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ONE IESE NOES 
 From the Library of 
 Dr. R. BE. Hieronymus 
 
 1942 
 
 
 
The person charging this material is re- 
 sponsible for its return to the library from 
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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by 
 MASON BROTHERS, 
 %n the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York, 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1877, 
 By ESTATE OF JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. 
 
 CorrricHt By Dopp, MEAD, AND CoMPANY, 1882. 
 
 a0. 
 
AUSTRIA 
 
 ITS 
 
 RISE AND PRESENT POWER 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN S. C. ABBOTT 
 
 WITH A SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER OF RECENT EVENTS 
 
 By WILFRED C. LAY, Ph.D. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
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 PREFACK., 
 
 THE studies of the author of this work, for the last ten 
 
 _ years, in writing the ‘‘ History of Napoleon Bonaparte,’’ and 
 
 ‘The French Revolution of 1789,’ have necessarily made 
 him quite familiar with the monarchies of Europe. He has 
 met with so much that was strange and romantic in their 
 career, that he has been interested to undertake, as it were, a 
 biography of the Monarchies of Continental Kurope—their 
 birth, education, exploits, progress and present condition. He 
 has commenced with Austria. 
 There are abundant materials for this work. The Life of 
 Austria embraces all that is wild and wonderful in history ; 
 her early struggles for aggrandizement—the fierce strife with 
 the Turks, as wave after wave of Moslem invasion rolled up 
 the Danube—the long conflicts and bloody persecutions of the 
 Reformation—the thirty years’ religious war—the meteoric 
 career of Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII. shooting 
 athwart the lurid storms of battle—the intrigues of Popes— 
 the enormous pride, power and encroachments of Louis XIV. 
 —the warfare of the Spanish succession and the Polish dis- 
 memberment—all these events combine in a sublime tragedy 
 
 which fiction may in vain attempt to parallel. 
 
vi PREFAOE. 
 
 It is affecting to observe in the history of Germany, through 
 what woes humanity has passed in attaining even its present 
 position of civilization. It is to be hoped that the human 
 family may never again suffer what it has already endured. 
 We shall be indeed insane if we do not gain some wisdom 
 from the struggles and the calamities of those who have gone 
 before us. ‘The narrative of the career of the Austrian Km- 
 pire, must, by contrast, excite emotions of gratitude in every 
 American bosom. Our lines have fallen to us in pleasant 
 places ; we have a goodly heritage. 
 
 It is the author’s intention soon to issue, as the second of 
 this series, the History of the Empire of Russia. 
 
 JOHN 8S. C. ABBOTT. 
 
 BRUNSWICK, Maine, 1869, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 
 
 OA rT tet hs 
 RHODOLPH OF HAPSBUBG. 
 From 1282 ro 1291. 
 PéGe 
 
 Shawk’s CastTie.—A.Best, Count or Harpssure.—Ruopo.ru or E apspure.—He 
 MaARgRiAGE AND Estates.—EXcOMMUNICATION AND ITs Rescutre —His Parnoi- 
 PLes oF Honor.—A ConFEDERAOGY OF Barons.—THein Boute.—RHODOLPH’S 
 Exxcrion as Emperor or Germany.—TuHe Bisuor’s WArNiING,—DISSATISFAC- 
 TION AT THE RESULT OF THE ELECTION.—ADVANTAGES ACORUING FROM THE Pos- 
 SESSION OF AN INTERESTING F AMILY.—CoNQUEST.—OTTOOAR ACKNOWLEDGES THS 
 Emperor; YET BREAKS HIS OATH OF ALLEGIANCE.—GATHEBING CLOUDS.—WON- 
 DEEFUL Escarz.—VIioTorY OF RHODOLPH.—HIS REFORMS.......esesceeesseeess & 
 
 Ctra ot oO he HL. 
 REIGNS OF ALBERT I., FREDERIC, ALBERT AND OTHO. 
 From 1291 to 1347. 
 
 ANEoDOTES of RHOopOoLPH.—His Drsizz ror THE ELECTION oF His SoN.—Hs 
 Dratu.—ALBERT.—His UNPOPULARITY.—CONSPIRAOY OF THE NoOBLES.—THRIR 
 Drreat.—ApDoLpuus or Nassau cHosen Emprror.—ALBERT'S CONSPIRACY.—Dge 
 POSITION OF ADOLPHUS AND ELECTION of ALBERT.—DeaTH or ADOLPHUS.—THE 
 Porr DerieD.—ANNEXATION OF BOHEMIA.—ASSASSINATION OF ALBERT.—AVENG- 
 ing Fory.—Txs Hurmrr’s Direction.—FREpERIO THE HaNnDsOoMe.—ELECTION 
 or Henry, Count or Luxempure.—His Deatu.—ELecrTion or Louis or Bava- 
 BIA.—CaPTURE OF FREDERIC.—REMARKABLE CONFIDENCE TOWARD A PRISONER, 
 —Drats oy Fraprri0.—An EARLY ENGAGEMENT.—DeatuH or Lovuis.—AcozssIOn 
 SERET US IF ceeds ates caastateavacceasccss crs seetey seence saueesenscasce OO 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 BRBHODOLPH I1., ALBERT IV. AND ALBERT VY. 
 From 1839 To 1487, 
 
 Ruovoirg I1.—MaAreiaGe or JOHN TO MARGARET.—INTRIGUING FOR THE TYROL.<= 
 Desaty or Rnuopotps.—Aocession or Power To AustRia.—DIiviping THE Eme 
 Pirner.— DELIGHT oF THE EMPEROR CHARLES.—LEOPOLD.—HI8s AMBITION AND Su 
 cussEs.— Hepwier, Quen or Potanp.—“ THz Courss of TRUE LOVE NEVER DID 
 BUN sMooTH.”—Unuappy Marriage or Hepwier.—lIizrornm or ARNOLD OF 
 Wrnxce.eeip.—Deata or Leopotp.—Dzata or Atsert [V.—Acorssion oF Alte 
 Bert VY.—ATTEMPTS OF SIGISMOND TO BEQUEATH TO ALBERT V. HUNGARY AND 
 
 1* 
 
vin CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 ALBERT, LADISLAUS AND FREDERIC. 
 From 1440 To 1489. 
 
 PAGS 
 
 fwornasinc Honors or ALBERT V.—ENOROAOCHMENTS OF THE TURKS.—THE OHBIS- 
 qTrANSs RovTeD.—TEREOR OF THE HUNGARIANS.—DEATH OF ALBERT.—MAGNANI- 
 mous Conpuor or ALBERT OF BAvARIA:—INTERNAL TROUBLES.—PREOOOITY OF 
 LapIsLaus.—ForTIFIOATIONS RAISED BY THE TURKS.—J OHN CAPISTRUN.—RESOUB 
 or Bazrerapze.—Tur Turks DispErszED.—EXULTATION OVER THE VIOTORY.— 
 Data or HunniaDEs.—JEALCUSY OF LADISsLAUS.—His DratH.—BEOTHERLY 
 QUAREELS.—DEVASTATIONS BY THE TURKS.—INVASION OF AUSTRIA.—REPEAL OF 
 THE COMPROMISE.—THE EMPEROE A FUGITIVE......0+cecesccccerereseressreses 
 
 Cl ADP Ta eva 
 THE EMPERORS FREDERIC II. AND MAXIMILIAN £L 
 From 1477 ro 1500. 
 
 WaANDERINGS OF THE EMPEROR FREDERIO.—PROPOSED ALLIANOE WITH THE DUKB 
 or Burcunpy.—MoutTva. Distrust.—MarriaGE oF Mary.—TueE AGE or Cutv- 
 ALRY.—TuHE MOTIVE INDUCING THE LORD OF PRAUNSTEIN TO DEOLARE WAR.— 
 Dears or Freperio Il.—Tuoe Emprror’s Skoret.—DxsIGns OF THE TURKS.— 
 Datu or Manomet II.—First EstaBLisHMENT OF STANDING ARMIES.—USE OF 
 GuNPOWDER.—ENERGY OF MAXIMILIAN.—FRENCH AGGRESSIONS.—THE LEAGUE 
 TO EXPEL THE F'RENCH.—DISAPPOINTMENTS OF MAXIMILIAN.—BRIBING THE Popr, 
 
 INVASION OF ITALY.—CAPTURE AND REOAPTURE.—THB CHEVALIER DE BAYARD, 
 
 O.H2AsPeE ieee 
 MAXIMILIAN I. 
 From 1500 to 1519. 
 
 Bass TREACHERY OF THE Swiss SOLDIERS.—PERFIDY OF FERDINAND OF ARRAGON, 
 —APPEALS BY SUPERSTITION.—COALITION WITH SPAIN.—THE LEAGUE OF OAM- 
 BRAY.—INFAMY OF THE Popr.—THeE Kine’s ApoLoGy.—FAILURE OF THE PLoT.— 
 GERMANY AROUSED.—CONFIDENOE OF MAXIMILIAN.—LONGINGS FOR THE PONTIFT- 
 OAL CHAIR.—MAxXIMILIAN BrisED.—LEro X.—DAWNING PROSPERITY.—MATRI- 
 MONIAL PROJEOTS.—COMMENOEMENT OF THE WAR OF REFORMATION.—SIOKNESS 
 or MAxIMInIAN.—Hi1s Last DreecTions.—H1s DeatH.—THE STANDARD BY WHICH 
 Bis CHARACTER IS TO BE JUDGED... . s¢cccccccces:ccsccccecsvccccvecccccecessees 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION. 
 From 1519 to 1581. 
 
 Onariss V. or SParn.—His ELforion aS EMprRor oF G@eRMANY.—Hi8 Coronas 
 TION.—THE First CONSTITUTION.—PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION.—THE PopE’s 
 Bott aaainst Lutuer.— His Contempt For HIs HoLiness.—THE DIET at 
 Worms.—FREDERIO’S OBJECTION TO THE CONDEMNATION OF LUTHER BY THE Diet, 
 
 97 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 PaGa 
 = Hz oprarms For Lurnze THE Rieat or Drrense. — LUTHer’s TRIUMPHAL 
 
 Mazon To THE TRIBUNAL.—CHARLES URGED TO VIOLATE HIS Sark ConpuotT.— 
 LutHer’s Patmos.—MARRIAGE oF SisteR CATHARINE Bora To LutruEer.—Terr- 
 RIBLE INSURREOTION.—THE Hoty Leacus.—TuHE Protest or Sprres.—CoNnrEs- 
 gion or AucspurG.—THE Two CoNFESSIONS.—COMPULSOBRY MEASURES.....cecee 106 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION, 
 From 1581 tro 1552. 
 
 DarseMINATION TO oRUSH PROTESTANTISM.—INOURSION OF THE TURKS.—VALOR OF 
 THE PROTESTANTS.—PREPARATIONS FOR RENEWED HOstILITIEs.—A UGMENTATION 
 oF THE PRoTEsTANT Forors.—THE CouNoIL OF TRENT.—MuTUAL CONSTEENA- 
 TION.— DEFEAT OF THE PRoTEsTANT ARMY.—UNLOOKED-FOR SuUCCOR.—REVOLT IN 
 Taz Emprror’s ARMY.—THE FLUOTUATIONS OF FoRTUNE.—IGNOBLE REVENGE.— 
 CaPTuRE OF WITTEMBERG. — PROTESTANTISM APPARENTLY ORUSHED. — PLOT 
 AGAINST CHARLES.—MAURIOE OF SAxony.—A CHANGE oF Sornt.—TuHE BITER 
 BiT—THR EMPEROR HUMBLED.—HiIs FLIGHT.—HIS DETERMINED WILL. .ccocceees 121 
 
 OHA. P TER. TX: 
 CHARLES V. AND THE TURKISH WABS 
 From 1552 Tro 1555. 
 
 THe Treaty or Passavu.—THE EMPEROR YIELDS.—HIs CONTINUED REVERSES.—THE 
 TOLERATION CoMPROMISE.—MuUTUAL DISSATISFACTION. —REMARKABLE DESPON- 
 DENOY OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES.—HISs ADDRESS TO THE CONVENTION AT Brus- 
 SELS.— THE CONVENT OF St, JUSTUS.—CHARLES RETURNS TO SPAIN.—H1s CONVENT 
 Lirz.—Tsz Mook Buriau.—His Dratra.—His Trarirs oF CHARACTER.—THE 
 Kine’s ComPLiIMENT TO TITIAN.—THE CONDITION OF AUSTRIA.—RAPID ADVANOER 
 oF THE TURKS.—REASONS FOR THE INACTION OF THE CHRISTIANS.—THE SULTAN’S 
 Meruop or Overcomina DirFicuLtics,—THE LITTLE Fortress or GUNTZ.— 
 eee Te LOOGMPLIBHED casas pc cnsckgocdecnerenedeesdceccocecencsncecesseses, LOO 
 
 CHAPTHR X. 
 
 FERDINAND I.—HIS WABS AND INTRIGUES.’ 
 From 1555 ro 1562. 
 
 Joun OF TAPOLI.—THE INSTABILITY OF CoMPACTS.—THE SULTAN’Ss DEMANDS.—A 
 Reign or War.—Powers AND Duties or THE Monarkons oF Bonumia.—THE 
 Diet.—Tue Kine’s DestrE TO oRUSH PROTESTANTISM. — THE ENTRANCE TO 
 Pracur. —TERROR OF THE INHABITANTS. — THE Krine’s CONDITIONS. — THE 
 Bioopy Dret.—DisorPtinarky M¥ASURES.—THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ORDER 
 or JESUITS.—ABDICATION OF CHARLES V. IN Favor or FERDINAND.—POWER OF 
 THE Popz.—Pavut IV.—A QUIET BUT POWERFUL BLOW.—THE PROGRESS OF THE 
 REFORMERS.—ATTEMPTS TO REOONOILE THE PROTESTANTS.—THE UNSUCOESSFUL 
 BERR Waele oi (ie Bel Wois atle we wdlcls Waite a alele olelecale’ cic cae% sielbe te cee biaie’s ict RORY 
 
4 DONTBNTS 
 
 O. 8A POR Bx 
 DEATH OF FERDINAND L—ACCESSION OF MAXIMBLIAN &. 
 From 1562 ro 1576. 
 PAGE 
 
 Tar Counor or TEENT.—SPREAD OF THE REFORMATION.—F'ERDINAND’s ATTEMPT 
 TO INFLUENCE THE Pors.-—His ARGUMENTS AGAINST CELIBACY.—STUBBORNHESS 
 OF THE Porpr.—Maximiian [1.—DispieasvRE oF FERDINAND.—MOTIVES FOR 
 NOT ABJURING THE CATHOLIO fF aiTH.—RELIGIOUS STRIFE IN Evrops.—-MaxiMil- 
 ran’s Appeess TO CHARLES [X,—MuTuAL TOLEEATION.—ROMANTIO PASTIME OF 
 War.—Hexoism or Nicnoias, Count or Zetnt.—Accession or PowsE TO AUB 
 @RIA.—~AOOCESSION OF RHODOLPH LIL.—DzaTH OF MAXIMILIAN. cccccoscccvccces BOO 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CHARACTER OF MAXIMILIAN.—SUCCESSION OF RHODOLPH UL 
 From 1576 ro 1604. 
 
 OBARACTER OF Maximinian.—His AccoMPLIsHMENTS,—His Wira.—Fats oF BES 
 CHILDREN.—Raopotps [il.—Tsx Liszety or Worsurp.—Means oF EmANorPA- 
 TION. — RHODOLPH’S ATTEMPTS AGAINST PROTESTANTISM. — DECLARATION OF A 
 HIGHER LAW.—THEOLOGIOAL DIFFERENOES.—THE CONFEDERACY AT HEILBRUN- 
 —TsE GREGORIAN CALENDAR.—INTOLERANCE IN BoHEMIA.—TuE TRAP OF THR 
 Monxs.—InvVaSION OF THE TuURKS.—THEIR Derrat.—CoALitTion WITH SIGIsMON? 
 —SaLE OF TRANSYLVANIA.—RoLE OF Basta.—TuHe EMPIRE OAPTUBED AND RE 
 OAPTURED.—DEVASTATION OF THE COUNTRY.—TREATMENT OF STEPHEN Botszot 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS. 
 From 1604 To 1609. 
 
 Borsxor’s MANIFESTO.—HORRIBLE SUFFERING IN TRANSYLVANIA.—CBARAOTER OF 
 Borsko1.—ConFIDENOE OF THE PROTESTANTS.—SUPERSTITION OF RHODOLPEL—= 
 His Mysrio Stupres.—ACQUIREMENTS OF MATTHIAS.—ScueMeEs oF MaTTHras.— 
 His increasing Powrer.—TREATY WITH THE TURKS.—DEMANDS ON RHODOLPH.— 
 THe CoMPROMISE.—PERFIDY OF MatTHias.—T HE MARGRAVITB.—F ILLIBUSTERING, 
 
 ‘The Propuse’s Diet.—A Hint to Rorvatty.—Tset BLoopiess Tetuwes.—Ds- 
 MANDS OF THE GEBMANS.—ADDEESS OF THE PRINOB OF ANHALT TO THE Kuse..... 199 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 BHODOLPH IIl. AND MATTHIA8B. 
 From 1609 to 1612. 
 
 DirricuLTms As TO THE Sucosssion.—Hostiuiry or Henry IV. ro Tras Hovuss op 
 AveTria.—AssassInation OF Haney [V.—Somarrry mv ScLty’s anp Nara 
 Leon's Pians.—ExuLtTatTion oF THE CaTHoLics.—THE Brotuer’s ComPact.<- 
 How RHODOLPH KEPT IT.—Sz£1ZUEE OF PracuE.—RHODOLPH A PRisoner.—Tas 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 Krxa’s ABDICATION.—CONDITIONS ATTACHED TO THE CROWN.—RaGE or Ruo- 
 
 DOLPH.—MATTHIAS ELEOTED Kinc.—THE EMPEROR'S RESIDENCE.—REJOICINGS OF 
 THE PROTESTANTS.—REPLY OF THE AMBASSADORS.—1HE NUREMBERG DigtT.—THE 
 UNEINDEST CUT OF ALL.—RHODOLPH'S HUMILIATION AND DEATH....000- sevvccce B19 
 
 (Le ALP hh XV 
 MATTHIAS. 
 From 1612 To 1619. 
 
 Marrnoias ELEOTED EmMprror oF GEEMANY.—HIs DESPoTIO CHARACTER. — His 
 PLANS THWARTED.—MULHEIM.—GATHERING CLOUDS.—F AMILY INTRIGUE.—COR- 
 ONATION OF FERDINAND.—His Bicotry.—HeEnry, Count or THURN.—CONVEN- 
 TION AT PraGur.—TueE Kine’s Repty.—TuHe Dre cast.—AmusinGa DEFENSE OF 
 AN OUTRAGE.—FERDINAND’S MANIFESTO.—SEIZURE OF CARDINAL Kuxsis.—TuHE 
 Kine’s Raee.—Rerreat or tHE Krine’s Troors.—HuUMILIATION OF FERDINAND. 
 —TxE DiIrFIOULTIES REFEBRED.—DEATH OF MATTHIAS..... ... 0. eee e ee ee 9D 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 FERDINAND II. 
 From 1619 To 1621. 
 
 POSSESSIONS OF THE EMPEROR.—POWER OF THE PROTESTANTS OF BOHEMIA.—GEN- 
 ERAL Sprrir oF INSURRECTION.—ANXIETY OF FERDINAND.—INSUREECTION LED BY 
 Count THURN.—UNPOPULARITY OF THE EMPEROR.—AFFEOTING DECLARATION OF 
 THE EMPEROR.—INSURREOTION IN VIENNA.—THE ARRIVAL OF Sucoor.—FERDI 
 NAND SEEKS THE IMPERIAL THRONE.—REPUDIATED BY BOHEMIA.—THE PALATIN- 
 ATE.—FREDERIO OFFERED THE CROWN OF BOHEMIA.—FREDERIO OROWNED.— 
 Revott In HunGAry.—DEsPERATE CONDITION OF THE EMPEROR.—CATHOLIO 
 Lracur.—TueE CALVINISTS AND THE PUR\TANS.—DUPLIOITY OF THE EMPEROR. 
 Forriegn COMBINATIONS.—TRUOE BETWEEN THE CATHOLICS AND THE PROTEST- 
 ants.—THE ATTAOK UPON BOHEMIA.—BATTLE OF THE WHITE MOUNTAIN. .cooee. 248 
 
 CHAPTER X Vit. 
 
 FERDINAND II. 
 From 1621 To 1629. 
 
 PuSILLANDMITY OF FrEDERIO.—INTEEATIES OF THE CITIZENS OF PRaGus.—SHAMR- 
 Fu. Fuicut or FREDERIO.—VENGEANCE INFLICTED UPON BoHEMIA.—PROTEST- 
 ANTISM AND OIVIL FREEDOM.—VAST POWER OF THE EMPEROR.—ALARM OF Ev- 
 RoPE.—J AMES I.—TREATY OF MARRIAGE FOR THE PRINCE OF WALES.—CARDINAL 
 Rronetrev.—New LeaGur oF THE PROTESTANTS.—DESOLATING WAR.—DEFEAT 
 or THE Kine or DENMARK.—ENERGY OF WALLENSTEIN.—TRIUMPH OF FERDI- 
 wAND.—New Aots or INTOLERANOE.—SEVERITIES IN BOHEMIA.—DESOLATION OF 
 THE KIne@poM.—DISssATISFACTION OF THE DuKE OF BAVARIA.—MEETING OF THE 
 
 OATHOLIO PRINCES.—THE EMPEROR HUMBLED...cssccccucccccccscccseeccecccces 261 
 
pai] CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVITI. 
 FERDINAND If. AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHOUS. 
 From 1629 ro 1682. 
 PAGE 
 
 YRXATION OF FrepINAND.—Gustavus ADOLPHUS.—ADDRESS TO THE NOBLES OF 
 SweEDEN.—MAxkOCH OF GusTAVUS.—APPEAL TO THE PROTESTANTS.—MAGDEBURG 
 yorns Gustavus.—DESTRUOTION OF THE CITY.—CONSTERNATION OF THE PROTEST- 
 ANTS.—EXULTATION OF THE CATHOLICS.—THE ELECTOR OF SAXONY DRIVEN FROM 
 His DomMains.—BatTtLe or Lerps1o.— Tut SwkEDES PENETRATE BOHEMIA,—FREE- 
 DOM OF CONSCIENCE ESTABLISHED.—DEATH OF TILLY.—THE RETIREMENT OF WAL= 
 LENSTEIN.-THE COMMAND RESUMED BY WALLENSTERIN.—CAPTURE OF PRAGUE.— 
 ENOOUNTER BETWEEN WALLENSTEIN AND QusTAVUS.—BATILE oF LUTZEN.— 
 DERTE OF GUSTAVUS. csscsccccscccectecuncescrernancucasnscusn escesaeen teenie 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 FERDINAND I1., FERDINAND III. AND LEOPOLD I. 
 From 1682 to 1662. 
 
 OSARACTER OF Gustavus ADOLPHUS.—EXULTATION OF THE IMPERIALISTS.—Dm- 
 GRACE OF WALLENSTEIN..—HE OFFERS TO SURRENDER TO THE SWEDISH GENERAL 
 ~—His ASSASSINATION.—FERDINAND’S SON ELECTED AS HIS SUCCESSOR.-—DEATH OF 
 FERrRDINAND.—CLOSE OF THE WarR.—ABDIOATION OF CHRISTINA.—CHAELES Guse 
 TAVUS.—PREPARATIONS FOR War.—Duata OF Frrpinanp IfI.— Leopoitp 
 ELECTED EMPEROR.—HOSTILITIES RENEWED.—DEATH OF CHARLES QUSTAVUS.— 
 DIET CONVENED.—INVASION OF THE TURKS... .0..cecccccccccccccccccsccccs coves DAO 
 
 OHAPTER XX. 
 
 LEOPOLD I. 
 From 1662 ro 1697. 
 
 [INVASION OF THE TuRKS.—A TREATY CONCLUDED.—POSSESSIONS OF LEOPOLD.—Ine 
 VASION OF THE FRENOH.—LEAGUE OF AUGSBURG.—DEVASTATION OF THE PALATI> 
 NATE.—INVASION OF HuNGARY.—EMERIO TEKELI.—UNION OF EMERIO TEKELI 
 wits THE TURKS.—LEOPOLD APPLIES TO SOBIESKI.—HE IMMEDIATELY MARCHES 
 To mis Ar.—THEe TURKS CONQUERED.—SOBIESKI'S TRIUMPHAL RECEPTIONS.— 
 Meranness OF LEOPOLD.—REVENGE UPON HuUNGARY.—PEACE CONOLUDED.—Con- 
 FEST VOR SPAIN, 600 cccctseuaccecescccesecceyesacsaccedeccce:secsea dana nnenaannn 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 LEOPOLD I. AND THE SPANISH SUCCESSION 
 From 1697 to 1710. 
 
 Tue Spanisn Suconssion.—TueE Imporenor or CHARLES I].—APpEAL TO THE Porg, 
 —His Deoision.—-DEATH oF CHARLES II.—Acorssion or Purtip V.—INpIeNA- 
 -YON OF AUSTRIA.— THE OUTBREAK OF War.—Cuaries III. crownen.—Insup- 
 RECTION IN HUNGARY.—DEFEOTION oF Bavarta.—TuHe Barrie or BLENHEDAA< 
 
CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 PAGB 
 Dauata or Leorotp I.—E.zonora.—Acoxrssion or Josery I.—Onaries XIL or 
 
 Swapan.—Caazizes III. or Spain.—BatTLE oF MALPLAQUET.—OHAELES AT 
 BaRrosLona.—CHARLES AT MADRID po cctctccecccccsce cess ctcceseseceseceeeees 898 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 JOSEPH I. AND OCHARLES Vf. 
 From 1710 to 1717. 
 
 Pesriexitizs 1s Mapei.—F.ient of CHARLES.—RETREAT OF THE AUSTRIAN 
 ARMY.—STANHOPE’s DIVISION CUT OFF.—CAPTURE OF STANHOPE.—STAREMBERG 
 ASSAILED.—RETREAT TO BARCELONA.—ATTEMPT TO PAOIFY HUNGARY.—THE Hun- 
 GARIAN Dizt.—BARONIAL CROWNING OF RAGOTSKY.—RENEWAL OF THE HUNGA- 
 RIAN WAR.—ENTERPRISE OF HERBEVILLE.—IHE HUNGARIANS CRUSHED.—LENITY 
 OF JOSEPH.—DEATH OF JOSEPH.—ACCESSION OF CHARLES VI.—His CAREER IN 
 SPAIN.—CaptTuRE OF BaRorLona.—TuE Siecu.—THE Resour.—CHARAOCTER OF 
 CHAELES.—CLOISTERS OF MONTSERRAT.—INOREASED EFFORTS FOR THE SPANISH 
 Crown.—CHARLES CROWNED EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY.—BOHEMIA.— 
 DEPLOBABLE CONDITION OF LOUIS XIV......cccccccecccccccscccccesesscccesces GMD 
 
 CHAPTER XXITfI. 
 
 CHABLES VI. 
 From 1716 to 1727. 
 
 Hgzoro Deomion or Evernr.—Batritze oF BELGRapE.—Utrer Rout or THE 
 TUEKS.—POsSESssIONS OF CHARLES VI.—TuE ELECTOR OF HANOVER SUCCEEDS TO 
 THE ENGLISH THRONE.—PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.—STATE OF ITALY.—PHILIP V, 
 oF SPAIN.—DIPLOMATIO AGITATIONS.—PALAOE OF 81T. ILDEFONSO.—ORDER OF THE 
 GoLpDEN FLEZOE.—REJECTION OF Marra ANNE.—CONTEST FOR THE ROOK OF GIB- 
 BALTAEB.—DISMISSAL OF RIPPERDA.—TBEATY OF VIENNA.—PEACE CONCLUDED... 868 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 OHABLES VI. AND THE POLISH WAB. 
 From 1727 ro 1785, 
 
 OCaRnDixaL Fievery.—Txe Emperor or AUSTEIA URGES THE PRAGMATIO SANCTION. 
 -—HE PROMISES HIS TWO DAUGHTEES TO THE TWO SONS OF THE QUEEN OF SPAIN, 
 —FEANOE, ENGLAND AND SPAIN UNITE AGAINST AUSTRIA.—CHARLES VI. ISSUES 
 OEDEERS TO PREPARE FOR WAR.—HIS PERPLEXITIES.—SEORET OVERTURES TO EN- 
 @LAND.—THE CROWN OF POLAND.—MEETING OF THE POLISH CONGRESS.—STANIS- 
 Lavus Goxs TO PoLtanp.—Aveustus III. okoWNED.—WAR.—CHARLES SENDS AN 
 Army To LOMBARDY.—DIFFICULTIES OF PRINOE EvGENE.—CHARLES’s DISPLEAS- 
 ORE WITH ENGLAND.—Lertrer TO Count KINsKY.—HOSTILITIES RENEWED...+2.. 988 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 CHABLES Vi. AND THE TURKISH WAR BBNEWED. 
 From 1785 ro 1789. 
 PAG 
 
 ANXIETY OF AUSTRIAN OFFICE-1I0LDERS.—Maria TnErEsa.—Tux Doxe or Lop- 
 RAINE.—DISTRACTION OF THE EMPEROR.—TUSOANY ASSIGNED TO THE DUKE OF 
 LorRAINE.—Deata or EvGenr.—Risuve Greatness oF Russta.—New War 
 WITH THE TURKS.—CONDITION OF THE ARMY.—COMMENCEMENT OF HosTILITIES*— 
 Caprure or Nissa.—INEFMICIENT CAMPAIGN.—DISGRACE OF SECKENDORF.—THB 
 Duxe or LORRAINE PLACED IN CoMMAND.—SIEGE OF OrsoVA.—BELGRADE BE- 
 @IBAED BY THE TURKS.—THE THIRD CAMPAIGN.—BATTLE OF CroTzKA.—DEFEAT 
 OF THE AUSTRIANS.—CONSTERNATION IN VIENNA.—BARBARISM OF THE TURKS.— 
 Tas SUREEMDEE, OF BELGRADE, . « cccsce.0s sicic comp ovisineiesin ncaa) aemeeans semesn nee 
 
 CHAPTER XK XVK 
 MARIA THERESA. 
 From 1789 ro 1741. 
 
 ANeuisy or THz Kine.—Letrer To THE QueEN or Kussia.—Tun mprniaL Omope 
 LAR.—DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF AUSTEIA.~—D&EATH OF CHARLES VI.—Aoozs- 
 SiON or Marra T'HeREsA,—VIGOROUS MEASURES OF THE QUEEN.—CLAIM OF THE 
 DuKE oF BAVARIA.—RESPONSES FROM THE COURTS.--COLDNES® OF THE I'RENCH 
 Court.—FRreEprErio or Prussia.—His INVASION OF SiLesia.—Marcn OF THE AUB- 
 TRIAi:8.—BATTLE OF MOLNITZ.—FIRMNESS OF Maria THERESA.—PROPOSED Drvis- 
 ION OF PLUNDER.—VILLAINY OF FREDERIO.—INTERVIEW WITH THE KiING.—CHAB 
 ACTER OF FREDERIO.—-COMMENOCEMENT OF THE GENERAL INVASION...  cceossese 445 
 
 CO AZO Roe oko vee 
 MARIA THERESBA, 
 From 1741 to 1748. 
 
 Onmanacter of Franois, Duxe or Lorrarmsg.—Ponicy or Evropzan Oovrts.— 
 Pras oF THE ALLIES.—SIEGE or PRaGuE.—DESPERATE CONDITION OF THE QUEEN 
 —H «er Coronation In HUNGARY.—ENTHUSIASM OF THE BARONS.—SPEECH OF Ma- 
 gia TuEREsA.—PEACE WITH FREDERIO oF ProssiA.—His Dup.iciry.—MILITARY 
 MoveEMENT OF THE DUKE oF LOgKAINE.—BATTLE OF CHAZLEAU.—SECOND TREATY 
 WIT FrepEri0.—DEsPONDENOY or THE DuxKes or BAVARIA.—MAROCH OF MALLE- 
 BoIs —EXTRAORDINARY ReETEEAT OF BELLEISLE.—RROOVERY OF PEAGUE BY TER 
 
 QUEEN cceccccovaccesriceecanveet SECC OTHE SESH EHH +H SSHSHSHSHSHOSHOHHOHSHHSHESCEEHOOCESOES 433 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIItL 
 MARBIA THERESA, 
 From 1743 ro 1748, 
 
 Paosrenous Aspuor or AvsTeiaN Arrarrs.—Capturs or Eora.—Vaer Extewr op 
 Avsreita.—DispurTes with SARDINIA.— MARRIAGE OF CHARLES OF LORRAINE WITB 
 
» 
 
 GONTENTS. xv 
 
 Pace 
 eum Quren’s SmeTzsrn—Invasion oF Arsaon.—FREDERIO OVEREUNS BonEwta.— 
 
 BouEeMIa RECOVERED BY PgEIncE CHAELES.—DEATH OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES 
 VIL—Vewaniry or THE OLD Monaronixs.—BatTrLx or HonxEeNFreiersere.—Sim 
 Tomas Rosinson’s INTERVIEW WiTH Maria THEREsa.—HunGcarian ENTED- 
 gt1asM.—Tue Ducks or LoRRAIND ELECTED EMPEEOR.—CONTINUATION OF THE WAR, 
 —Taxaty or Prace.—INpDIGNATION OF MARIA THERESA........cccccccesscccses GG 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 MARIA THERESA. 
 From 1748 To 1759. 
 
 Teraty or Prace.—DissaTisFaAcTION oF Magia THERESA.—PREPARATION FOR 
 Warn.—Rurturze BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AUSTRIA.—MariA THERESA.—AL- 
 LIANOE with WRANOK.—INFLUENCE OF MAROCHIONESS OF PoMPADOUR.—BITTER 
 REPROACHES BETWEEN AUSTEIA AND ENGLAND.—COMMENCEMENT OF TOE SEVEN 
 Years’ War.—Enexcy or FrREDERIO or Prussta.—SaNGUINARY BatTrLes.— 
 Viorssirupgs or War.—DrsperaTe SIvvaTION or FrepERI@.—ELATION OF Ma- 
 Bia THERESA.—HeE AMBITIOUS PLANS.—AWFUL DEFEAT OF THE PRUSSIANS &T 
 EE ae ee cosy cs winter tens ay ae SR aig nth phe Mp Sea Te etal tedy | 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 MARIA THERESA, 
 From 1759 ro 1780. 
 
 Desoitations or Wan.—Disasters or Prussia.—DesPoNpDENoY oF FREDERIO.— 
 Dears or THE Empress ELIZABETH.—AOCUESSION OF PauL III.—AssassInaTION 
 or Pact [I1.—Acoxzssion or CATHARINE.—DISCOMFITUEE OF THE AUSTRIANS.— 
 Treary or Peaor.—ELectTION OF JOSEPH TO THE THRONE OF THE EMPIRE.—DEATH 
 or Franois.—CHARAOTER OF FRANCIS.—ANEODOTES.—ENERGY OF Maria THe 
 BESA.— PoNIATOWSKI.—PARTITION OF POLAND.—Maria THERESA AS A MOTHER, 
 —War with Bavarra.—Peace.—Dratu or Maria THERESA.—FAMILY OF THB 
 ExmpPeess.—Acogssion OF JoserH I].—HIs CHARACTER..c..cc000 cccccccoscccese 480 
 
 OFA POUR Ra & 3X TT, 
 JOSEPH If. AND LEOPOLD If. 
 From 1780 To 1792. 
 
 Aoorssion or Josern I1.—His Pians or Rerormu.—Pivs VI.—EMANOIPATION OF 
 que Sexrs.—Josern’s Visit TO HIs Sister, Marta ANTOINETTE.—AMBITIOUS Dae 
 siens.—Tue Imupxriat SieiaH Ripr.—BareeEs ON THE DNEISTER.—EXOURSION 
 fo THE CRIMEA.—WAR WITH TURKEY.—DEFEAT OF THE AUSTRIANS.—GREAT SU0- 
 Oras2s.—DsaTH OF JosePH.—His CHARACTER.—AOoESSION or LEopoLtp IL—Hm 
 Evrorts To conrtzrM Drspotism.—Tse Frenon REVOLUTION.—EUROPEAN COALI- 
 gion.—Derarta or LeopoLtp.—His Proriiegacy.—Accession OF Fanon []1.—Pree- 
 unt Exrexr axp Powzr or Avstaia.—its Aruy.—PoLicy oF THE GOVERH- 
 
 MBE, oc ec ccc cece cee e ee er SOS Oe Oe Sees SPOS POSES SOTO OE SEER ESOS eeeeereeoeer+ ea 483 
 
avi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIL 
 
 AUSTRIA AND THE FRENCH BREVOLUTIONS. 
 From 1792 To 1860. 
 
 AOOCESSION OF FRANOIS IIl.— CAMPAIGNS AGAINST NAPOLEON.— THE ITALIAN RE- 
 PUBLIO8S.— THE KINGDOM OF ITALY. — HOSTILITY OF ENGLAND TO THE FRENCH 
 REVOLUTION. —THE DOWNFALL OF NAPOLEON, AND CONSEQUENT DOWNFALL OF 
 FREE INSTITUTIONS THROUGHOUT EUROPE.—THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA.— EX- 
 PULSION OF THE BOURBONS FEOM FRANOE.— RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE UNDER 
 Lovis NAPOLEON.— REVOLUTIONS THROUGHOUT EUROPE.— HUNGARIAN REVOLU- 
 TION. — RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. —FALL OF HUNGARY.— LIBERATION OF ITALY.— 
 PRESENT PROSPEOTS......0-.00008 quecSsecsecscoseseesseuges cectensece ses seeetuaasaneaa save eminmn 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE NEW CONSTITUTION, AND SEPARATION FROM GERMANY. 
 
 Tur REICHSRATH TRANSFORMED INTO A NaTIONAL LEGISLATURE. — THE 
 “PatTH oF CONSTITUTIONALISM.” — JEALOUSY BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND 
 Prussia. — WAR WITH DENMARK.— QUARREL BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND 
 PrRussIA ABOUT SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.— ALLIANCE BETWEEN PRUSSIA 
 AND IraLy.— THE SIx WEEKS’ WAR AND SaDOWA.— ITALY GAINS VENE- 
 TIA. — AUSTRIA LOSES HER PLACE IN GERMANY.— THE PATH OF OONSTI- 
 TUTIONALISM ONCE MORE. — RECONCILIATION OF HUNGARY.— BOSNIA AND 
 HERZBaOVINIA COOOHSOSHOSHSSHSHSOHSSHSSSHSHSSSOSSHSHSSHSEHOH OSH H OHSS OSHS ODOSSOS 635 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 AUSTRIA 
 
 Frontispiece—Kossuth . 
 
