians in the Netherlands, and he was reinforced by the English and Dutch. With their aid he drove the French out of the Netherlands, but instead of advancing at once on Paris he dawdled in the Low Countries, issuing manifestoes and invest- ing Dunkirk. The Duke of Brunswick, in command of the Prussians, retook Mainz, but owing to the jealousy felt by the King of Prussia at the union of the English with the Austrians was not allowed to go forward. In the spring of the following year the emperor, Francis II., visited the Netherlands, with the inten- tion of pushing straight upon Paris. This project, 328 ROBESPIERRE THE BLOODTHIRSTY. -, 2 Q practicable in 1793, was now utterly out of the question. The French had massed their armies to protect the frontier, and • the Prussians had with- drawn in a sulk. The French sneered, " The allies are always wool-gathering, and wake up a year too late." In face of the danger that menaced the Republic, on April 6th, a Committee of Public Safety was appointed at Paris, and the lives, the freedom, and the property of all the citizens were placed in the hands of this committee. They could condemn to death whom they would". At the head stood Robespierre, a cold, bloodthirsty man. Now executions went on without cessation. No one was safe. The more moderate members of the Convention (the Girondists) were sent to the guillo- tine. Blood poured in streams, not in Paris only, but in all the large towns of France. Any one, on the faintest suspicion, was arrested, and once arrested his fate was sealed. The Republic then turned its attention to repel the enemies at its doors. The English were beaten at Toulon. The Spanish, who had crossed the Pyrenees, retired over them again. The Prussians were de- feated by Hoche and the Austrians by Jourdan. The Prussians, full of jealousy of the Austrians, with- drew from the alliance, and concluded peace with the Republic, basely surrendering to France the whole left bank of the Rhine. Belgium was overrun and annexed to France, Holland formed into a republic under its protection. England remained inert. Only Austria abided unshaken. The French crossed 2-»o THE MAN FROM CORSICA. the Rhine and invaded Swabia ; were encountered by the Archduke Charles, and defeated him. The French took Stuttgart and Frankfort. Then the Austrians succeeded in breaking to pieces the invad- ing army, and as it retreated the peasantry rose in a body and hunted the soldiers down. In the mean time the Reign of Terror at Paris had come to an end. Robespierre had raged with such frightful bloodthirstiness, putting to death every one whom he considered an opponent, spar- ing not even Republicans of as advanced views as his own, that at last his own adherents were afraid for their lives, and the more moderate united against him'. He was accused, a majority formed to con- demn him, and he was dragged to the guillotine, a cowardly, quaking wretch, with a broken jaw, hav- ing tried, ineffectually, to shoot himself when sen- tenced to death. A fresh constitution was now issued, and five men were appointed as Directors of the Republic. Among the many able generals possessed by France at this period Napoleon Bonaparte stood pre-eminent. He was the son of a Corsican lawyer, and was born at Ajaccio. As a boy he had shown a love for military studies. In his sixteenth year he entered the artillery in Paris as sub-lieutenant, and at the age of six-and-twenty he was nominated commander of the army of Italy. He found there that the soldiers were in a pitiable condition, with- out food, money, or clothing, dissatisfied and dis- organized. But Napoleon was not one to be daunted. " Soldiers," he said, " you are badly fed, CROSSING THE ALPS. 2 , . naked, and miserable among barren rocks. I will lead you down into the richest plains in the world. Great cities full of wealth, whole provinces will fall into your power; in them you will acquire all you want — fame, treasure, repose. Soldiers of the Army of Italy, with this prospect will your hearts fail ? No ; surely not. Forward ! " and, in fact, in a surpris- ingly short time he conquered the greater part of Italy and converted the provinces that came into his power into republics. The Austrian armies •sent against him were led by incompetent generals, who were perfectly incapable of winning success opposed to so consummate a genius as Bonaparte. In the mean time the Austrian army, under the •command of the gallant Archduke Charles, the brother of the emperor, Francis II., had, as you have heard, defeated the French in Wurtemberg and the Black Forest, and driven them back across the Rhine. In January, 1797, the Austrian general, Alvinzi, met a crushing defeat in Italy, with the loss of 20,000 men taken prisoners. At the same time another general, Wurmser, was forced to capitulate at Mantua with 21,000 men. As soon as the snow began to melt on the Alps Bonaparte prepared to march up the Isonzo, cross the Alps, and penetrate to Vienna. In his alarm the emperor recalled the Archduke Charles from the Rhine, but he had only the fragments of the discouraged troops of Alvinzi to lead. " Hitherto," said Napoleon, " I have been fighting armies without 232 THE MAN FROM CORSICA. generals, now I have to fight a general without an army." A battle took place in the mountains at Tarvis, high up on the pass into the Gail Valley, after- wards called "the battle above the clouds." The archduke, with a handful of Hungarian hussars, defended the pass against sixteen thousand French, and did not turn to fly till only eight of his men were left. The archduke retired to Glogau, where he collected five thousand men, and again barred the way against the French, and held his ground with dauntless heroism till only two hundred and fifty of his men remained. But now the archduke's troops, whom he had led to victory on the Rhine, were coming to his aid. The republic of Venice had made an alliance with Austria, and Napoleon was threatened in his rear. The brave Tyrolean peasants were up in arms, and routed his troops as they tried to push for- ward. The archduke hoped now to nip Bonaparte in the mountains, and crush him. But, with in- conceivable folly, the emperor's advisers at Vienna threw away this unique opportunity. They were so panic-struck at the advance of Bonaparte that when he, conscious of the predicament in which he stood, to gain time, sent overtures of peace, not in the least supposing the Austrian ministers such fools as. to accept them, they actually snapped at the proposals, and were in haste to get a treaty concluded. When Bonaparte saw the timorous sort of men with whom he had to deal he assumed a more defiant tone. The plenipotentiary of Aus- TREATY OF CAMPO FORMIO. 333 tria was Count Cobenzl, who had been much in the service of the Empress of Russia, and had presented Bonaparte a beautiful and costly vase from Cath- erine, 'the Empress of Russia. Cobenzl was a witty playwriter, and immediately after some un- pleasant piece of state business he produced a comedy full of fun. " I suppose," said the em- press, " Cobenzl, you are waiting to kill us with laugh- ing till you hear that the French are in Vienna?" This was the man sent into Udine to treat with Bonaparte. Now the latter was in far -greater straits than Cobenzl supposed, for the Directory in Paris were getting jealous of him, and refused him more soldiers, and he knew very well that he could not get any further through the Alps where the passes were guarded by brave mountaineers, ready to roll down rocks on his troops, and excellent shots were lurking behind every stone and tree to pick off his officers. However, he put a bold face on the matter, and when Cobenzl made some demur to one of his demands Napoleon took up the porcelain cup the Empress Catherine had sent him, and dashed it to atoms on the floor. " There," said he, " take my terms, or I will shatter your precious monarchy like this vessel." Cobenzl was too much frightened at the threat to stand out. A treaty was drawn up and signed, called the Treaty of CAMPO FORMIO, on October 17, 1797. By this the emperor ceded to France the whole of the west bank of the Rhine, Flanders, and the Lombard provinces, but received in exchange the territory of Venice and the archbishopric of Salz- 334. THE MAN FROM CORSICA. burg. Now this concession of Napoleon was part of his cleverness ; he wanted by all means in his power to rouse up the jealousy of Prussia against Austria. You know that among children one be- comes spiteful if another gets one slice of bread and jam more than itself, — so is it with nations. Prussia was consumed with anger and envy when it heard that Austria was to gain that rich merchant- city, Venice, and consequently would have noth- ing more to do with Austria against the common enemy. When the news reached Paris the French Re- publicans liked the idea of the cession of Venice to Austria almost as little as did the Prussians ; but Napoleon quieted them. " Pshaw ! " he said, " it is only for a bit." The result of this clever stroke soon became apparent. The Prussians sent an army into Franconia, and seized Nuremberg and several other towns. They also entered Westphalia, annexing it, and stirred up Hesse - Cassel to grasp part of Schaumburg-Lippe. That same year Frederick William II. died, and was succeeded by his son, Frederick William III., who continued the same shameful and dishonourable policy of playing the game of France against the only upholder of the German name and honour, the Emperor of Aus- tria. Whilst Austria was lulled into peace the French overran Switzerland and converted it into a repub- lic under their protection ; and thus this great barrier which had protected the Austrian frontiers on the side next France was thrown down. The peace CONFERENCE A T RASTADT. 335 concluded by Napoleon at Campo Formio had to be ratified, that is, agreed to by all the powers con- cerned, and a meeting was appointed to be held at Rastadt', which had been the residence of the mar- graves of Baden. In it is a red sandstone palace ; to this palace the envoys were summoned to meet KARL WILHELM, BARON VON HUMBOLDT. * (From a Drawing by P. C. Stroehling.) in 1797, and there they sat haggling over terms till April, 1799, when the congress was broken up without coming to any agreement, in the way you shall hear. The French envoys demanded all that had been granted by the treaty of Campo Formio, and agreed that, to indemnify the German princes, these latter should seize on all the remaining ecclesiastical prin- cipalities in the land, as the archbishoprics of Salz- burg, Mainz, and Cologne, the bishoprics of Minister, * See page 316. 