 The Quay, Vienna 
 
 Franz Joseph ° . ° 
 Elizabeth Bridge « ° ° ° 
 

 
THE EMPIRE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
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CHAPTER I 
 
 RHODOLPH OF HAPSBURG. 
 
 From 1232 to 1291. 
 
 Bawr’s Oastix.—ALsert, Count or HapssurG.—RaopoLps or Hapssurc.—Hm 
 MargriaGs AND EstatEs.—EXCOMMUNICATION AND ITS Resutts.—H1s PRINOIPLES 
 oF Honor.—A ConreDERAOY OF BARrons.—THEIR Route.—RHODOLPH’s ELECTION 
 as Emprror OF GERMANY.—THE BIsHoP’s WARNING.—DISSATISFAOTION AT THE 
 Resutt or THE ELEOCTION.—ADVANTAGES ACORUING FROM THE POSSESSION OF AN 
 INTERESTING Faminy.—ConQurst.—OTTOOAR ACKNOWLEDGES THE EMPEROR; YET 
 BREAKS HIS OaTH OF ALLEGIANOE.—GATHERING CLOUDS.—WONDERFUL ESOAPE.— 
 Viotory oF RHopoiry.—His Rerorms. 
 
 N the small canton of Aargau, in Switzerland, on a rocky 
 
 bluff of the Wulpelsberg, there still remains an old baronial 
 castle, called Hapsburg, or Hawk’s Castle. It was reared in 
 the eleventh century, and was occupied by a succession of 
 warlike barons, who have left nothing to distinguish them- 
 selves from the feudal lords whose castles, at that period, 
 frowned upon almost every eminence of Europe. In the 
 year 1232 this castle was occupied by Albert, fourth Count 
 of Hapsburg. He had acquired some little reputation for 
 military prowess, the only reputation any one could acquire 
 in that dark age, and became ambitious of winning new lau- 
 rels in the war with the infidels in the holy land. Religious 
 fanaticism and military ambition were then the two great 
 powers which ruled the human soul. 
 
 With the usual display of semi-barbaric pomp, Albert made 
 arrangements to leave his castle to engage in the perilous 
 holy war against the Saracens, from which few ever returned, 
 A few years were employed in the necessary preparations, 
 At the sound of the bugle the portcullis was raised, the draw- 
 
 1* 
 
-_ 
 
 Fe THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 bridge spanned the moat, and Albert, at the head of thirty 
 steel-clad warriors, with nodding plumes, and banners un- 
 furled, emerged from the castle, and proceeded to the neigh- 
 boring convent of Mari. His wife, Hedwige, and their — 
 three sons, Rhodolph, Albert and Hartman, accompanied 
 him to the chapel where the ecclesiastics awaited his arrival. 
 A multitude of vassals crowded around to witness the im- 
 posing ceremonies of the church, as the banners were blessed. 
 and the knights, after having received the sacrament of the 
 Lord’s Supper, were commended to the protection of God. 
 Albert felt the solemnity of the hour, and in solemn tones 
 gave his farewell address to his children. 
 
 “My sons,” said the steel-clad warrior, “cultivate truth 
 and piety; give no ear to evil counselors, never engage it 
 unnecessary war, but when you are involved in war be strong 
 and brave. Love peace even better than your own personal 
 interests. Remember that the counts of Hapsburg did not 
 attain their heights of reputation and glory by fraud, inso- 
 lence or selfishness, but by courage and devotion to the 
 public weal. As long as you follow their footsteps, you will 
 not only retain, but augment, the possessions and dignities 
 of your illustrious ancestors.” 
 
 The tears and sobs of his wife and family interrupted him 
 while he uttered these parting words. The bugles then 
 sounded. The knights mounted their horses; the clatter of 
 hoofs was heard, and the glittering cavalcade soon disappeared 
 m the forest. Albert had left his ancestral castle, never to re- 
 turn. He had but just arrived in Palestine, when he was 
 taken sick at Askalon, and died in the year 1240. 
 
 Rhodolph, his eldest son, was twenty-two years of age at 
 the time of his father’s death. Frederic II., one of the most 
 renowned monarchs of the middle ages, was then Emperor of 
 that congl¢ meration of heterogeneous States called Germany. 
 Each of these States had its own independent ruler and laws, 
 but they were all held together by a common bond for mutual 
 
RHODOLPH OF HAPSBURG 19 
 
 protection, and some one illustrious sovereign was chosen as 
 Emperor of Germany, to preside over their common affairs, 
 The Emperor of Germany, having influence over all these 
 States, was consequently, in position, the great man of the 
 age. 
 
 Albert, Count of Hapsburg, had been one of the favorite 
 captains of Frederic II. in the numerous wars which desolated 
 Europe in that dark age. He was often at court, and the em- 
 peror even condescended to present his son Rhodolph at the 
 font for baptism. As the child grew, he was trained to all 
 athletic feats, riding ungovernable horses, throwing the jave- 
 lin, wrestling, running, and fencing. He early gave indica- 
 tions of surprising mental and bodily vigor, and, at an age 
 when most lads are considered merely children, he accom- 
 panied his father to the camp and to the court. Upon the 
 death of his father, Rhodolph inherited the ancestral castle, 
 and the moderate possessions of a Swiss baron. He was sur- 
 
 rounded by barons of far greater wealth and power than him- 
 
 self, and his proud spirit was roused, in disregard of his father’s 
 counsels, to aggrandize his fortunes by force of arms, the only 
 way then by which wealth and power could be attained. He 
 exhausted his revenues by maintaining a princely establish- 
 ment, organized a well-selected band of his vassals into a mili- 
 tary corps, which he drilled to a state of perfect discipline, 
 and then commenced a series of incursions upon his neighbors, 
 From some feeble barons he won territory, thus extending his 
 domains ; from others he extorted money, thus enabling him 
 to reward his troops, and to add to their number by engaging 
 fearless spirits in his service wherever he could find them. 
 
 In the year 1245, Rhodolph strengthened himself’ still 
 morxe by ar advantageous marriage with Gertrude, the beau- 
 tiful daughter of the Count of Hohenberg. With his bride he 
 received as her dowry the castle of Oeltingen, and very con- 
 siderable territorial possessious. Thus in five years Rhodolph, 
 by that species of robbery which was then called heroic ad. 
 
20 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 ventire, and by a fortunate marriage, had more than doubled 
 his iereditary inheritance. The charms of his bride, and the 
 care of his estates seem for a few years to have arrested the 
 progress of his ambition; for we can find no further notice of 
 him among the ancient chronicles for eight years. But, with 
 almost all men, love is an ephemeral passion, which is event- 
 ually vanguished. by other powers of the soul. Ambition slum- 
 bered for a little time, but was soon roused anew, invigorated 
 by repose. 
 
 In 1253 we find Rhodolph heading a foray of steel-clad 
 knights, with their banded followers, in a midnight attack 
 upon the city of Basle. They break over ail the defenses, 
 sweep all opposition before them, and in the fury of the fight, 
 either by accident or as a necessity of war, sacrilegiously set 
 fire toa nunnery. For this crime Rhodolph was excommu- 
 nicated by the pope. Excommunication was then no farce. 
 There were few who dared to serve a prince upon whom the 
 denunciations of the Church had fallen. it was a stunning 
 blow, from which few men could recover. Rhodolph, instead 
 of sinking in despair, endeavored, by new acts of obedience 
 and devotion to the Church, to obtain the revocation of the 
 sentence, 
 
 In the region now called Prussia, there was then a barbaris 
 pagan race, against whom the pope had published a crusade, - 
 Into this war the excommunicated Rhodoiph plunged with a¥ 
 the impetuosity of his nature; he resolved to work out abso. 
 lution, by converting, with all the potency of fire and sword, 
 the barbarians to the Church. His penitence and zeal seem to 
 have been accepted, for we soon find him on good terms again 
 with the pope. He now sought to have a hand in every quar~ 
 rel, far and near. Wherever the sounds of war are raise@, 
 the shout of Ricdolph is heard urging to the strife. In every 
 hot and fiery foray, the steed of Rhodolph is rearing nd 
 plunging, and his saber strokes fall in ringing blows a0 
 cuirass and helmet. He efficiently aided the city of Stras: 
 
RHODOLPH OF HAPSBURQG. 21 
 
 bourg in their war against their bishop, and received from 
 them in gratitude extensive territories, while at the same time 
 they reared a monument to his name, portions of which still 
 exist. His younger brother died, leaving an only daughter, 
 Anne, with a large inheritance. Rhodolph, as her guardian, 
 came into possession of the counties of Kyburg, Lentzburg 
 “and Baden, and other scattered domains. 
 
 This rapidly-increasing wealth and power, did but increase 
 his energy and his spirit of encroachment. And yet he 
 adopted principles of honor which were far from common in 
 that age of barbaric violence. He would never stoop to or- 
 dinary robbery, or harass peasants and helpless travelers, as 
 was constantly done by the turbulent barons around him. 
 His warfare was against the castle, never against the cottage. 
 He met in arms the panoplied knight, never the timid and 
 crouching peasant. He swept the roads of the banditti by 
 which they were infested, and often espoused the cause of citi- 
 zens and freemen against the turbulent barons and haughty 
 prelates. He thus gained a wide-spread reputation for justice, 
 as well as for prowess, and the name of Rhodolph of Haps- 
 burg was ascending fast into renown. Every post of author- 
 ity then required the agency of a military arm. The feeble 
 cantons would seek the protection of a powerful chief; the 
 citizens of a wealthy town, ever liable to be robbed by bishop 
 or baron, looked around for some warrior who had invincible 
 troops at his command for their protection. Thus Rhodolph 
 of Hapsburg was chosen chief of the mountaineers of Uri, 
 Schweitz and Underwalden ; and all their trained bands were 
 ready, when his bugle note echoed through their defiles, to 
 follow him unquestioning, and to do his bidding. The citizens 
 of Zurich. chose Rhodolph of Hapsburg as their prefect or 
 mayor ; and whenever his banner was unfurled in their strects, 
 all the troops of the city were at his command. 
 
 The neighboring barons, alarmed at this rapid aggrandize- 
 ment of Rhodolph, formed an alliance to crush him. The 
 
23 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 mountaineers heard his bugle call, and rushed to his aid, 
 “Zurich opened her gates, and her marshaled troops hastened 
 to his banner. From Hapsburg, and Rheinfelden, and Sua- 
 bia, and Brisgau, and we know not how many other of the 
 territorial possessions of the count, the vassals rushed to the 
 aid of their lord. They met in one of the valleys of Zurich, 
 The battle was short, and the confederated barons were put 
 to utter flight. Some took refuge in the strong castle of 
 Balder, upon a rocky cliff washed by the Albis. Rhodolph 
 selected thirty horsemen and thirty footmen. 
 
 “Will you follow me,” said he, “in an enterprise where 
 the honor will be equal to the peril ?” 
 
 A universal shout of assent was the response. Concealing 
 the footmen in a thicket, he, at the head of thirty horsemen, 
 rode boldly to the gates of the castle, bidding defiance, with 
 all the utterances and gesticulations of contempt, to the whole 
 garrison. ‘Those on the ramparts, stung by the insult, rushed 
 out to chastise so impudent a challenge. The footmen rose 
 from their ambush, and assailants and assailed rushed pell 
 mell in at the open gates of the castle. The garrison were cut 
 down or taken captive, and the fortress demolished. Another 
 party had fled to the castle of Uttleberg. By an ingenious 
 stratagem, this castle was also taken. Success succeeded suc- 
 cess with such rapidity, that the confederate barons, struck 
 with consternation, exclaimed, 
 
 “ All opposition is fruitless. Rhodolph of Hapsburg is in- 
 vincible.” 
 
 They consequently dissolved the alliance, and sought peace 
 on terms which vastly augmented the power of the conqueror, 
 
 Basle now incurred the displeasure of Rhodolph. He led 
 his armies to the gates of the city, and extorted satisfaction. 
 The Bishop of Basle, a haughty prelate of great military power, 
 and who could summon many barons to his aid, ventured te 
 make arrogant demands of this warrior flushed with victory. 
 The palace and vast possessions of the bishop were upon the 
 
RHODOLPS OF HAPSBURG. 93 
 
 other side of the unbridged Rhine, and the bishop imagined 
 that he could easily prevent the passage of the river. But 
 Rhodolph speedily constructed a bridge of boats, put to flight 
 the troops which opposed his passage, drove the peasants of 
 the bishop everywhere before him, and burned their cottages 
 and their fields of grain. The bishop, appalled, sued for a truce, 
 that they might negotiate terms of peace. Rhodolph con- 
 sented, and encamped his followers. 
 
 He was asleep in his tent, when 2 messenger entered at 
 midnight, awoke him, and informed him that he was elected 
 Emperor of Germany. The previous emperor, Richard, had 
 died two years before, and after an interregnum of two years 
 of almost unparalleled anarchy, the electors had just met, and, 
 almost to their own surprise, through the fiuctuations and 
 combinations of political intrigue, had chosen Rhodolph of 
 Hapsburg as his successor. Rhodolph himself was so much 
 astonished at the announcement, that for some time he could 
 not be persuaded that the intelligence was correct. 
 
 To wage war against the Emperor of Germany, who could 
 lead almost countless thousands into the field, was a very dif- 
 ferent affair from measuring strength with the comparatively 
 feeble Count of Hapsburg. The news of his election flew rap 
 idly. Basle threw open her gates, and the citizens, with illu- 
 minations, shouts, and the ringing of bells, greeted the new 
 emperor. The bishop was so chagrined at the elevation of his 
 foe, that he smote his forehead, and, looking to heaven, pro- 
 fanely said, 
 
 “Great God, take care of your throne, or Rhodolph of 
 Hapsburg will take it from you !” 
 
 Rhodolph was now fifty-five years of age. Alphonso, King 
 of Castile, and Ottocar, King of Bohemia, had both been can- 
 didates for the imperial crown. Exasperated by the unex- 
 pected election of Rhodolph, they both refused to acknowledge 
 his election, and sent ambassadors with rich presents to the 
 pope to win him also to = side. Rhodolph, justly appre. 
 
24 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 ciating the power of the pope, sent him a letter couched in 
 those terms which would be most palatable to the pontiff. 
 
 “Turning all my thoughts to Him,” he wrote, “ under 
 whose authority we live, and placing all my expectations on 
 you alone, I fall down before the feet of your Holiness, be- 
 seeching you, with the most earnest supplication, to favor me 
 with your accustomed kindness in my present undertaking ; 
 and that you will deign, by your mediation with the Most 
 High, to support my cause. That I may be enabled to per 
 form what is most acceptable to God and to His holy Church, 
 may it graciously please your Holiness to crown me with the 
 imperial diadem ; for I trust I am both able and willing to 
 undertake and accomplish whatever you and the holy Church 
 shall think proper to impose upon me.” 
 
 Gregory X. was a humane and sagacious man, influenced 
 by a profound zeal for the peace of Europe and the propaga- 
 tion of the Christian faith. Gregory received the ambassadors 
 of Rhodolph graciously, extorted from them whatever conces- 
 sions he desired on the part of the emperor, and pledged his 
 support. 
 
 Ottocar, King of Bohemia, still remained firm, and even 
 malignant, in his hostility, utterly refusing to recognize the 
 emperor, or to perform any of those acts of fealty which were 
 his due. He declared the electoral diet to have been illegally 
 convened, and the election to have been the result of fraud, 
 and that a man who had been excommunicated for burning 
 @ convent, was totally unfit to wear the imperial crown, 
 The diet met at Augsburg, and irritated by the contumacy 
 of Ottocar, sent a command to him to recognize the au 
 thority of the emperor, pronouncing upon him the ban of 
 the empire sheuld he refuse. Ottocar dismissed the ambas- 
 sadors with defiance and contempt from his palace at Prague, 
 saying, 
 
 “‘ Tell Rhodolph that he may rule over the territories of 
 the empire, but he shall have no dominion over mine. Itisa 
 
RHODOLPH OF HAPSBURG. 26 
 
 disgrace to Germany, that a petty coi.nt of Hapsburg should 
 have been preferred to so many powerful sovereigns.” 
 
 War, and a fearful one, was now inevitable. Ottocar was 
 a veteran soldier, a man of great intrepidity and energy, and 
 his pride was tho.oughly roused. By a long series of aggres- 
 sions he had become the most powerful prince in Europe, and 
 he could lead the most powerful armies into the field. His 
 dominions extended from the confines of Bavaria to Raab in 
 Hungary, and from the Adriatic to the shores of the Baltic. 
 The hereditary domains of the Count of Hapsburg were com- 
 paratively insignificant, and were remotely situated at the foot 
 of the Alps, spreading through the defiles of Alsace and Sua- 
 bia. As emperor, Rhodolph could call the armies of the Ger- 
 manic princes into the field; but these princes moved reluc- 
 tantly, unless roused by some question of great moment to 
 them all. And when these heterogeneous troops of the empire 
 were assembled, there was but a slender bond of union between 
 them. 
 
 But Rhodolph possessed mental resources equal to the 
 emergence. As cautious as he was bold, as sagacious in coun- 
 cil as he was impetuous in action, he calmly, and with great 
 foresight and deliberation, prepared for the strife. To amon- 
 arch in such a time of need, a family of brave sons and beau- 
 tiful daughters, is an inestimable blessing. Rhodolph secured 
 the Duke of Sclavonia by making him the happy husband of 
 one of his daughters. His son Albert married Elizabeth, 
 daughter of the Count of Tyrol, and thus that powerful and 
 noble family was secured. Henry of Bavaria he intimidated, 
 and by force of arms compelled him to lead his troops to the 
 standard of the emperor; and then, to secure his fidelity, gave 
 nis daughter Hedwige to Henry’s son Otho, in marriage, 
 promising to his daughter as a dowry a portion of Austria, 
 which was then a feeble duchy upon the Danube, but little 
 larger than the State of Massachusetts. 
 
 Ottocar was but little aware of the tremendous energies 
 
26 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA. 
 
 of the foe he had aroused. Regarding Rhodolph almost with 
 contempt, he had by no means made the arrangements which 
 his peril demanded, and was in consternation when he heard 
 that Rhodolph, in alliance with Henry of Bavaria, had already 
 entered Austria, taken possession of several fortresses, and, at 
 the head of a force of a thousand horsemen, was carrying all 
 before him, and was triumphantly marching upon Vienna. 
 Rhodolph had so admirably matured his plans, that his ad- 
 vance seemed rather a festive journey than a contested con- 
 quest. With the utmost haste Ottocar urged his troops down 
 through the defiles of the Bohemian mountains, hoping to save 
 the capital. But Rhodolph was at Vienna before him, where 
 he was joined by others of his allies, who were to meet him 
 at that rendezvous. Vienna, the capital, was a fortress of 
 great strength. Upon this frontier post Charlemagne had eg- 
 tablished a strong body of troops under a commander who 
 was called a margrave; and for some centuries this city, com- 
 manding the Danube, had been deemed one of the strongest 
 defenses of the empire against Mohammedan invasion. Vi- 
 enna, unable to resist, capitulated. The army of Ottocar had 
 been so driven in their long and difficult march, that, exhausted 
 and perishing for want of provisions, they began to mutiny. 
 The pope had excommunicated Ottocar, and the terrors of the 
 curse of the pope, were driving captains and nobles from his 
 service. The proud spirit of Ottocar, after a terrible struggle, 
 was utterly crushed, and he humbly sued for peace. The 
 terms were hard for a haughty spirit to bear. The conquered 
 king was compelled to renounce ali claim to Austria and seyv- 
 eral other adjoining provinces, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and 
 Windischmark ; to take the oath of allegiance to the emperor, 
 and publicly to do him homage as his vassal lord. To cement 
 this compulsory friendship, Rhodolph, who was rich in daugh- 
 ters, having six to proffer as bribes, gave one, with an abun- 
 dant dowry in silver, to a son of Ottocar. 
 
 The day was appointed for the king, in the presence of the 
 
RHODOLPH OF HAPSBURG. 27 
 
 whole army, to do homage to the emperor as his liege lord. 
 It was the 25th of November, 1276. With a large escort ot 
 Bohemian nobles, Ottocar crossed the Danube, and was res 
 ceived by the emperor in the presence of many of the leading 
 princes of the empire. The whole army was drawn up to wit- 
 ness the spectacle. With a dejected countenance, and with 
 indications, which he could not conceal, of a crushed and 
 broken spirit, Ottocar renounced these valuable provinces, and 
 kneeling before the emperor, performed the humiliating cere- 
 mony of feudal homage. The pope in consequence withdrew 
 his sentence of excommunication, and Ottocar returned to his 
 mutilated kingdom, a humbler and a wiser man. 
 
 Rhodolph now took possession of the adjacent provinces 
 which had been ceded to him, and, uniting them, placed them 
 under the government of Louis of Bavaria, son of his firm 
 ally Henry, the King of Bavaria. Bavaria bounded Austria 
 on the west, and thus the father and the son would be in easy 
 eodperation. He then established his three sons, Albert, 
 Hartmann, and Rhodolph, in different parts of these provinces, 
 and, with his queen, fixed his residence at Vienna. 
 
 Such was the nucleus of the Austrian empire, and such 
 the commencement of the powerful monarchy which for so 
 many generations has exerted so important a control over 
 the affairs of Europe. Ottocar, however, though he left 
 Rhodolph with the strongest protestations of friendship, re 
 turned to Prague consumed by the most torturing fires ot 
 Gumiliation and chagrin. His wife, a haughty woman, who 
 was incapable of listening to the voice of judgment when her 
 passions were inflamed, could not conceive it possible that a 
 petty count of Hapsburg could vanquish her renowned hus- 
 oand in the field. And when she heard that Ottocar had ac- 
 tually dcne fealty to Rhodolph, and had surrendered to him 
 valuable provinces of the kingdom, no bridle could be put 
 upon her woman’s tongue. She almost stung her husband te 
 madness with taunts and reproaches. 
 
38 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Thus influenced by the pride of his queen, Cunegunda, Ot. 
 tocar violated his oath, refused to execute the treaty, impris- 
 oned in a convent the daughter whom Rhodolph had given to 
 his son, and sent a defiant and insulting letter to the emperor. 
 Rhodolph returned a dignified answer and prepared for war, 
 Ottocar, now better understanding the power of his foe, made 
 the most formidable preparations for the strife, and soon took 
 the field with an army which he supposed would certainly tri- 
 umph over any force which Rhodolph could raise. He even 
 succeeded in drawing Henry of Bavaria into an alliance; and 
 many of the German princes, whom he could not win to his 
 standard, he bribed to neutrality. Numerous chieftains, lured 
 to his camp by confidence of victory, crowded around him 
 with their followers, from Poland, Bulgaria, Pomerania, Mag- 
 deburg, and from the barbaric shores of the Baltic. Many of 
 the fierce nobles of Hungary had also joined the standard of 
 Ottocar. 
 
 Thus suddenly clouds gathered around Rhodolph, and 
 many cf his friends despaired of his cause. He appealed to 
 the princes of the German empire, and but few responded to 
 his call. His sons-in-law, the Electors of Palatine and of Sax- 
 ony, ventured not to aid him in an emergence when defeat 
 seemed almost certain, and where all who shared in the defeat 
 would be utterly ruined. In June, 1275, Ottoear marched 
 from Prague, met his allies at the appointed rendezvous, ané 
 threading the defiles of the Bohemian mountains, approached 
 the frontiers of Austria. Rhodolph was seriously alarmed 
 for it was evident that the chances of war were against him 
 He could not conceal the restlessness and agitation of his spirit 
 as he impatiently awaited the arrival of troops whom he sume 
 moned, but who disappointed his hopes. 
 
 “JT have not one,” he sadly exclaimed, “in whom I can 
 confide, or on whose advice I can depend.” 
 
 The citizens of Vienna perceiving that Rhodolph was aban. 
 doned by his German allies, and that they could present no 
 
RHODOLPH OF HAPSBURQG, 29 
 
 effectual resistatce to so powerful an army as was approach 
 ing, and terrified in view of a siege, and the capture of the 
 city by storm, urged a capitulation, and even begged permis- 
 sion to choose a new sovereign, that they might not be in- 
 volved in the ruin impending over Rhodolph. This address 
 roused Rhodolph from his despondency, and inspired him with 
 the energies of despair. He had succeeded in obtaining » few 
 troops from his provinces in Switzerland. The Bishop of 
 Basle, who had now become his confessor, came to his aid, at 
 the head of a hundred horsemen, and a body of expert sling- 
 ers. Rhodolph, though earnestly advised not to undertake a 
 battle with such desperate odds, marched from Vienna to meet 
 the foe. | 
 
 Rapidy traversing the southern banks of the Danube to 
 Hamburg, he crossed the river and advanced to Marcheck, on 
 the banks of the Morava. He was joined by some troops 
 from Styria and Carinthia, and by a strong force led by the 
 King of Hungary. Emboldened by these accessions, though 
 still far inferior in strength to Ottocar, he pressed on till the 
 two armies faced each other on the plains of Murchfield. It 
 was the 26th of August, 1278. 
 
 At this moment some traitors deserting the camp of Otto- 
 ear, repaired to the camp of Rhodolph and proposed to assassi- 
 nate the Bohemian king. Rhodolph spurned the infamous 
 offer, and embraced the opportunity of seeking terms of recon- 
 ciliation by apprising Ottocar of his danger. But the king, 
 confident in his own strength, and despising the weakness of 
 Rhodolph, deemed the story a fabrication and refused to listen 
 to any overtures. Without delay he drew up his army in the 
 form of a crescent, so as almost to envelop the feeble band be: 
 fore him, and made a simultaneous attack upon the center and 
 upon both flanks. A terrific battle ensued, in which one party 
 fought, animated by undoubting confidence, and the other 
 impelled by despair. The strife was long and bloody. The 
 tide of victory repeatedly ebbed and flowed. Ottocar had 
 
30 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 offered a large reward to any of his followers who would bring 
 to him Rhodolph, dead or alive. 
 
 A number of knights of great strength and bravery, con: 
 federated to achieve this feat. It was a point of honor to be 
 effected at every hazard. Disregarding all the other perils of 
 the battle, they watched their opportunity, and then in a united 
 swoop, on their steel-clad chargers, fell upon the emperor. 
 His feeble guard was instantly cut down. Rhodolph was @ 
 man of herculean power, and he fought like a lion at. bay. 
 One after another of his assailants he struck from his horse, 
 when a Thuringian knight, of almost fabulous stature and 
 strength, thrust his spear through the horse of the emperor, 
 and both steed and rider fell to the ground. Rhodolph, encum- 
 bered by his heavy coat of mail, and entangled in the hous 
 ings of his saddle, was unable to rise. He crouched upon the 
 ground, holding his helmet over him, while saber strokes and 
 pike thrusts rang upon cuirass and buckler like blows upon az 
 anvil. A corps of reserve spurred to his aid, and the emperor 
 was rescued, and the bold assailants who had penetrated the 
 very center of his army were slain. 
 
 The tide of victory now set strongly in favor of Rhodolph, 
 for “the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the — 
 strong.” The troops of Bohemia were soon everywhere put 
 to rout. The ground was covered with the dead. Ottocar, 
 astounded at his discomfiture, and perhaps fearing the tongue 
 of his wife more than the sabers of his foes, turned his back 
 upon his flying army, and spurred his horse into the thickest 
 of his pursuers. He was soon dismounted and slain. Four- 
 teen thousand of his troops perished on tl at disastrous day, 
 The body of Ottocar, mutilated with seventeen wounds, was 
 carried to Vienna, and, after being exposed to the people, 
 was buried with regal honors. 
 
 Rhodolph, vastly enriched by the plunder of the camp, 
 and haring no enemy to encounter, took possession of Mora 
 via, and ‘riumphantly marched into Bohemia. All was com 
 
RHODOLPH OF HAPSBURG. $1 
 
 sternation there. The queen Cunegunda, who had brought 
 these disasters upon the kingdom, had no influence. Her 
 only son was but eight years of age. The turbulent nobles, 
 jealous of each other, had no recognized leader. The queen, 
 humiliated and despairing, implored the clemency of the con- 
 queror, and offered to place her infant son and the kingdom 
 of Bohemia under his protection. Rhodolph was generous in 
 this hour of victory. As the result of arbitration, it was 
 agreed that he should hold Moravia for five years, that its 
 revenues might indemnify him for the expenses of the war. 
 The young prince, Wenceslaus, was acknowledged king, and 
 during his minority the regency was assigned to Otho, mar- 
 grave or military commander of Brundenburg. Then ensued 
 gome politic matrimonial alliances. Wenceslaus, the boy king, 
 was affianced to Judith, one of the daughters of Rhodolph. 
 The princess Agnes, daughter of Cunegunda, was to become 
 the bride of Rhodolph’s second son. These matters being 
 all satisfactorily settled, Rhodolph returned in triumph to 
 Vienna. 
 
 The emperor now devoted his energies to the consolida- 
 tion of these Austrian provinces. They were four in number, 
 Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola. All united, they 
 made but a feeble kingdom, for they did not equal, in extent of 
 territory, several of the States of the American Union. Each 
 of these provinces had its independent government, and its 
 jocal laws and customs. They were held together by the sim- 
 ple bond of an arbitrary monarch, who claimed, and exercised 
 as he could, supreme control over them all. Under his wise and 
 energetic administration, the affairs of the wide-spread empire 
 were prosperous, and his own Austria advanced rapidly in 
 order, civilization and power. The numerous nobles, turbu- 
 lent, unprincipled and essentially robbers, had been in the habit 
 of issuing from their castles at the head of banditti bands, and 
 ravaging the country with incessant incursions. It required 
 great boldness in Rhodolph to brave the wrath of these united 
 
83 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 nobles. He did it fearlessly, issuing the decree that there 
 should be no fortresses in his States which were not necessary 
 for the public defense. The whole country was spotted with 
 castles, apparently impregnable in all the strength of stone 
 and iron, the secure refuge of high-born nobles. In one year 
 seventy of these turreted bulwarks of oppression were torn 
 down; and twenty-nine of the highest nobles, who had ven: 
 tured upon insurrection, were put to death. An earnest pe. 
 tition was presented to him in behalf of the condemned insur 
 gents. 
 
 “Do not,” said the king, “interfere in favor of robbers 
 they are not nobles, but accursed robbers, who oppress the 
 poor, and break the public peace. True nobility is faithful 
 and just, ofends no one, and commits no injury.” 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 REIGNS OF ALBERT IL, FREDERIOC, ALBERT AND OTHO. 
 From 1291 To 134%. 
 
 &szopotrs or RHopoLpH.—His Desire ror THE ELECTION or HIS Son.—His Dearm 
 —ALBERT.—H1s UNPOPULARITY.—CONSPIRAOY OF THE NoBLES.—TrEin DEFZaT — 
 ADOLPHUS OF NASSAU CHOSEN EMPEROR.—ALBERT’S CONSPIRACY.—DEPOSITION OF 
 ADOLPHUS AND ELECTION oF ALBERT.—DEATH OF ADOLPHUS.—THE Porr Derrap 
 —ANNEXATION OF BoHEMIA.—ASSASSINATION OF ALBERT.—AVENGING FurRY.—T 8 
 Hermir’s DirnEcTION.—FREDERIO THE HANDSOME.—ELEOCTION oF HENRY, COUNT 
 or LuxremBure.—His DratH.—ELnorion oF Louis or BAavarta.—CAPTUR2 OF 
 FREDERIO.—REMARKABLE CONFIDENOE TOWARD A PRISONER.—DEATH ov FRED- 
 ERIO.—AN BARLY ENGAGEMENT.—DEATH OF LOUIS.—AOOEZSSION OF ALBEET. 
 
 HODOLPH of Hapsburg was one of the most remark- 
 able men of his own or of any age, and many anecdotes 
 illustrative of his character, and of the rude times in which he 
 lived, have been transmitted to us. The Thuringian knight 
 who speared the emperor’s horse in the bloody fight of Murch- 
 field, was rescued by Rhodolph from those who would cut 
 him down. 
 
 “TJ have witnessed,” said the emperor, “his intrepidity, 
 and never could forgive myself if so courageous a knight 
 should be put to death.” 
 
 During the war with Ottocar, on one occasion the army 
 were nearly perishing of thirst. A flagon of water was 
 brought to him. He declined it, saying, 
 
 **T can not drink alone, nor can I divide so small a quantity 
 among all. Ido not thirst for myself, but for the whole army” 
 
 By earnest endeavor he obtained the perfect control of his 
 passions, naturally very violent. “I have often,” said he, 
 “repented of being passionate, but never of being mild and 
 humane.” 
 
84 THE HOUSB OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 One of his captains expressed dissatisfaction at a rich gift 
 the emperor made to a literary man who presented him a 
 manuscript describing the wars of the Romans. 
 
 ‘“* My good friend,” Rhodolph replied, “ be contented that 
 men of learning praise our actions, and thereby inspire us 
 with additional courage in war. I wish I-could employ more 
 time in reading, and could expend some of that money os 
 learned men which I must throw away on so many illiterate 
 knights.” 
 
 One cold morning at Metz, in the year 1288, he walked 
 out dressed as usual in the plainest garb. He strolled into a 
 baker’s shop, as if to warm himself. The baker’s termagant 
 wife said to him, all unconscious who he was, 
 
 ‘Soldiers have no business to come into poor women’s 
 houses.” 
 
 “True,” the emperor replied, “ but do not be angry, my 
 good woman; I am an old soldier whe have spent all my for. 
 tune in the service of that rascal Rhodolph, and he suffers me 
 to want, notwithstanding all his fine promises.” 
 
 “Good enough for you,” said the woman; “aman who 
 will serve such a fellow, who is laying waste the whole earth, 
 deserves nothing better.” 
 
 She then, in her spite, threw a pail of water on the fire, 
 which, filling the room with smoke and ashes, drove the em- 
 peror into the street. 
 
 Rhodolph, having returned to his lodgings, sent a sii 
 present to the old woman, from the emperor who had warmed 
 himself at her fire that morning, and at the dinner-table told 
 the story with great glee to his companions, The woman, 
 - terrified, hastened to the emperor to implore mercy. He 
 ordered her to be admitted to the dining-room, and promised 
 to forgive her if she would repeat to the company all her 
 abusive epithets, not omitting one. She did it faithfully, to 
 the infinite merriment of the festive group. 
 
 So far as we can now judge, and making due allowance 
 
ALBERT 1., FREDERIC, ALBERT AND OTHO. 8 
 
 for the darkness of the age in which he lived, Rhodolph ap- 
 pears to have been, in the latter part of his life, a sincere, if 
 not an enlightened Christian. He was devout in prayer, and 
 ‘punctual in attending the services of the Church. The hum- 
 ble and faithful ministers of religion he esteemed and pro. 
 tected, while he was ever ready to chastise the insolence of 
 those haughty prelates who disgraced their religious profes 
 sions by arrogance and splendor. 
 
 At last the infirmities of age pressed heavily upon him, 
 When seventy-three years old, knowing that he could not 
 have much longer to live, he assembled the congress of elects 
 ors at Frankfort, and urged them to choose his then only 
 rurviving son Albert as his successor on the imperial throne, 
 The diet, however, refused to choose a successor until after 
 the death of the emperor. Rhodolph was bitterly disap- 
 pointed, for he understood this postponement as a positive 
 refusal to gratify him in this respect. Saddened in spirit, and 
 feeble in body, he undertook a journey, by slow stages, to his 
 hereditary dominions in Switzerland. He then returned to 
 Austria, where he died on the 15th of July, 1291, in the 
 seventy-third year of his age. 
 
 Albert, who resided at Vienna, succeeded his father in 
 authority over the Austrian and Swiss provinces. But he 
 was a man stern, unconciliating and domineering. The nobles 
 hated him, and hoped to drive him back to the Swiss cantons 
 from which his father had come. One great occasion of dis- 
 eontent was, that he employed about his person, and in impor- 
 vant posts, Swiss instead of Austrian nobles. They demanded 
 the dismission of these foreign favorites, which so exasperated 
 Albert that he clung to them still more tenaciously and ex: 
 clusively. 
 
 The nobles now organized a very formidable conspiracy, 
 and offered to neighboring powers, as bribes for their aid, 
 portions of Austria. Austria proper was divided by the river 
 Ens into two parts called Upper and Lower Austria. Lower 
 
83 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Austria was offered to Bohemia; Styria to tLe Duke of Ba. 
 varia; Upper Austria to the Archbishop of Saltzburg ; Car 
 niola to the Counts of Guntz ; and thus all the provinces were 
 portioned out to the conquerors. At the same time the citi- 
 zens of Vienna, provoked by the haughtiness of Albert, rose 
 in insurrection. With the energy which characterized his 
 father, Albert met these emergencies, Summoning imme- 
 diately an army from Switzerland, he shut up all the avenues 
 to the city, which was not in the slightest degree prepared 
 for a siege, and speedily starved the inhabitants into submis- 
 sion. Punishing severely the insurgents, he strengthened his 
 post at Vienna, and confirmed his power. Then, marching 
 rapidly upon the nobles, before they had time to receive that 
 foreign aid which had been secretly promised them, and se- 
 curing all the important fortresses, which were now not many 
 in number, he so overawed them, and so vigilantly watched 
 every movement, that there was no opportunity to rise and 
 combine. The Styrian nobles, being remote, made an effort 
 at insurrection. Albert, though it was in the depth of winter, 
 plowed through the snows of the mountains, and plunging un- 
 expectedly among them, routed them with great slaughter. 
 
 While he was thus conquering discontent by the sword, and 
 silencing murmurs beneath the tramp of iron hoofs, the diet 
 was assembling at Frankfort to choose a new chief for the 
 Germanic empire. Albert was confident of being raised to 
 the vacant dignity. The splendor of his talents all admitted. 
 Four of the electors were closely allied to him by marriage, 
 and he arrogantly felt that he was almost entitled to the office 
 as the son of his renowned father. But the electors feared his 
 ambitious and despotic disposition, and chose Adolphus of 
 Nassau to succeed to the imperial throne. 
 