336 THE MAN FROM CORSICA. Wurzburg, Bamberg, Eichstadt, etc. But they went further. Not content with the west, or left, bank of the Rhine, they now asked for some places on the other bank as well. Whilst the negotiations were in progress, France was collecting men and material for prosecuting the war. At Rastadt their principal envoy was Talley- rand, a man who had been a bishop, but had cared little for Christianity. He was a man of extraordi- nary talents, and cunning as a fox. He was able to do without sleep, and when asked how that was, he showed that his pulse throbbed, then stopped for some seconds, and then throbbed again. He said that his nature recruited itself in these pauses. With him were three others, Robert, Bon- nier, and De Bry, from the dregs of the people, coarse, insolent, rapacious men. The German princes, all eager to make good terms with the French for themselves, bribed these French envoys to put in a good word for them ; these scoundrels pocketed their money and insulted them for their (oily. On the 1st of March, however, whilst negotia- tions were still in progress, the French crossed the Rhine, under Jourdan, and entered Wiirtemberg. The brave and able Archduke Charles met and de- feated them, and Jourdan was obliged to recross :he Rhine to Strasburg, where he left his army and returned to Paris. The insolence of the envoys and their outrageous demands at Rastadt had aroused great anger in the people, and a tumult broke out in Vienna, in which the tricolour, floating above the residence of the French ambassador, was THE FRENCH IN EGYPT. 337 torn down and burnt. The Congress of Rastadt broke up in haste. As the envoys were leaving the place some hussars rushed out of a wood upon the carriage and killed two of them. Against England alone had the French hitherto been unable to deal crippling blows. In order to hurt English trade and to menace her Asiatic pos- sessions Napoleon was sent with an army into Egypt. There he was victorious on land, every- where ; but Nelson, with the English fleet, fought and completely destroyed the French fleet lying in Abukir Bay. Whilst Bonaparte was in Egypt the French armies met some serious disasters on the Rhine and in Switzerland. The Directory at Paris was, moreover, weakened by the various parties squabbling together. Bonaparte now left his army in Egypt and slipped across the Mediterranean unperceived by the Eng- lish, landed in France, was appointed generalis- simo over all the army, and at once upset, with the aid of his soldiers, the government, and appointed himself and two others as Consuls. This was in 1799, when the Second Coalition of European powers was formed against France, consisting of England, Russia, and Austria. Inspired by Napoleon the French troops gained victory after victory. He crossed the Alps at the head of a new army, before the Austrians were aware that he was in motion. With that incon- ceivable foil)- which seemed to pervade the coun- sels of the Austrian ministry the Archduke Charles had been deprived of his generalship and sent into 333 THE MAN FROM CORSICA. Bohemia, and the command of the forces given to Marshall Kay. Suddenly Napoleon appeared in Lombardy, and on June 14, 1800, gained such a decisive victory at Marengo that the Austrian army was forced to lay down its arms. The whole of Italy fell once more into the hands of the French. And now, instead of recalling the able Archduke Charles, the command-in-chief was given to the Archduke John, a lad of eighteen, without experience and without genius. On the 3d of Decem- ber this boy-general with his army was completely routed in the tremendous battle of Hohenlinden, more momentous even than that of Marengo in its military consequences. The shattered remains of the imperial army retreated behind the River Inn, followed by disaster. The Austrians lost 10,000 prisoners and 100 cannon. But now the voice of the nation made itself heard. Where was the Arch- duke Charles ? Let him be recalled. Accordingly, he was ordered back from Bohemia. He flew to the rescue, but when, instead of the proud battalions he had led so often to victory, he found only a con- fused crowd of infantry, cavalry, and artillery cover- ing the road, filled with panic, lost to discipline, the tears rolled down his furrowed cheeks. In vain did he try to rally them ; they were too broken even to obey his voice. The French fell on the rear of the flying Austrians, and routed the rearguard with a loss of twelve hundred men, completing the demor- alization of the army. A few days later the news arrived of the defeat of the Austrian army in Italy at the passage of the Mincio. These disasters once TERMS OF THE PEACE. ^ rt more inclined Austria to peace, which was concluded at Luneville (9th Feb., 1801). By this peace the whole of the left bank of the Rhine was again as- sured to France, and the petty republics established by France in Italy, Switzerland, and Holland were recognized. All but six of the free imperial cities were deprived of their privileges, the spiritual prin- cipalities were abolished, and many of the secu- lar princes were " mediatised," that is, lost their sovereign authority, though allowed to retain their titles. LVII. NAPOLEON AS EMrEROK. (1804.) As Consul, Napoleon governed in France with great vigour and discretion. By wise laws and benefiical measures he endeavoured to give prosper- ity to the land, and to heal the wounds caused by protracted wars. The Revolution had abolished Christianity, hung or guillotined the priests, and had forbidden the use of the churches for Christian worship. Napoleon, in concert with the Pope, re- stored the exercise of the Christian religion, and arranged for the organization of the church in France, at the same time that he allowed perfect freedom of conscience to Protestants and Infidels. The bishops were paid by the state instead of from the confiscated estates, and the clergy also, without restoration of tr. 2 tithe. The monasteries and convents were not re-opened ; new schools were founded, and provision made for general ed- ucation. To encourage traffic, good roads and ca- nals were made. By these means Napoleon won the favour of the people. They were sick of the bloodshed of the Republican tyrants, and they breathed freely under the prudent rule of the First 340 THE REPUBLIC ABOLISHED. -i* Y Consul. Moreover, his victories over the powers opposed to France flattered the vanity of the na- tion. These circumstances conduced to further his aim for supremacy; but he did not dare take the title of king, which was still abhorrent to the people; therefore he resolved to make France an empire, and renew in himself the splendours of Charles the Great's reign. On the 18th of May, 1804, Bonaparte abolished the French Republic, and was elected hereditary emperor of France. On the 2d of December he was solemnly anointed and crowned by the Pope, Pius VII., whom he forced to come to Paris for the purpose. The ceremonies used at the coronation of Charlemagne were re- vived on this occasion. In March, 1805, he abol- ished the Italian republics and crowned himself with the iron crown of Lombardy. He formed the grand and daring scheme of converting the whole of Europe into one vast empire, with kings and princes over the several nations, all subject to him- self. In the mean time he sent an army into Hanover, and overran it. Prussia offered no interference, hoping by her neutrality to secure Hanover as her reward. England now persuaded Austria, Russia, unci Sweden to combine again against France. This is called the THIRD COALITION, and was ef- fected in 1805. To her eternal disgrace Prussia kept neutral, and allowed the Fatherland to be rav- aged, because of her jealousy of Austria. Napoleon at once put himself at the head of an army and advanced to Ulm. Sixty thousand Aus- 3 42 NAPOLEON AS EMPEROR. trians were in the town under General Mack, an in- competent man, who, panic struck at the appearance of Bonaparte, capitulated without striking a blow. A body of 12,000, commanded by the Archduke Fer- dinand, made a bold attempt to break out, but all his infantry and the greater part of his cavalry were slain or captured, and a few hundred men alone suc- ceeded in cutting their way through the enemy into Bohemia. Where was the Archduke Charles at this time? Of course, where he was not specially wanted, in Italy, through no fault of his, but through the blundering stupidity of the emperor's council. After Mack's surrender, Napoleon, with his usual alacrity, marched with his main body straight upon Vienna, whilst he sent some detachments into the Tyrol to hold that in check, and entered the capital in November, before the Archduke Charles, who had been recalled, had time to arrive for its de- fence. In the mean time the Emperor Alexander I., of Russia, at the head of an army, approached through Moravia. Francis II. gathered together as many of his scattered troops as he could and joined Alexander. Both emperors appealed earnestly to Prussia to renounce its base alliance with France, and in this decisive moment to aid in the anni- hilation of the enemy, not of the Fatherland only; but of Europe. But no ; the King of Prussia, hun- gering after Hanover, hoped to buy it by his neu- trality. On December 2, 1805, a famous battle, in which the three emperors of Christendom were present, took place at Austerlitz, not far from Briinn, and terminated in one of Napoleon's most ALEXANDER, NAPOLEON AND FREDERICK WILLIAM III. (From a contemporary picture by an unknown Artist.) 343 344 NAPOLEON AS EMPEROR. glorious victories. Immediately Prussia threw in her part with France, secured Hanover, and in ex- change surrendered Cleves, Anspach, and Neufchatel to the French. The Austrians, utterly paralyzed, were unable to continue the struggle, and were forced to conclude a peace, called the PEACE OF PRESSBURG, at enormous sacrifice. Austria lost Venice, Tyrol, and the Breisgau, a portion of land between the Black Forest and the Rhine. On his way east Napoleon had forced the dukes of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden to unite their troops with his against the Austrians. Napoleon now rewarded them by elevating Bavaria and Wur- temberg into kingdoms, and by exalting the Duke of Baden into a grand-duke, and giving him the Austrian lands adjoining his own. On the 1 2th of July, 1806, sixteen German princes, of which.the principal were Bavaria, Baden, Wiirtem- berg, and Hesse - Darmstadt, formally separated themselves from the German empire and declared themselves subject to the French emperor. This is called the Rhein-bund. Napoleon, to increase his own splendour, now erected the provinces dependent upon France into kingdoms and principalities, and bestowed them upon his relatives and favourites. His brother Joseph he made King of Naples; his brother Louis, King of Holland ; his step-son, Eu- gene Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy ; his brother-in- law, Murat, formerly a common soldier, Grand-duke of Berg ; his first adjutant, Berthies, Prince of Neuf- chatel. On the 6th of August, 1806, the Emperor Francis PR CSS !A CHASTISED. 34$ IT. was forced to abdicate the imperial crown of Ger- many, and announce the dissolution of the empire in a touching address, full of stately sorrow. The last of 'the German emperors had shown himself, throughout the contest, worthy of his great ances- tors, and had, almost alone, sacrificed all in order to preserve the honour and independence of Germany until, abandoned by the greater part of the princes, he was unable to continue the contest. Two years before, Francis II. had assumed the title of Emperor of Austria, i. c, of the Eastern Realm, and it remains to the House of Hapsburg. Now it was the turn of Prussia to be chastised. Now only did she awake to the fact that she had betrayed her best interests by not coming to the front with Austria. Napoleon seized the Prussian fortress of Wesel, and he insisted on the formation of a northern bund, like the Rhein-bund, under the protection of himself. Louisa, the beautiful Queen of Prussia, a Mecklenburg princess, had alone fore- seen the inevitable end, and had entreated the king to draw his sword against the conqueror. Now she redoubled her entreaties. The Emperor Alexander, of Russia, visited Berlin and joined his voice to that of the queen. The whole kingdom felt the shame that covered it, and at last war was declared (1806). But the spirit of Frederick the Great no longer an- imated the army he had created. The Prussians were defeated at Jena, and again at Auerstadt. Russia, which took the field at the same time, met bloody repulses at Eilau and Friedland. Na- poleon at once pushed on to Berlin, where he 34^ NAPOLEON AS EMPEROR. was received, not, as at Vienna, by the citizens with mute rage, but with loud demonstrations of delight. Men of high rank stood behind the crowd and urged them on to cheer, saying, " For Heaven's sake, give a hearty hurrah ! Cry, ' Long live the emperor ! ' or we are done for." Many citizens pressed forward, eager to betray the public money and stores that had been concealed. " I know not," said Napoleon, " whether to rejoice at my success or to feel ashamed for this people." The noble-hearted and beautiful Prussian queen was treated with the grossest inso- lence by Bonaparte. He knew how earnest and ener- getic she had been in stirring up her husband against him. He visited the tomb of Frederick the Great, and gave vent over it to the most unbecoming expressions of contempt against his unfortunate descendant. The Prussian fortresses fell, one after another, during the autumn and winter, some from utter in- ability to maintain themselves, but the greater part because commanded by incompetent generals. At last, on July 9, 1807, a conference was held at Tilsit between the sovereigns of France, Russia, and Prussia, whereby peace was concluded. Prussia was deprived of half her territory, which was con- verted by Napoleon into a kingdom of Westphalia, of which he appointed his brother Jerome ruler. In the year 1809 Austria again took up arms against Napoleon. The Archduke Charles had en- treated, after former disasters, that the army might be put on a better footing. Now, at last, his advice was attended to. But Austria had now opposed to THE PEACE OF VIENNA. 347 her France, Bavaria, and the rest of the Rhenish Bund, and Saxony. In five battles in five consecu- tive days Napoleon defeated the archduke, and again the great conqueror entered Vienna. But now the brave archduke returned to the charge from Bohemia with fresh levies. A battle was fought at Aspern which lasted two days, the 2ist and 22d of May, 1809, and for the first time Napoleon was de- feated. For some time the two armies continued watching each other ; at last, on the 5th of July, Na- poleon attacked the Austrians at Wagram, not far from Aspern. The fight was desperate, the valour of the Austrians splendid. They captured twelve golden eagles and standards of the enemy, and would have gained a victory had not the reserve which had been called up failed to arrive, owing to the dilatoriness of the Archduke John, who com- manded it. Two hours after the battle was over it arrived on the blood-stained field. Owing to this defeat Aus- tria was again compelled to negociate a peace, which goes by the title of " The Peace of Vi- enna." She had now to make additional sacrifices, to give up Carniola, Trieste, and Dalmatia to the French, and Salzburg and other portions of her pos- sessions in the Alps to Bavaria. The Tyrol also be- came Bavarian. During this heroic struggle of Austria against the tyrant, Prussia again remained inert. LVIII. THE HEROES OF THE TYROL. (1809.) To this time belongs one of the most heroic and glorious achievements of modern history,— the ris- ing of the Tyrolean patriots against the French and Bavarians, under the leading of Andreas Hofer, an innkeeper, Speckbacher, a hunter, and Haspinger, a friar. Hofer kept a little tavern in the Passeyr valley that opens into the main valley of the Adige at Meran. The inn is at a place called " Sand," and so he went by the familiar name of the " Sand- host " (Sand-wirth). He was a tall, fine man, with brown, vivacious eyes, black hair, and a long, bushy beard, that reached nearly to his waist. His walk was measured and grave, his voice soft and clear, the expression of his features cheerful and serene. Without any pretence to eloquence, he had the gift of finding his way to the hearts of men and winning their confidence. His dress was the pict- uresque costume of his native valley, — a dark jacket, a scarlet waistcoat crossed by broad emerald-green braces, black chamois-leather breeches, and a belt of black leather, embroidered over with tiny threads of 348 A riCTURESQUE DRESS. 349 goose quill. On his head he wore a black goat's- hair steeple cap with broad brim, surrounded by twisted scarlet silk string. His stockings were of blue wool. Around his neck he wore a small crucifix. If ever you go to Meran you will see the peas- ANDREAS HOFER. (From a contemporary Engraving.) ants there on a Sunday and market day wearing the same beautiful costume. When Austria took up arms again, in 1809, Against France and her German allies, she had not many regular soldiers to send into Tyrol to defend it, and the defence had to be entrusted to the peas- ants themselves, who had shown what they could do, as you may remember, just before the Treaty of 35o THE HEROES OE THE TYROL. Campo Formio. In the resistance then offered, Hofer and Speckbacher had distinguished them- selves. On the 7th of April little slips of paper, on which were written only the words " It is time," were cir- culated throughout Tyrol. As the river Inn rushed along it whirled on its milky waters bits of wood with red flags stuck into them. The peasants knew the signal, caught their weapons, and the whole of the mountain region was in insurrection against the enemy. On the south side of the Brenner pass, the main road from Innsbruck to Italy, in the green basin of a dried-up lake, stands the quaint old town of Sterzing. The mountains tower above it, and up the Ridnaun valley the eye looks to glorious ranges of ice peaks. Into this basin marched the Bava- rians on their way south to Brixen, where was another Bavarian force. When they were in the plain, the Tyrolese, commanded by Hofer, poured down from the mountainsides around, and attacked them. This was their first battle in the open coun- try. The Bavarians formed square, and poured a shower of lead into their advancing ranks. They hesitated. Then a young girl with a shout drew forward a waggon load of hay towards the enemy. The Tyrolese followed with two others. They threw over the loads in a line, and lying behind the hay fired into the mass of their enemy. The hay had made a wall of shelter for them. The Bavarians wavered, broke, and with a shout the peasants charged them over the hay heaps, and took them A SECRET KEPT. ,ei prisoners. They were carried to a castle that stands on a height overlooking the plain. Then every trace of the battle was removed, for the news reached the peasants that the French and Bavarians together were marching up the valley from Brixen. Hofcr made the townspeople prom- ise him not to say a word of what had happened ; and when the united army arrived and wondered what had become of the Bavarians who had been ordered to meet them there, no one told them what had taken place. Next day they recom- menced their march, and were no sooner involved among the rocks and pines than bullets and stones poured down on them, and terrible were their losses as they struggled through, unable to reach and dislodge the enemy. On the nth of May a French force, under Gen- eral Lefebvre, and a Bavarian force, under Devey, in- vaded the Tyrol ; but already had the gallant Tyrolese stormed Innsbruck and taken Hall, where were large stores for the army, and had cleared the Inn Valley of the enemy, led by Speckbacher, and South Tyrol had been freed by Hofer. On the nth of May also a Bavarian force, under YVrede, advanced from Salzburg upon the Tyrol through the Strub pass. This is a long and gloomy ravine, shut in between abrupt walls of rock. The road zigzags up among dark pines, around promonto- ries of rock, high above a brawling torrent. The nth of May, that year, was Ascension Day. It was brill- iant with sunshine ; the slopes were blue with gen- t.ianella and sprinkled with the delicate pink primula. 