 Albert was mortified and enraged by this disappointment, 
 and expressed his determination to oppose the election ; but 
 the troubles in his own domains prevented him from putting 
 this threat into immediate execution. His better judgment 
 
ALBERT 1., FREDERIO, ALBERT AND OTHO. 8 
 
 goon taught him the policy of acquiescing in the election, and 
 he sullenly received the investiture of his tiefs from the hands 
 of the Emperor Adolphus. Still Albert, struggling against 
 unpopularity and continued insurrection, kept his eye fixed 
 eagerly upon the imperial crown. With great tact he con- 
 spired to form a confederacy for the deposition of Adolphus, 
 
 Wenceslaus, the young King of Bohemia, was now of 
 age, and preparations were made for his coronation with great 
 splendor at Prague. Four of the electors were present on this 
 Occasion, which was in June, 1297. Albert conferred with 
 them respecting his plans, and secured their codperation. The 
 electors more willingly lent their aid since they were exceed- 
 ingly displeased with some of the measures of Adolphus for 
 the aggrandizement of his own family. Albert with secreoy 
 and vigor pushed his plans, and when the diet met the same 
 year at Metz, a long list of grievances was drawn up against 
 Adolphus. He was summoned to auswer to these charges, 
 The proud emperor refused to appear before the bar of the 
 diet as a culprit. The diet then deposed Adolphus and elected 
 Albert IT. to the imperial throne, on the 23d of June, 1298. 
 
 The two rival emperors made vigorous preparations to set 
 tle the dispute with the sword, and the German States arrayed 
 themselves, some on one side and some on the other. The 
 two armies met at Gelheim on the 2d of July, led by the rival 
 sovereigns, In the thickest of the fight Adolphus spurred his 
 horse through the opposing ranks, bearing down all opposi- 
 tion, till he faced Albert, who was issuing orders and animat.- 
 ing his troops by voice and gesture. 
 
 “ Yield,” shouted Adolphus, aiming a saber stroke at the 
 head of his foe, “ your life and your crown.” 
 
 “ Let God decide,” Albert replied, as he parried the blow, 
 and thrust his lance into the unprotected face of Adolphus. 
 At that moment the horse of Adolphus fell, and he himself 
 was instantly slain. Albert remained the decisive victor on 
 this bloody field. The diet of electors was again summoned, 
 
38 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 and he was now chosen unanimously emperor. He was soon 
 crowned with great splendor at Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 
 Still Albert sat on an uneasy throne. The pope, indig- 
 nant that the electors should presume to depose one em- 
 peror and choose another without his consent, refused to con- 
 firm the election of Albert, and loudly inveighed him as the 
 murderer of Adolphus, Albert, with characteristic impulsive- 
 ness, declared that he was emperor by choice of the electors 
 and not by ratification of the pope, and defiantly spurned the 
 opposition of the pontiff. Considering himself firmly seated 
 en the throne, he refused to pay the bribes of tolls, privileges, 
 territories, etc., which he had so freely offered to the electors. 
 Thus exasperated, the electors, the pope, and the King of Bo- 
 hemia, conspired to drive Albert from the throne, Their se 
 cret plans were so well laid, and they were so secure of success, 
 that the Elector of Mentz tauntingly and boastingly said te 
 Albert, “I need only sound my hunting-horn and a new en 
 peror will appear.” 
 
 Albert, however, succeeded by sagacity and energy, in 
 dispelling this storm which for a time threatened his entire 
 destruction. By making concessions to the pope, he finally 
 won him to cordial friendship, and by the sword vanquish. 
 ing some and intimidating others, he broke up the league 
 His most formidable foe was his brother-in-law, W enceslaus, 
 King of Bohemia. Albert’s sister, Judith, the wife of Wen- 
 eeslaus, had for some years prevented a rupture between them, 
 but she now being dead, both monarchs decided to refer their 
 difficulties to the arbitration of the sword. While their armies 
 were marching, Wenceslaus was suddenly taken sick and died, 
 in June, 1305. His son, but seventeen years of age, weak in 
 body and in mind, at once yielded to all the demands of his 
 imperial uncle. Hardly a year, however, had elapsed ere this 
 young prince, Wenceslaus III, was assassinated, leaving ne 
 issue. 
 
 Albert immediately resolved to transfer the crown of Bo 
 
ALBERT 1., FREDERIC, ALBERT AND OTHO. 99 
 
 bemia to his own family, and thus to annex the powerful king 
 dom of Bohemia to his own limited Austrian territories, Bo. 
 hemia added to the Austrian provinces, would constitute quite 
 anoble kingdom, The crown was considered elective, though 
 in fact the eldest son was almost always chosen during the 
 lifetime of his father. The death of Wenceslaus, childlesa, 
 opened the throne to other claimants. No one could more 
 imperiously demand the scepter than Albert. He did demand 
 it for his son Rhodolpk in tones which were heard and obeyed. - 
 The States assembled at Prague on the 1st of April, 1308. 
 Albert, surrounded by a magnificent retinue, conducted his 
 gon to Prague, and to corSrm his authority married him to 
 the widow of Wenceslaus, a second wife. Rhodolph also, 
 wont a year before, had buried Blanche, his first wife. Albert 
 was exceedingly elated, for the acquisition of Bohemia was ar 
 accession to the power of his family which doubled their ter- 
 titory, and more than doubled their wealth and resources. 
 
 A mild government would have conciliated the Bohemians, 
 but such a course was not consonant with the character of the 
 imperious and despotic Albert. He urged his son to mea» 
 ures of arbitrary power which exasperated the nobles, and led 
 to a speedy revolt against his authority. Rhodolph and the 
 nobles were soon in the field with their contending armiea, 
 when Rhodolph suddenly died from the fatigues of the camp, 
 aged but twenty-two years, having held the throne of Bohe- 
 mia less than a year. 
 
 Albert, grievously disappointed, now demanded that his 
 second son, Frederic, should receive the crown. As soon as 
 his name was mentioned to the States, the assembly with great 
 gnanimity exclaimed, “ We will not again have an Austrian 
 king.” This led toa tumult. Swords were drawn, and two 
 of the partisans of Albert were slain. Henry, Duke of Ca- 
 rinthia, was then almost unanimously chosen king. But the 
 haughty Albert was not to be thus easily thwarted in his plans, 
 He declared that his son Frederic was King of Bohemia, and 
 
40 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA, 
 
 raising an army, he exerted all the influence and military power 
 which his position as emperor gave him, to enforce his claim. 
 
 But affairs in Switzerland for a season arrested the atten- 
 tion of Albert, and diverted his armies from the invasion of 
 Bohemia. Switzerland was then divided into small sovereign: 
 ties, of various names, there being no less than fifty counts, 
 one hundred and fifty barons, and one thousand noble families, 
 Both Rhodolph and Albert had greatly increased, by annexa- 
 tion, the territory and the power of the house of Hapsburg. 
 By purchase, intimidation, war, and diplomacy, Albert had 
 for some time been making such rapid encroachments, that a 
 general insurrection was secretly planned to resist his power. 
 All Switzerland seemed to unite as with one accord. Albert 
 was rejoiced at this insurrection, for, confident of superior 
 power, he doubted not his ability speedily to quell it, and it 
 would afford him the most favorable pretext for still greater 
 aggrandizement. Albert hastened to his domain at Hapsburg, 
 where he was assassinated by conspirators led by his own 
 nephew, whom he was defrauding of his estates. 
 
 Frederic and Leopold, the two oldest surviving sons of 
 Albert, avenged their father’s death by pursuing the conspira_ 
 tors until they all suffered the penalty of their crimes. With 
 ferocity characteristic of the age, they punished mercilessly 
 the families and adherents of the assassins. Their castles were 
 lemolished, their estates confiscated, their domestics and men 
 at arms massacred, and their wives and children driven out 
 into the world to beg or to starve. Sixty-three of the retain- 
 ers of Lord Balne, one of the conspirators, though entirely 
 innocent of the crime, and solemnly protesting their uncon- 
 sciousness of any plot, were beheaded in one day. Though 
 but four persons took part in the assassination, and it was 
 not known that any others were implicated in the deed, it is 
 estimated that more than a thousand persons suffered death 
 through the fury of the avengers. Agnes, one of the daugh- 
 ters of Albert, endeavored with her own hands to strangle the 
 
ALBERT IL, FREDERIC, ALBERT AND OTHO. 4] 
 
 infant child of the Lord of Eschenback, when the soldiers, 
 moved by its piteous cries, with difficulty rescued it from her 
 hands. 
 
 Elizabeth, the widow of Albert, with her implacable fanatic 
 daughter Agnes, erected a magnificent convent on the spot at 
 K6énigsburg, where the emperor was assassinated, and there 
 in cloistered gloom they passed the remainder of their lives, 
 It was an age of superstition, and yet there were some who 
 comprehended and appreciated the pure morality of the gos 
 pel of Christ. 
 
 “Woman,” said an aged hermit to Agnes, “God is not 
 served by shedding innocent blood, and by rearing convents 
 from the plunder of families. He is served by compassion only, 
 and by the forgiveness of injuries.” 
 
 Frederic, Albert’s oldest son, now assumed the govern- 
 ment of the Austrian provinces. From his uncommon per- 
 sonal attractions he was called Frederic the Handsome. His 
 character was in conformity with his person, for to the most 
 chivalrous bravery he added the most feminine amiability and 
 mildness. He was a candidate for the imperial throne, and 
 would probably have been elected but for the unpopularity of | 
 his despotic father. The diet met, and on the 27th of Novem- 
 ber, 1308, the choice fell unanimously upon Henry, Count of 
 Luxemburg. 
 
 This election deprived Frederic of his hopes of uniting 
 Bohemia to Austria, for the new emperor placed his son John 
 upon the Bohemian throne, and was prepared to maintain him 
 there by all the power of the empire. In accomplishing this, 
 there was a short conflict with Henry of Carinthia, but he was 
 speedily driven out of the kingdom. | 
 
 Frederic, however, found a little solace in his disappoint 
 ment, by attaching to Austria the dominions he had wrested 
 from the lords he had beheaded as assassins of his father. In 
 the midst of these scenes of ambition, intrigue and violence, 
 the Emperor Henry fell sick and died, in the fifty-second year 
 
«2 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 of his age. This unexpected event opened again to Frederic 
 the prospec: of the imperial crown, and ail his friends, in the 
 now very numerous branches of the family, spared neither 
 money nor the arts of diplomacy in the endeavor to secare the 
 coveted dignity for him. <A year elapsed after the death of 
 Henry before the diet was assembled. During that time all 
 the German States were in intense agitation canvassing the 
 claims of the several candidates. The prize of an imperial 
 erown was one which many grasped at, and every little court 
 was agitated by the question. The day of election, October 
 9th, 1314, arrived. There were two hostile parties in the field, 
 one in favor of Frederic of Austria, the other in favor of Louis 
 of Bavaria. The two parties met in different cities, the Aus 
 trians at Saxenhausen, and the Bavarians at Frankfort. There 
 were, however, but four electors at Saxenhausen, while there 
 were five at Frankfort, the ancient place of election. Each 
 party unanimously chose its candidate. Louis, of Bavaria, re- 
 ceiving five votes, while Frederic received but four, was un- 
 questionably the legitimate emperor. Most of the imperial 
 cities acknowledged him. Frankfort sung his triumph, and he 
 was crowned with all the ancient ceremonials of pomp at Aix- 
 la-Chapelle. 
 
 But Frederic and his party were not ready to yield, and 
 all over Germany there was the mustering of armies. For 
 two years the hostile forces were marching and countermarch- 
 ing with the usual vicissitudes of war. The tide of devasta- 
 tion and blood swept now over one State, and now over 
 another, until at length the two armies met, in all their cons 
 centrated strength, at Muhldorf, near Munich, for a decisive 
 battle. Louis of Bavaria rode proudly at the head of thirty 
 thousand foot, and fifteen hundred steel-clad horsemen. Fred- 
 eric of Austria, the handsomest man of his age, towering above 
 all his retinue, was ostentatiously arrayed in the most splendid 
 armor art could furnish, emblazoned with the Austrian eagle 
 and his helmet was surmounted by a crown of gold. 
 
ALBERT I1., FRBEDERIO, ALBERT AND OTHO. 48 
 
 As he thus led the ranks of twenty-two thousand footmen, 
 and seven thousand horse, all eyes followed him, and all hearts 
 throbbed with confidence of victory. From early dawn, till 
 night darkened the field, the horrid strife raged. In those 
 days gunpowder was unknown, and the ringing of battle-axes 
 on helmet and cuirass, the strokes of sabers and the clash of 
 spears, shouts of onset, and the shrieks of the wounded, as 
 sixty thousand men fought hand to hand on one small field, 
 rose like the clamor from battling demons in the infernal 
 world. Hour after hour of carnage passed, and still no one 
 could tell on whose banners victory would alight. The gloom 
 of night was darkening over the exhausted combatants, when 
 the winding of the bugle was heard in the rear of the Aus- 
 trians, and a band of four hundred Bavarian horsemen came 
 plunging down an eminence into the disordered ranks of Fred- 
 eric. The hour of dismay, which decides a battle, had come. 
 A scene of awful carnage ensued as the routed Austrians, flee- 
 ing in every direction, were pursued and massacred. Fred- 
 eric himself was struck from his horse, and as he fell, stunned 
 by the blow, he was captured, disarmed and carried to the 
 presence of his rival Louis. 
 
 The spirit of Frederic was crushed by the awful, the irre- 
 trievable defeat, and he appeared before his conqueror speech- 
 less in the extremity of his woe. Louis had the pride of mag- 
 nanimity and endeavored to console his captive. 
 
 “The battle is not lost by your fault,” said he. ‘The Ba- 
 varians have experienced to their cost that you are a valiant 
 prince ; but Providence has decided the battle. Though I om 
 happy to see you as my guest, I sympathize with you in your 
 sorrow, and will do what I can to alleviate it.” 
 
 For three years the unhappy Frederic remained a prisoner 
 of Louis of Bavaria, held in close confinement in the castle at 
 Trausnitz. At the end of that time the emperor, alarmed at 
 the efforts which the friends of Frederic were making to com- 
 bine several Powers to take up arms for his relief, visited hig 
 
a 
 24 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. ¥ 
 
 
 
 
 prisoner, and in a personal interview proposed terms of recon 
 ciliation. The terms, under the stances, were consid. 
 
 ered generous, but a proud spirit needed the discipline of three 
 
 years’ imprisonment before it could yield to such demands, 
 
 It was the 13th of March, 1325, when this s.ngular inter- 
 view between Louis the emperor, and Frederic his captive, 
 took place at Trausnitz, Frederic promised upon oath that 
 in exchange for his freedom he would renounce all claim to 
 the imperial throne; restare all the districts and@ castles he 
 had wrested from the empire; give up all the documents 
 relative to his election as emperor; join with all his family in- 
 fluence to support Louis against any and every adversary, and 
 give his daughter in marriage to Stephen the son of Louis, 
 He also promised that in case he should fail in the fulfillment 
 of any one of these stipulations, he would return to his cap- 
 tivity. 
 
 Frederic fully intended a faithful compliance wich these 
 requisitions. But no sooner was he liberated than his fiery 
 brother Leopold, who presided over the Swiss estates, and whe 
 was a man of great capacity and military energy, refused per- 
 emptorily to fulfill the articles which related to him, and made 
 vigorous preparations to urge the war which he had already, 
 with many allies, commenced against the Emperor Louis. The 
 pope also, who had become inimical to Louis, declared that 
 Frederic was absolved from the agreement at Trausnitz, as it 
 was extorted by force, and, with all the authority of the head 
 of the Church, exhorted Frederic to reassert his claim to the 
 imperial crown. 
 
 Amidst such scenes of fraud and violence, it is refreshing 
 to record an act of real honor. Frederic, notwithstanding the 
 entreaties of the pope and the remonstrances of his friends, 
 declared that, be the consequences what they might, he never 
 would violate his pledge; and finding that he could not fulfill 
 the articles of the agreement, he returned to Bavaria and sur- 
 rendered himself a prisoner to the emperor. It is seldom thas 
 
ALBERT I., FREDERIC, ABBERT AND OTHO. 45 
 
 history has the privilege of recording so noble an act. Louis 
 of Bavaria fortunately had a soul capable of appreciating the 
 magnanimity of his captive. He received him with courtesy 
 and with almost fraternal kindness. In the words of a con. 
 temporary historian, “They ate at the same table and slept in 
 the same bed;” and, most extraordinary of all, when Louis 
 was subsequently called to a distant part of his dominions to 
 quell an insurrection, he intrusted the government of Bavaria, 
 during his absence, to Frederic.: | , 
 
 Frederic’s impetuous and ungovernable brother Leopold, 
 was unwearied in his endeavors to combine armies against the 
 emperor, and war raged without cessation. At length Louis, 
 harassed by these endless insurrections and coalitions against 
 him, and admiring the magnanimity of Frederic, entered into 
 a new alliance, offering terms exceedingly honorable on his 
 part. He agreed that he and Frederic should rule conjointly 
 as emperors of Germany, in perfect equality of power and dig- 
 nity, alternately taking the precedence. 
 
 With this arrangement Leopold was satisfied, but unfortu- 
 nately, just at that time, his impetuous spirit, exhausted by 
 disappointment and chagrin, yielded to death. He died at 
 Strasbourg on the 28th of February, 1326. The pope and 
 several of the electors refused to accede to this arrangement, 
 and thus the hopes of the unhappy Frederic were again 
 blighted, for Louis, who had consented to this accommodation 
 for the sake of peace, was not willing to enforce it through 
 the tumult of war. Frederic was, however, liberated from 
 captivity, and he returned to Austria a dejected, broken-hearted 
 man. He pined away for a few months in languor, being 
 rarely known to smile, and died at the castle of Gullenstein on 
 the 18th of January, 1330. His widow, Isabella, the daughter 
 of the King of Arragon, became blind from excessive grief, 
 and soon followed her husband to the tomb. 
 
 As Frederic left no son, the Austrian dominions fell to his 
 two brothers, Albert III. and Otha Albert, by marriage 
 
46 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 added the valuable county of Ferret in Alsace to the dominions 
 of the house of Austria, The two brothers reigned with such 
 wonderful harmony, that no indications can be seen of sepa 
 rate administrations, They renounced all claim to the impe- 
 rial throne, notwithstanding the efforts of the pope to the 
 contrary, and thus secured friendship with the Emperor Louis, 
 There were now three prominent families dominant in Ger- 
 many. Around these great families, who had gradually, by 
 marriage and military encroachments, attained their supremacy, 
 the others of all degrees rallied as vassals, seeking protection 
 and contributing strength. The house of Bavaria, reigning 
 over that powerful kingdom and in possession of the imperial 
 throne, ranked first. Then came the house of Luxembourg, 
 possessing the wide-spread and opulent realms of Bohemia. 
 The house of Austria had now vast possessions, but these were 
 widely scattered ; some provinces on the banks of the Danube 
 and others in Switzerland, spreading through the defiles of 
 the Alps. 
 
 John of Bohemia was an overbearing man, and feeling quite 
 impregnable in his northern realms beyond the mountains, as: 
 sumed such a dictatorial air as to rouse the ire of the princes 
 of Austria and Bavaria. These two houses consequently en- 
 tered into an intimate alliance for mutual security. The Duke 
 of Carinthia, who was uncle to Albert and Otho, died, leaving 
 only a daughter, Margaret. This dukedom, about the size of 
 the State of Massachusetts, a wild and mountainous region, 
 was deemed very important as the key to Italy. John of Bo. 
 hemia, anxious to obtain it, had engaged the hand of Margaret 
 for his son, then but eight years of age. It was a question in 
 dispute whether the dukedom could descend to a female, and 
 Albert and Otho claimed it as the heirs of their uncle. Louis, 
 the emperor, supported the claims of Austria, and thus Carin- 
 thia became attached to this growing power. 
 
 John, enraged, formed a confederacy with the kings of Hun 
 gary and Poland, and some minor princes, and invaded Aus 
 
ALBERT 1., FREDERIC, ALBERT AND OTHO., 47 
 
 tria. For some time they swept all opposition before them, 
 But the Austrian troops and those of the empire checked 
 them at Landau. Here they entered into an agreement with- 
 out a battle, by which Austria was permitted to retain Carin- 
 thia, she making important concessions to Bohemia. In Feb. 
 ruary, 1339, Otho died, and Albert was invested with the sole 
 administration of affairs. The old King of Bohemia possessed 
 vehemence of character which neither age nor the total blind- 
 ness with which he had become afflicted could repress. He 
 traversed the empire, and even went to France, organizing a 
 powerful confederacy against the emperor. The pope, Clem- 
 ent VI., who had always been inimical to Louis of Bavaria, 
 influenced by John of Bohemia, deposed and excommunicated 
 Louis, and ordered 2 new meeting of the diet of electors, 
 which chose Charles, eldest son of the Bohemian monarch, 
 and heir to that crown, emperor. 
 
 The deposed Louis fought bravely for the crown thus torn 
 from his brow. Albert of Austria aided him with all his en. 
 ergies. Their united armies, threading the defiles of the Bo- 
 hemian mountains, penetrated the very heart of the kingdom, 
 when, in the midst of success, the deposed Emperor Louis fel] 
 dead from a stroke of apoplexy, in the year 1347. This event 
 left Charles of Bohemia in undisputed possession of the im- 
 perial crown. Albert immediately recogr‘zed his claim, ef- 
 fected reconciliation, and becoming the friend and the ally 
 of the emperor, pressed on cautiously but securely, year after 
 year, in his policy of annexation. But storms of war inces 
 santly howled around his domains until he died, a crippled 
 paralytic, on the 16th of August, 1358. 
 
CHAPTER IIIf. 
 
 BHODCLPH IfI., ALBERT IV. ANT ALBERT V. 
 From 1339 To 1437. 
 
 Bsopoirn IL.—MArriaGe OF JoHN TO MARGARET.—INTRIGUING FOR THE TYROL-—< 
 DEATH OF RHODOLPH.—ACOESSION OF PowER To AUSTRIA.—DIVIDING THE EMPIRE. 
 —DeELigHt or THE EMPEROR CHARLES.—LEOPOLD.—His AMBITION AND SUCOESSES. 
 ~HEDWIGE, QUEEN oF PoLAND.—“ THE CouRSE OF TRUE LOVE NEVER DID RUM 
 sMOOTI.”—UNHAPPY MARRIAGE OF HEDWIGE.—HEROISM OF ARNOLD OF WINKEL« 
 BEID.—DEATH OF LrorpoLp.—DratH oF ALBERT IV.—AcoESSION OF ALBERT V.— 
 ATTEMPTS OF SIGISMOND TO BEQUEATH TO ALBERT V. HUNGARY AND BOHEMIA, 
 
 HODOLPH ILI., the eldest son of Albert III., when but 
 nineteen years of age succeeded his father in the govera- 
 ment of the Austrian States. He had been very thoroughly 
 educated in all the civil and military knowledge of the times. 
 He was closely allied with the Emperor Charles IV. of Bohe- 
 mia, having married his daughter Catherine. His character 
 and manhood had been very early developed. When he was 
 in his seventeenth year his father had found it necessary to 
 visit his Swiss estates, then embroiled in the fiercest war, and 
 had left him in charge of the Austrian provinces. He soon 
 after was intrusted with the whole care of the Hapsburg do- 
 minions in Switzerland. In this responsible post he developed 
 wonderful administrative skill, encouraging industry, repress- 
 ing disorder, and by constructing roads and bridges, opening 
 facilities for intercourse and trade. 
 
 Upon the death of his father, Rhodolph removed te 
 Vienna, and being now the monarch of powerful realms on 
 the Danube and among the Alps, he established a court rival 
 ing the most magnificent establishments of the age. 
 
 Just west of Austria and south of Bavaria was the magnifi 
 
RHODOLPH I1., ALBERT IV. AND ALBERT YY. 49 
 
 cent dukedom of Tyrol, containing some sixteen thousand 
 square miles, or about twice the size of the State of Massachnu- 
 setts. It was a country almost unrivaled in the grandeur of 
 its scenery, and contained nearly a million of inhabitants, 
 This State, lying equally convenient to both Austria and Ba- 
 varia, by both of these kingaoms had for many years been re- 
 garded with a wistful eye. The manner in which Austria se- 
 oured the prize is a story well worth telling, as illustrative of 
 the intrigues of those times. 
 
 It will be remembered that John, the arrogant King of 
 Bohemia, engaged for his son the hand of Margaret, the only 
 daughter of the Duke of Carinthia. Tyrol also was one of the 
 possessions of this powerful duke. Henry, having no son, had 
 obtained from the emperor a decree that these possessions 
 should descend, in default of male issue, to his daughter. But 
 for this decision the sovereignty of these States would descend 
 to the male heirs, Albert and Otho of Austria, nephews of 
 Henry. They of course disputed the legality of the decree, 
 and, aided by the Emperor Louis of Bavaria, obtained Carin- 
 thia, relinquishing for a time their claim to Tyrol, The em- 
 peror hoped to secure that golden prize for his hereditary 
 estates of Bavaria. 
 
 When John, the son of the King of Bohemia, was but sev- 
 enteen years of age, and a puny, weakly child, he was hurriedly 
 married to Margaret, then twenty-two. Margaret, a sanguine, 
 energetic woman, despised her baby husband, and he, very 
 naturally, impotently hated her. She at length fled from him, 
 and escaping from Bohemia, threw herself under the protec- 
 tion of Louis. The emperor joyfully welcomed her to his 
 court, and promised to grant her a divorce, by virtue of his 
 imperial power, if she would marry his son Louis. The com- 
 pliant princess readily acceded to this plan, and the divorce 
 was announced and the nuptials solemnized in February, 1342 
 
 The King of Bohemia was as much exasperated as the King 
 of Bavaria was elated by this event, for the one felt that he 
 
50 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 had lost the Tyrol, and the other that he had gamed it. It 
 was this successful intrigue which cost Louis of Bavaria his 
 imperial crown; for the blood of the King of Bohemia was 
 roused. Burning with vengeance, he traversed Europe almost 
 with the zeal and eloquence of Peter the Hermit, to organize 
 a coalition against the emperor, and succeeded in inducing the 
 pope, always. hostile to Louis, to depose and excommunicate 
 him. This marriage was also declared by the pope unlawful, 
 and the son, Meinhard, eventually born to them, was branded 
 as illegitimate. 
 
 _ - While matters were in this state, as years glided on, Rho- 
 dolph succeeded in winning the favor of the pontiff, and in- 
 duced him to legitimate Meinhard, that this young heir of 
 Tyrol might marry the Austrian princess Margaret, sister of 
 Rhodolph. Meinhard and his wife Margaret ere long died, 
 leaving Margaret of Tyrol, a widow in advancing years, with 
 no direct heirs. By the marriage contract of her son Mein- 
 hard with Margaret of Austria, she promised that should there 
 be failure of issue, Tyrol should revert to Austria, On the 
 other hand, Bavaria claimed the territory in virtue of the 
 marriage of Margaret with Louis of Bavaria, 
 
 Rhodolph was so apprehensive that Bavaria might make an 
 immediate move to obtain the coveted territory by force of 
 arms, that he hastened across the mountains, though in the 
 depth of winter, obtained from Margaret an immediate pos- 
 session of Tyrol, and persuaded her to accompany him, an 
 honored guest, to his capital, which he had embellished with 
 unusual splendor for her entertainment, 
 
 Rhodolph had married the daughter of Charles, King of 
 Bohemia, the emperor, but unfortunately at this juncture, 
 Rhodolph, united with the kings of Hungary and Poland, was 
 at war with the Bavarian king. Catherine his wife, however, 
 undertook to effect a reconciliation between her husband and 
 her father. She secured an interview between them, and the 
 emperor, the hereditary rival of his powerful neighbor the 
 
RHODOLPH I1., ALBERT IV. AND ALBERT Y. B5i 
 
 ing of Bavaria, confirmed Margaret’s gift, invested Rhodolpt 
 with the Tyrol, and pledged the arm of the empire to main 
 tain this settlement. Thus Austria gained Tyrol, the country 
 of romance and of song, interesting, perhaps, above all other 
 portions of Europe in its natural scenery, and invaiuable from 
 its location as the gateway of Italy. Bavaria made a show of 
 armed opposition to this magnificent accession to the power 
 of Austria, but soon found it in vain to assail Rhodolph sus- 
 tained by Margaret of Tyrol, and by the energies of the em- 
 pire. 
 
 Rhodolph was an antiquarian of eccentric character, ever 
 poring over musty records and hunting up decayed titles. He 
 was fond of attaching to his signature the names of all the 
 innumerable offices he held over the conglomerated States of 
 his realm. He was Rhodolph, Margrave of Baden, Vicar of 
 Upper Bavaria, Lord of Hapsburg, Arch Huntsman of the 
 Empire, Archduke Palatine, etc. ete. His ostentation pro- 
 voked even the jealousy of his father, the emperor, and he was 
 ordered to lay aside these numerous titles and the arrogant 
 armorial bearings he was attaching to his seals. His desire to 
 agegrandize his family burned with a guenchless flame, Hop- 
 ing to extend his influence in Italy, he negotiated 2 matrimo- 
 nial alliance for his brother with an Italian princess. As he 
 crossed the Alps to attend the nuptials, he was seized with 
 an inflammatory fever, and died the 27th of July, 1365, but 
 twenty-six years of age, and leaving no issue. 
 
 His brother Albert, a young man but seventeen years of 
 age, succeeded Rhodolph. Just as he assumed the government, 
 Margaret of Tyrol died, and the King of Bavaria, thinking 
 this a favorable moment to renew his claims for the Tyrol, vig- 
 orously invaded the country with a strong army. Albert im- 
 mediately applied to the emperor for assistance. Three years 
 were employed in fightings and diplomacy, when Bavaria, in 
 consideration of a large sum of money and sundry other con- 
 eessions. renounced ali pretensions to Tyrcl, and left the rick 
 
 oy vu 8 7 im 
 ii, OF thee bt 
 
§2 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 prize henceforth undisputed in the hands of Austria. Thus 
 the diminutive margrave of Austria, wi*ch was at first but a 
 mere military post on the Danube, had grown by rapid accre- 
 tions in one century to be almost equal in extent of territory 
 to the kingdoms of Bavaria and of Bohemia. This grandeur 
 instead of satisfying the Austrian princes, did but increase their 
 ambition. 
 
 The Austrian territories, though widely scattered, were 
 declared, both by family compact and by imperial decree, to be 
 indivisible. Albert had a brother, Leopold, two years younger 
 than himself, of exceedingly restless and ambitious spirit, while — 
 Albert was inactive, and a lover of ease and repose. Leopold 
 was sent to Switzerland, and intrusted with the administra- 
 tion of those provinces. But his imperious spirit so dom- 
 inated over his elder but pliant brother, that he extorted from 
 him a compact, by which the realm was divided, Albert re- 
 maining in possession of the Austrian provinces of the Danube, 
 and Leopold having exclusive dominion over those in Switzer. 
 land ; while the magnificent new acquisition, the Tyrol, lying 
 between the two countries, bounding Switzerland on the east, 
 and Austria on the west, was shared between them. 
 
 Nothing can more clearly show the moderate qualities of 
 Albert than that he should have assented to such a plan. He 
 did, however, with easy good nature, assent to it, and the two 
 brothers applied to the Emperor Charles to ratify the divis- 
 ion by his imperial sanction. Charles, who for some time 
 had been very jealous of the rapid encroachments of Austria, 
 rubbed his hands with delight, 
 
 “* We have long,” said he, “labored in vain to humble the 
 fiouse of Austria, and now the dukes of Austria have humbled 
 themselves.” 
 
 Leopold the First inherited all the ambition and energy of 
 the house of Hapsburg, and was ever watching with an eagle 
 eye to extend his dominions, and to magnify his power. By 
 money, war, and diplomacy, in a few years he obtained Fri 
 
RHODOLPH II., AULBERTIV. AND ALBERT V. 658 
 
 burg and the little town of Basle; attached to his, dominions 
 the counties of Feldkirch, Pludenz, Surgans and the Rienthal, 
 which he wrested from the feeble counts who held them, and 
 obtained the baillages of Upper and Lower Suabia, and the 
 towns of Augsburg and Gingen. But a bitter disappointment 
 was now encountered by this ambitious prince. 
 
 Louis, the renowned King of Hungary and Poland, had two 
 daughters, Maria and Hedwige, but no sons. To Maria ke 
 promised the crown of Hungary as her portion, and among 
 the many claimants for her hand, and the glittering crown she 
 held in it, Sigismond, son of the Emperor Charles, King of 
 Bohemia, received the prize. Leopold, whose heart throbbed 
 in view of so splendid an alliance, was overjoyed when he se- 
 cured the pledge of the hand of Hedwige, with the crown of 
 Poland, for William, his eldest son. Hedwige was one of the 
 most beautiful and accomplished princesses of the age. Wil- 
 liam was also a young man of great elegance of person, and 
 of such rare fascination of character, that he had acquired the 
 epithet of William the Delightful. His chivalrous bearing 
 had been trained and polished amidst the splendors of his 
 uncle’s court of Vienna. Hedwige, as the affianced bride of 
 William, was invited from the more barbaric pomp of the 
 Hungarian court, to improve her education by the aid of the 
 refinements of Vienna, William and Hedwige no sooner met 
 than they loved one another, as young hearts, even in the 
 palace, will sometimes love, as well as in the cottage. In 
 brilliant festivities and moonlight excursions the young lovers 
 passed a few happy months, when Hedwige was called home 
 by the final sickness of her father. Louis died, and Hedwige 
 was immediately crowned Queen of Poland, receiving the 
 most enthusiastic greetings of her subjects, 
 
 Bordering on Poland there was a grand duchy of immense 
 extent, Lithuania, embracing sixty thousand square miles, 
 The Grand Duke Jaghellon was a burly Northman, not more 
 than half civilized, whose character was as jagged as his name 
 
64 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA 
 
 This pagan proposed to the Polish nobles that he should marry 
 Hedwige, and thus unite the grand duchy of Lithuania with 
 the kingdom of Poland; promising in that event to renouncs 
 paganism, and embrace Christianity. The beautiful and 
 accomplished Hedwige was horror-struck at the proposal, 
 and deciared that never would she marry any one but 
 William. 
 
 But the Polish nobles, dazzled by the prospect of this mag- 
 nificent accession to the kingdom of Poland, and the bishops, 
 even more powerful than the nobles, elated with the vision ot 
 such an acquisition for the Church, resolved that the young 
 and fatherless maiden, who had no one to defend her cause, 
 should yield, and that she should become the bride of Jag- 
 helion. They declared that it was ridiculous to think that the 
 interests of a mighty kingdom, and the enlargement of the 
 Church, were to yield to the caprices of a love-sick girl. 
 
 In the meantime William, all unconscious of the disap 
 pointment which awaited him, was hastening to Cracow, with 
 @ splendid retinue, and the richest presents Austrian art could 
 fabricate, to receive his bride. The nobles, however, a senii- 
 barbaric set of men, surrounded him upon his arrival, refused 
 to allow him any interview with Hedwige, threatened him 
 with personal violence, and drove him out of the kingdom. 
 Poor Hedwige was in anguish. She wept, vowed deathless 
 fidelity to William, and expressed utter detestation of the 
 pagan duke, until, at last, worn out and broken-hearted, she, 
 in despair, surrendered herself into the arms of Jaghellon. 
 Jaghellon was baptized by the name of Ladislaus, and Lith- 
 aania was annexed to Poland. 
 
 The loss of the crown of Poland was to Leopold a grievous 
 affliction; at the same time his armies, engaged in sundry 
 measures of aggrandizement, encountered serious reverses. 
 Leopold, the father of William, by these events was plunged 
 mto the deepest dejection. No effort of his friends could lift 
 the weight of hisgloom. Ina retired apartment of one pf his 
 
RHODOLPH ff., ALBERT IV. AND ALBERT YV. 55 
 
 casties he sat silent and woful, apparently incapacitated for 
 eny exertion whatever, either bodily or mental. The affairs 
 of his realm were neglected, and his bailiffs and feudal chiefs, 
 ‘eft with irresponsible power, were guilty of such acts of ex- 
 tortion and tyranny, that, in the province of Suabia the barons 
 combined, and a fierce insurrection broke out. Forty in- 
 portant towns united in the confederacy, and secured the ce 
 operation of Strasburg, Mentz and other large cities on the 
 Rhine. Other of the Swiss provinces were on the eve of 
 joining this alarming confederacy against Leopold, their Aus- 
 trian ruler. As Vienna for some generations had been the 
 seat of the Hapsburg family, from whence governors were 
 sent to these provinces of Helvetia, as Switzerland was then 
 called, the Swiss began to regard their rulers as foreigners, 
 and even Leopold found it necessary to strengthen himself 
 with Austrian t™»ops. 
 
 This formidable league roused Leopold from his torpor, 
 and he awoke like the waking of the lion. He was imme 
 diately on the march with four thousand horsemen, and four- 
 teen hundred foot, while all through the defiles of the Alps 
 bugle blasts echoed, summoning detachments from various 
 cantons under their bold barons, to hasten to the aid of the 
 insurgents. On the evening of the 9th of July, 1396, the 
 glittering host of Leopold appeared on an eminence overlook- 
 ing the city of Sempach and the beautiful lake on whose bor: 
 der it stands. The horses were fatigued by their long and 
 hurried march, and the crags and ravines, covered with forest, 
 were impracticable for the evolutions of cavalry. The im- 
 petuous Leopold, impatient of delay, resolved upon an imme- 
 diate attack, notwithstanding the exhaustion of his troops, 
 and though a few hours of delay would bring strong rein- 
 forcements to his camp. He dismounted his horsemen, and 
 formed his whele force in solid phalanx. It was an imposing 
 spectacle, as six thousand men, covered from head to foot 
 with blazing armor, presenting a front of shields like a wall 
 
ae THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 of burnished steel, bristling with innumerable pikes and spears, 
 moved with slow, majestic tread down upon the city. 
 
 The confederate Swiss, conscious that the hour of vette 
 geance had come, in which they must conquer or be miser& 
 biy slain, marched forth to meet the foe, emboldened only by 
 despair. But few of the confederates were in armor. They 
 were furnished with such weapons as men grasp when despot 
 ism rouses them to insurrection, rusty battle-axes, pikes and 
 halberts, and two-handed swords, which their ancestors, in 
 descending into the grave, had left behind them. ‘They drew 
 up in the form of a solid wedge, to pierce the thick concentric 
 wall of steel, appsrently as impenetrable as the cliffs of the 
 mountains. Thus the two bodies silently and sternly ap- 
 proached each other. It was a terrific hour; for every man 
 knew that one or the other of those hosts must perish utterly, 
 For some time the battle raged, while the confederates could 
 make no impression whatever upon their steel-clad foes, and 
 sixty of them fell pierced by spears before one of their assail- 
 ants had been even wounded. 
 
 Despair was fast settling upon their hearts, when Arnold 
 of Winkelreid, a knight of Underwalden, rushed from the 
 ranks of the confederates, exclaiming— 
 
 ‘I will open a passage into the line; protect, dear coum 
 trymen, my wife and children.” 
 
 Hie threw himself upon the bristling spears. A score 
 pierced his body; grasping them with the tenacity of death, 
 he bore them to the earth as he fell. His comrades, emulating 
 his spirit of self-sacrifice, rushed over his bleeding body, and 
 forced their way through the gate thus opened into the line, 
 ‘The whole unwieldy mass was thrown into confusion. The 
 steel-clad warriors, exhausted before the battle commenced, 
 and encumbered with their heavy armor, could but feebly re- 
 sist their nimble assailants, who outnumbering them and over 
 powering them, cut them down in fearful havoc. It soon be 
 came a general slaughter, and not less than two thousand of 
 
RHODOLPH II., ALBERT IV AND ALBERT VY. 8? 
 
 the followers of Leopold were stretched lifeless upon the 
 ground. Many were taken prisoners, and a few, mounting 
 their horses, effected an escape among the wild glens of the 
 Alps. 
 
 In this awful hour Leopold developed magnanimity and 
 heroism worthy of his name. Before the battle commenced, 
 his friends urged him to take care of his own person. 
 
 “God forbid,” said he, “that I should endeavor to save 
 my own life and leave you to die! I will share your fate, and, 
 with you, will either conquer or perish.” 
 
 When all was in confusion, and his followers were falling 
 like autumn leaves around him, he was urged to put spurs to 
 his horse, and, accompanied by his body-guard, to escape. 
 
 **T would rather die honorably,” said Leopold, “ than live 
 with dishonor.” 
 
 Just at this moment his standard-bearer was struck down 
 by a rush of the confederates, As he fell he cried out, “ Help, 
 Austria, help! Leopold frantically sprang to his aid, grasped 
 the banner from his dying hand, and waving it, plunged into 
 the midst of the foe, with saber strokes hewing a path before 
 him. He was soon lost in the tumult and the carnage of the 
 battle. His body was afterward found, covered with wounds, 
 in the midst of heaps of the dead. 
 
 Thus perished the ambitious and turbulent Leopold the ist, 
 after a stormy and unhappy life of thirty-six years, and a reign 
 of constant encroachment and war of twenty years. Life to 
 him was a dark and somber tempest. Ever dissatisfied with 
 what he had attained, and grasping at more, he could never 
 enjoy the present, and he finally died that death of violence 
 to which his ambition had consigned so many thousands, 
 Beopold, the second son of the duke, who was but fifteen 
 years of age, succeeded his father, in the dominion of the 
 Swiss estates; and after a desultory warfare of a few months, 
 was successful in negotiating a peace, or rather an armea 
 truce, with the successful insurgents. 
 
68 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 In the meantime, Albert, at Vienna, apparently happy im 
 being relieved of ali care of the Swiss provinces, was devot 
 ing himself to the arts of peace. He reared new buildings, 
 encouraged learning, repressed all disorders, and cultivated 
 friendly relations with the neighboring powers. His life waa 
 as a summer’s day—serene and bright. He and his family 
 were happy, and his realms in prosperity. He died at his 
 rural residence at Laxendorf, two miles out from Vienna, oa 
 the 29th of August, 1395. All Austria mourned his death, 
 Thousands gathered at his burial, exclaiming, “‘ We have lost 
 _ our friend, our father!” He was a studious, peace-loving, 
 warm-hearted man, devoted to his family and his friends, fond 
 of books and the society of the learned, and enjoying the cule 
 tivation of his garden with his own hands. He left, at hig 
 death, an only son, Albert, sixteen years of age. 
 
 William, the eldest son of Leopold, had been brought up 
 in the court of Vienna, He was a young man of fascinating 
 character and easily won all hearts. After his bitter disap 
 pointment in Poland he returned to Vienna, and now, upon 
 the death of his uncle Albert, he claimed the reins of govern- 
 ment as the oldest member of the family. His cousin Albert, 
 of course, resisted this claim, demanding that he himselé 
 should enter upon the post which his father had occupied. A 
 violent dissension ensued which resulted in an agreement 
 that they should administer the government of the Austrian 
 States, jointly, during their lives, and that then the governs 
 ment should be vested in the eldest surviving member of the 
 family. 
 
 Having effected this arrangement, quite to the satisfaction 
 of both parties, Albert, who inherited much of the studious 
 thoughtful turn of mind of his father, set out on a pilgrimage 
 to the holy land, leaving the government during his absence 
 in the hands of William. After wanderings and adventures 
 so full of romance as to entitle him to the appellation of the 
 “ Wonder of the World,” he returned to Vienna. He marriea 
 
RHODOLPH I11., ALBERT IV. AND ALBERT V. 59 
 
 a daughter of the Duke of Holland, and settled down to a 
 monkish lite. He entered a monastery of Carthusian monks, 
 and took an active part in all their discipline and devotions 
 No one was more punctual than he at matins and vespers. o% 
 more devout in confessions, prayers, genuflexions and the di- 
 vine service in the choir. Regarding himself as one of the 
 fraternity, he called himself brother Albert, and left William 
 untrammeled in the cares of state. His life was short, for he 
 died the 14th of September, 1404, in the twenty-seventh year 
 of his age, leaving a son Albert, seven years old. William, 
 who married a daughter of the King of Naples, survived him 
 but two years, when he died childless. 
 
 A boy nine years old now claimed the inheritance of the 
 Austrian estates; but the haughty dukes of the Swiss branch 
 of the house were not disposed to yield to his claims. Leo 
 pold II., who after the battle of Sempach succeeded his father 
 in the Swiss estates, assumed the guardianship of Albert, and 
 the administration of Austria, till the young duke should be 
 of age. But Leopold had two brothers who also inherited 
 their father’s energy and ambition, Ernest ruled over Styria, 
 Carinthia and Carniola, Frederic governed the Tyrol. 
 
 Leopold II. repaired to Vienna to assume the administrae 
 tion ; his two brothers claimed the right of sharing it with 
 him. Confusion, strife and anarchy ensued. Ernest, a very 
 determined and violent man, succeeded in compelling his 
 brother to give him a share of the government, and in the 
 midst of incessant quarrels, which often led to bloody conflicts, 
 each of the two brothers strove to wrest as much as possible 
 from Austria before young Albert should be of age. The 
 nobles availed themselves of this anarchy to renew their ex- 
 peditions of plunder. Unhappy Austria for several years was 
 a scene of devastation and misery. In the year 1411, Leopold 
 If. died without issue. The young Albert had now attained 
 his fifteenth year. 
 
 _ ‘The emperor declared Albert of age, and he assumed the 
 
$9 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 government as Albert V. His subjects, weary of disorder 
 and of the strife of the nobles, welcomed him with enthusi- 
 asm. With sagacity and self-denial above his years, the young 
 prince devoted himself to business, relinquishing all pursuits 
 of pleasure. Fortunately, during his minority he had honor 
 able and able teachers who stored his mind with useful knowk 
 edge, and fortified him with principles of integrity. The 
 change from the most desolating anarchy to prosperity and 
 peace was almost instantaneous. Albert had the judgment 
 to surround himself with able advisers, Salutary laws were 
 enacted ; justice impartially administered; the country was 
 swept of the banditti which infested it, and while all the 
 States around were involved in the miseries of war, the song 
 of the contented husbandman, and the music of the artisan’s 
 tools were heard through the fields and in the towns of happy 
 Austria. 
 
 Sigismond, second son of the Emperor Charles IV., King 
 of Bohemia, was now emperor. It will be remembered that 
 by marrying Mary, the eldest daughter of Louis, King of Hun- 
 gary and Poland, he received Hungary as the dower of his 
 bride. By intrigue he also succeeded in deposing his effemi- 
 nate and dissolute brother, Wenceslaus, from the throne of 
 Bohemia, and succeeded, by a new election, in placing the 
 crown upon his own brow. Thus Sigismond wielded a three- 
 fold scepter. He was Emperor of Germany, and King of 
 Hungary and of Bohemia. 
 
 Albert married the only daughter of Sigismond, ana a very 
 strong affection sprung up between the imperial father and his 
 son-in-law. They often visited each other, and coéperated 
 very cordially in measures of state. The wife of Sigismond 
 was a worthless woman, described by an Austrian historian as 
 “one who believed in neither God, angel nor devils; neither 
 in heaven nor hell.” Sigismond had set his heart upon be- 
 queathing to Albert the crowns of both Hungary and Bohe- 
 mia, which magnificent accessions to the Austrian domains 
 
RHODOLPA Il., ALBERT IV. ANY ALBERT Y. 63 
 
 would elevate that power to be one of the first in Europe. 
 But Barbara, his queen, wished to convey these crowns to the 
 gon of the pagan Jaghellon, who had received the crown of 
 Poland as the dowry of his reluctant bride, Hedwige. Sigis 
 mond, provoked by her intrigues for the accomplishment of 
 this object, and detesting her for her licentiousness, put her 
 under arrest. Sigismond was sixty-three years of age, in very 
 feeble health, and daily expecting to die. 
 
 He summoned a general convention of the nobles of Hun 
 gary and Bohemia to meet him at Znaim in Moravia, near the 
 frontiers of Austria, and sent for Albert and his daughter to 
 hasten to that place. The infirm emperor, traveling by slow 
 stages, succeeded in reaching Znaim. He immediately sum- 
 moned the vobles to his presence, and introducing to them 
 Albert and Elizabeth, thus affectingly addressed them : 
 
 “ Loving friends, you know that since the commencement 
 of my reign I have employed my utmost exertions to main 
 tain public tranquillity. Now, as I am about to die, my last 
 act must be consistent with my former actions, At this mo- 
 ment my only anxiety arises from a desire to prevent dissen 
 sion and bloodshed after my decease. It is praiseworthy in a 
 prince to govern well; but it is not less praiseworthy to pro- 
 vide a successor who shall govern better than himself. This 
 fame I now seek, not from ambition, but from love to my sub 
 jects. You all know Albert, Duke of Austria, to whom in 
 preference to ali other princes I gave my daughter in mar- 
 riage, and whom [ adopted as my son. You know that he 
 possesses experience and every virtue becoming a prince. He 
 found Austria in a state of disorder, and he has restored it to 
 tranquillity. He is now of an age in which judgment and ex- 
 perience attain their perfection, and he is sovereign of Austria, 
 which, lying between Hungary and Bohemia, forms a connect- 
 ing link between the two kingdoms. 
 
 “T recommend him to you as my successor. [ leave you 
 @ king, pious, honorable, wise and brave. [ give him my 
 
62 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA 
 
 kingdom. or rather I give him to my kingdoms, to whom I can 
 give or wish nothing better. Truly you belong to him in con 
 sideration of his wife, the hereditary princess of Hungary and 
 Bohemia, Again I repeat that I do not act thus solely from 
 love to Albert and my daughter, but from a desire in my last 
 moments to promote the true welfare of my people. Happy 
 are those who are subject to Albert. I am confident he is no 
 less beloved by you than by me, and that even without my 
 exhortations you would unanimously give him your votes. But 
 I beseech you by these tears, comfort my soul, which is de- 
 parting to God, by confirming my choice and fulfilling my 
 will.” 
 
 The emperor was so overcome with emotion that he could 
 with difficulty pronounce these last words. All were deeply 
 moved ; some wept aloud ; others, seizing the hand of the em- 
 peror and bathing it in tears, vowed allegiance to Albert, and 
 declared that while he lived they would recognize no other 
 sovereign. 
 
 The very next day, November, 1487, Sigismond died. Al- 
 bert and Elizabeth accompanied his remains to Hungary. The 
 Hungarian diet of barons unanimously ratified the wishes of 
 the late king in accepting Albert as his successor. He then 
 hastened to Bohemia, and, notwithstanding a few outbursts 
 of disaffection, was received with great demonstrations of joy 
 by the citizens of Prague, and was crowned in the eathedral, 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ALBERT, LADISLAUS AND FREDEBRIO.- 
 From 1440 To 1489. 
 
 fmornastne Honors or AtBert V.—ENOROACHMENTS OF THE TuRKs.—TuEe OHRISTIANS 
 Routep.—TERR0R OF THE HUNGARIANS.—DEATH OF ALBERT.—-MAGNANIMOUS COoN- 
 Duor oF ALBERT OF BAVARIA.—INTERNAL TROUBLES.—PRECOOITY OF LADISLAUS.— 
 FortirioaTIONS RAISED BY THE T'uRKS.—Jouw CAPISTRUN.—ReEscvur OF BELGRADE, 
 -—-THE TURKS DISPERSED.—EXULTATION OVER THE VioToRY.—DzaTH oF HuUNNI- 
 ADks.—JEALousy oF LapisLaus.—His Dratu.—BRoTHERLY QU ARRELS.— DEV ASTAS 
 #IONS BY THE TuRKS.—INVASION OF AUSTRIA.-REPEAL OF THE COMPROMISE.—TH8 
 Emperor A Fuaitive. 
 
 Sais kingdom of Bohemia thus attached to the duchies of 
 Austria contained a population of some three millions 
 and embraced twenty thousand square miles of territory, being 
 about three times as large as the State of Massachusetts, 
 Hungary was a still more magnificent realm in extent of ter. 
 ritory, being nearly five times as large as Bohemia, but inhab- 
 ited by about the same number of people, widely dispersed. 
 In addition to this sudden and vast accession of power, Albert 
 was chosen Emperor of Germany. This distinguished sove- 
 reign displayed as much wisdom and address in adminis 
 tering the affairs of the empire, as in governing his own 
 kingdoms, 
 
 The Turks were at this time becoming the terror of Chris- 
 tendom. Originating in a small tribe between the Caspian Sea 
 and the Euxine, they had with bloody cimeters overrun all 
 Asia Minor, and, crossing the Hellespont, had intrenched them- 
 selves firmly on the shores of Europe. Crowding on in vic- 
 torious hosts, armed with the most terrible fanaticism, they 
 had already obtained possession of Bulgaria, Servia, and Bos 
 
64 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 nia, eastern dependencies of Hungary, and all Europe was 
 trembling in view of their prowess, their ferocity and their 
 apparently exhaustless legions. 
 
 Sigismond, beholding the crescent of the Moslem floating 
 over the castles of eastern Hungary, became alarmed for the 
 kingdom, and sent ambassadors from court to court to form 
 a crusade against the invaders. He was eminently successful, 
 and an army of one hundred thousand men was soon collected, 
 composed of the flower of the European nobility. The repub- 
 lics of Venice and Genoa united to supply a fleet. With this 
 powerful armament Sigismond, in person, commenced his 
 march to Constantinople, which city the Turks were besieging, 
 to meet the fleet there. The Turkish sultan himself gathered 
 his troops and advanced to meet Sigismond. The Christian 
 troops were utterly routed, and nearly all put to the sword. 
 The emperor with difficulty escaped. In the confusion of the 
 awful scene of carnage he threw himself unperceived into a 
 small boat, and paddling down the Danube, as its flood swept 
 through an almost uninhabited wilderness, he reached the 
 Black Sea, where he was so fortunate as to find a portion of 
 the fleet, and thus, by a long circuit, he eventually reached his 
 home. . 
 
 Bajazet, the sultan, returned exultant from this great vic- 
 tory, and resumed the siege of Constantinople, which ere long 
 fell into the hands of the Turks. Amurath, who was sultan 
 at the time of the death of Sigismond, thought the moment 
 propitious for extending his conquests. He immediately, with 
 his legions, overran Servia, a principality nearly the size of 
 the State of Virginia, and containing a million of inhabitants, 
 George, Prince of Servia, retreating before the merciless fol- 
 lowers of the false prophet, threw himself with a strong gar- 
 rison into the fortress of Semendria, and sent an imploring 
 message to Albert for assistance. Servia was separated from 
 Hungary only by the Danube, and it was a matter of infinite 
 moment to Albert that the Turk should not get possession of 
 
ALBERT, LADISLAUS AND FREDERIC. 665 
 
 that province, from which he could make constant forays into 
 Hungary. 
 
 Albert hastily collected an army and marched to the banks 
 of the Danube just in time to witness the capture of Semen- 
 dria and the massacre of its garrison. All Hungary was now 
 in terror. The Turks in overwhelming numbers were firmly 
 intrenched upon the banks of the Danube, and were preparing 
 to cross the river and to supplant the cross with the crescent on 
 all the plains of Hungary. The Hungarian nobles, in crowds, 
 flocked to the standard of Albert, who made herculean exer. 
 tions to meet and roll back the threatened tide of invasion. 
 Exhausted by unremitting toil, he was taken sick and sud- 
 denly died, on a small island of the Danube, on the 17th of 
 October, 1439, in the forty-third year of his age. The death 
 of such a prince, heroic and magnanimous, loving the arts of 
 peace, and yet capable of wielding the energies of war, was 
 an apparent calamity to Europe. 
 
 Albert left two daughters, but his queen Elizabeth was 
 expecting, in a few months, to give birth to another child. 
 Every thing was thus involved in confusion, and for a time 
 intrigue and violence ran riot. There were many diverse par- 
 ties, the rush of armed bands, skirmishes and battles, and all 
 the great matters of state were involved in an inextricable 
 labyrinth of confusion. The queen gave birth to a son, who 
 was baptized by the name of Ladislaus. Elizabeth, anxious 
 to secure the crown of Hungary for her infant, had him sol- 
 emnly crowned at Alba Regia, by the Archbishop of Gran 
 when the child was but four months old. 
 
 But a powerful party arose, opposed to the claims of the 
 fant, and strove by force of arms to place upon the throne 
 Uladislaus, King of Poland and Lithuania, and son of the 
 pagan Jaghellon and the unhappy Hedwige. For two years 
 war between the rival parties desolated the kingdom, when 
 Elizabeth died. OUladislaus now redoubled his endeavors, and 
 finally succeeded in driving the unconscious infant from his 
 
fa] THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA 
 
 hereditary domain, and established himself firmly on the 
 throne of Hungary. 
 
 The infant prince was taken to Bohemia. There also he 
 encountered violent opposition. “A child,” said his oppo- 
 nents, “can not govern. It will be long before Ladislaus wiil 
 be capable of assuming the reins of government. Let us 
 choose another sovereign, and when Ladislaus has attained 
 the age of twenty-four we shall see whether he deserves the 
 crown.” 
 
 This very sensible advice was adopted, and thirteen elects 
 ors were appointed to choose a sovereign. Their choice feli 
 upon Albert of Bavaria, But he, with a spirit of magnanim- 
 ity very rare in that age, declared that the crown, of right, 
 belonged to Ladislaus, and that he would not take it from 
 him. They then chose Frederic, Duke of Styria, who, upon 
 the death of Albert, had been chosen emperor. Frederic, in- 
 cited by the example of Albert, also declined, saying, “I will 
 not rob my relation of his right.” But anxious for the peace 
 of the empire, he recommended that they should choose some 
 illustrious Bohemian, to whom they should intrust the regency 
 until Ladislaus became of age, offering himself to assume the 
 guardianship of the young prince. 
 
 This judicious advice was accepted, and the Bohemian 
 nobles chose the infant Ladislaus their king. They, however, 
 appointed two regents instead of one. The regents quarreled 
 and headed two hostile parties. Anarchy and civil war deso- 
 lated the kingdom, with fluctuations of success and discom 
 fiture attending the movements of either party. ‘Thus severai 
 years of violence and blood passed on. One of the regents, 
 George Podiebrad, drove his opponent from the realm and 
 assumed regal authority. To legitimate its usurped power he 
 summoned a diet at Pilgram, in 1447, and submitted the foi- 
 lowing question : 
 
 “Ts it advantageous to the kingdom that Ladislaus should 
 retain the crown, or would it not be more beneficial to choose 
 
ALBERT, LADISLAUS AND FREDERIC, 6? 
 
 @ monarch acquainted with our language and customs, and in 
 spired with love of our country ?” 
 
 Warm opposition to this measure arose, and the nobles 
 voted themselves loyal to Ladislaus. While these events were 
 passing in Bohemia, scenes of similar violence were transpir- 
 ing in Hungary. After a long series of convulsions, and Ula- 
 dislaus, the Polish king, who had attained the crown of Hun- 
 gary, having been slain in a battle with the Turks, a diet ot 
 Hungarian nobles was assembled and they also declared the 
 young Ladislaus to be their king. They consequently wrote 
 to the Emperor Frederic, Duke of Styria, who had assumed 
 the guardianship of the prince, requesting that he might be 
 sent to Hungary. Ladislaus Posthumous, so-called in conse- 
 quence of his birth after the death of his father, was then but 
 six years of age. | 
 
 The Austrian States were also in a condition of similar 
 confusion, rival aspirants grasping at power, feuds agitating 
 every province, and all moderate men anxious for that repose 
 which could only be found by uniting in the claims of Ladis- 
 laus for the crown. Thus Austria, Bohemia and Hungary, 
 so singularly and harmoniously united under Albert V., so 
 suddenly dissevered and scattered by the death of Albert, 
 were now, after years of turmoil, all reuniting under the child 
 Ladislaus. 
 
 Frederic, however, the faithful guardian of the young 
 prince, was devoting the utmost care to his education, and 
 refused to accede to the urgent and reiterated requests to 
 send the young monarch to his realms. When Ladislaus was 
 about ten years of age the Emperor Frederic visited the pope 
 at Rome, and took Ladislaus in his glittering suite. The pre- 
 cocious child here astonished the learned men of the court, 
 by delivering an oration in Latin before the consistory, and by 
 giving many other indications of originality and vigor of mind 
 far above his years. The pope became much attached to the 
 ycuthful sovereign of three such important realms, and ag 
 
68 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 frederic was about to visit Naples, Ladisiaus remained @ 
 guest in the imperial palace. 
 
 Deputies from the three nations repaired to Rome to urge | 
 the pope to restore to them their young sovereign. Failing 
 in this, they endeavored to induce Ladislaus to escape with 
 them. ‘This plan also was discovered and foiled. ‘The nobles 
 were much irritated by these disappointments, and they re- 
 solved to rescue him by force of arms. Ail over Hungary, 
 Bohemia and Austria there was a general rising of the no- 
 bles, nationalities being merged in the common cause, and all 
 hearts united and throbbing with a common desire. An army 
 of sixteen thousand men was raised. Frederic, alarmed by 
 these formidable preparations for war, surrendered Ladislaug 
 and he was conveyed in triumph to Vienna, A numerous as 
 semblage of the nobles of the three nations was convened, and 
 it was settled that the young king, during his minority, should 
 remain at Vienna, under the care of his maternal uncle, Count 
 Cilli, who, in the meantime, was to administer the govein- 
 ment of Austria. George Podiebrad was intrusted with the 
 regency of Bohemia; and John Hunniades was appointed re 
 gent of Hungary. 
 
 Ladislaus was now thirteen years of age. The most 
 learned men of the age were appointed as his teachers, and 
 he pursued his studies with great vigor. Count Cilli, how- 
 ever, an ambitious and able man, soon gained almost unlimited 
 control over the mind of his young ward, and became so arre= 
 gant and dictatorial, fillmg every important ofiice with his 
 own especial friends, and removing those who displeased him, 
 that general discontent was excited and conspiracy was formed 
 against him. Cilli was driven from Vienna with insults and 
 threats, and the conspirators placed the regency in the hands 
 of a select number of their adherents. 
 
 While affairs were in this condition, John Hunniades, as 
 regent, was administering the government of Hungary with 
 great vigor and sagacity. Ue was acquiring so much renown 
 
aLBERT, LADISLAUS AND FREDERIO. 60 
 
 that Count Cilli regarded him with a very jealous eye, and 
 excited the suspicions of the young king that Hunniades was 
 seeking for himself the sovereignty of Hungary. Cilli en. 
 deavored to lure Hunniades to Vienna, that he might seize hig 
 person, but the sagacious warrior was too wily to be thus 
 entrapped. 
 
 The Turks were now in the full tide of victory. They had 
 conquered Constantinople, fortified both sides of the Bospo. 
 rus and the Hellespont, overrun Greece and planted them 
 selves firmly and impregnably on the shores of Europe. Ma. 
 homet II. was sultan, succeeding his father Amurath. Hé 
 raised an army of two hundred thousand men, who were ali 
 inspired with that intense fanatic ferocity with which the 
 Moslem then regarded the Christian. Marching resistlessly 
 through Bulgaria and Servia, he contemplated the immediate 
 conquest of Hungary, the bulwark of Europe. He advanced 
 to the banks of the Danube and laid siege to Belgrade, a very 
 important and strongly fortified town at the point where the 
 Save enters the great central river of eastern Europe. 
 
 Such an army, flushed with victory and inspired with all 
 the energies of fanaticism, appalled the European powers, 
 Ladislaus was but a boy, studious and scholarly in his tastes, 
 having developed but little physical energy and no executive 
 vigor. He was very handsome, very refined in his tastes and 
 courteous in his address, and he cultivated with great care the 
 golden ringlets which clustered around his shoulders, At the 
 time of this rearful invasion Ladislaus was on a visit to Buda, 
 one of the capitals of Hungary, on the Danube, but about 
 three hundred miles above Belgrade. The young monarch, 
 with his favorite, Cilli, fled ingloriously to Vienna, leaving 
 Hunniades to breast as he could the Turkish hosts, But Hun- 
 niades was, fortunately, equal to the emergence. 
 
 A Franciscan monk, John Capistrun, endowed with the 
 eloquence of Peter the Hermit, traversed Germany, displaying 
 the cross and rousing Christians to defend Europe from the 
 
rt) THE EOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 infidels. He soon collected a motiey mass of forty thousand . 
 men, rustics, priests, students, soldiers, unarmed, undisciplined, 
 a rabble rout, who followed him to the rendezvous where Hun- 
 niades had succeeded in collecting a large force of the bold 
 barons and steel-clad warriors of Hungary. The experienced 
 chief gladly received this heterogeneous mass, and soon armed 
 them, brought them into the ranks and subjected them to 
 the severe diswipline of military drill, 
 
 At the head of this band, which was inspired with zeal 
 equal to that of the Turk, the brave Hunniades, in a fleet of 
 boats, descended the Danube. The river in front of Belgrade 
 was covered with the flotilla of the Turks. The wall in many 
 places was broken down, and at other points in the wail they 
 had obtained a foothold, and the crescent was proudly un- 
 furled to the breeze. The feeble garrison, worn out with toil 
 and perishing with famine, were in the last stages of despair. 
 Hunniades came down upon the Turkish flotilla like an inunda- 
 tion; both parties fought with almost unprecedented ferocity, 
 but the Christians drove every thing before them, sinking, dis- 
 persing, and capturing the boats, which were by uo means pre- 
 pared for so sudden and terrible an assault, ‘The immense rein- 
 forcement, with arms and provisions, thus entered the city, and 
 securing the navigation of the Danube and the Save, opened 
 the way for continued supplies. The immense hosts of the 
 Mohammedans now girdled the city in a semicircle on the 
 land side. Their tents, gorgeously embellished and surmounted 
 with the crescent, glittered in the rays of the sun as far as the 
 eye could extend. Squadrons of steel-clad horsemen swept 
 the field, while bands of the besiegers pressed the city with 
 out intermission, night and day. 
 
 Mohammed, irritated by this unexpected accession of 
 strength to the besieged, in his passion ordered an immediate 
 aud simultaneous attack upon the town by his whole forca 
 The battle was long and bloody, both parties struggling with 
 utter desperation. The Turks were repulsed. After one of 
 
ALBERT, LADISGLAUS AND FREDERIC. x 4 | 
 
 the longest continuous conflicts recorded in history, lasting ab 
 one night, and all the following day until the going down of 
 the sun, the Turks, leaving thirty thousand of their dead be. 
 geath the ramparts of the city, and taking with them the sub 
 tan desperately wounded, struck their tents in the darkness of 
 the night and retreated. 
 
 Great was the exultation in Hungary, in Germany and all 
 over Europe. But this joy was speedily clouded by the intek 
 ligence that Hunniades, the deliverer of Europe from Mosiem 
 invasion, exhausted with toil, had been seized by a fever and 
 had died. It is said that the young King Ladisiaus rejoiced 
 in his death, for he was greatly annoyed in having a subject 
 attain such a degree of splendor as to cast his own name into 
 insignificance. Hunniades left two sons, Ladislaus and Mat 
 thias. The king and Cilli manifested the meanest jealousy in 
 reference to these young men, and fearful that the renown of 
 their father, which had inspired pride and gratitude in every 
 Hungarian heart, might give them power, they did every thing 
 they could to humiliate and depress them. The king lured 
 them both to Buda, where he perfidiously beheaded the eldest, 
 Ladislaus, for wounding Cilli, in defending himeelf from an 
 attack which the implacable count had made upon him, and he 
 also threw the younger son, Matthias, into a prison. 
 
 The widow of Hunniades, the heroic mother of these chil 
 dren, with a spirit worthy of the wife of her renowned hus. 
 band, called the nobles to her aid. They rallied in great 
 numbers, roused to indignation. The inglorious king, terrified 
 by the storm he had raised, released Matthias, and fled from 
 Buda to Vienna, pursued by the execrations and menaces of 
 the Hungarians. 
 
 He soon after repaired to Prague, in Bohemia, to solemimze 
 his marriage with Magdalen, daughter of Charles VIL, King 
 of France. He had just reached the city, and was making 
 preparations for his marriage in unusual splendor, when he was 
 attacked by a malignant disease, supposed to be the plague 
 
 wv) 
 
72 THB HOUSE OF AUSTEIa. 
 
 and died after a sickness of but thirty-six hours. The unhappy 
 king, who, through the stormy scenes of his short life, had 
 @eveloped no grandeur of soul, was oppressed with the awful- 
 ness of passing to the final judgment. In the ordinances of 
 the Church he sought to find solace for a sinful and a troubled 
 spirit. Having received the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, 
 with dying lips he commenced repeating the Lord’s prayer. 
 He had just uttered the words “ deliver us from evil,” whea 
 his spirit took its flight to the judgment seat of Christ. 
 
 Frederic, the emperor, Duke of Styria, was now the oldest 
 lineal descendant of Rhodolph of Hapsburg, founder of the 
 house of Austria. The imperial dignity had now degener- 
 ated into almost an empty title. The Germanic empire con- 
 sisted of a few large sovereignties and a conglomeration of 
 petty dukedoms, principalities, and States of various names, 
 very loosely held together, in their heterogeneous and inde 
 pendent rulers and governments, by one nominal sovereign 
 upon whom the jealous States were willing to confer but little 
 real power. A writer at that time, Aneas Sylvius, addressing 
 the Germans, says: 
 
 “ Although you acknowledge the emperor for your king 
 and master, he possesses but a precarious sovereignty ; he has 
 no power ; you only obey him when you choose ; and you are 
 seldom inclined to obey. You are all desirous to be free; 
 neither the princes nor the States render to him what is due, 
 He has no revenue, no treasure. Hence you are involved in 
 endless contests and daily wars. Hence also rapine, murder, 
 conflagrations, and a thousand evils which arise from divided 
 authority.” © 
 
 Upon the death of Ladislaus there was a great rush and 
 grasping for the vacant thrones of Bohemia and Hungary, 
 and for possession of the rich dukedoms of Austria, After a 
 long conflict the Austrian estates were divided into three pore 
 tions. Frederic, the emperor, took Upper Austria; his brother 
 Albert, who had succeeded to the Swiss estates, took Lower 
 
ALBERT, LADISLAUS AND FEREDERIC. 
 
 Austria; Sigismond, Albert's nephew, a man of’ great energy 
 of character, took Carinthia, The three occupied the palace 
 in Vienna in joint residence. 
 
 The energetic regent, George Podiebrad, by adroit diplo- 
 macy succeeded, after an arduous contest, in obtaining the 
 election by the Bohemian nobles to the throne of Bohemia, 
 The very day he was chosen he was inaugurated at Prague, 
 and though rival candidates united with the pope to depose 
 him, he maintained his position against them all. 
 
 Frederic, the emperor, had been quite sanguine in the 
 hopes of obtaining the crown of Bohemia. Bitterly disap- 
 pointed there, he at first made a show of hostile resistance 3 
 but thinking better of the matter, he concluded to acquiesce 
 in the elevation of Podiebrad.*. eure amicable relations with 
 him, and to seek his aid m promotion of his efforts to obtain 
 the crown of Hungary. Here again the emperor failed, The 
 nobiles assembled in great strength at Buda, and elected unani- 
 mously Matthias, the only surviving son of the heroic Hun 
 niades, whose memory was embalmed in the hearts of all the 
 Hungarians. The boy then, for he was but a boy, and was 
 styled contemptuously by the disappointed Frederic the boy 
 king, entered into an alliance with Podiebrad for mutzal pro- 
 tection, and engaged the hand of his daughter in marriage 
 Thus was the great kingdom of Austria, but recently so pow- 
 erful in the union of all the Austrian States with Bohemia and 
 Hungary, again divided and disintegrated. The emperor, ia 
 his vexation, frolishly sent an army of five thousand men into 
 Hungary, insanely hoping to take the crown by forca of arms, 
 but he was soon compelled to relinquish the hopeless enter 
 prise. 
 
 And now Frederic and Albert began to quarrel at Vienna. 
 The emperor was arrogant and domineering. Aibert was 
 irritable and jealous. First came angry words; then the en- 
 listing of partisans, and then all the miseries of fierce and de 
 termined civil war. The capital was divided into bostile fac 
 
94 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 tions, and the whole country was ravaged by the sweep of 
 armies, The populace of Vienna, espousing the cause of Al 
 bert, rose in insurrection, pillaged the houses of the adherents 
 of Frederic, drove Frederic, with his wife and infant child, inte 
 the citadel, and invested the fortress. Albert placed himself 
 at the head of the insurgents and conducted the siege. The 
 emperor, though he had but two hundred men in the gar- 
 rison, held out valiantly. But famine would soon have com- 
 pelled him to capitulate, had not the King of Bohemia, with 
 a force of thirteen thousand men, marched to his aid. Podie- 
 brad relieved the emperor, and secured a verbal reconciliation 
 between the two angry brothers, which lasted until the Bo- 
 hemian forces had returned to their country, when the feud 
 burst out anew and with increased violence. The emperor 
 procured the ban of the empire against his brother, and the 
 pope excommunicated him. Still Albert fought fiercely, and 
 the strife raged without intermission until Albert suddenly 
 died on the 4th of December, 1468. 
 
 The Turks, who, during all these years, had been making 
 predatory excursions along the frontiers of Hungary, now, 
 in three strong bands of ten thousand each, overran Servia 
 and Bosnia, and spread their devastations even into the heart 
 of Illyria, as far as the metropolitan city of Laybach. The 
 ravages of fire and sword marked their progress, They burnt 
 every village, every solitary cottage, and the inhabitants were 
 indiscriminately slain. Frederic, the emperor, a man of but 
 little energy, was at his country residence at Lintz, apparently 
 more anxious, writes a contemporary, “to shield his plants 
 from frost, than to defend his domains against these bar- 
 barians.” 
 
 The bold barons of Carniola, however, rallied their vassals, 
 raised an army of twenty thousand men, and drove the Turks 
 back to the Bosphorus. But the invaders, during their unim- 
 peded march, had slain six thousand Christians, and they car- 
 ried back with them eight thousand captives. 
 
ALBERT, LADISLAUS AND FREDERIC., 78 
 
 Again, a few years after, the Turks, with a still larger 
 army, rushed through the defiles of the ILyrian mountains, 
 upon the plains of Carinthia. Their march was like the flow 
 of volcanic fire. They left behind them utter desolation, 
 smouldering hearth-stones and fields crimsoned with blood, 
 At length they retired of their own accord, dragging after 
 them twenty thousand captives. During a period of twenty- 
 geven years, under the imbecile reign of Frederic, the very 
 heart of Europe was twelve times scourged by the inroads of 
 these savages, No tongue can tell the woes which were in- 
 flicted upon humanity. Existence, to the masses of the peo- 
 pe, in that day, must indeed have been a curse. Ground to 
 the very lowest depths of poverty by the exactions of eccle- 
 siastics and nobles, in rags, starving, with ne social or intel- 
 lectual joys, they might indeed have envied the beasts of the 
 field. 
 
 The conduct of Frederic seems to be marked with increas- 
 ang treachery and perfidy. Jealous of the growing power 
 of George Podiebrad, he instigated Matthias, King of Hun- 
 gary, to make war upon Bohemia, promising Matthias the 
 Bohemian crown. Infamously the King of Hungary accepted 
 the bribe, and raising a powerful army, invaded Bohemia, to 
 wrest the crown from his father-in-law. His armies were 
 pressing on so victoriously, in conjunction with those of Fred- 
 eric, that the emperor was now alarmed lest Matthias, unit. 
 ing the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia, should become too 
 powerful. He therefore not only abandoned him, but stirred 
 up an insurrection among the Hungarian nobles, which come 
 pelled Matthias to abandon Bohemia and return home. 
 
 Matthias, having quelled the insurrection, was so enraged 
 with the emperor, that he declared war against him, and im- 
 mediately invaded Austria. The emperor was now so dis 
 trusted that he could not find a single ally. Anstria alone, 
 was no match for Hungary. Matthias overran all Lower Aus 
 tria, took all the fortresses upon the Danube, and invested 
 
76 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Vienna, The emperor fied in dismay to Lintz, and was obliged 
 to purchase an ignominious peace by an immense sum of 
 money, all of which was of course to be extorted by taxes on 
 the miserable and starving peasantry. 
 
 Poland, Bohemia and the Turks, now all pounced upon 
 Hungary, and Frederic, deeming this a providential indica- 
 tion that Hungary could not enforce the fulfillment of the 
 treaty, refused to pay the money. Matthias, greatly exasper- 
 ated, made the best terms he could with Poland, and again 
 led his armies in Austria. For four years the warfare raged 
 fiercely, when all Lower Austria, including the capital, was 
 in the hands of Matthias, and the emperor was driven from 
 his hereditary domains ; and, accompanied by a few followers, 
 he wandered a fugitive from city to city, from convent to com 
 vent, seeking aid from all, but finding none, 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EMPERORS FREDERIC II. AND MAXIMILIAN & 
 From 1477 To 1500 
 
 WanDERINGS OF THE Emperor FREDERIO.—PROPOSED ALLIANOE WITH THE DUERE OF 
 Bureunpy.—Mutvat Distrust.—MARRIAGE OF Mary.—Tuer AGE oF CHIVALRY. 
 Tue MOTIVE INDUCING THE LORD OF PRAUNSTKIN TO DECLARE WAR.—DEATH OF 
 Freperio I].—Tue Emprror’s Sktoret.—Drsians oF THE TuRKS.—D5ATH OF Ma- 
 HOMET II.—Finst ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDING ARMIESs.—UsE or GUNPOWDER.— 
 Enercy oF MAXIMILIAN.—FRENcH AGGRESSIONS.—THe LHAGUE TO EXPEL THE 
 FRENOH.—DISAPPOINTMENTS OF MAXIMILIAN.—BRIBING THE Popr.—INVASION OF 
 Itaty.—CaPtukE AND REOAPTURE.—THE CHEVALIER Der BaYAgD. 
 