352 THE HEROES OF THE TYROL. They were soon to be deepened dark red with blood. Holding the pass were 350 brave peasants with two small cannon, six-pounders. A few miles behind was an Austrian general with regulars, but, like so many of the old generals in the Austrian service at that time, he was half asleep, and so be- wildered as not to know what to do when the op- portunity of doing anything offered. As Napoleon said of them, " They are asleep when their eyes are open." Wrede had 14,000 well-disciplined sol- diers and several cannon. When he saw that the pass was guarded he poured a volley and played on the defenders with his big guns ; but they neither heeded nor replied. Then he ordered a charge. At once the two little field-pieces blazed, and the unerring guns of the peasants were discharged. The Bavarians went down in heaps; the rest recoiled, and the wounded staggered to the edge and fell down the gulf into the thundering stream far below. For five hours the fight continued, and then a shell in- jured one of the little cannon. Eight times did the Bavarians come on and were repulsed, and now their ammunition began to fail. A ninth attack was made, and at the same time a detachment, sent around by a circuitous path, fell on the brave Tyrolese behind. Then the battle was concluded by the enraged Bavarians butchering the wounded peasants who had fallen on the road they had held so heroically. Only a few escaped, but they had killed some 1500 of the enemy. You must remember that at this time Napoleon was at Vienna, and held in his grip the heart of Austria. The Archduke Charles was A WOMAN WITH A CASK. 353 "n Bohemia, whither he had fled after the five battles, on five consecutive days, in which he had tried to arrest the onward roll of Napoleon. Austria was in such distress that she could not help poor Tyrol. She was forced to withdraw from it the few regiments of regulars left there. The peasants had only themselves to look to. Innsbruck, their capital, was in the hands of the Bavarians. The Tyrolese were resolved to recover it. On May the 29th was fought one of the most remarkable battles in the war, the battle of Berg Isel, in which the hardy moun- taineers defeated, and drove out of the town, the well-trained army of invaders. Due south of Inns- bruck the road to Italy runs over a level plain for about a mile and a half, passing a large abbey, called Wilten. Then there rises from the plain a hill, Berg Isel, up which the road winds. On this hill, occupying the Brenner road, were the Tyrolese, and here the three leaders, Hofer, Speckbacher, and Haspinger, united. The Bavarians not only held Innsbruck, but the whole left bank of the Inn as far as Hall and Volders, some 6 or 9 miles down the river. Speckbacher opposed them at this point, that is, he and his men formed the right wing of the patriot army. The Bavarians crossed the Inn at once at Hall and at Volders. Speckbacher im- mediately fell on them at Volders and drove them back; then, leaving a detachment to destroy the bridge, he flew to Hall, where some Austrian regu- lars were opposed to the Bavarians, and drove the enemy back. During the fight here a young woman ran among the Austrians and Tyrolese with a lit- 23 354 THE HEROES OF THE TYROL. tie cask of wine on her head, and a mug in her hand, giving them drink. A bullet struck the cask, entered it, and the wine began to run down her cheek and neck. " Quick, quick ! " cried the brave girl, "drink away, my hearties ! before another ball finishes the wine and waitress." Speckbacher was rushing over the bridge when he found his little boy at his side. In vain did he urge the child to go back ; the gallant little fellow would be in the thick of the fight beside his father. Speckbacher had to box his ears and severely rebuke him before he would retire ; and then he occupied himself in collecting the bullets that fell about him for his father's gun. Three times did the brave Speck- bacher lead the charge ; at last a reserve body came up, the Bavarians were beat back, and then Speck- bacher led his men to the assistance of Hofer in the centre, at Berg Isel. Here a furious contest was going on ; and here it was that Haspinger, the friar, turned the tide of battle. Father Haspinger wore the snuff-coloured robe of his order, with a cord knotted round his waist, bare feet and sandals. His head was bare ; he had red hair and a long, thick red beard. In his hand he carried a stick, and on his breast a little black cross. He had no weapons. Above Berg Isel are two villages, Mutters and Natters, and these were in the hands of the Bava- rians. After two hours hard fighting the enemy was driven from them down the hill towards the plain. But this would not have happened without Haspinger. Seeing the Tyrolese falter, then break and begin to fly, the brave Capuchin friar AMMUNITION SPENT 355 roared to them, as he waved his staff, " Good-bye ! Good-bye ! Brothers, I go forwards to the throne of God to accuse you of cowardice." They were ashamed and returned to the charge. The bullets whistled around their leader, but none touched him. A Bavarian soldier rushed forward with a curse to run him through with his bayonet ; the friar knocked the gun out of his hands with his alpen- stock. Next moment he would have fallen, pierced through, had not a rifleman, perceiving his danger, fired over his shoulder at the Bavarian, thereby singeing the Father's beard. Then forward with shouts of joy rushed the Tyrolese, and drove the Bavarians down on the Inn. Now that the left wing had succeeded, as well as the right, Hofer in the centre pushed forward, and the Bavarians re- tired precipitously into the town. The ammunition of the peasants was spent; they were unable to fol- low up their success, but during the night the Bava- rian general slipped away from the town with the remnant of his army. After the battle of Wagram, Austria was obliged to consent to a truce, which was to lead to the Peace of Vienna, by which Tyrol was to be given up to> Bavaria. This had been agreed to on July 7th, at Znaym : but the Tyrolese obstinately refused to be /ransferred to Bavaria, and prosecuted the war. General Lefebvre, who had been a miller's boy, and had become a field-marshal of France, and had been created by Napoleon Duke of Danzig, was sent, at the head of a large army of French, Bava- rians, and Saxons, into Tyrol, to subdue it thor- 356 THE HEROES OF THE TYROL. oughly. He occupied Innsbruck, and then marched over the Brenner Pass to Sterzing, on his way to Brixen and Botzen. He intended to quiet the South of Tyrol. At the same time an army was sent up the valley of the Inn, which was to go through the Finstermunz Pass above Landeck, descend the Adige, and meet him at Botzen. The first to go forward were the Saxons. They were allowed to advance as far as a very narrow defile, called the Sack, where there is a wooden bridge near a precipice of rock that rises above the road. The peasants passed the bridge and set it on fire as the Saxons came up, and as they halted, hesitating what to do, suddenly there came a rumble, then a roar, and an avalanche of rocks and stones poured down on them from the cliff overhead. A thousand men, among them forty- four officers, were lost in the Sack. When the Duke of Danzig heard this he was very angry, and ordered the rest of his troops forward. He had been lodging at the little inn of " the Nail," at Sterz- ing, and grumbled at the poor breakfast he had re- ceived. " It matters not," he said to the hostess, " I shall have a famous dinner to-day at Brixen." But he was met at the Sack by the dauntless peas- ants, who poured their fire upon his advancing col- umns, and showered rocks on him from the sides of the pass, and the army was obliged to fly back to Sterzing in confusion. As the duke returned, angry, humiliated, exhausted to the inn, he found his hostess at the door. She courtsied, and with a twinkling eye, asked, " I hope your Grace has AUSTRIA ABANDONS THE TYROL. 357 enjoyed your famous dinner to-day." The army sent round by the Finstermtinz met a like dis- aster, and the broken fragments of both armies were forced to retreat into the Inn valley. There, at Innsbruck, Lefebvre, the duke, concentrated 25,000 infantry, and 1000 horse, and 40 pieces of artillery. After them, flushed with victory, poured the gal- lant Tyrolese. Another battle was fought on Berg Isel ; again were the patriots commanded by Hofer, Speckbacher, and the friar, and again were they victorious. The Tyrolese lost 132 wounded and 50 killed ; they took 6000 prisoners and killed 4000 men, and Lefebvre was obliged to retire. The Peace of Vienna was signed, and Austria was forced to abandon Tyrol. She could not help herself. Her powers of resistance were exhausted. But the Tyrolese would not acknowledge it. Ac- cordingly, fresh bodies of men were sent into Tyrol to subdue the mountaineers. They continued the desperate struggle, but against the enormous su- periority of numbers could not make headway. The French and Bavarians held the main roads, and all the towns, and could starve them into submission. Another battle was fought at Berg Isel, but this time the valour of the patriots could not win them victory. At last a former friend betrayed Hofer to the French, and, to the eternal disgrace of Napo- leon, he had the brave man shot in cold blood. Speckbacher, later, was rewarded by the Austrian emperor, and Haspinger would have been rewarded had the humble friar consented to receive anything at his hands. LIX. THE MARCH ON MOSCOW. (1812.) THROUGH his defeat of the Prussians and Aus- trians, Napoleon had reached the highest point of his career. No power but England dared to defy him. The great fleet of England harassed and de- feated the French navy. Napoleon tried what he could to hurt England. He forbade all trade with Britain, and the sale of English wares. All the harbours of the continent were closed against the English, so as to kill their trade and manufact- ures. However, the Emperor Alexander, of Russia, refused to consent to have his ports thus shut ; ac- cordingly, the French dictator determined on war with him. Napoleon strained every effort to make this gigantic undertaking successful. At the head of 600,000 men, in the summer of 18 12, he crossed the Russian frontier. But before doing this he con- voked all the princes of Germany to Dresden, where he lectured them with such insolence as even to repel his warmest partisans. Tears sprang into the eyes of the Empress of Austria and the Queen of Prussia ; the princes and kings bit their 358 A MYSTERIOUS STILL A' ESS. 359 lips with rage at the petty humiliations and coarse affronts put on them by their powerful but mo- mentary lord. The army led by Napoleon against Russia -was principally composed of German troops, who were skilfully mixed up with the French, so as not to be themselves aware of their numbers. Austrians, Prussians, Saxons, Hessians, Bavarians, Wiirtembergers, Badeners, Swiss, Flemings, even Portuguese, Spaniards, and Italians, went to make up this great host, which was destined to whiten with its bones the plains of Russia. In order to secure his rear Napoleon garrisoned the Prussian fortresses with French troops, and the Prussians sent forward to fight in Russia were commanded by French officers. Sixty thousand French held Prussia, whilst the sons of Prussia were sent to die in arms for their conqueror. Now bitterly did she feel the consequences of her baseness in the past No enemy opposed the invading army. The Russians retired before Napoleon without striking a blow, leading him on deep into their dreary plains. On the 7th of September, after a march of over two months, the army came in sight of the cupolas and towers of Moscow. A mysterious stillness reigned in the great city of the Czars. None ap- peared with the keys to lay them at the feet of the invader ; no crowd of curious sight-seers poured out of the gates to gaze on the mighty conqueror. The town was deserted. Napoleon took up his quarters in the Kremlin, the ancient palace of the Czars. All at once fire broke out in various quarters 360 THE MARCH ON MOSCOW. of the town. An autumn storm fanned the flames, and in a short time the whole city was a waving, roaring sea of fire. Every attempt to extinguish the conflagration was in vain ; the very Kremlin kindled. The Russians had themselves accumulated the combustibles in their houses and set them on fire, and