 DVERSITY only developed more fully the weak and 
 ignoble character of Frederic. He wandered about, rec- 
 ognized Emperor of Germany, but a fugitive from his own 
 Austrian estates, occasionally encountering pity, but never 
 sympathy or respect. -Matthias professed his readiness to sur- 
 render Austria back to Frederic so soon as he would fulfill the 
 treaty by paying the stipulated money. Frederic was accom- 
 panied in his wanderings by his son Maximilian, a remarkably 
 elegant lad, fourteen years of age. They came to the court 
 of the powerful Duke of Burgundy. The dukedom extended 
 over wide realms, populous and opulent, and the duke had the 
 power of a sovereign but not the regal title. He was ambi- 
 tious of elevating his dukedom into a kingdom and of being 
 crowned king; and he agreed to give his only daughter and 
 heiress, Mary, a beautiful and accomplished girl, to the emper- 
 or’s son Maximilian, if Frederic would confer upon his estates 
 the regal dignity and crown him king. The bargain was 
 made, and Maximilian and Mary both were delighted, for they 
 regarded each other with all the warmth of young lovers. 
 Mary, heiress to the dukedom of Burgundy, was a prize which 
 
78 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 any monarch might covet; and half the princes of Europe 
 were striving for her hand. 
 
 But now came a new difficulty. Neither the emperor nov 
 duke had the slightest contidence in each other. The King ot 
 France, who had hoped to obtain the hand of Mary for his sen 
 the dauphin, caused the suspicion to be whispered into the ear 
 of Frederic that the Duke of Burgundy sought the kingly 
 crown only as the first step to the imperial crown; and that 
 go soon as the dukedom was elevated into a kingdom, Charles, 
 the Duke of Burgundy, would avail himself of his increased 
 power, to dethrone Frederic and grasp the crown of Germany. 
 This was probably all true. Charles, fully understanding the per- 
 fidious nature of Frederic, did not dare to solemnize the mare 
 riage until he first should be crowned. Frederic, on the other 
 hand, did not dare to crown the duke until the marriage wag 
 solemnized, for he had no confidence that the duke, after hav- 
 ing attained the regal dignity, would fulfill his pledge. 
 
 Charles was for hurrying the coronation, Frederic for push» 
 ing the marriage. A magnificent throne was erected in the 
 cathedral at Treves, and preparations were making on the 
 grandest scale for the coronation solemnities, when Frederis, 
 who did not like to tell the duke plumply to his face that he 
 was fearful of being cheated, extricated himself from his em- 
 barrassment by feigning important business which called him 
 suddenly to Cologne. A scene of petty and disgraceful in- 
 trigues ensued between the exasperated duke and emperer, 
 and there were the marching and the countermarching of hos 
 tile bands and the usual miseries of war, until the death of 
 Duke Charles at the battle of Nancy on the 5th of January, 
 1477. 
 
 The King of France now made a desperate endeavor to 
 obtain the hand of Mary for his son. One of the novel acts 
 of this imperial courtship, was to send an army into Burgundy, 
 which wrested a large portion of Mary’s dominions from her, — 
 which the king, Louis XI., refused to surrender unless Mary 
 
FREDERIC [1. AND MAXIMILIAN I, 79 
 
 would marry his son. Many of her nobles urged the claims 
 of France. But love in the heart of Mary was stronger than 
 political expediency, and more persuasive than the entreaties 
 of her nobles. To relieve herself from importunity, she was 
 hurriedly married, three months after the death of her father, 
 by proxy to Maximilian. 
 
 In August the young prince, but eighteen years of age, 
 with a splendid retinue, made his public entry into Ghent. 
 His commanding person and the elegance of his manners, at- 
 tracted universal admiration. His subjects rallied with enthu- 
 siasm around him, and, guided by his prowess, in a continued 
 warfare of five years, drove the invading French from their 
 territories. But death, the goal to which every one tends, 
 was suddenly and unexpectedly reached by Mary. She died 
 the 7th of August, 1479, leaving two infant children, Philip 
 and Margaret. 
 
 The Emperor Frederic also succeeded, by diplomatic cun- 
 ning, in convening the diet of electors and choosing Maximil- 
 jan as his successor to the imperial throne. Frederic and 
 Maximilian now united in the endeavor to recover Austria 
 from the King of Hungary. The German princes, however, 
 notwithstanding the summons of the emperor, refused to take 
 any part in the private quarrels of Austria, and thus the battle 
 would have to be fought between the troops of Maximilian 
 and of Matthias. Maximilian prudently decided that it would 
 be better to purchase the redemption of the territory with 
 money than with blood. The affair was in negotiation when 
 Matthias was taken sick and died the 15th of July, 1490. He 
 lefi, no heir, and the Hungarian nobles chose Ladislaus, Kirg 
 of Bohemia, to succeed him. Maximilian had been confident 
 of obtaining the crown of Hungary. Exasperated by the dis- 
 appointment, he relinquished all idea of purchasing his patri- 
 monial estates, but making a sudden rush with his troops upon 
 the Hungarians, he drove them out of Austria, and pursued 
 them far over the frontiers of Hungary. Ladislaus, the new 
 
80 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 King of Hungary, now listened to terms of peace. <A singu 
 lar treaty was made. The Bohemian king was to retain the 
 crown of Hungary, officiating as reigning monarch, while Maxi- 
 milian was to have the tit of King of Hungary. Ladislaus 
 relinquished ail claim to the Austrian territories, and paid a 
 large sum of money as indemnity for the war. 
 
 Thus Austria again comes into independent existence, to 
 watch amidst the tumult and strife of Europe for opportuni 
 ties to enlarge her territories and increase her power. Maxi- 
 inilian was a prince, energetic and brave, who would not allow 
 any opportunity to escape him. In those dark days of vio- 
 lence and of blood, every petty quarrel was settled by the 
 sword. Ail over Germany the clash of steel against steel was 
 ever resounding. Not only kings and dukes engaged in wars, 
 but the most insignificant baron would gather his few retam- 
 ers around him and declare formal war against the occupant 
 of the adjacent castle. The spirit of chivalry, so called, was 
 so rampant that private individuals would send a challenge 
 to the emperor. Contemporary writers record many curious 
 specimens of these declarations of war. The Lord of Praun- 
 stein declared war against the city of Frankfort, because a 
 young lady of that city refused to dance with his uncle at a 
 ball. 
 
 Frederic was now suffering from the infirmities of age, 
 Surrendering the administration of affairs, both in Austria and 
 over the estates of the empire, to Maximilian, he retired, with 
 his wife and three young daughters, to Lintz, whcre he de 
 voted himself, at the close of his long and turbulent reign, to 
 the peaceful pursuits of rural life. A cancerous affection of 
 the leg rendered it necessary for him to submit to the ampue 
 tation of the limb. He submitted to the painful operation 
 with the greatest fortitude, and taking up his severed limb, 
 with his accustomed phlegm remarked to those standing by, . 
 
 “What difference is there between an emperor and a peas 
 ant? Or rather, is not a sound peasant better than a sick em- 
 
FREDERIO If AND MAXIMILIAN f. 81 
 
 peror? Yet I hope to enjoy the greatest good which can nap- 
 pen to man—a happy exit from this transitory life.” 
 
 The shock of a second amputation, which from the vitiated 
 state of his blood seemed necessary, was too great for his en- 
 feebled frame to bear. He died August 19th, 1493, seventy- 
 eight years of age, and after a reign of fifty-three years. He 
 was what would be called, in these days, an ultra temper- 
 ance man, never drinking even wine, and expressing ever the 
 strongest abhorrence of alcoholic drinks, calling them the 
 parent of all vices. He seems to have anticipated the future 
 greatness of Austria; for he had imprinted upon all his books, 
 engraved upon his plate and carved into the walls of his pal: 
 ace a mysterious species of anagram composed of the five vow- 
 els, A, EK, I, O, U. 
 
 The significance of this great secret no one could obtain 
 from him. It of course excited great curosity, as it every- 
 where met the eye of the public. After his death the riddle 
 was solved by finding among his papers the following inter- 
 pretation— 
 
 Austri Est Imperare Orbi Universo. 
 
 Austria Is To govern The world Universal. 
 
 Maximilian, in the prime of manhood, energetic, ambitious, 
 and invested with the imperial dignity, now assumed the gov- 
 ernment of the Austrian States. The prospect of greatness 
 was brilliant before Maximilian. The crowns of Bohemia 
 and Hungary were united in the person of Ladislaus, who 
 was without. children. As Maximilian already enjoyed the 
 title of King of Hungary, no one enjoyed so good a chance 
 as he of securing both of those crowns so soon as they should 
 fall from the brow of Ladislaus. 
 
 Kurope was still trembling before the threatening cimeter 
 ef the Turk. Mahomet II., having annihilated the Greek em- 
 pire, and consolidated his vast power, and checked in his 
 earcer by the warlike barons of Hungary, now cast a lustful 
 eye across the Adriatic to the shores of Italy. He crossed the 
 
62 THE HOUSE OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 sea, landed a powerful army and established twenty thousand 
 men, strongly garrisoned, at Otranto, and supplied with pro 
 visions for a year. Ali Italy was in consternation, for a pas 
 sage was now open directly from Turkey to Naples and 
 Rome. Mahomet boasted that he would soon feed his horse 
 on the altar of St. Peter’s. The pope, Sextus IV., in dismay, 
 was about abandoning Rome, and as there was no hope of 
 uniting the discordant States of Italy in any effectual resist- 
 ance, it seemed inevitable that Italy, like Greece, would soon 
 become a Turkish province, And where then could it be 
 hoped that the ravages of the Turks would be arrested ? 
 
 In this crisis, so alarming, Providence interposed, and the 
 sudden death of Mahomet, in the vigor of his pride and am- 
 bition, averted the danger. SBajazet II. succeeded to the 
 Moslem throne, an indolent and imbecile sultan. Insurrec- 
 tion in his own dominions exhausted all his feeble energies, 
 The Neapolitans, encouraged, raised an army, recovered 
 Otranto, and drove the Turks out of Italy. Troubles in the 
 Turkish dominions now gave Christendom a short respite, as 
 all the strength of the sultan was required to subjugate insur- 
 gent Circassia-and Egypt. 
 
 Though the Emperor of Germany was esteemed the first 
 sovereign in Europe, and, on state occasions, was served by 
 kings and electors, he had in reality but little power. The 
 kings who formed his retinue -on occasions of ceremonial 
 pomp, were often vastly his superiors in wealth and power. 
 Frequently he possessed no territory of his own, not even ® 
 castle, but depended upon the uncertain aids reluctantly 
 granted by the diet. 
 
 Gunpowder was now coming into use as one of the most 
 efficient engines of destruction, and was working great changes 
 in the science of war. It became necessary to have troops 
 drilled to the use of cannon and muskets, The baron could 
 no longer summon his vassals, at the moment, to abandon the 
 plow, and seize pike and saber for battle, where the strong 
 
PREDERIC IIl. AND MAXIMILIAN f. 8 
 
 arm only was needed, Disciplined troops were needed, who 
 could sweep the field with well-aimed bullets, and crumble 
 walls with shot and shells, This led to the establishment of 
 standing armies, and gave the great powers an immense ad- 
 “vantage over their weaker neighbors. The invention of 
 printing, also, which began to be operative about the middle 
 of the fifteenth century, rapidly changed, by the diffusion of 
 intelligence, the state of society, hitherto so barbarous, The 
 learned men of Greece, driven from their country by the 
 Turkish invasion, were scattered over Europe, and contrib. 
 uted not a little to the extension of the love of letters, The 
 discovery of the mariner’s compass and improvements in 
 nautical astronomy, also opened new sources of knowledge 
 and of wealth, and the human mind all over Europe come 
 menced a new start in the career of civilization. Men of let 
 ters began to share in those honors which heretofore had 
 belonged exclusively to men of war; and the arts of peace 
 began to claim consideration with those who had been accus 
 tomed to respect only the science of destruction. 
 
 Maximilian was at Innspruck when he received intelli- 
 gence of the death of his father. He commenced his reign 
 with an act of rigor which was characteristic of his whole 
 career. A horde of Turks had penetrated Styria and Car- 
 niola, laying every thing waste before them as far as Carniola, 
 Maximilian, sounding the alarm, inspired his countrymen with 
 the same energy which animated his own breast. Fifteen 
 thousand men rallied at the blast of his bugles. Instead of 
 intrusting the command of them to his generals, he placed 
 himself at their head, and made so fierce an onset upon the 
 invaders, that they precipitately fled. Maximilian returned 
 at the head of his troops triumphant to Vienna, where he was 
 received with acclamations such as had seldom resounded in 
 the metropolis. He was hailed as the deliverer of his coun 
 try, and at, once rose to the highest position in the esteem and 
 affection of the Austrians. 
 
84 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Maximilian had encountered innumerable difficulties in 
 Burgundy, and was not unwilling to escape from the vexa: 
 tions and cares of that distant dukedom, by surrendering its 
 government to his son Philip, who was now sixteen years of 
 age, and whom the Burgundians claimed to be their ruler as 
 the heir of Mary. The Swiss estates were also sundered from 
 Austrian dominion, and, uniting with the Swiss confederacy, 
 were no longer subject to the house of Hapsburg. Thus 
 Maximilian had the Austrian estates upon the Danube only, 
 as the nucleus of the empire he was ambitious of establish- 
 ing. 
 
 Conscious of his power, and rejoicing in the imperial title, 
 he had no idea of playing an obscure part on the conspicuous 
 stage of European affairs. With an eagle eye he watched the 
 condition of the empire, and no less eagerly did he fix his eye 
 upon the movements of those great southern powers, now be- 
 ‘coming consolidated into kingdoms and empires, and mar- 
 shaling armies which threatened again to bring all Europe 
 under a dominion as wide and despotic as that of Rome. 
 
 Charles VIII., King of France, crossed the Alps with an 
 army of twenty-two thousand men, in the highest state of dis- 
 cipline, and armed with all the modern enginery of war. With 
 ease he subjugated Tuscany, and in a triumphant march 
 through Pisa and Siena, entered Rome as a conqueror. It 
 was the 31st of December, 1394, when Charles, by torchlight, 
 at the head of his exultant troops, entered the eternal city. 
 The pope threw himself into the castle of St. Angelo, but was 
 goon compelled to capitulate and to resign all his fortresses to 
 the conqueror. Charles then continued his march to Naples, 
 which he reached on the 22d of February. He overran and 
 subjugated the whole kingdom, and, having consolidated his 
 conquest, entered Naples on a white steed, beneath imperial 
 banners, and arrogantly assumed the title of King of Naples, 
 Sicily and Jerusalem Alphonso, King of Naples, in despair, 
 abdicated in favor vf his son, Ferdinand; and Ferdinand, 
 
PREDERIO 13. AWD MAXIMILIAN I. Po 
 
 amable to oppose any effectual resistance, abandoned his king 
 dom to the conqueror, and fled to the island of Ischia, 
 
 These alarming aggressions on the part of France, already 
 very powerful, excited general consternation throughout Ke 
 rope. Maximilian, as emperor, was highly incensed, and roused 
 all his energies to check the progress of so dangerous a rival, 
 The Austrian States alone could by no means cope with the 
 kingdom of France. Maximilian sent agents to the pope, to 
 the Dukes of Milan and Florence, and to the King of Arragon, 
 and formed a secret league to expel the French from Italy, 
 and restore Ferdinand to Naples, It was understood that the 
 strength of France was such, that this enterprise could only 
 be achieved through a long war, and that the allies must con 
 tinue united to prevent France, when once expelled from Italy, 
 from renewing her aggressions, The league was to continue 
 twenty-two years. The pope was to furnish six thousand men, 
 and the other Italian States twelve thousand. Mazimilian 
 promised to furnish nine thousand. Venice granted the troops 
 of the emperor a free passage through her dominions, 
 
 These important first steps being thus taken secretly and 
 securely, the emperor summoned a diet of Germany to enlist 
 the States of the empire in the enterprise. This was the most 
 difficult task, and yet nothing could be accomplished withows 
 the codperation of Germany. But the Germanic States, loosely 
 held together, jealous of each other, each grasping solely at ita 
 own aggrandizement, reluctantly delegating any power to the 
 emperor, were slow to promise coéperation in any general en- 
 terprise, and having promised, were still slower to perform. 
 The emperor had no power to enforce the fulfillment of agree. 
 ments, and could only supplicate. During the long reign of 
 Frederic the imperial dignity had lapsed more and more into 
 an empty title; and Maximilian had an arduous task befors 
 him in securing even respectful attention to hisdemands. He 
 was fully aware of the difficulties, and made arrangements a& 
 eordingly 
 
i) THB HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The memorable diet was summoned at Worms, on the 
 26th of May, 1496. The emperor had succeeded, by great 
 exertion, in assembling a more numerous concourse of the 
 princes and nobles of the empire than had ever met on a sime 
 ilar occasion. He presided in person, and in a long and ear- 
 nest address endeavored to rouse the empire to a sense of its 
 own dignity and its own high mission as the regulator of the 
 affairs of Europe. He spoke earnestly of their duty to com. 
 bine and chastise the insolence of the Turks; but waiving 
 that for the present moment, he unfolded to them the danger 
 to which Europe was immediately and imminently exposed by 
 the encroachments of France. To add to the force of his 
 words, he introduced ambassadors from the King of Naples, 
 who informed the assembly of the conquests of the French, 
 of their haughty bearing, and implored the aid of the diet to 
 repel the invaders. The Duke of Milan was then presented, 
 and, as a member of the empire, he implored as a favor and 
 claimed as aright, the armies of the empire for the salvation 
 of his duchy. And then the legate of the pope, in the robes 
 of the Church, and speaking in the name of the Holy Father 
 to his children, pathetically described the indignities to which 
 the pope had been exposed, driven from his palace, bombarded 
 in the fortress to which he had retreated, compelled to capitue 
 late and leave his kingdom in the hands of the enemy; he 
 expatiated upon the impiety of the French troops, the sacri- 
 legious horrors of which they had been guilty, and in tones of 
 eloquence hardly surpassed by Peter the Hermit, strove to 
 rouse them to a crusade for the rescue of the pope and his 
 sacred possessions, 
 
 Maximilian had now exhausted all his powers of persua- 
 gion. He had done apparently enough to rouse every heart 
 to intensest action. But the diet listened coldly to all these 
 &ppeals, and then im substance replied, 
 
 “ We admit the necessity of checking the incursions of the 
 forks ; we admit that it is important to check the progress of 
 
FREDERIC 13 AND MAXIMIEIA®W 1. 7 
 
 the French. But ou: first duty is to secure peace in Ger 
 many. The States of the empire are embroiled in incessant 
 wars With each other. All attempts to prevent these private 
 wars between the States of the empire have hitherto failed, 
 Before we can vote money and men for any foreig1 enterprise 
 whatever, we must secure internal tranquillity. This can only 
 be done by establishing a supreme tribunal, supported by a 
 power which can enforce its decisions.” 
 
 These views were so manifestly judicious, that Maximilian 
 assented to them, and, anxious to lose no time in raising troops 
 to expel the French from Italy, he set immediately about the 
 organization of an imperial tribunal to regulate the internal 
 affairs of the empire. A court was created called the Imperial 
 Chamber. It was composed of a president and sixteen judges, 
 half of whom were taken from the army, and half from the 
 classof scholars. To secure impartiality, the judges held their 
 office for life. A majority of suifrages decided a questior, 
 and in case of 2 tie, the president gave a casting vote. The 
 emperor reserved the right of deciding certain questions him- 
 self, ‘This court gradually became one of the most important 
 and salutary institutions of the German empire. 
 
 By the 7th of August these important measures were ar 
 ranged. Maximilian had made great concessions of his impe- 
 rial dignity in transferring so much of his nominal power to 
 the Imperial Chamber, and he was now sanguine that the 
 States would vote him the supplies which were needed to ex 
 pel the French from Italy, or, in more honest words, to win for 
 the empire in Italy that ascendency which France had at- 
 tained. But bitter indeed was his disappointment. After 
 long deliberation and vexatious delays, the diet voted a ridicue 
 lous sum, less than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to 
 raise an army “ sufficient to check the progress of the French.” 
 One third of this sum Maximilian was to raise from his Aus 
 trian States; the remaining two thirds he was permitted to 
 obtain by a loan. Four years were to be allowed for raising 
 
88 - THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 the money, and the emperor, as a condition for the reception 
 ef even this miserable boon, was required to pledge his word 
 ef honor that at the expiration of the four years he would 
 raise no more. And even these hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars were to be intrusted to seven treasurers, to be admine 
 istered according to their discretion. One only of these treas- 
 urers was to be chosen by the emperor, and the other six by 
 the diet. 
 
 Deeply chagrined by this result, Maximilian was able to 
 raise only three thousand men, instead of the nine thousand 
 which he had promised the league. Charles VIII., informed 
 of the formidable coalition combining against him, and not 
 aware of the feeble resources of the emperor, apprehensive 
 that the armies of Germany, marching down and uniting with 
 the roused States of Italy, might cut off his retreat and over- 
 whelm him, decided that the “better part of courage is dis 
 cretion ;” and he accordingly abandoned his conquests, re- 
 crossed the Apennines, fought his backward path through 
 Italy, and returned to France. He, however, left behind him 
 six thousand men strongly intrenched, to await his return 
 with a new and more powerful armament. 
 
 Maximilian now resolved chivalrously to throw himself into 
 Italy, and endeavor to rouse the Italians themselves to resist 
 the threatened invasion, trusting that the-diet of Germany, 
 when they should see him struggling against the hosts of 
 France, would send troops to his aid. With five hundred 
 horse, and about a thousand foot soldiers, he crossed the 
 Alps. Here he learned that for some unknown reason Charles 
 had postponed his expedition. Recoiling from the ridicule 
 attending a quixotic and useless adventure, he hunted around 
 for some time to find some heroic achievement which would 
 redeem his name from reproach, when, thwarted in every 
 thing, he returned to Austria, chagrined and humiliated. 
 
 Thus frustrated in all his attempts to gain ascendency in 
 Italy, Maximilian turned his eyes to the Swiss estates of the 
 
FREDERIC If. AND MAXIMILIAN 1. 89 
 
 house of Hapsburg, now sundered from the Austrian terri- 
 tories. He made a vigorous effort, first by diplomacy, then 
 by force of arms, to regain them, Here again he was frus- 
 trated, and was compelled to enter into a capitulation by 
 which he acknowledged the independence of the Helvetic 
 States, and their permanent severance from Austrian juris- 
 diction. 
 
 In April, 1498, Charles VIII. died, and Louis XII. suc- 
 ceeded him on the throne of France. Louis immediately 
 made preparations for a new invasion of Italy. In those 
 miserable days of violence and blood, almost any prince was 
 ready to embark in war under anybody’s banner, where there 
 was the least prospect of personal aggrandizement. The 
 question of right or wrong, seemed seldom to enter any one’s 
 mind. Louis fixed his eyes upon the duchy of Milan as the 
 richest and most available prize within his grasp. Conscious 
 that he would meet with much opposition, he looked around 
 for allies. 
 
 “Tf you will aid me,” he said to Pope Alexander VL, “1 
 will assist you in your war against the Duke of Romagna. I 
 will give your son, Cesar Borgia,* a pension of two thousand 
 dollars a year, will confer upon him an important command 
 in my army, and will procure for him a marriage with a prin- 
 cess of the royal house of Navarre.” 
 
 The holy father could not resist this bribe, and eagerly 
 joined the robber king in his foray. To Venice Louis said— 
 
 ‘Tf you will unite with me, I will assist you in annexing 
 to your avumains the city of Cremona, and the Ghiaradadda.” 
 Lured by such hopes of plunder, Venice was as eager as the 
 pope to take a share in the piratic expedition. Louis then 
 sent to the court of Turin, and offered them large sums of 
 money and increased territory, if they would allow him a free 
 
 * Cesar Borgia, who has filled the world with the renown of his infamy, 
 
 was the illegitimate son of Alexander VI., and of a Roman lady named 
 Vanorsa. 
 
my THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 gassage across the Alps. ‘Turin bowed obsequiously, and 
 
 grasped at the easy bargain. To Florence he said, “ If you 
 raise a hand to assist the Duke of Milan, I will crush you. If 
 you remain quiet, I will leave you unharmed.” Florence, 
 overawed, remained as meek as a lamb. The diplomacy being 
 thus successfully closed, an army of twenty-two thousand men 
 was put in vigorous motion in July, 1499. ‘They crossed the 
 Alps, fought a few battles, in which, with overpowering num- 
 bers, they easily conquered their opposers, and in twenty days 
 were in possession of Milan. The Duke Ludovico with difft- 
 culty escaped. With a few followers he threaded the defiles 
 of the Tyrolese mountains, and hastened to Innspruck, the 
 capital of Tyrol, where Maximilian then was, to whom he con- 
 veyed the first tidings of his disaster. Louis XII. followed 
 after his triumphant army, and on the 6th of October made a 
 triumphal entry into the captured city, and was inaugurated 
 Duke of Milan. 
 
 Maximilian promised assistance, but could raise neither 
 money nor men. Ludovico, however, succeeded in hiring #% 
 teen hundred Burgundian horsemen, and eight thousand Swiss 
 mercenaries—for in those ages of ignorance and crime all, mea 
 were ready, for pay, to fight in any cause—and emerging 
 from the mountains upon the plains of Milan, found all bis 
 former subjects disgusted with the French, and eager to rally 
 under his banners, His army increased at every step. He 
 fell fiercely upon the invaders, routed them everywhere, drove 
 them from the duchy, and recovered his country and his 
 capital as rapidly as he had lost them. One fortress only the 
 French maintamed. The intrepid Chevalier De Bayard, the 
 knight without fear and without reproach, threw himself into 
 the citadel of Novarra, and held out against all the efforts of 
 
 Ludovico, awaiting the succor which he was sure would come 
 
 from his powerful sovereign the King of France. 
 
OH-ARTE Ravi. 
 MAXIMILIAN I. 
 From J500 to 1519. 
 
 Saez Treacuery or tur Swiss SoLDIERS.—-PERFIDY oF FERDINAND CF ARRAGOR.<=« 
 APPEALS BY SUPERSTITION.—COALITION WITH SPpatmn.—THE Lracue or CAMBRAY,@= 
 INFAMY oF THE Popr.—TuHE Kine’s APOLOGY.—FAILURE OF THE PLoT.—GERMANE 
 AROUSED.—CONFIDENCE OF MAXIMILIAN.—LONGINGS FOR THE PONTIFIOAL CHAIR. 
 MAXIMILIAN BRIBED.—L:rO X.—DAWNING PROSPERITY.—MATRIMONIAL PROJEOTS.~= 
 CoMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR OF REFORMATION.—SIOKNESS OF MAXIMILIAN.—HIQ 
 Last Dirrotions.—His DratH.—THE STANDAED BY WHIOH HI8 CHARACTER I8 T@ 
 BE JUDGED. 
 
 OUIS XII. stung by the disgrace of his speedy expulsion 
 from Milan, immediately raised another army of five thou- 
 sand horse and fifteen thousand foot to recover his lost plun- 
 der. He also sent to Switzerland to hire troops, and without 
 difficulty engaged ten thousand men to meet, on the plains of 
 Milan, the six thousand of their brethren whom Ludovico had 
 hired, to hew each other to pieces for the miserable pittance 
 of a few pennies a day. But Louis XII. was as great in diplo- 
 macy asin war. He sent secret emissaries to the Swiss in the 
 camp of Ludovico, offering them larger wages if they would 
 abandon the service of Ludovico and return home. They 
 promptly closed the bargain, unfurled the banner of mutiny, 
 and informed the Duke of Milan that they could not, in con- 
 science, fight against their own brethren. The duke was in 
 despair. He plead even with tears that they would not aban- 
 don him. All was in vain. They not only commenced their 
 march home, but basely betrayed the duke to the French. 
 He was taken prisoner by Louis, carried to France and for five 
 years was kept in rigoro1s confinement in the strong fortresses 
 
e THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 of the cingdom. Afterward, through the intercession of Max} 
 milian, he was allowed a little more freedom. He waa, how. 
 ever, kept in captivity until he died in the year 1510. Lude 
 vico merits no commiseration, He was as perfidious and wu. 
 principled as any of his assailants could be. 
 
 The reconquest of Milan by Louis, and the capture of Le. 
 dovico, aiarmed Maximilian and roused him to new efforta, 
 He again summoned the States of the empirs and implored 
 their codperation to resist the aggressions of France. But 
 he was as unsuccessful as in his previous endeavors, Louis 
 watched anxiously the movements of the German diet, and 
 finding that he had nothing to fear from the troops of the em 
 pire, having secured the investiture of Milan, prepared for the 
 envasion of Naples, The venal pope was easily bought over. 
 Even Ferdinand, the King of Arragon, was induced to loan his 
 connivance to a plan for robbing 4 near relative of his crown, 
 by the promise of sharing in the spoil. A treaty of partitioa 
 was entered into by the two robber kings, by which Ferdinand 
 of Arragon was to receive Calabria and Apulia, and the King 
 of France the remaining States of the Neapolitan kingdom, 
 The pope wag confidentially informed of this secret plot, which 
 was arranged at Grenada, and promised the plunderers his 
 benediction, in consideration of the abundant reward promised 
 to him. 
 
 The doom of the King of Naples was now sealed. All um 
 gonscious that his own relative, Ferdinand of Arragon, wee 
 conspiring against him, he appealed to Ferdinand for aid against 
 the King of France, The perfidious king considered this ag 
 quite a providential interposition in his favor. He affectad 
 great zeal for the King of Naples, sent a powerful army inte 
 his kingdom, and stationed his troops in the important for 
 tresses, The infamous fraud was now accomplished. Frederis 
 of Naples, to his dismay, found that he had been placing his 
 empire in the hands of his enemies instead of friends; at the 
 same time the troops of Louis arrived at Rome, where they 
 
MAXIMILIAN 1. 93 
 
 were cordially received ; and the pope immediately, on the 
 25th of June, 1501, issued a bull deposing Frederic from his 
 kingdom, and, by virtue of that spiritual authority which 
 he derived from the Apostle Peter, invested Louis and Fer: 
 dinand with the dominions of Frederic. Few men are more 
 to be commiserated than a crownless king. Frederic, in his 
 despair, threw himself upon the clemency of Louis. He was 
 taken to France and was there fed and clothed by the royal 
 bounty. 
 
 Maximilian impatiently watched the events from his home 
 in Austria, and burned with the desire to take a more active 
 part in these stirring scenes. Despairing, however, to rouse 
 the German States to any effectual intervention in the affairs 
 of southern Europe, he now endeavored to rouse the en 
 thusiasm of the German nobles against the Turks, In this, 
 by appealing to superstition, he was somewhat successful 
 He addressed the following circular letter to the German 
 States; 
 
 ** A stone, weighing two hundred pounds, recently fell from 
 heaven, near the army under my command in Upper Alsace, 
 and I caused it, as a fatal warning from God to men, to be 
 hung up in the neighboring church of Encisheim. In vain I 
 myself explained to all Christian kings the signification of this 
 mysterious stone. The Almighty punished the neglect of this 
 warning with a dreadful scourge, from which thousands have 
 suffered death, or pains worse than death. But since this 
 punishment of the abominable sins of men has produced no 
 effect, God has imprinted in a miraculous manner the sign of 
 the cross, and the instruments of our Lord’s passion in dark 
 and bloody colors, on the bodies and garments of thousands, 
 The appearance of these signs in Germany, in particular, does 
 not indeed denote that the Germans have been peculiarly dis- 
 tinguished in guilt, but rather that they should set the exam 
 ple to the rest of the world, by being the first to undertake a 
 crusade against the infidels,” 
 
94 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 For a time Maximilian seemed quite encouraged, for quite 
 wave of religious enthusiasm seemed to roll over Europe. 
 All the energies of the pope were apparently enlisted, and he 
 raised, through all the domains of the Church, large sums ot 
 money for the holy enterprise of driving the invading infidels . 
 out of Europe. England and France both proffered their co- 
 operation, and England, opening her inexhaustible purse, pre- 
 gented a subsidy of ten thousand pounds, The German nobles 
 rallied in large numbers under the banner of the cross. But 
 disappointment seemed to be the doom of the emperor. The 
 King of France sent no aid. The pope, iniquitously squan- 
 dered all the money he had raised upon his infamous, dissolute 
 son, Cesar Borgia. And the emperor himself was drawn into 
 a war with Bavaria, to settle the right of succession between 
 two rival claimants. The settlement of the question devolved 
 upon Maximilian as emperor, and his dignity was involved in 
 securing respect for his decision. Thus the whole gorgeous 
 plan of a war against the Turks, such as Europe had never 
 beheld, vanished into thin air, and Maximilian was found at the 
 head of fourteen thousand infantry, and twelve thousand horse, 
 engaged in a quarrel in the heart of Germany. In this war 
 Maximilian was successful, and he rewarded himself by annex. 
 ing to Austria several small provinces, the sum total of which 
 quite enlarged his small domains, 
 
 By this time the kings of France and Spain were fiercely 
 fighting over their conquest of Naples and Sicily, each striv- 
 ing to grasp the lion’s share. Maximilian thought his interests 
 would be promoted by aiding the Spaniards, and he accord- 
 imgly sent three thousand men to Trieste, where they em- 
 barked, and sailing down the Adriatic, united with the Span 
 ish troops. ‘The French were driven out of Italy. There then 
 ensued, for several years, wars and intrigues in which France, 
 Spain, Italy and Austria were involved ; all alike selfish and 
 grasping. Armies were ever moving to and fro, and the 
 people of Europe, by the victories of kings and nobles, were 
 
MAXIMILIAN I. 98 
 
 kept in a condition of misery. No one seemed ever to think 
 of their rights or their happiness, 
 
 Various circumstances. had exasperated Maximilian very 
 much against the Venetians, All the powers of Europe were 
 then ready to combine against any other power whatever, if 
 there was a chance of obtaining any share in the division of 
 the plunder. Maximilian found no difficulty in secretly form. 
 ing one of the most formidable leagues history had then re- 
 corded, the celebrated league of Cambray. No sympathy need 
 he wasted upon the Venetians, the victims of this coalition, for 
 they had rendered themselves universally detestable by their 
 arrogance, rapacity, perfidy and pride. France joined the 
 coalition, and, in view of her power, was to receive a lion’s 
 share of the prey—the provinces of Brescia, Bergamo, Cre- 
 mona, and the Ghiradadda. The King of Arragon was to 
 send ships and troops, and receive his pay in the maritime 
 towns on the shores of the Adriatic. The pope, Julius IL, the 
 most grasping, perfidious and selfish of them all, demanded 
 Ravenna, Cervia, Faenza, Rimini, Immola and Cesena. His 
 exorbitant claims were assented to, as it was infinitely impor. 
 tant that the piratic expedition should be sanctioned by the 
 olessing of the Church. Maximilian was to receive, in addition 
 to some territories whick Venice had wrested from him, Ro- 
 veredo, Verona, Padua, Vicenza, Trevigi, and the Friuli. As 
 Maximilian was bound by a truce with Venice, and as in those 
 days of chivalry some little regard was to be paid to one’s 
 word of honor, Maximilian was only to march at the summons 
 of the pope, which no true son of the Church, under any cir 
 eumstances, was at liberty to disobey. Sundry other minor 
 dukes and princes were engaged in the plot, who were also to 
 eeceive a proportionate share of the spoil. 
 
 _ After these arrangements were all completed, the holy 
 father, with characteristic infamy, made private overtures to 
 the Venetians, revealing to them the whole plot, and offering 
 to withdraw from the confederacy and thwart all its plana, #f 
 
 K 
 
96 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 Venice would pay more as the reward of perfidy than Rome 
 could hope to acquire by force of arms. The haughty republio 
 rejected the infamous proposal, and prepared for a desperate 
 defense. 
 
 All the powers of the confederacy were now collecting 
 their troops. But Maximilian was dependent upon the Ger- 
 man diet for his ability to fulfill his part of the contract. He 
 assembled the diet at Worms on the 21st of April, 1509, pre- 
 sented to them the plan of the league, and solicited their sup 
 wrt. The diet refused to codperate, and hardly affecting even 
 the forms of respect, couched its refusal in terms of stinging 
 rebuke. 
 
 “We are tired,” they said, “of these innumerable calls 
 for troops and money. We can not support the burden of 
 these frequent diets, involving the expense of long journeys, 
 and we are weary of expeditions and wars. If the emperor 
 enters into treaties with France and the pope without consult- 
 ing us, it is his concern and not ours, and we are not bound 
 to aid him to fulfill his agreement. And even if we were to 
 vote the succors which are now asked of us, we should only 
 be involved in embarrassment and disgrace, as we have been 
 by the previous enterprises of the emperor.” 
 
 Such, in brief, was the response of the diet. It drew from 
 the emperor a long defense of his conduct, which he called an 
 “ Apology,” and which is considered one of the most curious 
 and characteristic documents of those days. He made no at- 
 tempt to conceal his vexation, but assailed them in strong lan- 
 guage of reproach. 
 
 “TI have concluded a treaty with my allies,” he wrote, 
 *m conformity to the dictates of conscience and duty, and 
 for the honor, glory and happiness of the empire and of Chris- 
 tendom. The negotiation could not be postponed, and if I 
 had convoked a diet to demand the advice of the States, the 
 treaty would never have been concluded. I was under the ne- 
 cessity of cono2aling the project of the combined powers, that 
 
MAXIMILIAN I. 97 
 
 we might fall on the Venetians at once and unexpectedly, 
 which could not have been effected in the midst of public de 
 liberations and endless discussions; and I have, I trust, clearly 
 proved, both in my public and my private communications, the 
 advantage which is likely to result from this union. If the 
 aids hitherto granted by diets have produced nothing but dis- 
 grace and dishonor, lam not to blame, but the States who 
 acted so scandalously in granting their succors with so much 
 reluctance and delay. As for myself, I have, on the contrary, 
 exposed my treasure, my countries, my subjects and my life, 
 while the generality of the German States have remained in 
 dishonorable tranquillity at home. I have more reason te 
 complain of you than you of me; for you have constantly re 
 fused me your approbation and assistance ; and even when you 
 have granted succors, you have rendered them fruitless by the 
 scantiness and tardiness of your supplies, and compelled me to 
 dissipate my own revenues, and injure my own subjects.” 
 
 Of course these bitter recriminations accomplished nothing 
 in changing the action of the diet, and Maximilian was thrown 
 upon the Austrian States alone for supplies. Louis of France, 
 at the head of seventeen thousand troops, crossed the Alps. 
 The pope fulminated a bull of excommunication against the 
 Venetians, and sent an army of ten thousand men. The Duke 
 of Ferrara and the Marquis of Mantua sent their contingents, 
 Maximilian, by great exertions, sent a few battalions through 
 the mountains of the Tyrol, and was preparing to follow witb 
 stronger forces. Province after province fell before the resist 
 less invaders, and Venice would have fallen irretrievably had 
 not the conquerors began to quarrel among themselves, The 
 pope, in secret treaty, was endeavoring to secure his private 
 inte.ests, regardless of the interests of the allies. Louis, from 
 some pique, withdrew his forces, and abandoned Maximilian ia 
 the hour of peril, and the emperor, shackled by want of money, 
 and having but a feeble force, was quite unable to make prog+ 
 yess alone against the Venetian troops. 
 
$8 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA,. 
 
 It does not seem to be the will of Providence that the plots 
 of unprincipled men, even against men as bad as themselves, 
 should be more than transiently prosperous. Maximilian, thus 
 again utterly thwarted in one of his most magnificent plans, 
 covered with disgrace, and irritated almost beyond endurance, 
 after attempting in vain to negotiate a truce with the Vene 
 tians, was compelled to retreat across the Alps, inveighing 
 bitterly against the perfidious refusal to fulfill a perfidious 
 agreement. 
 
 The holy father, Julius II., outwitted all his accomplices, 
 He secured from Venice very valuable accessions of territory, 
 and then, recalling his ecclesiastical denunciations, united with 
 Venice to drive the barbarians, as he affectionately called his 
 French and German allies, out of Italy. Maximilian returned 
 to Austria as in a funeral march, ventured to summon another 
 diet, told them how shamefully he had been treated by France, 
 Venice and the pope, and again implored them to do some- 
 thing to help him.. Perseverance is surely the most efficient 
 of virtues. Incredible as it may seem, the emperor now ob- 
 tained some little success, The diet, indignant at the conduct 
 of the pope, and alarmed at so formidable a union as that be- 
 tween the papal States and Venice, veted a succor of six thou- 
 sand infantry and eighteen hundred horse. This encouraged 
 the emperor, and forgetting his quarrel with Louis XII. of 
 France, in the stronger passion of personal aggrandizement 
 which influenced him, he entered into another alliance with 
 Louis against the pope and Venice, and then made a still 
 stronger and a religious appeal to Germany for aid. A certain 
 class of politicians in all countries and in all ages, have occa- 
 sionally expressed great solicitude for the reputation of religion, 
 
 “‘'The power and government of the pope,” the emperor 
 proclaimed, “ which ought to be an example to the faithful, 
 present, on the contrary, nothing but trouble and disorder, 
 The enormous sums daily extorted from Germany, are pere 
 verted to the purposes of luxury or worldly views, instead of 
 
MAXIMILIAN 1. Oe 
 
 being employed for the service of God, or against the infidels. 
 As Emperor of Germany, as advocate and protector of the 
 Christian Church, it is my duty to examine into such irregu- 
 larities, and exert all my efforts for the glory of God and the 
 advantage of the empire ; and as there is an evident necessity 
 to reéstablish due order and decency, both in the ecclesiasti- 
 cal and temporal state, I have resolved to call a general coun- 
 cil, without which nothing permanent can be effected.” 
 
 It is said that Maximilian was row so confident of snecess, 
 that he had decided to divide Italy between himself and 
 France. He was to take Venice and the States of the Church, 
 end France was to have the rest. Pope Julius was to be de 
 posed, and to be succeeded by Pope Maximilian. The fol- 
 lowing letter from Maximilian to his daughter, reveals his 
 ambitious views at the time. It is dated the 18th of Sep- 
 tember, 1511. — 
 
 ‘“'To-morrow I shall send the Bishop of Guzk to the pope at 
 Rome, to conclude an agreement with him that I may be ap- 
 pointed his coadjutor, and on his death succeed to the papacy, 
 and become a priest, and afterwards a saint, that you may be 
 bound to worship me, of which I shall be very proud. I have 
 Written on this subject to the King of Arragon, intreating 
 him to favor my undertaking, and he has promised me his 
 assistance, provided I resign my imperial crown to my grand- 
 son Charles, which I am very ready to do. The people and 
 nobles of Rome have offered to support me against the 
 French and Spanish party. They can muster twenty thou- 
 sand combatants, and have sent me word that they are in- 
 - clined to favor my scheme of being pope, and will not consent 
 to have either 2 Frenchman, a Spaniard or a Venetian. 
 
 “TJ have already began to sound the cardinals, and, for 
 that purpose, two or three hundred thousand ducats would be 
 of great service to me, as their partiality to me is very great, 
 The King of Arragon has ordered his ambassadors to assure 
 me that he will command the Spanish cardinals to favor my 
 
100 THE HOUSSZ OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 pretensions to the papacy. I intreat you to keep this matter 
 secret for the present, though I am afraid it will soon be 
 known, for it is impossible to carry on a business secretly for 
 which it is necessary to gain over so many persons, and to 
 have so much money. Adieu. Written with the hand of 
 your dear father Maximilian, future pope. The pope’s fever 
 has increased, and he can not live long.” 
 
 It is painful to follow out the windings of intrigue and the 
 labyrinths of guile, where selfishness seemed to actuate every 
 heart, and where all alike seem destitute of any principle of 
 Christian integrity. Bad as the world is now, and selfish as 
 political aspirants are now, humanity has made immense prog- 
 ress since that dark age of superstition, fraud and violence. 
 After many victories and many defeats, after innumerable 
 fluctuations of guile, Maximilian accepted a bribe, and with- 
 drew his forces, and the King of France was summoned home 
 by the invasion of his own territories by the King of Arragon 
 and Henry VIII. of England, who, for a suitable considerae 
 tion, had been induced to join Venice and the pope. At the 
 end of this long campaign of diplomacy, perfidy and blood, 
 in which misery had rioted through ten thousand cottages, 
 whose inhabitants the warriors regarded no more than the 
 occupants of the ant-hills they trampled beneath their feet, 
 it was found that no one had gained any thing but toil and 
 disappointment. 
 
 On the 21st of February, 1513, Pope Julius II. died, and 
 the cardinals, rejecting all the overtures of the emperor, 
 elected John of Medici pope, who assumed the name of Leo 
 X. The new pontiff was but thirty-six years of age, a man 
 ot brilliant talents, and devoted to the pursuit of letters. In- 
 spired by boundless ambition, he wished to signalize his reign 
 by the magnificence of his court and the grandeur of his 
 achievements. 
 
 Thus far nothing but disaster seemed to attend the enter. 
 prises of Maximilian; but now the tide suddenly turned and 
 
 a ————s 
 
MAXIMILIANI. 101 
 
 rolled in upon him billows of prosperity. It will be remem. 
 bered that Maximilian married, for his first wife, Mary, the 
 daughter of the Duke of Burgundy. Their son Philip mar- 
 ried Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, whose mar- | 
 riage, uniting the kingdoms of Castile and Arragon, created 
 the splendid kingdom of Spain. Philip died young, leaving a 
 son, Charles, and Joanna, an insane wife, to watch his grave 
 through weary years of woe. Upon the death of Ferdinand, 
 in January, 1516, Charles, the grandson of Maximilian, became 
 undisputed heir to the whole monarchy of Spain; then, per- 
 haps, the grandest power in Europe, including Naples, Sicily 
 and Navarre. This magnificent inheritance, coming so di- 
 rectly into the family, and into the line of succession, invested 
 Maximilian and the house of Austria with new dignity. 
 
 It was now an object of intense solicitude with Maximilian, 
 to secure the reversion of the crowns of Hungary and Bo- 
 hemia, which were both upon the brow of Ladislaus, to his 
 own family. With this object in view, and to render assur- 
 ance doubly sure, he succeeded in negotiating a marriage 
 between two children of Ladislaus, a son and a daughter, and 
 two of his own grand-children. This was a far pleasanter 
 mode of acquiring territory and family aggrandizement than 
 by the sword. In celebration of the betrothals, Ladislaus and 
 his brother Sigismond, King of Poland, visited Vienna, where 
 Ladislaus was so delighted with the magnificent hospitality 
 of his reception, that he even urged upon the emperor, who 
 was then a widower, fifty-eight years of age, that he should 
 marry another of his daughters, though she had but attaimed 
 her thirteenth year. The emperor declined the honor, jocu 
 larly remarking— 
 
 “There is no method more pleasant to kill an old man, 
 than to marry him to a young bride.” 
 
 The German empire was then divided into ten districts, ot 
 circles, as they were then called, each of which was responsi- 
 ble for the maintenance of peace among its own members. 
 
102 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 These: districts were, Austria, Burgundy, the Upper Rhme, 
 the Lower Rhine, Franconia, Bavaria, Suabia, Westphalia, 
 Upper Saxony and Lower Saxony. The affairs of each dis- 
 trict were to be regulated by a court of a few nobles, called a 
 diet. The emperor devoted especial attention to the im. 
 provement of his own estate of Austria, which he subdivided 
 into two districts, and these into still smaller districts. Over 
 all, for the settlement of all important points of dispute, he es- 
 tablished a tribunal called the Aulic Council, which subsequent 
 ly exerted a powerful influence over the affairs of Austria. 
 
 One more final effort Maximilian made to rouse Germany 
 to combine to drive the Turks out of Europe. Though the 
 benighted masses looked up with much reverence to the pon- 
 tiff, the princes and the nobles regarded him only as a power, 
 wielding, in addition to the military arm, the potent energies 
 of superstition. A diet was convened. The pope’s legate 
 appeared, and sustained the eloquent appeal of the emperor 
 with the paternal commands of the holy father. But the press 
 was now becoming a power in Europe, diffusing intelligence 
 and giving freedom to thought and expression. The diet, 
 after listening patiently to the arguments of the emperor and 
 the requests of the pontiff, dryly replied— 
 
 “We think that Christianity has more to fear from the 
 pope than from the Turks, Much as we may dread the rav- 
 ages of the infidel, they can hardly drain Christendom more 
 effectually than it is now drained by the exactions of the 
 Church.” - 
 
 It was at Augsburg in July, 1518, that the diet ventured 
 thus boldly to speak. This was one year after Luther had 
 nailed upon the church door in Wittemberg, his ninety-five: 
 propositions, which had roused all Germany to scrutinize the 
 abominable corruptions of the papal church. This bold lane 
 guage of the diet, infiuenced by the still bolder language of 
 the intrepid monk, alarmed Leo X., and on the 7th of Augusé) 
 he issued his summons commanding Lather to repair to Rome 
 
MAXIMILIAN I, 103 
 
 to answer tor heresy. Maximilian, who had been foiled in his 
 own attempt to attain the chair of St. Peter, who had seen so 
 much of the infamous career of Julius and Alexander, as to 
 lose all his reverence for the sacred character of the popes, and 
 who regarded Leo X. merely as a successful rival who had 
 thwarted his own plans, espoused, with cautious development, 
 but with true interest, the cause of the reformer. And now 
 came the great war of the Reformation, agitating Germany in 
 every quarter, and rousing the lethargic intellect of the na- 
 sions as nothing else could rouse it. Maximilian, with charac- 
 teristic fickleness, or rather, with characteristic pliancy before 
 every breeze of self-interest, was now on the one side, now on 
 the other, and now, nobody knew where, until his career was 
 terminated by sudden and fatal sickness. 
 
 The emperor was at Innspruck, all overwhelmed with his 
 cares and his plans of ambition, when he was seized with a 
 slight fever. Hoping to be benefited by a change of air, he 
 set out to travel by slow stages to one of his castles among the 
 mountains of Upper Austria. The disease, however, rapidly 
 increased, and it was soon evident that death was approach- 
 ing. The peculiarities of his character were never more strik- 
 ingly developed than in these last solemn hours. Being told 
 by his physicians that he had not long to live and that he must 
 now prepare for the final judgment, he calmly replied, “I have 
 long ago made that preparation. Had I not done so, it would 
 be too late now.” 
 
 For four years he had been conscious of declining health, 
 and had always carried with him, wherever he traveled, an 
 oaken coffin, with his shroud and other requisites for his fu- 
 neral, With very minute directions he settled all his world- 
 ly affairs, and gave the most particular instructions respecting 
 his funeral. Changing his linen, he strictly enjoined that his 
 shirt should not be removed after his death, for his fastidious 
 modesty was shocked by the idea of the exposure of his body, 
 even after the soul had taken its flight. 
 
104 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 He ordered his hair, after his death, to be cut off, all his 
 teeth to be extracteil, pounded to powder and publicly burned 
 in the chapel of his palace. For one day his remains were to 
 be exposed to the public, as a lesson of mortality. They were 
 then to be placed in a sack filled with quicklime. The sack 
 was to be enveloped in folds of silk and satin, and then placed 
 in the oaken coffin which had been so long awaiting his re- 
 mains. The coffin was then to be deposited under the altar of 
 the chapel of his palace at Neustadt, in such a position that 
 the officiating priest should ever trample over his head and 
 heart. The king expressed the hope that this humiliation of 
 his body would, in some degree, be accepted by the Deity in 
 atonement for the sins of his soul. How universal the instinct 
 that sin needs an atonement ! 
 
 Having finished these directions the emperor observed that 
 some of his attendants were in tears. ‘‘ Do you weep,” said 
 he, “‘ because you see a mortal die? Such tears become women 
 rather than men.” The emperor was now dying. As the . 
 ecclesiastics repeated the prayers of the Church, the emperor 
 gave the responses until his voice failed, and then continued to 
 give tokens of recognition and of faith, by making the sign of 
 the cross. At three o’clock in the morning of the 11th of Jan- 
 uary, 1519, the Emperor Maximilian breathed his last. He 
 was then in the sixtieth year of his age. . 
 
 Maximilian is justly considered one of the most renowned 
 of the descendants of Rhodolph of Hapsburg. It is saying 
 but little for his moral integrity, to affirm that he was one of 
 ‘the best of the rulers of his age. According to his ideas of 
 religion, he was a religious man. According to his ideas of 
 honesty and of honor, he was both an honest and an honora 
 ble man. According to his idea of what is called moral con- 
 duct, he was irreproachable, being addicted to no ungenteel 
 vices, or any sins which would be condemned by his associates. 
 His ambition was not to secure for himself ease or luxury, but 
 to extend his imperial power, and to aggrandize his family. 
 
MAXIMILIAN I. 105 
 
 For these objects he passed his life, ever tossed upon the bil- 
 lows of toil and trouble. In industry and perseverance, he 
 has rarely been surpassed. 
 
 Notwithstanding the innumerable interruptions and cares 
 attendant upon his station, he still found time, one can hardly 
 imagine when, to become a proficient in all the learning of the 
 day. He wrote and spoke four languages readily, Latin, 
 French, German and Italian. Few men have possessed more 
 persuasive powers of eloquence. All the arts and sciences he 
 warmly patronized, and men of letters of every class found 
 in him a protector. But history must truthfully declare that 
 there was no perfidy of which he would not be guilty, and ne 
 meanness to which he would not stoop, if he could only extend 
 his hereditary domains and add to his family renown, 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 OHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION. 
 
 From 1519 To 1531. 
 
 Ouar.ezs V. or Sparmn.—His Erzortion aS Emprror or GErMANY.-—His CoroNATION.~@ 
 THE FIRST CONSTITUTION.—PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION.—THE Popr’s Burg 
 AGAINST LutHEer.—His ConteMpPT FoR HIs Hourness.—TuHEe Drier at Worms.-= 
 Freperic’s OBJECTION TO THE CONDEMNATION OF LUTHER BY THE Dizt.—He on 
 TAINS FoR LuTHeEr THE Rieut or Derenss.—LvUTHER’S TRIUMPHAL MAROH TO THE 
 TRIBUNAL.—CHARLES URGED TO VIOLATE HIS Sars Conpvuct.—LuTHEr’s Patmos.— 
 MARRIAGE OF SISTER CATHARINE Bora TO LUTHER.—TERRIBLE [NSURRECTION.—THB 
 Hoty Leacue.—Tse Protest oF Sprres.—CONFESSION OF AUGSBURG.—IHE TWO 
 CoNFESSIONS. COMPULSORY MEASURES. 
 
 HARLES V. of Spain, as the nearest male heir, inherited 
 from Maximilian the Austrian States, He was the grand- 
 son of the late emperor, son of Philip and of Joanna, daughter 
 of Ferdinand and Isabella, and was born on the 24th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1500. He had been carefully educated in the learning 
 and accomplishments of the age, and particularly in the arts 
 of war. At the death of his grandfather, Ferdinand, Charles, 
 though but sixteen years of age, assumed the title of King of 
 Spain, and though strongly opposed for a time, he grasped 
 firmly and held securely the reins of government. 
 
 Joanna, his mother, was legally the sovereign, both by the 
 laws of united Castile and Arragon, and by the testaments of 
 Isabella and Ferdinand. But she was insane, and was sunk in 
 such depths of melancholy as to be almost unconscious of the 
 scenes which were transpiring around her. Two years had 
 elapsed between the accession of Charles V. to the throne of 
 Spain and the death of his grandfather, Maximilian. The 
 young king, with wonderful energy of character, had, during 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION, 107 
 
 that time, established himself very firmly on the throne. Upon 
 the death of Maximilian many claimants rose for the imperial 
 throne. Henry VIII. of England and Francis of France, were 
 prominent among the competitors. For six months all the 
 arts of diplomacy were exhausted by the various candidates, 
 and Charles of Spain won the prize. On the 28th of June, 
 1519, he was unanimously elected Emperor of Germany. The 
 youthful sovereign, who was but nineteen years of age, was 
 at Barcelona when he received the first intelligence of his elec. 
 tion. He had sufficient strength of character to avoid the 
 slightest appearance of exultation, but received the announce- 
 ment with dignity and gravity far above his years, 
 
 The Spaniards were exceedingly excited and alarmed by 
 the news. They feared that their young sovereign, of whom 
 they had already begun to be proud, would leave Spain to ex 
 tablish his court in the German empire, and they should thus 
 be left, as a distant province, to the government of a viceroy. 
 The king was consequently flooded with petitions, from all 
 parts of his dominions, not to accept the imperial crown. But 
 Charles was as ambitious as his grandfather, Maximilian, whose 
 foresight and maneuvering had set in train those influences 
 which had elevated him to the imperial dignity. 
 
 Soon a solemn embassy arrived, and, with the customary 
 pomp, proffered to Charles the crown which so many had cov- 
 eted. Charles accepted the office, and made immediate prepa- 
 rations, notwithstanding the increasing clamor of his subjects, 
 to go to Germany for his coronation, Intrusting the govern- 
 ment of Spain during his absence to officers in whom he re- 
 posed confidence, he embarked on shipboard, and landing 
 first at Dover in England, made a visit of four days to 
 Henry VIII. He then continued his voyage to the Nether- 
 lands; proceeding thence to Aix-la-Chapelle, he was crowned 
 on the 20th of October, 1520, with magnificence far surpassing 
 that of any of his predecessors. Thus Charles V., when but 
 twenty years of ago, was the King of Spain and the crowned 
 
108 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 Emperor of Germany. It is a great mistake to suppose that 
 youthful precocity is one of the innovations of modern times. 
 
 In the changes of the political kaleidoscope, Austria had 
 now become a part of Spain, or rather a prince of Austrian 
 descent, a lineal heir of the house of Hapsburg, had inherited 
 the dominion of Spain, the most extensive monarchy, in its 
 continental domains and its colonial possessions, then upon the 
 globe. The Germanic confederation at this time made a de- 
 cided step in advance. Hitherto the emperors, when crowned, 
 had made a sort of verbal promise to administer the govern- 
 ment in accordance with the laws and customs of the several 
 states. ‘They were, however, apprehensive that the new em- 
 peror, availing himself of the vast power which he possessed 
 independently of the imperial crown, might, by gradual en- 
 croachments, defraud them of their rights. A sort of consti- 
 tution was accordingly drawn up, consisting of thirty-six arti- 
 cles, defining. quite minutely the laws, customs and privileges 
 of the empire, which constitution Charles was required to 
 sign before his coronation. 
 
 Charles presided in person over his first diet which he had 
 convened at Worms on the 6th of January, 1521. The theo- 
 logical and political war of the Reformation was now agitat- 
 ing all Germany, and raging with the utmost violence. Luther 
 had torn the vail from the corruptions of papacy, and was ex- 
 hibiting to astonished Europe the enormous aggression and 
 the unbridled licentiousness of pontifical power. Letter suc- 
 ceeded letter, and pamphlet pamphlet, and they fell upon the 
 decaymg hierarchy like shot and shell upon the walls of a for- 
 tress already crumbling and tottering through age. 
 
 On the 15th of July, 1520, three months before the coro. 
 nation of Charles V., the pope issued his world-renowned bull 
 against the intrepid monk, He condemned Luther as a heretic, 
 forbade the reading of his writings, excommunicated him if he 
 did not retract within sixty days, and all princes and states 
 were commanded, under pain of incurring the same censure, 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION. 108 
 
 yo seize his person and punish him and his adherents. Many 
 were overawed by these menaces of the holy father, whe 
 held the keys of heaven and of hell. The fate of Luther was 
 considered sealed. His works were publicly burned in several 
 cities. 
 
 Luther, undaunted, replied with blow for blow. He de 
 elared the pope to be antichrist, renounced all obedience to 
 him, detailed with scathing severity the conduct of corrupt 
 pontiffs, and called upon the whole nation to renounce all alle- 
 giance to the scandalous court of Rome. To cap the climax 
 of his contempt and defiance, he, on the 10th of December, 
 1520, not two months after the crowning of Charles V., led 
 his admiring followers, the professors and students of the uni- 
 versity of Wittemberg, in procession to the eastern gate of 
 the city, where, in the presence of a vast concourse, he com- 
 mitted the papal bull to the flames, exclaiming, in the words 
 of Ezekiel, ‘“* Because thou hast troubled the Hoiy One of God, 
 let eternal fire consume thee.” ‘This dauntless spirit of the re 
 former inspired his disciples throughout Germany with new 
 eourage, and in many other cities the pope’s bull of excommu- 
 nication was burned with expressions of indignation and con- 
 tempt. 
 
 Such was the state of this great religious controversy when 
 Charles V. held his first diet at Worms. The pope, wielding 
 all the energies of religious fanaticism, and with immense tem. 
 poral revenues at his disposal, with ecclesiastics, officers of his 
 spiritual court, scattered all over Europe, whe exercised almost 
 & supernatural power over the minds of the benighted masses, 
 was still perhaps the most formidable power in Europe. ‘Ths 
 new emperor, with immense schemes of ambition opening be 
 fore his youthful and ardent mind, and with no principles of 
 heartfelt piety to incline him to seek and love the truth, as a 
 matter of course sought the favor of the imperiai pontiff, and 
 was not at all disposed to espouse the cause of the obscure 
 monk. 
 
220 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Charles, therefore, received courteously the legates of the 
 pontiff at the diet, gave them a friendly hearing as they in- 
 veighed against the heresy of Luther, and proposed that the 
 diet should also condemn the reformer, Fortunately for Lu. 
 ther he was a subject of the electorate of Saxony, and neither 
 pope nor emperor could touch him but through the elector, 
 Frederic, the Duke of Saxony, one of the electors of the em- 
 pire, governed a territory of nearly fifteen thousand square 
 miles, more than twice as large as the State of Massachusetts, 
 and containing nearly three millions of inhabitants. The duchy 
 has since passed through many changes and dismemberments, 
 but in the early part of the sixteenth century the Elector of 
 Saxony was one of the most powerful princes of the German 
 empire. Frederic was not disposed to surrender his subject un. 
 tried and uncondemned to the discipline of the Roman pontiff. 
 He accordingly objected to this summary condemnation of 
 Luther, and declared that before judgment was pronounced, 
 the accused should be heard in his own defense. Charles, who 
 was by no means aware how extensively the opinions of Luther 
 had been circulated and received, was surprised to find many 
 nobles, each emboldened by the rest, rise in the diet and de- 
 nounce, in terms of ever-increasing severity, the exactions and 
 the arrogance of the court of Rome. 
 
 Notwithstanding the remonstrances of the pope’s legates, 
 the emperor found it necessary to yield to the demands of the 
 jiet, and to allow Luther the privilege of being heard, though 
 he avowed to the friends of the pope that Luther should not 
 be permitted to make any defense, but should only have an 
 opportunity to confess his heresy and implore forgiveness, 
 Worms, where the diet was in session, on the west banks of the 
 Rhine, was not within the territories of the Elector of Saxony, 
 and consequently the emperor, in sending a summons to Lu- 
 ther to present himself before the diet, sent, also, a safe conduct. 
 With alacrity the bold reformer obeyed the summons. From 
 Wittemberg, where Luther was both professor in the univer 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE REPORMATION. i212 
 
 sity and also pastor of a church, to Worms, was a distance of 
 nearly three hundred miles. But the journey of the reformer 
 through all of this long road was almost like a triumphal proces 
 sion, Crowds gathered everywhere to behold the man who 
 had dared to bid defiance to the terrors of that spiritual pow- 
 er before which the haughtiest monarchs had trembled. The 
 people had read the writings of Luther, and justly regarded 
 him as the advocate of civil and religious liberty. The nobles, 
 who had often been humiliated by the arrogance of the pon- 
 tiff, admired a man who was bringing a new power into the 
 field for their disenthrallment. 
 
 When Luther had arrived within three miles of Worms, 
 accompanied by a few friends and the imperial herald who had 
 summoned him, he was met by a procession of two thousand 
 persons, who had come from the city to form his escort. Soms 
 friends in the city sent him a warning that he could not rely 
 npon the protection of his safe conduct, that he would proba- 
 bly be perfidiously arrested, and they intreated him to retire im- 
 mediately again toSaxony. Luther made the memorable reply, 
 
 “I will go to Worms, if as many devils meet me there ag 
 there are tiles upon the roofs of the houses.” 
 
 The emperor was astonished to find that greater crowds 
 were assembled, and greater enthusiasm was displayed in wit- 
 nessing the entrance of the monk of Wittemberg, than had 
 _ greeted the imperial entrance to the city. 
 
 It was indeed an august assemblage before which Luther 
 was arrayed. The emperor himself presided, sustained by his 
 brother, the Archduke Ferdinand. Six electors, twenty-four 
 dukes, seven margraves, thirty bishops and prelates, and az 
 uncounted number of princes, counts, lords and ambassadors 
 filled the spacious hall. It was the 18th of April, 1521. His 
 speech, fearless, dignified, eloquent, unanswerable, occupied 
 two hours. He closed with the noble words, 
 
 “Let me be refuted and convinced by the testimony of the 
 Soriptures or by the clearest arguments; otherwise [ san net 
 
323 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 and will not recant; for it is neither safe nor expedient to act 
 against conscience. Here I take my stand. I can do no others 
 wise, so help me God, Amen.” 
 
 In this sublime moral conflict Luther came off the undis- 
 puted conqueror. The legates of the pope, exasperated at his 
 triumph, intreated the emperor to arrest him, in defiance of 
 his word of honor pledged for his safety. Charles rejected 
 the infamous proposal with disdain. Still he was greatly an- 
 noyed at so serious a schism in the Church, which threatened 
 to alienate from him the patronage of the pope. It was evi- 
 dent that Luther was too strongly intrenched in the hearts ot 
 the Germans, for the youthful emperor, whose crown was not 
 yet warm upon his brow, and who was almost a stranger in 
 Germany, to undertake to crush him. To appease the pope he 
 drew up an apologetic declaration, in which he said, in terms 
 which do not honor his memory, 
 
 ‘“‘Descended as I am from the Christian emperors of Ger- 
 many, the Catholic kings of Spain, and from the archdukes ot 
 Austria and the Dukes of Burgundy, all of whom have pre- 
 served, to the last moment of their lives, their fidelity to the 
 Church, and have always been the defenders and protectors of 
 the Catholic faith, its decrees, ceremonies and usages, I have 
 been, am still, and will ever be devoted to those Christian doc- 
 trines, and the constitution of the Church which they have left 
 to me as a sacred inheritance. And as it is evident thata 
 simple monk has advanced opinions contrary to the sentiments 
 of all Christians, past and present, I1 am firmly determined 
 to wipe away the reproach which a toleration of such errors 
 would cast on Germany, and to employ all my powers and 
 resources, my body, my blood, my life, and even my soul, in 
 checking the progress of this sacrilegious doctrine. I will not, 
 therefore, permit Luther to enter into any further explanation, 
 and will instantly dismiss and afterward treat him as a heretic, 
 But I can not violate my safe conduct, but will cause him to 
 be conducted safely back to Wittemberg.” 
 
CHARLES ¥V. AND THE REFORMATION, 3238 
 
 The emperor now attempted to accomplish by intrigue 
 that which he could not attain by authority of force. He held 
 @ private interview with the reformer, and endeavored, by all 
 those arts at the disposal of an emperor, to influence Luther 
 to arecantation. Failing utterly in this, he delayed further 
 operations for a month, until many of the diet, including the 
 Elector of Saxony and other powerful friends of Luther, had 
 retired. He then, having carefully retained those who would 
 be obsequious to his will, caused a decree to be enacted, as it 
 it were the unanimous sentiment of the diet, that Luther was 
 a heretic; confirmed the sentence of the pope, and pronounced 
 the ban of the empire against all who should countenance or 
 protect him. 
 
 But Luther, on the 26th of May, had left Worms on his 
 return to Wittemberg. When he had passed over about half 
 the distance, his friend and admirer, Frederic of Saxony, con- 
 scious of the imminent peril which hung over the intrepid 
 monk, sent a troop of masked horsemen who seized him and 
 conveyed him to the castle of Wartburg, where Frederic kept 
 him safely concealed for nine months, not allowing even his 
 friends to know the place of his concealment. Luther, acqui- 
 escing in the prudence of this measure, called this retreat his 
 Patmos, and devoted himself most assiduously to the study of 
 the Scriptures, and commenced his most admirable translation 
 of the Bible into the German language, a work which has con- 
 tributed vastly more than all others to disseminate the princi- 
 ples of the Reformation throughout Germany. 
 
 It will be remembered that Maximilian’s son Ferdinand, 
 who was brother to Charles V., had married Anne, daughter 
 of Ladislaus, King of Hungary and Bohemia. Disturbances 
 sn Spain rendered it necessary for the emperor to leave Ger- 
 many, and for eight years his attention was almost constantly 
 occupied by wars and intrigues in southern Europe. Ferdi- 
 nand was invested with the government of the Austrian States, 
 In the year 1521, Leo X. died, and Adrian, who seems to have 
 
#14 THE HOUSE »F AUSTRIA. 
 
 been truly a conscientious Christian man, assumed the tiara 
 He saw the deep corruptions of the Church, confessed them 
 openly, mourned over them and declared that the Church 
 needed a thorough reformation. 
 
 This admission, of course, wonderfully strengthened the 
 Lutheran party. The diet, meeting soon after, drew up a list. 
 of a hundred grievances, which they intreated the pope to re- 
 form, declaring that Germany could no longer endure them, 
 They declared that Luther had opened the eyes of the people 
 to these corruptions, and that they would not suffer the edicts 
 of the diet of Worms to be enforced. Ferdinand of Austria, 
 entering into the views of his brother, was anxious to arrest 
 the progress of the new ideas, now spreading with great rae 
 pidity, and he entered—instruoted by a legate, Campegio, from 
 the pope—into an engagement with the Duke of Bavaria, and 
 most of the German bishops, to carry the edict of Worms into 
 effect. : 
 
 Frederic, the Elector of Saxony, died in 1525, but he was 
 sueceeded by his brother John the Constant, who cordially 
 embraced and publicly avowed the doctrines of the Reforma 
 tion; aud Luther, in July of this year, gave the last signa 
 proof of his entire emancipation from the superstitions of the 
 papacy by marrying Catharine Bora, a noble lady who, having 
 espoused his views, had left the nunnery where she had been 
 an inmate. It is impossible for one now to conceive the im- 
 pression which was produced im Catholic Europe by the mar- 
 riage of a priest and a nun. 
 
 Many of the German princes now followed the exampte 
 of John of Saxony, and openly avowed their faith in the Lu 
 theran doctrines. In the Austrian States, notwithstanding 
 all Ferdinand’s efforts to the contrary, the new faith steadily 
 spread, commanding the assent of the most virtuous and the 
 most intelligent. Many of the nobles avowed themselves 
 Lutherans, as did even some of the professors in the university 
 at Vienna. The vital questions at issue, taking hoid, as they 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION. 118 
 
 did, of the deepest emotions of the soul and the daily habits 
 of life, roused the general mind to the most intense activity. 
 The bitterest hostility sprung up between the two parties, 
 and many persons, without piety and without judgment, 
 threw off the superstitions of the papacy, only to adopt other 
 superstitions equally revolting. The sect of Anabaptists rose, 
 abjuring all civil as well as all religious authority, claiming to 
 be the elect of God, advocating a community of goods and 
 of wives, and discarding all restraint. They roused the ig- 
 norant peasantry, and easily showed them that they were 
 suffering as much injustice from feudal lords as from papal 
 bishops. It was the breaking out of the French Revolution 
 on a small scale. Germany was desolated by infuriate bands, 
 demolishing alike the castles of the nobles and the palaces of 
 the bishops, and sparing neither age nor sex in their indis- 
 criminate slaughter. 
 
 The insurrection was so terrible, that both Lutherans and 
 papists united to quell it; and so fierce were these fanatics, 
 that a hundred thousand perished on fields of blood before 
 the rebellion was quelled. These outrages were, of course, by 
 the Catholics regarded as the legitimate results of the new 
 doctrines, and it surely can not be denied that they sprung from 
 them. The fire which glows on the hearth may consume the 
 dwelling. But Luther and his friends assailed the Anabap- 
 tists with every weapon they could wield. The Catholics 
 formed powerful combinations to arrest the spread of evan- 
 gelical views. The reformers organized combinations equally 
 powerful to diffuse those opinions, which they were sure in- 
 volved the welfare of the world. 
 
 Charles V., having somewhat allayed the troubles which 
 garassed him in southern: Europe, now turned his attention 
 to Germany, and resolved, with a strong hand, to suppress the 
 religious agitation. In a letter to the German States he very 
 peremptorily announced his determination, declaring that he 
 would exterminate the errors of Luther, exhorting them te 
 
gi8 THB HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 resist all attacks against the ancient usages of the Church, and 
 expressing to each of the Catholic princes his earnest approval 
 of their conduct. 
 
 Germany was now threatened with civil war. The Cath 
 olics demanded the enforcement of the edict of Worms, 
 The reformers demanded perfect toleration—that every man 
 should enjoy freedom of opinion and of worship. A new war 
 in Italy perhaps prevented this appeal to arms, as Charles V, 
 found himself involved m new difficulties which engrossed all 
 his energies, Ferdinand found the Austrian States so divided 
 by this controversy, that it became necessary for him to as 
 sume some degree of impartiality, and to submit to some 
 thing like toleration A new pope, Clement VII., succeeded 
 the short reign of Adrian, and all the ambition, intrigue and 
 corruption which had hitherto marked the course of the court 
 of Rome, resumed their sway. The pope formed the cele 
 brated Holy League to arrest the progress of the new opin- 
 ions; aud this led all the princes of the empire, who had es 
 puused the Lutheran doctrines, more openly and cordially to 
 combine in self-defense. ‘ In every country in Europe the doc- 
 trines of the reformer spread rapidly, and the papal throne 
 was shaken to its base. 
 
 Charles V., whose arms were successful in southern Eu- 
 rope, and whose power was daily increasing, was still very 
 desirous of restoring quiet to Europe by re&stablishing the 
 supremacy of the papal Church, and crushing out dissent, 
 He accordingly convened another diet at Spires, the capital 
 of Rhenish Bavaria, on the 15th of March, 1529. As the em- 
 peror was detained in Italy, his brother Ferdinand presided, 
 The diet was of course divided, but the majority passed very 
 stringent resolutions against the Reformation. It was enacted 
 that the edict of Worms should be enforced ; that the mass 
 should be re&stablished wherever it had been abolished; ang 
 that preachers should promulgate no new doctrines. The mb 
 nority entered their protest, They urged that the mass had 
 
 oo 
 4X « 
 ru 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION. 117 
 
 been clearly proved to be contrary to the Word of God; that 
 the Scriptures were the only certain rule of life; and declared 
 their resolution to maintain the truths of the Old and New 
 Testaments, regardless of traditions. This Protest was sus- 
 tained by powerful names—John, Elector of Saxony; George, 
 Margrave of Brandenburg; two Dukes of Brunswick; the 
 Landgrave of Hesse Cassel; the Prince of Anhalt, and fourteen 
 imperial cities, to which were soon added ten more. Nothing 
 can more decisively show than this the wonderful progress 
 which the Reformation in so short a time had made. From 
 this Protest the reformers received the name of Protestants, 
 which they have since retained. 
 
 The emperor, flushed with success, now resolved, with new 
 energy, to assail the principles of the Reformation. Leaving 
 Spain he went to Italy, and met the pope, Clement VII., at 
 Bologna, in February, 1530. The pope and the emperor held 
 many long and privaté interviews. What they said no one 
 knows. But Charles V., who was eminently a sagacious man, 
 became convinced that the difficulty had become far too se- 
 rious to be easily healed, that men of such power had embraced 
 the Lutheran doctrines that it was expedient to change the 
 tone of menace into one of respect and conciliation. He ac- 
 cordingly issued a call for another diet to meet in April, 1530, 
 at the city of Augsburg in Bavaria. — 
 
 *‘T have convened,” he wrote, “this assembly to consider 
 the difference of opinion on the subject of religion. It is my 
 intention to hear both parties with candor and charity, to ex 
 amine their respective arguments, to correct and reform what 
 requires to be corrected and reformed, that the truth being 
 known, and harmony established, there may, in future, be only 
 One pure and simple faith, and, as all are disciples of the same 
 Jesus, all may form one and the same Church.” 
 
 These fair words, however, only excited the suspicions of 
 the Protestants, which suspicions subsequent events proved to 
 be well founded, The emperor entered Augsburg in great 
 
1178 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 state, and immediately assumed a dictatorial air, requiring the 
 diet to attend high mass with him, and to take part in the 
 procession of the host. 
 