sacrificed their glorious city so as the more surely to work the destruction of the French army. Now Napoleon's overwhelming pride proved his ruin. Instead of leading his army south into fertile lands for winter quarters at once, he waited among the ashes of Moscow till the middle of Octo- ber, in daily expectation that the Emperor of Russia would send humbly to him, entreating peace. Finding that no appeal came ; hearing the winds of winter begin to howl, and seeing the snowflakes begin to fall, he sent overtures of peace to Alexander. No answer came. All at once inaction disappeared. His cavalry were surprised and defeated with great loss. The frosts began to set in, the ice to form over the pools. Faster and faster fell the snow. Now Napoleon found that he had an enemy ranged against him that he was unable to defeat and insult — winter. Now, when too late, he resolved on retreat. The winter of 181 1 had been unusually mild ; that of 1 812 set in unusually early, and with unwonted severity. Provisions failed. The vast plains were white and deep in snow, and as the army retired the Cossacks hovered around them with their long spears like musquitos, maddening and torturing them. The horses died by thousands. The numbed and weary soldiers flung away their arms. The grand army was reduced to a cowering, starved, A TERRIBLE RE TKEA T. 361 frightened wreck. Gaunt forms of famine, wan, hollow-eyed, wrapped in strange garments of misery to keep out the cold — skins and women's clothes — with long beards, dragged their faint limbs along, fought for a dead horse, murdered each other for a morsel of bread, and fell over in the deep snow, never again to rise. Numbers fell into the hands of the Russian boors, who stripped them and drove them out into the snowdrifts. When at last they reached the Beresina, which had to be passed, a thaw had set in, and the river rolled down broken blocks of ice. At the same time the Russians appeared on their flanks, charging them with spears, pouring can- non shot among them, hewing them down with their sabres. Two bridges were hastily built, and over them poured the terrified, flying rabble of soldiers. They crowded on one another, trampled one another down. The railings gave way, and many were precip- itated over the sides ; others were run down by the horses, and crushed under the wheels of the cannon carriages. Then, to complete the disaster, the bridges themselves broke, and the stream of human beings, forced on by those behind, fell into the ice-cold whirling river to perish in its waves. Those who did not reach the shore were made prisoners. On the 5th of December Napoleon deserted his army, leaving it to take its chance, escaping on a slide. With his flight all discipline ended ; soldiers, and officers, and generals all sought only individual safety. Of the great army led into Russia not one twentieth part returned in safety. The mighty host of the conqueror was totally annihilated. LX. NAPOLEON FALLS AND GERMANY RISES. THIS unexpected disaster of the Emperoi Napo- leon seemed to Europe a sign from heaven that the hour of emancipation had struck. The first to recognize this was Prussia. In February, 1813, the king met Alexander ©f Russia and concluded an alliance with him. But Berlin was in the hands of the French. Now, however, the whole Prussian nation, eager to throw off the hated yoke of the foreigner, to wipe away the dishonour of her past, cheerfully hastened to place their lives and property at the service of the impoverished government. The whole of the able-bodied population was put under arms. Every heart bounded with hope and pride. The king and emperor issued a proclamation appeal- ing to all Germany to rise against the common enemy. It found an echo in every German heart. Warning was sent to Napoleon of the menacing temper in the land. " Pah ! " he exclaimed, " Germans can't fight like Spaniards." However, he levied a French army 300,000 strong, which so overawed the Rhenish Bund that their princes actually again called to- gether thousands of their subjects to go with Na- poleon against their brothers in the North. Meck- 362 CLEMENS WENZEL, PRINCE VON METTERNICH. (From a Painting by Th. Lawrence.) 3 6 3 364 NAPOLEON FALLS AND GERMANY KLSES. lenburg alone sided with Prussia. Austria was too exhausted to lift a hand. But now was a fieht to be seen calculated to rejoice the heart of one loving his country, As sometimes a great distress or humil- iation coming on a man with good qualities, who has lived an inglorious, unworthy life, will spur him to take a new start, cast aside those infirmities which have marred his character and rise to true nobility of life, so was it now with the Prussian peo- ple. As animated by one heart, all responded to the call. Prussia became a great arsenal. Youths hardly ripe enough, old men with grey hair, fathers of families, tradesmen, artisans, professional men, landed gentry, even young women in men's cloth- ing flew to arms; all wanted to hold a gun and brandish a sword for Fatherland. He who could not enter the ranks gave his money. He who had no money gave his labour. None would hang behind the others in the great cause. Speedily the whole of the able male population was converted into an army. There was the standing army, and there were the free corps. Among these latter Liitzow's Huntsmen gained a glorious name in these days of gallantry. Napoleon advanced into the heart of Germany, and he was in Saxony before the Prussians were ready to meet him. Now the Emperor Alex- ander of Russia sent help, and the two allies met Napoleon, and were defeated by him in two bloody battles at Lutzen and Bautzen. The Emperor of Austria offered to mediate. His minister, Count Metternich, was sent to Napoleon. " Hah ! come to mediate, have you ? " asked Bona- BLVCHER wins success. 365 parte ; " if that be so, you are not on my side." Then, insolently, " Well, Metternich, how much money have you been bribed with by England to take this part?" and he threw his hat down on the floor to see if Count Metternich would stoop to pick it up. Metternich looked at the hat, then at Napoleon, and set his lips. He would not stoop. Napoleon turned his back on him, — and so, war with Austria also was determined on. Immedi- ately, the combined Prussian and Russian army entered Bohemia, where they were joined by the Emperor of Austria at the head of his army. The army in Bohemia was placed under the command of Prince Schwarzenberg. Another army to guard Silesia was under Bliicher, a third, the North army at Berlin, was under the Crown-Prince of Sweden, who was a Frenchman, Charles Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's generals, who had been elected to suc- ceed the childless King of Sweden. On the 23d of August a murderous conflict took place at Gross-Beeren between a Prussian division of the North army and the French. The almost untrained peasantry that composed it rushed upon the enemy and beat down entire battalions with the butt-ends of their muskets, whilst the crown-prince and his Swedes looked on without taking part. The French lost 2400 prisoners. Bliicher in Silesia also won success three days later. Having drawn the French across the river Ncisse, he drove them, after a desperate engagement, into the river, swollen with heavy rains. The muskets of the sol- diers had been rendered unserviceable by the wet, 366 NAPOLEON FALLS AND GERMANY RISES. and Bliicher, drawing his sabre from beneath his cloak, dashed forward, exclaiming, "Forwards!" Several thousand French were drowned or bayo- netted, or had their skulls fractured by the butt- ends of the muskets. They lost 103 guns, 18,000 prisoners, and a greater number were killed. The general in command, Macdonald, escaped almost alone to Napoleon at Dresden. " Sire," said the de- feated general, " your army no longer exists." Bliicher was given a title of prince from the place where this victory was won, but his soldiers pre- ferred to call him " Marshal Forwards." The place of this battle was Wahlback, not far from Liegnitz. Before Dresden, on the same day, Aug. 26, how- ever, the allies were defeated by Napoleon with great loss ; but this was the last victory obtained by Napoleon on German soil. LXI. THE BATTLE OF THE NATIONS. (1813.) NAPOLEON'S generals were thrown back in every quarter with great loss on Dresden, where Napo- leon remained waiting his opportunity. A fresh disappointment befel him. The Bavarian army re- fused to fight for him, and went over to the allies, and marched to the Main to stand across Napo- leon's path if he attempted to retreat. When the news of this disaffection reached Napoleon's main army at Dresden the German troops in it began to waver, and when he ordered a march on Berlin, broke out in mutiny. A feeling of melancholy foreboding of his approaching fall stole over the great conqueror, and he remained for some days irresolute. Then his spirit revived. On the 16th of October, 181 3, began the great battle of Leipzig, which is called by Germans " The Battle of the Nations," because of the various nationalities rep- resented in it, and the number of the troops engaged. It was fought on the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th of October, and was one of the longest, sternest, and bloodiest actions of the war, and one of the greatest battles recorded in history. Napoleon had an army 367 3 68 THE BA TTLE OF THE NA TIONS. of 200,000 men, and the allies 300,000; but the allies had not more than 200,000 the first day, as the Northern army was at Halle under Bernadotte, who was little inclined to fight his old master, Napo- leon. Now let me try to give you some idea of this great Battle of the Nations. Leipzig lies in a plain where two rivers, the Elster and the Pleisse, meet, and two smaller streams, the Luppe and the Partha, also meet and unite into one river, which thenceforth flows a short way and falls into the Saale above Halle. From the East comes the high road from Dresden, along which Napoleon marched to Leip- zig. From the South comes the road by which the Silesian army was advancing. This road ran along the Pleisse, through coppices of scraggy alders. On the West were two roads, one from the Saale at Weissenfels — i. c. S. W.— the other from Halle — N. W. Along this latter the North Army was advanc- ing, — reluctantly indeed, — under Bernadotte, Crown- Prince of Sweden. The Emperor of Austria, the Em- peror of Russia, and the King of Prussia were with the main army from Bohemia. With Napoleon was the King of Saxony, and Murat, King of Naples. As the allies drew near they formed a half moon, with the left wing on the Luppe and the rieht on the east bank of the Pleisse. Moreover, the Silesian army was planted on the road from Leipzig to Halle, and the Northern army, which was at Halle, ordered to come up quickly and unite with it, which it did not do. The object was to cut THE Da TTLE A T LEIPZIG. 