 “T will rather,” said the Marquis of Brandenburg to the 
 emperor, “instantly offer my head to the executioner, than 
 renounce the gospel and approve idolatry, Christ did not 
 institute the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper to be carried in 
 pomp through the streets, nor to be adored by the people, 
 He said, ‘Take, eat ;? but never said, * Put this sacrament 
 into a vase, carry it publicly in triumph, and let the people 
 prostrate themselves before it” ” 
 
 The Protestants, availing themselves of the emperor’s deo 
 laration that it was his intention to hear the sentiments of 
 all, drew up a confession of their faith, which they presented 
 to the emperor in German and in Latin. This celebrated 
 creed is known in history as the Confession of Augsburg. 
 The emperor was quite embarrassed by this document, as he 
 was well aware of the argumentative powers of the reformers, 
 and feared that the document, attaining celebrity, and being 
 read eagerly all over the empire, would only multiply converts 
 to their views. At first he refused to allow it to be read. 
 But finding that this only created commotion which would 
 add celebrity to the confession, he adjourned the diet to a 
 small chapel where but two hundred could be convened, 
 When the Chancellor of Saxony rose to read the confession, 
 the emperor commanded that he should read the Latin copy, 
 a language which but few of the Germans understood. 
 
 “ Sire,” said the chancellor, “we are now on German 
 ground. I trust that your majesty will not order the apology 
 of our faith, which ought to be made as public as possible, to 
 be read in a language not understood by the Germans.” 
 
 The emperor was compelled to yield to so reasonable @ 
 request. The adjacent apartments, and the court-yard of the 
 palace, were all filled with an eager crowd. The chancellor 
 read the creed in a voice so clear and loud that the whole 
 
 ———eEeeEe ———— Pe = 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION. 1220 
 
 multitude could hear. The emperor was very uneasy, and at 
 the close of the reading, which occupied two hours, took both 
 the Latin and the German copies, aud requested that the con 
 fession should not be published without his consent. Luther 
 and Melancthon drew up this celebrated document. Melanc- 
 then was an exceedingly mild and amiable man, and such a 
 lover of peace that he would perhaps do a ittie violence to 
 his own conscience in the attempt to conciliate those from 
 whom he was constrained to differ. Luther, on the contrary, 
 was a man of great force, decision and fearlessness, who would 
 speak the truth in the plainest terms, without softening a 
 phrase to conciliate either friend or foe. The Confession of 
 Augsburg being the joint production of both Melancthon and 
 Luther, did not ewactly suit either. It was a little too un- 
 compromising for Melancthon, a little too pliant and yielding 
 for Luther. Melancthon soon after took the confession and 
 changed it to bring it into more entire accordance witl. his 
 spirit. Hence a division which, in oblivion of its origin, has 
 continued to the present day. Those who adhered to the 
 original document which was presented to the emperor, were 
 called Lutherans; those who adopted the confession as soft 
 ened by Melancthon, were called German Reformed. 
 
 The emperor now threw off the mask, and carrying with 
 him the majority of the diet, issued a decree of intolerance 
 and menace, in which he declared that all the ceremonies, 
 doctrines and usages of the papal church, without exception, 
 wer? to be reéstablished, married priests deposed, suppressed 
 convents restored, and every innovation, of whatever kind, to 
 be revoked. All who opposed this decree were to be exposed 
 to the ban of the empire, with all its pains and penalties, 
 
 This was indeed an appalling measure. Recantation or war 
 was the only alternative. Charles, being still much occupied 
 by the affairs of his vast kingdom of Spain, with all its am- 
 bitions and wars, needed a coadjutor in the government of 
 Germany, as serious trouble was evidently near at hard. He 
 
 P 
 
120 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 therefore proposed the election of his brother Ferdinand as 
 coadjutor with him in administering the affairs of Germany. 
 Ferdinand, who had recently united to the Austrian territories 
 the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia, was consequently chosen, 
 on the 5th of January, 1531, King of the Romans. Charles | 
 was determined to entorce his decrees, and both parties now 
 prepared for war. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION. 
 From 1531 To 1552. 
 
 DETEEMINATION TO CRUSH PROTESTANTISM.—INOCURSION OF THE TURKS.-—VALOR OF THR 
 PROTESTANTS.—PREPARATIONS FOR RENEWED HOSsTILITIES.—AUGMENTATION OF THS 
 Protestant Forces.—TuHe CounciL oF TRENT.—-MuTUAL CONSTERNATION.—DEFEAP 
 OF THE PROTESTANT ARMY.—UNLOOKED For Succor.—REVOLT IN THE EMPEROR'S 
 Aruy.—Tue Fivuotrvations or Forrunet.—IGNnosLe REVENGE.—CAPTURE OF Wrte - 
 TEMBERG.—PROTESTANTISM APPARENTLY ORUSITED.—PLOT AGAINST CHARLES.—MAURe 
 10E oF Saxony.—A CHANGE oF Soenr.—Tue BitTeER BiTt.—THEt EMPEROR HUMBLED.— 
 His Fiignt.—His DETERMINED WILL. 
 
 ee intolerant decrees of the diet of Augsburg, and the 
 
 evident determination of the emperor unrelentingly to 
 enforce them, spread the greatest alarm among the Protest- 
 ants. They immediately assembled at Smalkalde in Decem- 
 ber, 1530, and entered into a league for mutual protection. 
 The emperor was resolved to crush the Protestants. The 
 Protestants were resolved not to be crushed. The sword of 
 the Catholics was drawn for the assault—the sword of the 
 reformers for defense. Civil war was just bursting forth in 
 all its horrors, when the Turks, with an army three hundred 
 thousand strong, like ravening wolves rushed into Hungar- 
 This danger was appalling. The Turks in their bloody marcs 
 had, as yet, encountered no effectual resistance ; though they 
 had experienced temporary checks, their progress had been on 
 the whole resistless, and wherever they had planted their feet 
 they had established themselves firmly. Originating as a 
 small tribe on the shores of the Caspian, they had spread 
 over all Asia Minor, had crossed the Bosphorus, captured 
 Constantinople, and had brought all Greece under their sway. 
 They were still pressing on, flushed with victory. Christian 
 
122 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Europe was trembling before them. And now an army of 
 three hundred thousand had crossed the Danube, sweepirg all 
 opposition before them, and were spreading terror and de- 
 struction through Hungary. The capture of that immense 
 kingdom seemed to leave all Europe defenseless. 
 
 The emperor and his Catholic friends were fearfully alarmed. 
 Here was a danger more to be dreaded than even the doctrines 
 of Luther. All the energies of Christendom were requisite to 
 repel this invasion. 'The emperor was compelled to appeal to 
 the Protestant princes to codperate in this great emergence. 
 But they had more to fear from the fiery persecution of the 
 papal church than from the cimeter of the infidel, and they 
 refused any codperation with the emperor so long as the men- 
 aces of the Augsburg decrees were suspended over them. The 
 emperor wished the Protestants to help him drive out the 
 Turks, that then, relieved from that danger, he might turn all 
 his energies against the Protestants. 
 
 After various negotiations it was agreed, as a temporary 
 arrangement, that there should be a truce of the Catholic per- 
 secution until another general council should be called, and 
 that until then the Protestants should be allowed freedom of 
 conscience and of worship. The German States now turned 
 their whole force against the Turks. The Protestants contrib- 
 uted to the war with energy which amazed the Catholics, 
 They even trebled the contingents which they had agreed to 
 furnish, and marched to the assault with the greatest intrepid. 
 ity. The Turks were driven from Hungary, and then the 
 emperor, in violation of his pledge, recommenced proceeding 
 against the Protestants. But it was the worst moment the 
 infatuated emperor could have selected. The Protestants, 
 already armed and marshaled, were not at all disposed to lie 
 down to be trodden upon by their foes. They renewed their 
 confederacy, drove the emperor’s Austrian troops out of the 
 territories of Wirtemberg, which they had seized, and restored 
 the duchy to the Protestant duke, Ulric. Civil war had now 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION. 1838 
 
 commenced. But the Protestants were strong, determined, 
 and had proved their valor in the recent war with the Turks, 
 The more moderate of the papal party, foreseeing a strife 
 which might be interminable, interposed, and succeeded in 
 effecting a compromise which again secured transient peace. 
 
 Charles, however, had not yet abandoned his design to 
 compel the Protestants to return to the papal church. He 
 was merely temporizing till he could bring such an array of 
 the papal powers against the reformers that they could present 
 no successful resistance. With this intention he entered inte 
 a secret treaty with the powerful King of France, in which 
 Francis agreed to concentrate all the forces of his kingdom to 
 crush the Lutheran doctrines. He then succeeded in conclud- 
 ing a truce with the Turks for five years. He was now pre- 
 pared to act with decision against the reformed religion. 
 
 But while Charles had been marshaling his party the Prot- 
 estants had been rapidly increasing. Eloquent preachers, able 
 writers, had everywhere proclaimed the corruptions of the 
 papacy and urged a pure gospel. These corruptions were so 
 palpable that they could not bear the light. The most intelli- 
 gent and conscientious, all over Europe, were rapidly embra- 
 cing the new doctrines. These new doctrines embraced and 
 involved principles of civil as well as religious liberty. The 
 Bible is the most formidable book which was ever penned 
 against aristocratic usurpation. God is the universal Father. 
 All men are brothers. The despots of that day regarded the 
 controversy as one which, in the end, involved the stability of 
 their thrones, “Give us light,” the Protestants said. “Give 
 us darkness,” responded the papacy, “or the submissive 
 masses will rise and overthrow despotic thrones as well as 
 idolatrous altars.” 
 
 Several of the ablest and most powerful of the bishops 
 who, in that day of darkness, had been groping in the dark, 
 now that light had come into the world, rejoiced in that light, 
 and enthusiastically espoused the truth. The emperor was 
 
124 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 quite appalled when he learned that the Archbishop of Co 
 logne, who was also one of the electors of the empire, had 
 joined the reformers; for, in addition to the vast influence ot 
 his name, this conversion gave the Protestants a majority in the 
 electoral diet, so many of the German princes had already 
 adopted the opinions of Luther. The Protestants, encouraged 
 by the rapidity with which their doctrines were spreading, 
 were not at all disposed to humble themselves before their op- 
 ponents, but with their hands upon the hilts of their swords, 
 declared that they would not bow their necks to intolerance. 
 
 It was indeed a formidable power which the emperor 
 was now about to marshal against the Protestants. He had 
 France, Spain, all the roused energies of the pope and his ex- 
 tended dominions, and all the Catholic States of the empire. 
 But Protestantism, which had overrun Germany, had pervaded 
 Switzerland and France, and was daily on the increase. The 
 pope and the more zealous papists were impatient and indig- 
 nant that the emperor did not press his measures with more 
 vigor. But the sagacious Charles more clearly saw the diffi- 
 culties to be surmounted than they did, and while no less de- 
 termined in his resolves, was more prudent and wary in his 
 measures, 
 
 With the consent of the pope he summoned a general 
 council to meet at Trent on the confines of his own Austrian 
 territories, where he could easily have every thing under his 
 own control, He did every thing in his power, in the mean- 
 time to promote division among the Protestants, by trying to 
 enter into private negotiations with the Protestant princes. 
 He had the effrontery to urge the Protestants to send their 
 livines to the council of Trent, and agreed to abide by its 
 decisions, even when that council was summoned by the pope, 
 and was to be so organized as to secure an overwhelming ma 
 jority to the papists. The Protestants, of course, rejected so 
 silly a proposition, and refused te recognize the decrees of such 
 a council as of any binding authority. 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION, 128 
 
 in preparation for enforcing the decrees which he intended 
 to have enacted by the council of Trent, Charles obtained 
 from the pope thirteen thousand troops, and five hundred thou- 
 sand ducats (one million one hundred thousand dollars). He 
 raised one army in the Low Countries to march upon Ger- 
 many. He gathered another army in his hereditary States o1 
 Austria. His brother Ferdinand, as King of Hungary and Bo- 
 hemia, raised a large army in each of those dominions. The 
 King of France mustered his legions, and boasted of the con- 
 dign punishment to which he would consign the heretics. The 
 pope issued a decree offering the entire pardon of all sins to 
 those who should engage in this holy war for the extirpation 
 of the doctrines of the reformers. 
 
 The Protestants were for a moment in consternation in 
 view of the gatherings of so portentous a storm. The em- 
 peror, by false professions and affected clemency, had so de- 
 ceived them that they were quite unprepared for so formida- 
 ble an attack. They soon, however, saw that their only salva- 
 tion depended upon a vigorous defense, and they marshaled 
 their forces for war. With promptness and energy which even 
 astonished themselves, they speedily raised an army which, on 
 the junction of its several corps, amounted to eighty thousand 
 men. In its intelligence, valor, discipline and equipments, it 
 was probably the best army which had ever been assembled 
 in the States of Germany. Resolutely they marched under 
 Schartlin, one of the most experienced generals of the age, 
 toward Ratisbon, where the emperor was holding a diet. 
 
 Charles V. was as much alarmed by this unexpected ap- 
 parition, as the Protestants had been alarmed by the prepara- 
 tions of the emperor. He had supposed that his force was so 
 resistless that the Protestants would see at once the hopeless- 
 ness of resistance, and would yield without a struggle. The 
 emperor had a guard of but eight theusand troops at Ratis- 
 bon. The Duke of Bavaria, in whose dominions he was, was 
 wavering, and the papal troops had not commenced thei 
 
126 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 march. But there was not a moment to be lost. The emperot 
 himself might be surrounded and taken captive. He retired 
 precipitately about thirty miles south to the strong fortress of 
 Landshut, where he could hold out until he received succor 
 from his Austrian territories, which were very near, and also 
 from the pope. 
 
 Charles soon received powerful reinforcements from Aus- 
 tria, from the pope, and from his Spanish kingdom. With 
 these he marched some forty miles west to Ingolstadt and in- 
 trenched himself beneath its massive walls. Here he waited 
 for further reinforcements, and then commencing the offen- 
 sive, marched up the Danube, taking possession of the cities 
 on either bank. And now the marshaled forces of the em- | 
 peror began to crowd the Protestants on all sides. The army 
 became bewildered, and instead of keeping together, sepa- 
 rated to repel the attack at different points. This caused the 
 ruin of the Protestant army. The dissevered fragments were 
 speedily dispersed. The emperor triumphantly entered the 
 Protestant cities of Ulm and Augsburg, Strasbourg and Frank- 
 fort, compelled them to accept humiliating conditions, to sur- 
 render their artillery and military stores, and to pay enormous 
 fines. The Archbishop of Cologne was deposed from his dig- 
 nities, The emperor had thrown his foes upon the ground and 
 bound them. 
 
 All the Protestant princes but two were vanquished, the 
 Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse. It was evi- 
 dent that they must soon yield to the overwhelming force of 
 the emperor. It was a day of disaster, in which no gleam of 
 light seemed to dawn upon the Protestant cause. But in that 
 gloomy hour we see again the illustration of that sentiment, 
 that “the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the 
 strong.” Unthinking infidelity says sarcastically, “ Providence 
 always helps the heavy battalions.” But Providence often 
 brings to the discomfited, in their despair, reinforcements el] 
 unlooked for. 
 
OCOHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION, 127 
 
 There were in the army of Ferdinand, gathered from the 
 Austrian territories by the force of military conscription, many 
 troops more or less influenced by the reformed religion. They 
 were dissatisfied with this warfare against their brothers, and 
 their dissatisfaction increased to murmurs and then to revolt. 
 Thus encouraged, the Protestant nobles in Bohemia rose against 
 Ferdinand their king, and the victorious Ferdinand suddenly 
 found his strong battalions melting away, and his banners on 
 the retreat. 
 
 The other powers of Europe began to look with alarm 
 upon the vast ascendency which Charles V. was attaining over 
 Kurope. His exacting and aggressive spirit assumed a more 
 menacing aspect than the doctrines of Luther. The King 
 of France, Francis I., with the characteristic perfidy of the 
 times, meeting cunning with cunning, formed a'secret league 
 against his ally, combining, in that league, the English ministry 
 who governed during the minority of Edward VLI., and also 
 the codperation of the illustrious Gustavus Vasa, the powerful 
 King of Sweden, who was then strongly inclined to that faith 
 of the reformers which he afterwards openly avowed. Even 
 the pope, who had always felt a little jealous of the power of 
 the emperor, thought that as the Protestants were now put 
 down it might be well to check the ambition of Charles V. a 
 little, and he accordingly ordered all his troops to return to 
 Italy. The holy father, Paul III., even sent money to the 
 Protestant Elector of Saxony, to enable him to resist the em- 
 peror, and sent ambassadors to the Turks, to induce them to 
 break the truce and make war upon Christendom, that the em- 
 peror might be thus embarrassed. 
 
 Charles thus found himself, in the midst of his victo- 
 ries, suddenly at a stand. He could no longer carry on of- 
 fensive operations, but was compelled to prepare for defense 
 against the attacks with which he was threatened on every 
 side. 
 
 Again, the kaleidoscope of political combination received 
 
128 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 @ jar, and all was changed. The King of France died. This 
 so embarrassed the affairs of the confederation which Francis 
 had organized with so much toil and care, that Charles availed 
 himself of it to make a sudden and vigorous march against 
 the Elector of Saxony. He entered his territories with an 
 army of thirty-three thousand men, and swept all opposition 
 before him. In a final and desperate battle the troops of the 
 elector were cut to pieces, and the elector himself, sur- 
 rounded on all sides, sorely wounded in the face and covered 
 with blood, was taken prisoner. ‘Charles disgraced his char- 
 acter by the exhibition of a very ignoble spirit of revenge. 
 The captive elector, as he was led into the presence of his 
 conqueror, said— 
 
 “Most powerful and gracious emperor, the fortune of 
 war has now rendered me your prisoner, and I hope to be 
 treated—” 
 
 Here the emperor indignantly interrupted him, saying— 
 
 “T am now your gracious emperor! Lately you could only 
 vouchsafe me the title of Charles of Ghent!” 
 
 Then turning abruptly upon his heel, he consigned his 
 prisoner to the custody of one of the Spanish generals. The 
 emperor marched immediately to Wittemberg, which was dis- 
 tant but afew miles. It was a well fortified town, and was 
 resolutely defended by Isabella, the wife of the elector. The 
 emperor, maddened by the resistance, summoned a conrt 
 martial, and sentenced the elector to instant death unless he 
 ordered the surrender of the fortress. He at first refused, 
 and prepared to die. But the tears of his wife and his family 
 conquered his resolution, and the city was surrendered. The 
 emperor took from his captive the electoral dignity, and ex 
 torted from him the most cruel concessions as the ransom fer 
 his life. Without a murmur he surrendered wealth, power 
 and rank, but neither entreaties nor menaces could induce 
 him in a single point to abjure his Christian faith. 
 
 Charles now entered Wittemberg in triumph. The great 
 
COHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION. 129 
 
 reformer had just died. The emperor visited the grave of 
 Luther, and when urged to dishonor his remains, replied— 
 
 ‘7 war not with the dead, but with the living. Let him 
 repose in peace ; he is already before his Judge.” 
 
 The Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, now the only member ot 
 the Protestant league remaining in arms, was in a condition 
 utterly hopeless, and was compelled to make an unconditional 
 submission. 
 
 The landgrave, ruined in fortune, and crushed in spirit, 
 was led a captive into the imperial camp at Halle, in Saxony, 
 the 19th of June, 1547. He knelt before the ‘throne, and 
 made an humble confession of his crime in resisting the 
 emperor; he resigned himself and all his dominions to the 
 clemency of his sovereign. As he rose to kiss the hand of 
 the emperor, Charles turned contemptuously from him and 
 ordered him to be conveyed to one of the apartments of the 
 palace as a prisoner. Most ignobly the emperor led his two 
 illustrious captives, the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave 
 of Hesse Cassel, as captives from city to city, exhibiting them 
 as proofs of his triumph, and as a warning to all others to 
 avoid their fate. Very strong jealousies had now sprung up 
 between the emperor and the pope, and they could not co- 
 operate. The emperor, consequently, undertook to settle the 
 religious differences himself. He caused twenty-six articles 
 to be drawn up as the basis of pacification, which he wished 
 both the Catholics and the Protestants to sign. The pope 
 was indignant, and the Catholics were disgusted with this in- 
 terference of the emperor in the faith of the Church, a matter 
 which in their view belonged exclusively to the pope and the 
 councils which he might convene. 
 
 The emperor, however, resolutely persevered in the en- 
 deavor to compel the Protestants to subscribe to his articles, 
 and punished severely those who refused to do so. Inhis Bur 
 gundian provinces he endeavored to establish the inquisition, 
 that all heresy might be nipped in the bud. In his zeal he 
 
180 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 quite outstripped the pope. As Julius III. had now ascer.ded 
 the pontifical throne, Charles, fearful that he might be toe 
 liberal in his policy towards the reformers, and might make 
 too many concessions, extorted from him the promise that 
 he would not introduce any reformation in the Chureh with- 
 out consulting him and obtaining his consent. Thus the pope 
 himself became but one of the dependents of Charles V., 
 and all the corruptions of the Church were sustained by the 
 imperial arm. He then, through the submissive pope, sum- 
 moned a council of Catholic divmes to meet at Trent. He 
 had arranged in his own mind the decrees which they were 
 to issue, and had entered into a treaty with the new King of 
 France, Henry IJ., by which the French monarch agreed, 
 with all the military force of his kingdom, to maintain the 
 decrees of the council of Trent, whatever they might be. 
 
 The emperor had now apparently attained all his ends. 
 He had crushed the Protestant league, vanquished the Prot- 
 estant princes, subjected the pope to his will, arranged re- 
 ligious matters according to his views, and had now assembled 
 a subservient council to ratify and confirm all he had done, 
 But with this success he had become arrogant, implacable 
 and cruel. His friends had become alienated and his enemies 
 exasperated. Even the most rigorous Catholics were alarmed 
 at his assumptions, and the pope was humiliated by his 
 haughty bearing. 
 
 Charles assembled a diet of the States of the empire at 
 Augsburg, the 26th of July, 1550. He entered the city with 
 the pomp and the pride of a conqueror, and with such an array 
 of military force as to awe the States into compliance with his 
 wishes. He then demanded of all the States of the empire an 
 agreement that they would enforce in all their dominions the 
 decrees of the council of Trent, which council was soon to be 
 convened, There is sublimity in the energy with which this 
 monarch moved, step by step, toward the accomplishment of 
 his plans. He seemed to leave no chance for failure. The 
 
-, 
 7 y .G~ 
 
 a 
 ‘ 
 
 CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION, 182 
 
 members of the diet were as obsequious as spaniels to their 
 imperious master, and watched his countenance to learn when 
 they were to say yes, and when no. 
 
 In one thing only he failed. He wished to have his son 
 Philip elected as his successor on the imperial throne, His 
 brother Ferdinand opposed him im this ambitious plan, and 
 thus emboldened the diet to declare that while the emperor 
 was living it was illegal to choose his successor, as it tended 
 to render the imperial crown hereditary. The emperor, saga- 
 cious as he was domineering, waived the prosecution of his 
 plan for the present, preparing to resume it when he had pun- 
 ished and paralyzed those who opposed. 
 
 The emperor had deposed Frederic the Elector of Saxony, 
 and placed over his dominons, Maurice, a nephew of the de 
 posed elector. Maurice had married a daughter of the Land- 
 grave of Hesse Cassel. He was a man of commanding abili. 
 ties, and as shrewd, sagacious and ambitious as the emperor 
 himself. He had been strongly inclined to the Lutheran doe 
 trines, but had been bought over to espouse the cause of 
 Charles V. by the brilliant offer of the territories of Saxony. 
 Maurice, as he saw blow after blow falling upon his former 
 friends; one prince after another ejected from his estates, 
 Protestantism crushed, and finally his own uncle and his wife's 
 father led about to grace the triumph of the conqueror; as he 
 saw the vast power to which the emperor had attained, and 
 that the liberties of the German empire were in entire sub- 
 jection to his will, his pride was. wounded, his patriotism 
 aroused, and his Protestant sympathies revived. Maurice, 
 meeting Charles V. on the field of intrigue, was Greek meete 
 ing Greek, 
 
 Maurice now began with great guile and profound sagaci- 
 ty to plot against the despotic emperor. Two circumstances 
 essentially aided him. Charles coveted the dukedoms of Par- 
 ma and Placentia in Italy, and the Duke Ottavia had been de 
 posed, Herallied his subjects and succeeded in uniting Hrance 
 
132 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 on his side, for Henry II. was alarmed at the encroachments 
 the emperor was making in Italy. A very fierce war instantly 
 blazed forth, the Duke of Parma and Henry II. on one side, 
 the pope and the emperor on the other. At the same time 
 the Turks, under the leadership of the Sultan Solyman him- 
 self, were organizing a formidable force for the invasion of 
 Hungary, which invasion would require all the energies of 
 Ferdinand, with all the forces he could raise in Austria, Hun- 
 gary and Bohemia to repel. 
 
 Next to Hungary and Bohemia, Saxony was perhaps the 
 most powerful State of the Germanic confederacy. The em- 
 peror placed full reliance upon Maurice, and the Protestants 
 in their despair would have thought of him as the very last to 
 come to their aid ; for he had marched vigorously in the arm- 
 ies of the emperor to crush the Protestants, and was occupy- 
 ing the territories of their most able and steadfast friend. Se- 
 cretly, Maurice made proposals to all the leading Protestant 
 princes of the empire, and having made every thing ready for 
 an outbreak, he entered into a treaty with the King of France, 
 who promised large subsidies and an efficient military force. 
 
 Maurice conducted these intrigues with such consummate 
 skill that the emperor had not the slightest suspicion of the 
 storm which was gathering. Every thing being matured, ear- 
 ly in April, 1552, Maurice suddenly appeared before the gates 
 of Augsburg with an army of twenty-five thousand men. At 
 the same time he issued a declaration that he had taken up 
 arms to prevent the destruction of the Protestant religion, to 
 defend the liberties of Germany which the emperor had in- 
 fringed, and to rescue his relatives from their long and unjust 
 imprisonment. The King of France and other princes issued 
 similar declarations. ‘The smothered disaffection with the em. 
 peror instantly blazed forth all over the German empire. The 
 cause of Maurice was extremely popular. The Protestants in 
 a mass, and many others, flocked to his standard. As by magic 
 _ and in a day, all was changed. The imperial towns Augsburg 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION. 123% 
 
 Nuremberg and others, threw open their gates joyfully to 
 Maurice, Whole provinces rushed to his standard. He was 
 everywhere received as the guardian of civil and religious 
 liberty. The ejected Protestant rulers and magistrates were 
 reinstated, the Protestant churches opened, the Protestant 
 preachers restored. In one month the Protestant party was 
 predominant in the German empire, and the Catholic party 
 either neutral or secretly favoring one who was humbling that 
 haughty emperor whom even the Catholics had begun to fear. 
 The prelates who were assembling at Trent, alarmed by so 
 sudden and astounding a revolution, dissolved the assembly 
 and hastened to their homes, 
 
 The emperor was at Innspruck seated in his arm chair, with 
 his limbs bandaged in flannel, enfeebled and suffering froma 
 severe attack of the gout, when the intelligence of this sud- 
 den and overwhelming reverse reached him. He was aston- 
 ished and utterly confounded. In weakness and pain, unable 
 to leave his couch, with his treasury exhausted, his armies 
 widely scattered, and so pressed by their foes that they could 
 not be concentrated from their wide dispersion, there was 
 nothing left for him but to endeavor to beguile Maurice into 
 a truce. But Maurice was as much at home in all the arts of 
 cunning as the emperor, and instead of being beguiled, con- 
 trived to entrap his antagonist. This was a new and a very 
 salutary experience for Charles. It is a very novel sensation 
 for a successful rogue to be the dupe of roguery,. 
 
 Maurice pressed on, his army gathering force at every step, 
 He entered the Tyrol, swept through all its valleys, took pos- 
 session of all its castles and its sublime fastnesses, and the blasts 
 of his bugles reverberated among the cliffs of the Alps, ever 
 sounding the charge and announcing victory, never signaling 
 a defeat. ‘The emperor was reduced to the terrible humilia- 
 tion of saving himself from capture only by flight. The em- 
 peror could hardly credit his senses when told that his con- 
 quexing foes were within two days’ march of Innspruck, and 
 
184 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 that a squadron of horse might at any hour appear ard cut off 
 his retreat. It was in the night when these appalling tidings 
 were brought to him. The tortures of the gout would not 
 allow him to mount on horseback, neither could he bear the 
 jolting in a carriage over the rough roads. It wasa dark and 
 stormy night, the 20th of May, 1552. The rain fell in tor- 
 rents, and the wind howled through the fir-trees and around 
 the crags of the Alps. Some attendants wrapped the monarch 
 in blankets, took him out into the court-yard of the palace, 
 and placed him in a litter. Attendants led the way with lan- 
 terns, and thus, through the inundated and storm-swept defiles 
 of the mountains, they fled with their helpless sovereign 
 through the long hours of the tempestuous night, not daring 
 to stop one moment lest they should hear behind them the 
 clatter of the iron hoofs of their pursuers. What a change 
 for one short month to produce! What a comment upon 
 earthly grandeur! It is well for man in the hour of most 
 exultant prosperity to be humble. He knows not how soon 
 he may fall. Instructive indeed is the apostrophe of Cardinal 
 Wolsey, illustrated as the truth he utters is by almost every 
 page of history : 
 “This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth 
 
 The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, 
 
 The third day comes a frost, a killing frost ; 
 
 And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely 
 
 His greatness is a ripening—nips his root, 
 And then he falls as I do.” 
 
 The fugitive emperor did not venture to stop for refresh- 
 ment or repose until he had reached the strong town of Vil- 
 lach in Carinthia, nearly one hundred and fifty miles west of 
 Innspruck. The troops of Maurice soon entered the city 
 which the emperor had abandoned, and the imperial palace 
 was surrendered to pillage. Heroic courage, indomitable per- 
 severance always commands respect. These are great and 
 noble qualities, though they may be exerted in a bad cause 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION. 188 
 
 The will of Charles was unconquerable. In these hours of 
 disaster, tortured with pain, driven from his palace, deserted 
 by his allies, impoverished, and borne upon his litter in hu- 
 miliating flight before his foes, he was just as determined to 
 enforce his plans as in the most brilliant hour of victory. 
 
 He sent his brother Ferdinand and other ambassadors tc 
 Passau to meet Maurice, and mediate for a settlement of the 
 difficuities. Maurice now had no need of diplomacy. His de. 
 mands were simple and reasonable. They were, that the em- 
 peror should liberate his father-in-law from captivity, tolerate 
 the Protestant religion, and grant to the German States their 
 accustomed liberty. But the emperor would not yield a sin- 
 gle point. Though his brother Ferdinand urged him to yield, 
 though his Catholic ambassadors intreated him to yield, though 
 they declared that if he did not they should be compelled to 
 abandon his cause and make the best terms for themselves 
 with the conqueror that they could, still nothing could bend 
 his inflexible will, and the armies, after the lull of a few days, 
 were again in motion. The despotism of the emperor we ab- 
 hor; but his indomitable perseverance and unconquerable en- 
 ergy are worthy of all admiration and imitation. Had they 
 but been exerted in a good cause! 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 CHARLES V. AND THE TURKISH WABS. 
 From 1552 To 1555. 
 
 THe Treaty or Passav.—TuEe EMPEROR YIELDS.—HIS CONTINUED REVERSES.—1HB 
 TOLERATION COMPROMISE.—MUTUAL DISSATISFACTION. —REMARKABLE DESPONDENOY 
 OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES.—HIS8 ADDRESS TO THE CONVENTION AT BEUSSELS.—THE 
 ConvVENT oF St. Justus.—CHARLES RETURNS TO Spain.—His Convent Lirr.—THE 
 MOOK BurRIAL.—Hi1s Deato.—His TRAITS OF CHARAOTER.—THE Kine’s COMPLIMENT 
 To TrTrAN.—THE CONDITION OF AUSTRIA.—RAPID ADVANOE OF THE TURKS.—REA- 
 SONS FOR THE INACTION OF THE CHRISTIANS.—1HE SULTAN’S METHOD OF OVERCOMING 
 DIFFIOULTIES.—THE LITTLE FORTRESS OF GUNTZ.— WHAT IT AOCOMPLISHED, 
 
 HE Turks, animated by this civil war which was raging in 
 Germany, were pressing their march upon Hungary with 
 great vigor, and the troops of Ferdinand were retiring dis- 
 comfited before the invader. Henry of France and the Duke 
 of Parma were also achieving victories in Italy endangering 
 the whole power of the emperor over those States. Ferdi- 
 nand, appalled by the prospect of the loss of Hungary, im- 
 ploringly besought the emperor to listen to terms of recon- 
 ciliation. The Catholic princes, terrified in-view of the progress 
 of the infidel, foreseeing the entire subjection of Europe to 
 the arms of the Moslem unless Christendom could combine in 
 self-defense, joined their voices with that of Ferdinand so ear- 
 nestly and in such impassioned tones, that the emperor finally, 
 though very reluctantly, gave his assent to the celebrated 
 treaty of Passau, on the 2d of August, 1552. By this pacifica- 
 tion the captives were released, freedom of conscience and of 
 worship was established, and the Protestant troops, being dis- 
 banded, were at liberty to enter into the service of Ferdinand 
 to repel the Turks. Within six months a diet was to be as 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE TURKISH WABS. 1389 
 
 sembled to attempt an amicable adjustment of all civil and re. 
 ligious difficulties. 
 
 The intrepid Maurice immediately marched, accompanied 
 by many of the Protestant princes, and at the head of a pow- 
 erful army, to repel the Mohammedan armies. Charles, re- 
 lieved from his German troubles, gathered his strength to 
 wreak revenge upon the King of France. But fortune seemed 
 to have deserted him. Defeat and disgrace accompanied his 
 march. Having penetrated the French province of Lorraine, 
 he laid siege to Metz. After losing thirty thousand men be- 
 neath its walls, he was compelled, in the depth of winter, to 
 raise the siege and retreat. His armies were everywhere 
 routed ; the Turks menaced the shores of Italy ; the pope be- 
 came his inveterate enemy, and joined France against him. 
 Maurice was struck by a bullet, and fell on the field of battle. 
 The electorate of Saxony passed into the hands of Augustus, 
 a brother of Maurice, while the former elector, Ferdinand, who 
 shortly after died, recewed some slight indemnification. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs when the promised diet was 
 summoned at Passau. It met on the 5th of February, 1555. 
 The emperor was confined with the gout at Brussels, and his 
 brother Ferdinand presided. It was a propitious hour for 
 the Protestants. Charles was sick, dejected and in adversity. 
 The better portion of the Catholics were disgusted with the 
 intolerance of the emperor, intolerance which even the more 
 conscientious popes could not countenance. Ferdinand was 
 fully aware that he could not defend his own kingdom of Hun- 
 gary from the Turks without the intervention of Protestant 
 arms. He was, therefore, warmly in favor of conciliation. 
 
 The world was not yet sufficiently enlightened to compre 
 hend the beauty ofa true toleration, entire freedom of conscience 
 and of worship. After long and very exciting debates—after 
 being again and again at the point of grasping their arms 
 anew- -they finally agreed that the Protestants should enjoy 
 the free exercise of thei~ religion wherever Protestantism had 
 
188 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 been established and recognized by the Confession of Auge 
 burg. That in all other places Protestant princes might pro- 
 hibit the Catholic religion in their States, and Catholic princes 
 prohibit the Protestant religion. But in each case the ejected 
 party was at liberty to sell their property and move without 
 molestation to some State where their religion was dominant. 
 In the free cities of the empire, where both religions were es- 
 tablished, both were to be tolerated. 
 
 Thus far, and no further, had the spirit of toleration made 
 progress in the middle of the sixteenth century. 
 
 Such was the basis of the pacification. Neither party was 
 satisfied. Each felt that it had surrendered far too much to 
 the other; and there was subsequently much disagreement 
 respecting the interpretation of some of the most important 
 articles. The pope, Paul IV., was indignant that such tolera- 
 tion had been granted to the Protestants, and threatened the 
 emperor and his brother Ferdinand of Austria with excommu- 
 nication if they did not declare these decrees null and void 
 throughout their dominions. At the same time he entered 
 into correspondcnce with Henry IL. of France to form a new 
 holy league for the defense of the papal church against the 
 inroads of heresy. 
 
 And now occurred one of the most extraordinary eventg 
 which history has recorded. Charles V., who had been the 
 most enterprising and ambitious prince in Europe, and the 
 most insatiable in his thirst for power, became the victim of 
 the most extreme despondency. Harassed by the perplexities 
 which pressed in upon him from his widely-extended realms, 
 annoyed by the undutiful and haughty conduct of his son, who 
 was endeavoring to wrest authority from his father by taking 
 advantage of all his misfortunes, and perhaps inheriting a mel- 
 ancholy temperament from his mother, who died in the glooms 
 of insanity, and, more than all, mortified and wounded by so 
 sudden and so vast a reverse of fortune, in which all his plans 
 seemed to have failed—thus oppressed, humbled, despondent. 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE TURKISH WABS8. 139 
 
 he retired in disgust to his room, indulged in the most fretful 
 temper, admitted none but his sister and a few confidential 
 servants to his presence, and so entirely neglected all business 
 as to pass nine months without signing a single paper. 
 
 While the emperor was in this melancholy state, his insane 
 mother, who had lingered for years in delirious gloom, died on 
 the 4th of April, 1555. It will be remembered that Charles 
 had inherited valuable estates in the Low Countries from his 
 marriage with the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy. Hav- 
 ing resolved to abdicate all his power and titles in favor of his 
 son, he convened the States of the Low Countries at Brussels 
 on the 25th of October, 1555. Charles was then but fifty-five 
 years of age, and should have been in the strength of vigorous 
 manhood. But he was prematurely old, worn down with care, 
 toil and disappointment. He attended the assembly accom- 
 panied by his son Philip. Tottering beneath infirmities, he 
 leaned upon the shoulders of a friend for support, and ad- 
 dressed the assembly in a long and somewhat boastful speech, 
 enumerating all the acts of his administration, his endeavors, 
 his long and weary journeys, his sleepless care, his wars, and, 
 above all, his victories. In conclusion he said: 
 
 “While my health enabled me to perform my duty, I 
 cheerfully bore the burden; but as my constitution is now 
 broken by an incurable distemper, and my infirmities admonish 
 me to retire, the happiness of my people affects me more than 
 the ambition of reigning. Instead of a decrepid old man, tot- 
 tering on the brink of the grave, I transfer your allegiance to 
 a sovereign in the prime of life, vigilant, sagacious, active and 
 enterprising. With respect to myself, if 1 have committed 
 any error in the course of a long administration, forgive and 
 impute it to my weakness, not to my intention. I shall ever 
 retain a grateful sense of your fidelity and attachment, ana 
 your welfare shall be the great object of my prayers to Al- 
 mighty God, to whom I now consecrate the remainder of my 
 days.” 
 
140 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA. 
 