369 off Napoleon's retreat, and drive him either back on Dresden, or, better still, due north. The battle began at 8 o'clock in the morning. A thousand cannon roared ; smoke rolled over the extended field. Napoleon planted himself with his main body across the south road that enters the R-Els^Ti w_ ToDresiert THE BATTLE OF LEIPZIG. town from Wachau and Probstheide. The Polish prince, Poniatowski, with his Poles was between the Elsterand the Pleisse. Another division was placed between the Luppe and the Elster ; another again, under Marmont, was on the Halle road. The bat- tle began with a tremendous fight at Wachau, which lasted till 2 o'clock in the afternoon, in which the Russians were principally engaged ; but almost simultaneously it exploded at Lindenau, Konewitz, and Mockcrn ; so that Leipzig was sur- rounded on all sides but N. and E. by the thunder of war. Nothing decisive was done at Lindenau 24 3;o THE BA TTLE OF THE NA TIONS. and Konewitz, and Napoleon massed his men to make a crushing rush upon the right wing of the allies, and turn it at Probstheide. They shook and recoiled. Then above the booming of the guns sounded the merry bells of all the churches of Leipzig ; Napoleon had ordered them to be rung, believing that the victory was decided. At the same time, out of the Elster gate galloped a courier charged with a message to Paris of his suc- cess. But just then up came the Russian reserves from the South. The Cossacks charged down on the advancing wave of French. The allied army rallied, and rolled back the enemy. On a mound beside the road Napoleon Avatched the battle all day, and the three allied sovereigns stood on an- other mound near Wachau. At one time they were almost captured, when the tide of battle turned. In the mean time Blucher, " Marshal For- wards," was going forwards at Mockern unable to wait for the Swedes and their dawdling half-hearted leader, and he drove back the French within the walls of Leipzig. Darkness fell, and the roar of the cannons ceased, leaving the allies in possession of the field, and the French retiring behind Leip- zig, so as to hold the roads to Dresden and the North. At the moment when victory seemed t(? have declared for the French, Napoleon shouted exultantly : " The world turns round for us." When darkness settled in he felt that he was a beaten man ; but his spirit was not broken. Next day only desultory fighting ensued ; but he saw that he was in peril, and he ordered that at all PRE PA RED TO PRE A K A WA V. 3 y j cost the road to Weissenfels, along which lay his course to France, should be kept clear. He sent to the ajlies to ask for a truce, but was refused. On the 1 8th the battle began with renewed fury. But now the Swedes and North army came up from Halle, and another Russian force, and a large Aus- trian division. The French army, by its losses, had been greatly thinned, and the allies were at the same time reinforced. Napoleon now resolved on retreat, and concen- trated his army on the South. The allies then ex- tended their right wing to the Parthe, shutting off the road to Dresden, where they were opposed by the Saxons. The main column of the allies advanced from Wachau to Probstheide, driving the French before them. And now the Saxons went over, then the Wurtemberg cavalry, to the side of the allies. The gap was at once filled, and a tremen- dous struggle took place at Schonewald ; but the French held their own. The circle was fast closing in on Leipzig. Only one road was left open, that to Weissenfels. Night settled down again on the bloody field, and Napoleon spent it in the town, into which he withdrew all but the outposts of his army, and prepared to break away home for France on the morrow. The 19th dawned, and with the gathering light the allies advanced. The cannon-balls fell in show- ers in the streets. Napoleon, finding all was lost, quitted the town as the allies entered it on the other side. Indeed, it is doubtful whether he would have escaped but for the bravery of his generals, 3/2 THE BA TTLE OF THE NA TIONS. Macdonald and Prince Poniatowski, who covered his retreat. When he had crossed he ordered the bridge by which he had passed to be blown up. This was done whilst his flying army was crossing, leaving 25,000 of his men behind. Prince Poniatowski plunged on horseback into the Elster, in order to swim across, but sank in the deep mud. The King of Saxony, who, to the last, had remained true to Napoleon, was taken prisoner. The retreat of the great conqueror to the Rhine was a flight. In the " Battle of the Nations " the French lost 78,000 men in killed, wounded, and captives, 300 cannon, and 1000 standards. The loss on the side of the allies was, however, very heavy. Thus ended this glorious victory. All Germany was filled with rejoicing. The yoke of foreign bondage was broken. Thenceforth Germany was free from the French. LXII. NAPOLEON CHECKED. (1814.) THE allied princes met at Frankfort to take coun- sel about a general peace. They agreed to offer Napoleon that the Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the sea should form the frontiers of France. But in his still unbroken pride he refused this offer, and the war flared up again. On New Year's night of 1814 Bliicher went " forwards" over the Rhine at Mannheim and Coblenz with his army. The main army of the allies had crossed a few days earlier at Basle, as well as a Prussian army under Bulow from Holland. The Rhein-bund dissolved ; Hol- land, Switzerland, Italy fell away from Napoleon. Bavaria had already made terms. Jerome, whom his brother had made King of Westphalia, packed up his valise and ran away. Joseph, who had been made King of Spain, also fled, and the English, under Wellington, threatened Napoleon from the Pyrenees. Bliicher won several battles, and again peace was offered to Napoleon, but in vain. He would not give way. Fortune again seemed to favour him ; with his usual celerity he flew from one advancing body 373 GEBHARD LEBRECHT VON BLUCHER. (From a Portrait by T. B. Bock, 1815.) 374 FIRST PEACE OF PARIS. 375 to another, and beat them separately. However, the host formed against him closed in, and after a short resistance entered Paris. The deposition of the emperor was decreed, and the brother of Louis XVI. was proclaimed king. All the efforts made by Napoleon to save for himself, or his family, some of their former honours were in vain ; his marshals fell away from him. He was forced to sign his renunciation of the crown, but he was al- lowed to retain the title of Emperor and hold the little isle of Elba as a sovereign principality. For the immeasurable injuries and losses which Ger- many had suffered from him, with rare generosity no compensation was exacted. This was the First Peace of Paris (i 8 14). A congress was summoned to assemble at Vienna to regulate the relationship of the States of Germany. From Paris the sovereigns of Prussia and Russia and the victorious generals proceeded to London, where they, more especially Bliicher, were received with every demonstration of respect and delight. In the autumn of 18 14 the European princes and their principal ministers and generals assem- bled in Vienna as had been agreed ; but soon the mutual jealousies began to work among them. Talleyrand was there. This utterly unscrupulous man had served under every government ; under the Republic, under Napoleon, and was now under the restored Bourbons. He was there to offer his per- fidious advice to the victors, and to sow the seed of discord among them. Soon disputes broke out, and the news reached Napoleon in his banishment. 3/6 KAPOLEOX CHECKED. Suddenly, on the ist of March, 1815, he set foot on the coast of France. The whole nation received him with acclamations of delight. All the troops sent against him went over to his side. On the 20th of March he entered Paris. Louis XVIII., deserted by his army, fled to the Netherlands. Napoleon's brother-in-law, Murat, at the same time revolted at Naples, and advanced into Upper Italy against the Austrians; but all the rest of Napoleon's ancient allies, persuaded that he must fall, drew closer to- gether in league against him. The allied sovereigns, still assembled at Vienna, let drop their miserable disputes to combine for his overthrow. All his cunning attempts to bribe them were rejected with scorn. Napoleon was proclaimed an outlaw, and they bound themselves to bring a force more than a million strong into the field against him. The French were still faithful to Napoleon. He col- lected an army of 150,000 men and marched on Belgium, where an English force, under the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian, under Blucher, were about to cross the frontier. At Ligny he fought and defeated Blucher on June 1 6th with great slaughter.- On the same day the left wing of the French under Marshal Ney attacked the English at Quatre Bras, and suffered a severe defeat. After this, the Prussians retreated to Havre, pursued by 35,000 French, and Wel- lington, falling back on the position he had chosen near Waterloo, awaited the approach of Napoleon. At Brussels, in a picture gallery, by a painter called Wiertz, is a painting representing Waterloo A SECOND ABDICATION. ^yy allegorically. A great black lion is tearing to pieces an eagle. The eagle represents the French military power, 'and the black lion symbolises the power of the Netherlands. As a matter of fact, all the part taken by the Belgian soldiers in this memorable battle was to run away at the first discharge of fire- arms, and the English opened ranks to allow the frightened little men to escape through their lines. In this stupendous conflict of the iSth of June, the flower of the French soldiery perished in their desperate efforts against the obdurate valour of the British. The battle raged from noon till eight o'clock. Bliicher and his Prussians made great efforts to reach the scene of action , but, marching over ground rendered almost impassable by the heavy rains that had fallen, their main body did not arrive till the victory was already won. They undertook the pursuit, and so completed the achievement which the British had begun. The French army was converted into a helpless mob of fugitives, incapable of rallying again. Napo- leon returned to Paris to abdicate a second time. Then, failing in an attempt to escape to Amer- ica, he surrendered himself to Captain Maitland, of H. M. S. Bellerophon. With the concurrence of all the powers, he was conveyed, under the custody of the English, to the island of S. Helena, where he died on the 5th of May, 1821. Meanwhile Murat, Napoleon's brother- in-law, defeated by the Austrians at Tolentino, was taken and shot, as he was trying to incite the Italian rabble to insurrection. 3 ^3 NAPOLEON CHECKED. After the battle of Waterloo the allies a second time entered Paris. Louis XVIII, returned, and the Second Peace of Paris (1815) was concluded. This time the allies did not treat France with as much consideration as before. A large part of the left bank of the Rhine was restored to Germany, and France had to pay an indemnification of seven hundred million francs. In the new partition of Europe, arranged at the congress of Vienna, Austria received Lombardy and Venice, Dalmatia also, and Tyrol were restored to her. Thus, after three-and-twenty years of war. the monarchy apparently gained a considerable accession of strength, having obtained, in lieu of its remote and unprofitable possessions in the Nether- lands, territories which joined in Italy. The an- cient German empire was replaced by a German confederation of thirty-nine states, and a perma- nent diet, or parliament, made up of their repre- sentatives, was established at Frankfort. Saxony, Wurtemberg and Bavaria, which had been ele- vated into kingdoms by Napoleon, were allowed to remain kingdoms ; but of all the brothers and field-marshals whom Napoleon had exalted into kings and princes, not one remained in possession of the dignity he had conferred. One only of his marshals, Bernadotte, King of Sweden, whom he had not crowned, and whom he paiticularly hated, retained his position. LXIIL GERMANY STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM. AFTER the fall of Napoleon, the relation between the princes and their people went through a great change, a change they themselves were not ready to acknowledge. The French Revolution had greatly influenced men's minds throughout Europe, and men desired more freedom and emancipation from the irksome restraints of mediaevalism. Now, in Germany, in former times, the people had to a very considerable extent governed them- selves. Every little state had its houses of parlia- ment, composed of the nobles — that is, the landed gentry, the clergy and representatives of the peo- ple. But after the Reformation the great wars, especially the terrible Thirty Years' War, had ruined the small nobles, and parliamentary institutions that existed in the Middle Ages had fallen into disuse. Thenceforth the princes ruled absolutely ; they levied what taxes they chose, and made war on whom they chose, and imposed what religion and what laws they chose, without consulting the people, who had but one duty — to obey and pay. But the freedom which France had fought to establish, the declam- ation of the rights of men, had set Germans think- 379 380 GERMANY STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM. ing, and they felt that they had these rights, and that they ought to be consulted in matters affecting their welfare. However, the kings, and emperors, and princes, when they recast the map of Europe, had no idea of conceding liberty more than they were obliged. They wanted to restore things as they were before the great European war broke out. The emperors, Alexander of Russia, Francis of Austria, and King Frederick William III. of Prussia, concluded between them "the Holy Alliance," and promised to stand by each other, and to advance religion, peace and righteousness in their lands, and to rule their people as fathers. Unfortunately, they took a wrong idea of fatherly rule. They thought it meant despotic rule, and accordingly, instead of advancing prosperity and giving more freedom to their people, they treated them like children, devoid of intelligence, or as expecting of them the docility of school-girls. William, Duke of Hesse-Cassel, said, " I have slept seven years, now we will forget the bad dream," and he tried to put everything exactly on its old footing. In the congress of Vienna, all the princes had promised to give constitutions to their princi- palities, that is — self-government by means of houses of parliament. But none of them, when settled on their thrones, thought of giving what had been promised. This led to much un- easiness. The people were dissatisfied and clam- oured for what had been promised. The stu- dents in the universities especially took up the cry for liberty and a constitution, and formed them- SECRET TRIALS AND TORTURE. 3 8 1 selves into " Brotherhoods," clubs for the spread of liberal ideas. The young men dressed in short black jackets, wore top boots, long hair, exposed their throats with falling collars, wore daggers in their breast pockets, and drank barrels of beer in honour of liberty. They assumed a tricolour ribband, red, black, and yellow, as their badge. In October, 1817, they held a great meeting on the Wartburg in commemoration of Luther, and to express their detestation of the formalism and restraint exercised by the government. They lit a huge bonfire, and burned in it several " pigtails," stiff-neck stocks, and other symbols of the 18th century. This was all very absurd, and the government ought not to have noticed it, but when, shortly after, Kotzebue, the dramatic author, who had turned some of the German peculiarities into ridicule, was assassinated, they took a serious view of the affair, and proceeded to put the universities under police supervision, and to break up the clubs, and make many arrests. Not only did the people want parliaments, but also open courts of trial, with juries. Trials were conducted in secret, and carelessly, and much par- tiality was shown. Strict justice was not always dealt. For instance, in 1820, a painter and a car- penter were murdered in Dresden, and the police ar- rested an innocent man, and racked and tortured him, to force a confession. To escape the rack he did at last confess guilt, and only just as he was about to be executed did his innocence trans- pire. In 1830 a carpenter at Rostock was accused 352 GERMANY STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM. by his apprentice of having murdered his wife. He was kept imprisoned for nine years, and only then did it come out that the apprentice was the murderer. In the same year the Danish ambas- sador in Oldenburg was assassinated, and his two servants, who were perfectly innocent, were kept in prison for six years, and so badly treated as to be broken in health and spirit by their confinement. The people were very dissatisfied, and very justly dissatisfied, with the way in which criminal trials were carried out. Another cause of complaint was the censure on the press. No books might be published and sold, no newspapers issued, which had not passed under the eye of officers appointed to read and approve them. I remember about this time, when I was in Germany, that my father Avanted to buy the memoirs of Baron Trenck, who had been imprisoned for many years by the King of Prussia. The bookseller replied that he was not allowed to sell it, but he winked to my father, and when no one else was in the shop led him into a back room, and produced the book from a secret cupboard. So it was, books that were forbidden were sold, but purchasers were put to great incon- venience to get them, and if the bookseller were found out, he was thrown into prison. Spirits were so agitated, that some of the small princes gave way, and granted constitutions to their subjects. In July, 1830, revolution broke out again in France, and Charles X., who had succeeded Louis XVIII., was driven from his throne, to which suc- ceeded Louis Philippe, his kinsman. This change THE ZOLL-VEREIN. 3S3 -was not without effect in Germany, and led to con- siderable disturbance. The people cried out for more freedom, for sounder institutions, a healthier form of government ; they refused to be any longer treated as children ; but they did not rise in a body, and it ended in only the grant of a few more institutions. Austria and Prussia would not yield. William IV., of England, died in 1837 without male issue. Since George I., the kings of England had been electors of Hanover, but now the union ceased, and Ernest Augustus, brother of William IV., succeeded to the kingdom of Hanover. A constitution had been granted to Hanover in 1833, and this he proceeded to abolish. This created general opposition in his land, and an appeal against him was made to the Diet of the Bund at Frankfort. The confederation, however, declared it had no authority to interfere, and this completely struck down all confidence in the Frankfort Diet. One good institution, and only one, dates from this period, and that was the Zoll-verein, or Ger- man Customs - Union. Hitherto, things made or grown in one little principality were subject to duty if they passed into another. The result was that smuggling went on very generally, and that every little state was put to great cost to keep its fron- tiers guarded. Moreover, trade was terribly crippled by the arbitrary duties imposed on things exported and imported. Consequently, several of the German states agreed with Prussia to unite in one customs- union ; but Austria, and some of the northern states did not join it. Brewgw gff«vjv' vHiir Wwm feNr/^ p^rgj f^ J --^tf r jRi&8F 4f^A LXIV. ANOTHER REVOLUTION. (1848.) LOUIS PHILIPPE, who, by the July Revolution, had come to the throne of France, forgot his prom- ises to rule his people through a constitution. The welfare of his own family lay nearer his heart than that of his subjects. Very likely he thought that, as a piece of rare luck had brought him to the throne, luck might desert him, and throw him down again ; and, as he thought this was not very improbable, so he resolved to feather his own nest whilst he had the chance. But this the French people did not acquiesce in, so they rose in revolt against him, as they had against Charles X., in the month of February, 1848. Louis Philippe at once fled to England, and France received a Republican constitution, and Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, a nephew of the late Emperor Napoleon, was elected, in December of the same year, first president of the Republic. On December 2, 1851, he forcibly dissolved the National Assembly, and assumed absolute power. On the 2d of December, 1852, he had himself pro- claimed Emperor, under the title of Napoleon III. 3S4 WHO WAS NAPOLEON II ? 335 You may perhaps wonder who Napoleon II. was. Napoleon I., at the height of his power, de- siring to obscure as much as possible his humble ori- gin, and the ignobility of his family, divorced his wife Josephine, and obliged the Emperor of Austria to give him his daughter, Maria Louisa. By her he had one son, born in 181 1. When Napoleon had to abdicate after the battle of Waterloo, he tried hard to get his little son proclaimed as Napoleon II., but, of course, in vain. The son died of decline when he was twenty-one years old. When Napoleon proclaimed himself as the third of that name, he in fact claimed that the poor boy had really been Emperor, and ignored the kings who had actually governed France, and the decision of Europe. Louis Napoleon, the new Emperor, was the third son of Louis, the brother of the Great Napoleon, who had been created by the conqueror King of Holland. The Revolution in France, in 1848, was of the greatest importance for all Europe, especially for Germany. In a few days every German state was in commotion, and the people loudly and threateningly demanded four things: 1. Freedom to express their opinions by word or writing, on what was go- ing on in the government of their country (free- dom of speech, and freedom of the press). 2. Uni- versal military service, the right of every man to bear arms, and at the same time the right of all to assemble when and where they liked, for political or other purposes. 3. Trial by jury, and open courts. 4. The abolition of the Bund-Diet, and the constitu- 25 386 ANOTHER REVOLUTION. tional re-organization of every state. Most of the princes gave way in terror, fearing expulsion like that of Louis Philippe ; the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria only refused to yield. Then the people flew to arms, and in Vienna and Berlin bloody fights with the military ensued, which ended in the success of the latter. However, the Emperor Ferdinand had to fly his capital, and take refuge in Innsbruck, and them to abdicate in favour of his nephew, Francis Joseph, who promised reforms. Also in Berlin, after much fighting, a constitution was granted. In the mean time the people desired that a national German parliament should be summoned, which should recast the institutions of the whole Fatherland. For this end 600 representatives of the people assembled at Frankfort to arrange preliminaries, and to call together a constitutional Diet, or National Assembly, each member of which was to represent 50,000 inhabitants. On the 1 8th of May, 1848, this National Assembly was 'opened at Frankfort, when it sat in the Protestant ^church of St. Paul. It at once proceeded to appoint a provisional government, and elected the Archduke John of Austria to be president and protector ; the Diet handed over to him its powers and then dis- solved itself. The decision arrived at was that a new law code was to be drawn up applicable to the whole of Germany ; the German Empire was to consist of one Federal body, with only one House of Representatives. Frederick William IV., King of Prussia, was elected emperor, but he refused to NO UNITY YET. 3*7 accept the title thus offered him, and when he heard the decisions of the Assembly, he said, "They for- get that there are princes still in Germany, and that I am one of them." Upon this, great commotions broke out again, especially in the South. The peasants rose and took arms ; some wanted one thing, some another. The students claimed liberty of the press, the peasants the burning of the mortgages held by the Jews on their property. All these insurrections were put down by the military. All attempts to give Ger- many a satisfactory general constitution broke down, and in May, 1851, the old Bund-Diet or Fed- eral Assembly was re-appointed. The governments had got the upper hand, but much more liberty was granted, so that the people had gained a great deal by this revolution. That which they really aimed at was unity, and the time for that was not yet come. K^fr o» m * 3 ffl^2j S^ Rkfffi LXV. A QUARREL ABOUT TWO DUCHIES. The two duchies of Schleswig-Holstein were sub- ject to the King of Denmark ; but a portion of the inhabitants were Germans, and the German inhabit- ants and the Danes were continually quarrelling, and the Germans appealed against their neighbors to the sovereigns of Germany. In 1848 the German residents in the duchies tried to expel the Danes, and to get themselves free from the crown of Den- mark, but in vain. There were troubles again in the duchies in 1851. When, in 1863, King Frederick VII., of Denmark, died without issue, the crown passed to Christian X., but the Prussian king would not consent to this arrangement, as far as the duchies were concerned, and insisted that they should go to Prince Frederick of Augustenburg, who was descended from a younger son of the same Alexander, Duke of Sonderburg, ancestor also of Christian IX., the new King of Denmark. Of course this was a mere excuse. The real ob- ject of Prussia was to get the two duchies joined on to Germany. However, the Danes had no intention to have a large portion of the kingdom torn from them, and so war broke out- Austria 388 a 5 yi O X to '% —< ii c « d, .2 m_ *-» cj M •i£ -* ^ - 83 c u Q to 3 X> u a> "§■ _ o in o a x; o o_ a! ' ^•3 ■4-J 3 co CJ w 3 - 3 Si u -a ;-. fa X! c/3 — 3 to 3 -.2 "C -a U M fa 1— 1 O a> > Christian VII. d. 1808. fa U co 1> . fa "O -a fa -a -a u M fa - «j V I* fa >„n r* -^ vO _ O 00 U3 T3 -ci-a J3 9m u fa 389 390 A QUARREL ABOUT TWO DUCHIES. joined with Prussia, because the incorporation of the duchies with Germany was popular, and Aus- tria did not wish Prussia to do a popular thing un- aided. Accordingly, these two giants attacked the poor little dwarf kingdom in 1864; but the Danes fought like heroes, and the war continued in 1865. Only then, crushed by the enormous preponderance in wealth and numbers of their mighty foes, did the Danes yield. But, no sooner was the war over, than Prussia showed that it was her intention to annex the newly acquired duchies to herself. This Austria could not endure, and accordingly, in 1866, war broke out between Austria and Prussia. Prussia sought alliance with Italy, which she stirred up to attack Austria in her Italian possessions. The Aus- trian army defeated the Italian at Eustazza ; but the fortunes of war were against them in Germany. Allied with the Austrians were the Saxons, the Bavarians, the Wiirtembergers, Baden, and Hesse, and Hanover. The Prussians advanced with their chief army into Bohemia with the utmost rapidity, dreading lest the Southern allies should march north to Hanover, and cut the kingdom in half, and push on to Berlin. The Prussians had three armies, which were to enter Bohemia and effect a junction. The Elbe army under the King, the first army under Prince Frederick Charles, and the second army under the Crown Prince. The Elbe army advanced across Saxony by Dresden. The first army was in Lusatia, at Reichenberg, and the second army in Silesia at Heisse. They were all to meet at Gitschin. GENERAL BEiVEDEK'S MISTAKE. ?g l The Austrian army under General Benedek was at Koniggratz, in Eastern Bohemia. Now, if you will look at your map, you will see that all the north of Bohemia is walled in by mountains, with only three tolerable passes through them. What the Austrians should have done was to have flung" themselves at one army as it entered the mountains, beaten it, or at all events crippled it, then swung; about on a pivot and gone like a hammer at the second army, hurt that, and then battered down the the third army. But, as in the wars with Napoleon, so was it now ; the Austrian generals were half asleep, and never did the right thing at the right moment. Benedek did indeed march against the first army, but too late, and when he found it was. already through the mountain door, he retreated, and: >o gave time for the three armies to concentrate uponi him. The Elbe army and the first met at Miinchengratz,. and defeated an Austrian army there, pushed on, and drove them back out of Gitschin on Koniggratz, where Benedek was rubbing his eyes, and thinking it time to begin. The Prussians pushed on, and now the Elbe army went to Smidar, and the first army to Horzitz, whilst the second army, under the Crown Prince, was pushing on, and had got to Gradlitz. The little river Bistritz is crossed by the high road to Koniggratz. It runs through swampy ground, and forms little marshy pools or lakes. To the North of Koniggratz a little stream of much the same character dribbles through bogs into the Elbe. But about Chlum, Nedelist and Lippa is terraced 3Q2 A QUARREL ABOUT TWO DUCHIES. high ground, and there Benedek planted his cannon. The Prussians advanced from Smidar against the left wing of the Austrians, from Horzitz against the centre, and the Crown Prince was to attack the right wing. The battle began on the 3d of July, at 7 o'clock in the morning, by the simultaneous advance of the Elbe and the first army upon the Bis- tritz. At Sadowa is a wood, and there the battle raged most fiercely. The Austrian cannons pounded the Prussians as they advanced, but they would not go back, but held on, and there the Aus- trians met them, and so exhausted were they at noon that they drew off. As yet the Crown Prince had not arrived ; he was floundering through the bogs, unable to make much way. Now was Bene- dek's second chance. He ought to have gathered up his men, and driven them like a wedge into the panting, pausing Prussians. But he waited, and drew a long breath, and rubbed his hands, and thought things were not looking very bad. To keep him amused, the Prussians thundered with their guns at his positions till they were rested. Thus passed two hours. All at once, boom ! boom ! then a roar of artillery brought down by the wind from the North. It was the signal that the Crown Prince with the first army had arrived on the scene, was crossing the brook and assailing the right wing and flank of Benedek. Immediately the refreshed Prussians of the other two armies charged. 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A Series of Irish- American Stories, a °^ paretic; each complete in itself, but having a connected interest. liT C*K ^ r ' George Kennan's Siberian articles, JSXnnan in OlDeria. iH ust rated with sketches and photo- graphs taken by George A. Frost, will contain, from November on, what the author believes to be the best and most striking of all his material. Price is. \d. Monthly. Post free, 19/. a Tear. $t. Nicholas, Conducted b y MARY MAP ES DODGE. AN "ALL-AROUND THE WORLD" TEAR. A.t+ Qfticfyof&B f° r the coming year will tell English boys and girls of ^^ the thousands of millions of children of other countries : of French girls in their little black alpaca aprons, and German girls with their flaxen hair, and Italian boys with their dark eyes, and clever American children (the cleverest take in St. Nicholas), and little Chinese maidens, with their almond-eyes and long pig-tails, and woolly-headed African pickaninnies. Of the homes of all these children, of the toys of the shy Japanese, of the pine woods of the blue-eyed Norwegians, of the furs and toboganning of the Canadians, of the gum trees and kangaroos of the Australians, of the sharks and clear blue seas of the chocolate-skinned wOuth-Sea Islanders — in fact, of nearly everything that amuses girls and interests boys, from the nursery rhymes of the Hottentot mothers to the guns and spears that the Icelandic fathers use to kill the white bears, St. Nicholas means to tell its readers in Great Britain and Ireland. Price is. Monthly. Post free, \\s. a Tear. London : T. FISHER UNWIN, 26, Paternoster Square. \ THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. 83 5766 i d AA 000177 036 1