 Then turning to his son Philip, he said: 
 
 “‘ And you, my son, let the grateful recollection of this day 
 redouble your care and affection for your people. Other 
 sovereigns may rejoice in having given birth to their sons and 
 in leaving their States to them after their death. But I am 
 anxious to enjoy, during my life, the double satisfaction of feel. 
 ing that you are indebted to me both for your birth and 
 power. Few monarchs will follow my example, and in the 
 lapse of ages I have scarcely found one whom I myself would 
 imitate. The resolution, therefore, which I have taken, and 
 which I now carry into execution, will be justified only by 
 your proving yourself worthy of it. And you will alone ren- 
 der yourself worthy of the extraordinary confidence which I 
 now repose in you by a zealous protection of your religion, 
 and by maintaining the purity of the Catholic faith, and by 
 governing with justice and moderation. And may you, if ever 
 you are desirous of retiring like myself to the tranquillity of 
 private life, enjoy the inexpressible happiness of having such a 
 son, that you may resign your crown to him with the same 
 satisfaction as I now deliver mine to you.” 
 
 The emperor was here entirely overcome by emotion, and 
 embracing Philip, sank exhausted into his chair. The affecting 
 scene moved all the audience to tears. Soon after this, with 
 the same formalities the emperor resigned the crown of Spain 
 to his son, reserving to himself, of all his dignities and vast 
 revenues, only a pension of about twenty thousand dollars a 
 year. For some months he remained in the Low Countries, 
 and then returned to Spain to seek an asylum in a convent 
 there. 
 
 When in the pride of his power he once, while journeying 
 in Spain, came upon the convent of St. Justus in Estrama- 
 dura, situated in a lovely vale, secluded from ail the bustle 
 of life. The massive pile was embosomed among the hills; 
 forests spread widely around, and a beautiful rivulet murmured 
 by its walls. As the emperor gazed upon the enchanting scene 
 
CHABLES V. AND THE TURKISH WABS. 141] 
 
 of solitude and silence he exclaimed, “ Behold a lovely retreat 
 for another Diocletian !” 
 
 The picture of the convent of St. Justus had ever remained 
 in his mind, and perhaps had influenced him, when over- 
 whelmed with care, to seek its peaceful retirement. Embark- 
 ing in a ship for Spain, he landed at Loredo on the 28th of 
 September, 1556. As soon as his feet touched the soil of his 
 native land he prostrated himself to the earth, kissed the 
 ground, and said, 
 
 “* Naked came I into the world, and naked I return to 
 thee, thou common mother of mankind. To thee I dedicate 
 my body, as the only return I can make for all the benefits 
 conferred on me.” 
 
 Then kneeling, and holding the crucifix before him, with 
 tears streaming from his eyes, and all unmindful of the at- 
 tendants who were around, he breathed a fervent prayer of 
 gratitude for the past, and commended himself to God for the 
 future. By slow and easy stages, as he was very infirm, he 
 journeyed to the vale of Estramadura, near Placentia, and 
 entered upon his silent, monastic life. 
 
 His apartments consisted of six small cells. The stone 
 walls were whitewashed, and the rooms furnished with the 
 utmost frugality. Within the walls of the convent, and com- 
 municating with the chapel, there was a small garden, which 
 the emperor had tastefully arranged with shrubbery and 
 flowers. Here Charles passed the brief remainder of his days. 
 ie amused himself with laboring in the garden with his own 
 hands. He regularly attended worship in the chapel twice 
 every day, and took part in the service, manifestly with the 
 greatest sincerity and devotion. 
 
 The emperor had not a cultivated mind, and was not fona 
 of either literary or scientific pursuits. To beguile the hours 
 he amused himself with tools, carving toys for children, and 
 ingenious puppets and automata to astonish the peasants. For 
 @ time he was very happy in his new employment. After se 
 
142 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 stormy a life, the perfect repose and freedom from care which 
 he enjoyed in the convent, seemed to him the perfection of 
 bliss. But soon the novelty wore away, and his constitutional 
 despondency returned with accumulated power. 
 
 His dejection now assumed the form of religious melan- 
 choly. He began to devote every moment of his time to de 
 votional reading and prayer, esteeming all amusements and 
 all employments sinful which interfered with his spiritual ex- 
 ercises. He expressed to the Bishop of Toledo his determina- 
 tion to devote, for the rest of his days, every moment to the 
 service of God. With the utmost scrupulousness he carried 
 out this plan. He practiced rigid fasts, and conformed to all 
 the austerity of convent discipline. He renounced his pen- 
 sion, and sitting at the abstemious table with the monks, de 
 clined seeing any other company than that of the world- 
 renouncing priests and friars around him. He scourged him- 
 self with the most cruel severity, till his back was lacerated 
 with the whip. He whole soul seemed to crave suffering, in 
 expiation for his sins. His ingenuity was tasked to devise 
 new methods of mortification and humiliation. Ambition had 
 ever been the ruling passion of his soul, and now he was am- 
 bitious to suffer more, and to abuse himself more than any 
 other mortal had ever done. 
 
 Goaded by this impulse, he at last devised the scheme of 
 solemnizing his own faneral, All the melancholy arrange- 
 ments for his burial were made; the coffin provided ; the em- 
 _peror reclined upon his bed as dead ; he was wrapped in his 
 shroud, and placed in his coffin. The monks, and ail the in- 
 mates of the convent attended in mourning ; the bells tolled ; 
 requiems were chanted by the choir; the funeral service was 
 read, and then the emperor, as if dead, was placed in the 
 tomb of the chapel, and the congregation retired. The mon- 
 arch, after remaining some time in his coffin to impress him- 
 self with the sense of what it is to die, and be buried, rose 
 from his tomb, kneeled before the altar for some time ‘n wor 
 
CHABLES VY. AND THE TURKISH WABS. 143 
 
 ship, and then returned to his cell to pass the night in deep 
 meditation and prayer. 
 
 The shock and the chill of this solemn scene were too 
 much for the old monarch’s feeble frame and weakened mind. 
 He was seized with a fever, and in a few days breathed his 
 last, in the 59th year of his age. He had spent a little over 
 three years in the convent. The life of Charles V. was a sad 
 one. Through all his days he was consumed by unsatisfied 
 ambition, and he seldom enjoyed an hour of contentment. To 
 his son he said— 
 
 ““T leave you a heavy burden; for, since my shoulders 
 ' have borne it, I have not passed one day exempt from dis- 
 -quietude.” 
 
 Indeed it would seem that there could have been but little 
 happiness for anybody in those dark days of feudal oppressiop 
 and of incessant wars. Ambition, intrigue, duplicity, reigned 
 over the lives of princes and nobles, while the masses of the 
 people were ever trampled down by oppressive lords and con- 
 vending armies, Europe was a field of fire and blood. The 
 simeter of the Turk spared neither mother, maiden nor babe. 
 Cities and villages were mercilessly burned, cottages set in 
 flames, fields of grain destroyed, and whole populations car- 
 ried into slavery, where they miserably died. And the ravy- 
 ages of Christian warfare, duke against duke, baron against 
 baron, king agaimst king, were hardly less cruel and desolat- 
 ing. Balls from opposing batteries regard not the helpless 
 ones in their range. Charging squadrons must trample down 
 with iron hoof all who are in their way. The wail of misery 
 rose from every portion of Europe. The world has surely 
 made some progress since that day. 
 
 There was but very little that was loveable in the charao 
 ter of Charles, and he seems to have had but very few friends, 
 So intense ana earnest was he in the prosecution of the plans 
 of grandeur which engrossed his soul, that he was seldom 
 known to smile. He had many of the attributes of greatness 
 
 G 
 
144 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 indomitable energy and perseverance, untiring industry, con 
 prehensive grasp of thought and capability of superintend.- 
 ing the minutest details. He had, also, a certain fanatic con- 
 scientiousness about him, like that whieh actuated Saul of 
 Tarsus, when, holding the garments of those who stoned the 
 martyr, he “verily thought that he was doing God ser- 
 vice.” 
 
 Many anecdotes are told illustrative of certain estimable 
 traits in his character. When a boy, like other boys, he was 
 not fond of study, and being very self-willed, he would not 
 yield to the entreaties of his tutors. He consequently had but 
 an imperfect education, which may in part account for his 
 excessive illiberality, and for many of his stupendous follies. 
 The mind, enlarged by liberal culture, is ever tolerant. He 
 afterwards regretted exceedingly this neglect of his early 
 studies. At Genoa, on some public occasion, he was ad- 
 dressed in a Latin oration, not one word of which he under 
 stood. | 
 
 “T now feel,” he said, “the justice of my preceptor 
 Adrian’s remonstrances, who frequently used to predict that 
 I should be punished for the thoughtlessness of my youth.” 
 
 He was fond of the society of learned men, and treated 
 them with great respect. Some of the nobles complained 
 that the emperor treated the celebrated historian, Guicciar- 
 dini, with much more respect than he did them. He re 
 plied— 
 
 ‘“‘T can, by a word, create a hundred nobles; but God 
 alone can create a Guicciardini,” 
 
 He greatly admired the genius of Titian, and considered 
 him one of the most resplendent ornaments of his empire. 
 He knew full well that Titian would be remembered long 
 after thousands of the proudest grandees of his empire had 
 sunk into oblivion. He loved to go into the studio of the 
 Ulustrious painter, and watch the creations of beauty as they 
 rose beneath his pencil. One day Titian accidentally dropped 
 

 
 THE QUAY, VIENNA 
 
 Austria. 
 

 
CHARLES V. AND THE TUBKISH WABS., 145 
 
 his brush. The emperor picked it up, and, presenting it to 
 the artist, said gracefully— . 
 
 “Titian is worthy of being served by an emperor.” 
 
 Charles V. never, apparently, inspired the glow of affee 
 tion, or an emotion of enthusiasm in any bosom. He accom- 
 plished some reforms in the German empire, and the only 
 interest his name now excites is the interest necessarily in- 
 volved in the sublime drama of his long and eventful reign. 
 
 It is now necessary to retrace our steps for a few years, 
 that we may note the vicissitudes of Austria, while the em- 
 pire was passing through the scenes we have narrated. 
 
 Ferdinand I., the brother of Charles V., who was left alone 
 m the government of Austria, was the second son of Philip 
 the Handsome and Joanna of Spain. His birth was illustrious, 
 the Emperor Maximilian being his paternal grandfather, and 
 Ferdinand and Isabella being his grandparents on his mother’s 
 side. He was born in Spain, March 10, 1503, and received a 
 respectable education. His manners were courteous and win- 
 ning, and he was so much more popular than Charles as quite 
 to excite the jealousy of his imperious and imperial spirit. 
 Charles, upon attaining the throne, ceded to his brother the 
 Austrian territories, which then consisted of four small prov- 
 inces, Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, with the Tyrol. 
 
 Ferdinand married Ann, princess of Hungary and Bohemia, 
 The death of his wife’s brother Louis made her the heiress of 
 those two crowns, and thus secured to Ferdinand the magni- 
 ficent dowry of the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia. But 
 possession of the scepter of those realms was by no means a 
 sinecure. The Turkish power, which had been for many years 
 Increasing with the most alarming rapidity and had now ae- 
 quired appalling strength, kept Hungary, and even the Aus- 
 trian States, in constant and terrible alarm. 
 
 The Turks, sweeping over Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Syria, 
 all Asia Minor, crossing the straits and inundating Greece, 
 fierce and semi-savage, with just civilization enough to organ 
 
246 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 ize and guide with skill their wolf-like ferocity, were now press 
 ing Europe in Spain, in Italy, and were crowding, in wave 
 after wave of invasion, up the valley of the Danube. They 
 had created a navy which was able to cope with the most pow- 
 erful fleets of Europe, and island after island of the Mediter- 
 ranean was yielding to their sway. 
 
 In 1520, Solyman, called the Magnificent, overran Bosnia, 
 and advancing to the Danube, besieged and captured Belgrade, 
 which strong fortress was considered the only reliable barrier 
 against his encroachments. At the same time his fleet took 
 possession of the island of Rhodes. After some slight reverses, 
 which the Turks considered merely embarrassments, they re- 
 sumed their aggressions, and Solyman, in 1525, again crossing 
 the Danube, entered Hungary with an army of two hundred 
 thousand men. Louis, who was then King of Hungary, brother 
 of the wife of Ferdinand, was able to raise an army of but 
 thirty thousand to meet him. With more courage than dis- 
 cretion, leading this feeble band, he advanced to resist the foe, 
 They met on the plains of Mohatz. The Turks made short 
 work of it. Ina few hours, with their cimeters they hewed 
 down nearly the whole Christian army. The remnant escaped 
 as lambs from wolves. The king, in his heavy armor, spur- 
 red his horse into a stream to cross in his flight. In attempt- 
 ing to ascend the bank, the noble charger, who had borne his 
 master bravely through the flood, fell back upon his rider, and 
 the dead body of the king was afterward picked up by the 
 Turks, covered with the mud of the morass. All Hungary 
 would now have fallen into the hands of the Turks had not 
 Solyman been recalled by a rebellion in one of his own prov- 
 inces. 
 
 It was this event which placed the crowns of Bohemia and 
 Hungary on the brow of Ferdinand, and by annexing those 
 two kingdoms to the Austrian States, elevated Austria to be 
 one of the first powers in Europe. Ferdinand, thus strength- 
 ened sent ambassadors to Constantinople to demand the restitu 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE TURKISH WARS. 14} 
 
 tion of Belgrade and other important towns which the Turks 
 still held in Hungary. 
 
 “ Belgrade !? exclaimed the haughty sultan, when he heard 
 the demand. “Go tell your master that I am collecting troops 
 and preparing for my expedition. I will suspend at my neck 
 the keys of my Hungarian fortresses, and will bring them to 
 that plain of Mohatz where Louis, by the aid of Providence, 
 found defeat and a grave. Let Ferdinand meet and conquer 
 me, and take them, after severing my head from my body! 
 But if I find him not there, I will seek him at Buda or follow 
 him to Vienna.” 
 
 Soon after this Solyman crossed the Danube with three 
 hundred thousand men, and advancing to Mohatz, encamped 
 for several days upon the plain, with all possible display o1 
 Oriental pomp and magnificence. Thus proudly he threw 
 down the gauntlet of defiance. But there was no champion 
 there to take it up. Striking his tents, and spreading his ban- 
 ners to the breeze, in unimpeded march he ascended the Dan- 
 ube two hundred miles from Belgrade to the city of Pest. 
 And here his martial bands made hill and vale reverberate the 
 bugle blasts of victory. Pest, the ancient capital of Hungary, 
 rich in all the wealth of those days, with a population of some 
 sixty thousand, was situated on the left bank of the river. 
 Upon the opposite shore, connected by a fine bridge three 
 quarters of a mile in width, was the beautiful and opulent city 
 of Buda. In possession of these two maritime towns, then 
 perhaps the most important in Hungary, the Turks rioted for 
 a few days in luxury and all abominable outrage and indul- 
 gence, and then, leaving a strong garrison to hold the for- 
 tresses, they continued their march. Pressing resistlessly on- 
 ward some hundred miles further, taking all the towns by the 
 way, on both sides of the Danube, they came to the city of 
 Raab. 
 
 It seems incredible that there could have been such an un 
 obstructed march of the Turks, through the very heart of 
 
148 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Hungary. But the Emperor Charles V. was at that time in 
 Italy, all engrossed in the fiercest warfare there. ‘Throughout 
 the German empire the Catholics and the Protestants were 
 engaged in a conflict which absorbed all other thoughts. And 
 the Protestants resolutely refused to assist in repelling the 
 Turks while the sword of Catholic vengeance was suspended 
 over them. From Raab the invading army advanced some | 
 hundred miles further to the very walls of Vienna. Ferdi- 
 nand, conscious of his inability to meet the foe in the open field, 
 was concentrating all his available strength to defend his capital. 
 
 At Cremnitz the Turks met with the first serious show of 
 resistance. ‘The fortress was strong, and the garrison, inspired 
 by the indomitable energy and courage of their commandant, 
 Nicholas, Count of Salm, for a month repelled every assault 
 of the foe. Day after day and night after night the inces- 
 sant bombardment continued ; the walls were crumbled by the 
 storm of shot; column after column of the Turks rushed to 
 the assault, but all in vain. The sultan, disappointed and en- 
 raged, made one last desperate effort, but his strong columns, 
 thinned, mangled and bleeding, were compelled to retire in 
 utter discomfiture. 
 
 Winter was now approaching. Reinforcements were also 
 hastening from Vienna, from Bohemia, and from other parts 
 of the German empire. Solyman, having devastated the coun- 
 try around him, and being all unprepared for the storms of 
 winter, was compelled to retire. He struck his tents, and 
 tdowly and sullenly descended the Danube, wreaking diaboli- 
 cal vengeance upon the helpless peasants, killing, burning and 
 destroying. Leaving a strong garrison to hold what remained 
 of Buda and Pest, he carried thousands with him into ecaptiv: 
 ity, where, after years of woe, they passed into the grave, 
 
 “ Tis terrible to rouse the lion, 
 Dreadful to cross the tiger’s path; 
 But the most terrible of terrors, 
 Is man himself in his wild wrath.” 
 
CHARLES V. AND THE TURKISH WABSB. 149 
 
 Solyman spent two years in making preparation for another 
 march to Vienna, resolved to wipe out the disgrace of his last 
 defeat by capturing all the Austrian States, and of then spread- 
 ing the terror of his arms far and wide through the empire ot 
 Germany. The energy with which he acted may be inferred 
 from one well authenticated anecdote illustrative of his char- 
 acter. He had ordered a bridge to be constructed across the 
 Drave. The engineer who had been sent to accomplish the 
 task, after a careful survey, reported that a bridge could not 
 be constructed at that point. Solyman sent him a linen cord 
 with this message : 
 
 “The sultan, thy master, commands thee, without consid- 
 eration of the difficulties, to complete the bridge over the 
 Drave. If thou doest it not, on his arrival he will have thee 
 strangled with this cord.” 
 
 With a large army, thoroughly drilled, and equipped with 
 all the enginery of war, the sultan commenced his campaign. 
 His force was so stupendous and so incumbered with the ne- 
 cessary baggage and heavy artillery, that it required a march of 
 sixty days to pass from Constantinople to Belgrade. Ferdi- 
 nand, in inexpressible alarm, sent ambassadors to Solyman, 
 hoping to avert the storm by conciliation and concessions. 
 This indication of weakness but increased the arrogance of the 
 Turk, 
 
 He embarked his artillery on the Danube in a flotilla or 
 three thousand vessels. Then crossing the Save, which at 
 Belgrade flows into the Danube, he left the great central river 
 of Europe on his right, and marching almost due west through 
 Sclavonia, approached the frontiers of Styria, one of the most 
 important provinces of the Austrian kingdom, by the shortest 
 route. Still it was along march of some two hundred miles 
 Among the defiles of the Illyrian mountains, through which 
 he was compelled to pass in his advance to Vienna, he came 
 upon the little fortress of Guntz, garrisoned only by eight hun- 
 dred men. Solyman expected to sweep this slight annoyance 
 
150 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 away as he would brush a fly from his face. He sent his ad 
 vance guard to demolish the impudent obstacle; then, sur 
 prised by the resistance, he pushed forward a few more bat- 
 talions ; then, enraged at the unexpected strength developed 
 he ordered to the attack what he deemed an overwhelming 
 force; and then, in astonishment and fury, impelled against 
 the fortress the combined strength of his whole army. But 
 the little crag stood, like a rock opposing the flooding tide. 
 The waves of war rolled on and dashed against impenetrable 
 and immovable granite, and were scattered back in bloody 
 spray. The fortress commanded the pass, and swept it clean 
 with an unintermitted storm of shot and balls. For twenty- 
 eight days the fortress resisted the whole force of the Turk- 
 ish army, and prevented it from advancing a mile. This 
 check gave the terrified inhabitants of Vienna, and of the sur- 
 rounding region, time to unite for the defense of the capital, 
 The Protestants and the Catholics having settled their diffi- 
 culties by the pacification of Ratisbon, as we have before nar- 
 rated, combined all their energies ; the pope sent his choicest 
 troops; all the ardent young men of the German empire, 
 from the ocean to the Alps, rushed to the banners of the cross, 
 and one hundred and thirty thousand men, including thirty 
 thousand’ mounted horsemen, were speedily gathered within 
 and around the walls of Vienna. 
 
 Thus thwarted in his plans, Solyman found himself com- 
 pelled to retreat ingloriously, by the same path through which 
 he had advanced. Thus Christendom was relieved of this ter- 
 rible menace. Though the Turks were still in possession of 
 Hungary, the allied troops of the empire strangely dispersed 
 without attempting to regain the kingdom from their domina 
 tion. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PERBDINAND I1.—HIS WARS AND INTRIGUES 
 From 16555 To 1562. 
 
 foun oF Tapour.—Tue InsTaBitity or Compacts.—THEr f£uLTAN’s DEMANDS.—-A 
 Reign oF Wazk.—Powerrs AND Duties or THE Monasnons oF BonEmia.—THE 
 Dret.—Tue Kine’s DsEsIRE TO ORUSH PROTESTANTISM.—THE ENTRANCE TO 
 PraGuE.—TERROR OF THE INHABITANTS.—THE Kine’s CONDITIONS.—THE BLOODY 
 Diezt.—DIsorPLinary MEASURES.—THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ORDER OF JESUITS.— 
 ABDICATION OF CHARLES V. IN FAVOR OF FERDINAND.—POWER OF THE PoPpE.— 
 Paut IV.—A QUIET BUT POWERFUL BLow.—THE PrRoeRESS OF THE REFORMERS. 
 —ATTEMPTS TO RECONCILE THE PROTESTANTS.—THE UNSUOORSSFUL ASSEMBLY. 
 
 1B gspaate G all the wars with the Turks, a Transylvanian 
 
 count, John of Tapoli, was disputing Ferdinand’s right 
 to the throne of Hungary and claiming it for himself. He 
 even entered into negotiations with the Turks, and codéper- 
 ated with Solyman in his invasion of Hungary, having the 
 promise of the sultan that he should be appointed king of the 
 realm as soon as it was brought in subjection to Turkey. The 
 Turks had now possession of Hungary, and the sultan invested 
 John of Tapoli with the sovereignty of the kingdom, in the 
 presence of a brilliant assemblage of the officers of his army 
 and of the Hungarian nobles. 
 
 The last discomfiture and retreat of Solyman encouraged 
 Ferdinand to redoubled exertions to reconquer Hungary from 
 the combined forces of the Turks and his Transylvanian rival. 
 Several years passed away in desultory, indecisive warfare, 
 while John held his throne as tributary king to the sultan. 
 At last Ferdinand, finding that he could not resist their united 
 strength, and John becoming annoyed by the exactions of his 
 Turkish master, they agreed to a compromise, by which John, 
 who was aged, childless and infirm, was to remain king of als 
 
152 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 that part of Hungary which he held until he died; and the 
 whole kingdom was then to revert to Ferdinand and his heirs. 
 But it was agreed that shoud John marry and have a son, that 
 son should be viceroy, or, as the title then was, univode, of his 
 father’s hereditary domain of Transylvania, having no control 
 over any portion of Hungary proper. 
 
 Somewhat to the disappointment of Ferdinand, the old 
 monarch immediately married a young bride. A son was 
 born to them, and in fourteen days after his birth the father 
 died of a stroke of apoplexy. The child was entitled to the 
 viceroyship of Transylvania, while all the rest of Hungary was 
 to pass unincumbered to Ferdinand. But Isabella, the ambi- 
 tious young mother, who had married the decrepit monarch 
 that she might enjoy wealth and station, had no intention that 
 her babe should be less of a king than his father was. She 
 was the daughter of Sigismond, King of Poland, and relying 
 upon the support of her regal father she claimed the crown of 
 Hungary for her boy, in defiance of the solemn compact. In 
 - that age of chivalry a young and beautiful woman could eas- 
 ily find defenders whatever might be her claims. Isabella soon 
 rallied around her banner many Hungarian nobles, and a large 
 number of adventurous knights from Poland. 
 
 Under her influence a large party of nobles met, chose the 
 babe their king, and crowned him, under the name of Stephen, 
 with a great display of military and religious pomp. They 
 then conveyed him and his mother to the strong castle of 
 Buda and dispatched an embassy to the sultan at Constanti- 
 nople, avowing homage to him, as their feudal lord, and im- 
 ploring his immediate and vigorous support. 
 
 Ferdinand, thus defrauded, and conscious of his inability to 
 rescue the crown from the united forces of the Hungarian 
 partisans of Stephen, and from the Turks, condescended also te 
 send a message to the sultan, offering to hold the crown as his 
 fief and to pay to the Porte the same tribute which John had 
 paid, if the sultan would support his claim. The imperious 
 
FERDINAND I.—HIS WABS AND INTRIGUBES. 158 
 
 Turk, knowing that he could depose the baby king at his pleas- 
 ure, insultingly rejected the proposals which Ferdinand had 
 humiliated himself in advancing. He returned in answer, that 
 he demanded, as the price of peace, not only that Ferdinand 
 should renounce all claim whatever to the crown of Hungary, 
 but that he should also acknowledge the Austrian territories 
 as under vassalage to the Turkish empire, and pay tribute ac- 
 cordingly. 
 
 Ferdinand, at the same time that he sent his embassy tc 
 Constantinople, without waiting fora reply dispatched an army 
 into Hungary, which reached Buda and besieged Isabella and 
 her son in the citadel. 
 
 He pressed the siege with such vigor that Isabella must 
 have surrendered had not an army of Turks come to her res- 
 cue. The-Austrian troops were defeated and dispersed. The 
 sultan himself soon followed with a still larger army, took pos- 
 session of the city, secured the person of the queen and the 
 mfant prince, and placed a garrison of ten thousand janissaries 
 in the citadel. The Turkish troops spread in all directions, 
 establishing themselves in towns, castles, fortresses, and set- 
 ting at defiance all Ferdinand’s efforts to dislodge them. These 
 events occurred during the reign of the Emperor Charles V. 
 The resources of Ferdinand had become so exhausted that he 
 was compelled, while affairs were in this state, in the year 
 1545, ten years before the abdication of the emperor, to im- 
 plore of Solyman a suspension of arms. 
 
 The haughty sultan reluctantly consented to a truce of 
 five years upon condition that Ferdinand would pay him an 
 annua! tribute of about sixty thousand dollars, and become 
 feudatory of the Porte. To these humiliating conditions Fer- 
 dinand felt compelled to assent. Solyman, thus relieved from 
 any trouble on the part of Ferdinand, compelled the queen to 
 renounce to himself all right which either she or her son had 
 to the throne. And now for many years we have nothing but 
 a weary record of intrigues, assassinations, wars and woes 
 
154 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Miserable Hungary was but a field of blood. There were 
 three parties, Ferdinand, Stephen and Solyman, all alike ready 
 to be guilty of any inhumanity or to perpetrate any perfidy in 
 the accomplishment of their plans. Ferdinand with his armies 
 held one portion of Hungary, Solyman another, and Stephen, 
 with his strong partisans another. Bombardment succeeded 
 bombardment ; cities and provinces were now overrun by one 
 set of troops and now by another; the billows of war surged 
 to and fro incessantly, and the wail of the widow and the cry 
 of the orphan ascended by day and by night to the ear of 
 God. 
 In 1556 the Turks again invested Stephen with the gov- 
 ernment of that large portion of Hungary which they held, 
 including Transylvania. Ferdinand still was in possession of 
 several important fortresses, and of several of the western dis- 
 tricts of Hungary bordering on the Austrian States. Isabella, 
 annoyed by her subjection to the Turks, made propositions to 
 Ferdinand for a reconciliation, and a truce was agreed upon 
 which gave the land rest for a few years. 
 
 While these storms were sweeping over Hungary, events 
 of scarcely less importance were transpiring in Bohemia. This 
 kingdom was an elective monarchy, and usually upon the death 
 of a king the fiercest strife ensued as to who should be his sue- 
 cessor. The elected monarch, on receiving the crown, was 
 obliged to recognize the sovereignty of the people as having 
 chosen him for their ruler, and he promised to govern accord- 
 ing to the ancient constitution of the kingdom. The monarch, 
 however, generally found no difficulty in surrounding himself 
 with such strong supporters as to secure the election of his 
 son or heir, and frequently he had his successor chosen before 
 his death. Thus the monarchy, though nominally elective, was 
 in its practical operation essentially hereditary. 
 
 The authority of the crown was quite limited. The mon- 
 arch was only intrusted with so much power as the proud 
 nobles were willing to surrender to one of their number whom 
 
FERDINAND I.—HIS WARS AND INTRIGUES. 158 
 
 they appointed chief, whose superiority they reluctantly ac. 
 knowledged, and against whom they were very frequently in- 
 volved in wars. In those days the people had hardly a recog. 
 nized existence. ‘The nobles met in a congress ealled a diet, 
 and authorized their elected chief, the king, to impose taxes, 
 raise troops, declare war and institute laws accurding to their 
 will. These diets were differently composed ~nder different 
 reigns, and privileged cities were sometimes authorized to send 
 deputies whom they selected from the most illustrious of their 
 citizens. The king usually convoked the diets; but in those 
 stormy times of feuds, conspiracies and wars, there was hardly 
 any general rule. The nobles, displeased at some act of the 
 king, would themselves, through some one or more of their 
 number, summon a diet and organize resistance. The num- 
 bers attending such an irregular body were of course very va 
 rious, There appear to have been diets of the empire com- 
 posed of not more than half a dozen individuals, and others 
 where as many hundreds were assembled. Sometimes the 
 meetings were peaceful, and again tumultuous with the clash- 
 ing of arms. 
 
 In Bohemia the conflict between the Catholics and the re. 
 formers had raged with peculiar acrimony, and the reformers 
 in that kingdom had become a very numerous and influential 
 body. Ferdinand was anxious to check the progress of the 
 Reformation, and he exerted all the power he could command 
 to defend and maintain Catholic supremacy. For ten years 
 Ferdinand was absent from Bohemia, all his energies being 
 absorbed by the Hungarian war. He was anxious to weaken 
 the power of the nobles in Bohemia. There was ever, in those 
 days, either an open or a smothered conflict between the king 
 and the nobles, the monarch striving to grasp more power, 
 the nobles striving to keep him in subjection to them. Ferdie 
 nand attempted to disarm the nobles by sending for all the 
 artillery of the kingdom, professing that he needed it to carry 
 on his war with the Turks. But the wary nobles held on to 
 
156 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 their artillery. He then was guilty of the folly of hunting up 
 some old exploded compacts, in virtue of which he declared 
 that Bohemia was not an elective but a hereditary monarchy, 
 and that he, as hereditary sovereign, held the throne for him 
 self and his heirs. 
 
 This announcement spread a flame of indignation through 
 all the castles of Bohemia. The nobles rallied, called a diet, 
 passed strong resolutions, organized an army, and adopted 
 measures for vigorous resistance. But Ferdinand was pre- 
 pared for all these demonstrations. His Hungarian truce en- 
 abled him to march a strong army on Bohemia. The party 
 in power has always numerous supporters from those who, 
 being in office, will lose their dignities by revolution. The 
 king summoned all the well affected to repair to his standards, 
 threatening condign punishment to all who did not give this 
 proof of loyalty. Noblesand knights in great numbers flocked 
 to his encampment. With menacing steps his battalions strode 
 on, and triumphantly entered Prague, the capital city, situated 
 in the very heart of the kingdom. 
 
 The indignation in the city was great, but the king was 
 too strong to be resisted, and he speedily quelled all move- 
 ments of tumult. Prague, situated upon the steep and craggy 
 banks of the Moldau, spanning the stream, and with its antique 
 dwellings rising tier above tier upon the heights, is one of the 
 most grand and imposing capitals of Europe. About one 
 hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants crowd its narrow 
 streets and massive edifices. Castles, fortresses, somber con- 
 vents and the Gothic palaces of the old Bohemian monarchs, 
 occupying every picturesque locality, as gray with age as the 
 eternal crags upon which they stand, and exhibiting every fan- 
 tastic variety of architecture, present an almost unrivaled as- 
 pect of beauty and of grandeur. The Palace on the Hill alone 
 is larger than the imperial palace at Vienna, containing over 
 four hundred apartments, some of them being rooms of mag 
 nificent dimensions. The cathedral within the precincts of this 
 
VERDINAND I.-~-HIS WARS AND INTRIGUES. 1387 
 
 palace occupied more than one hundred and fifty years in its 
 erection. 
 
 Ferdinand, with the iron energy and determined will of an 
 enraged, successful despot, stationed his troops at the gates, 
 the bridges and at every commanding position, and thus toox 
 military possession of the city. The inhabitants, overawed and 
 helpless, were in a state of terror. The emperor summoned 
 six hundred of the most influential of the citizens to his pal- 
 ace, including all who possessed rank or office or wealth. 
 Tremblingly they came. As soon as they had entered, tha 
 gates were closed and guarded, and they were all made pris. 
 oners. The king then, seated upon his throne, in his royal 
 robes, and with his armed officers around him, ordered the 
 captives like culprits to be led before him. Sternly he charged 
 them with treason, and demanded what excuse they had to 
 offer. They were powerless, and their only hope was in self 
 abasement. One, speaking in the name of the rest, said : 
 
 “We will not presume to enter into any defense of our 
 conduct with our king and master. We cast ourselves upon 
 his royal mercy.” 
 
 They then all simultaneously threw themselves upon their 
 knees, imploring his pardon. The king allowed them to re- 
 main for some time in the* posture, that he might enjoy their 
 humiliation. He then ordered his officers to conduct them 
 into the hall of justice, and detain them there until he had 
 decided rvspecting their punishment. For some hours they 
 were kept in this state of suspense. He then informed them, 
 that out of his great clemency he had decided to pardon them 
 on the following conditions. 
 
 They were to surrender all their constitutional privileges, 
 whatever they were, into the hands of the king, and be satis- 
 fied with whatever privileges he might condescend to confer 
 upon them. They were to bring all their artillery, muskets 
 and ammunition to the palace, and surrender them to his 
 officers; all the revenues of the city, together with a tax upon 
 
158 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 malt and beer, were to be paid into his hands for his disposai, 
 and all their vassals, and their property of every kind, they 
 were to resign to the king and to his heirs, whom they were 
 to acknowledge as the hereditary successors to the throne of 
 Bohemia. Upon these conditions the king promised to spare 
 the rebellious city, and to pardon all the offenders, excepting 
 a few of the most prominent, whom he was determined to 
 punish with such severity as to prove an effectual warning to 
 all others. | 
 
 The prisoners were terrified into the immediate ratification 
 of these hard terms, They were then all released, excepting 
 forty, who were reserved for more rigorous punishment. In 
 the same manner the king sent a summons to all the towns 
 of the kingdom ; and by the same terrors the same terms were 
 extorted. All the rural nobles, who had manifested a spirit 
 of resistance, were also summoned before a court of justice for 
 trial. Some fled the kingdom. Their estates were confis- 
 cated to Ferdinand, and they were sentenced to death should 
 they ever return. Many others were deprived of their pos- 
 sessions. ‘Twenty-six were thrown into prison, and two con- 
 demned to public execution. 
 
 The king, having thus struck all the discontented with terror, 
 summoned a diet to meet in his palace at Prague. They met 
 the 22d of August, 1547. A vast assemblage was convened, 
 as no one who was summoned dared to stay away. The king, 
 wishing to give an intimation to the diet of what they were 
 to expect should they oppose his wishes, commenced the ses- 
 sion by publicly hanging four of the most illustrious of his 
 captives. One of these, high judge of the kingdom, was in 
 the seventieth year of his age. The Bloody Diet, as it has 
 since been called, was opened, and Ferdinand found all as 
 pliant as he could wish. The royal discipline had effected 
 wonders. The slightest intimation of Ferdinand was accepted 
 with eagerness. 
 
 The execrable tyrant wished to impress the whole king: 
 
FERDINAND 1.—HIS WARS AND INTRIGUES. 159 
 
 dom with a salutary dread of incurring his paternal displea- 
 sure. He brought out the forty prisoners who still remained 
 in their duageons. Eight of the most distinguished men of 
 the kingdom were led to three of the principal cities, in each 
 of which, im the public square, they were ignominiously and 
 cruelly whipped on the bare back. Before each flagellation 
 the executioner proclaimed— 
 
 “These men are punished because they are traitors, and 
 because they excited the people against their hereditary 
 master.” 
 
 They then, with eight others, their property being confis- 
 cated, in utter beggary, were driven as vagabonds from the 
 kingdom. The rest, after being impoverished by fines, were 
 restored to liberty. Ferdinand adopted vigorous measures 
 to establish his despotic power. Considering the Protestant 
 religion as peculiarly hostile to despotism, in the encourage- 
 ment it afforded to education, to the elevation of the masses, 
 and to the diffusion of those principles of fraternal equality 
 which Christ enjoined ; and considering the Catholic religion 
 as the great bulwark of kingly power, by the intolerance of 
 the Church teaching the benighted multitudes subjection to 
 civil intolerance, Ferdinand, with unceasing vigilance, and 
 with melancholy success, endeavored to eradicate the Lu- 
 theran doctrines from the kingdom. He established the most 
 rigorous censorship of the press, and would allow no foreign 
 work, unexamined, to enter the realm. He established in 
 Bohemia the fanatic order of the Jesuits, and intrusted to 
 them the education of the young. 
 
 It is often impossible to reconcile the inconsistencies of the 
 human heart. Ferdinand, while guilty of such atrocities, af 
 fected, on some points, the most scrupulous punctilios of honor, 
 The clearly-defined privileges which had been promised the 
 Protestants, he would not infringe in the least. They were 
 permitted to give their children Protestant teachers, and to 
 conduct worship in their own way. He effected his object of 
 
160 FHE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 changing Bohemia from an elective to a hereditary monarchy, 
 and thus there was established in Bohemia the renowned doc 
 trine of regal legitimacy ; of the divine right of kings to gov: 
 ern. With such a bloody hand was the doctrine of the sov- 
 ereignty, not of the people, but of the nobles, overthrown in 
 Bohemia. The nobles are not much to be commiserated, for 
 they trampled upon the people as mercilessly as the king did 
 upon them. It is merely another illustration of the old and 
 melancholy story of the strong devouring the weak: the owl 
 takes the wren; the eagle the owl. 
 
 Bohemia, thus brought in subjection to a single mind, and 
 shackled in its spirit of free enterprise, began rapidly to ex- 
 hibit symptoms of decline and decay. It was a great revo- 
 lution, accomplished by cunning and energy, and maintained 
 by the terrors of confiscation, exile and death. 
 
 The Emperor Uharles V., it will be remembered, had at- 
 tempted in vain to obtain the reversion of the imperial crown 
 for his son Philip at his own death. The crown of Spain was 
 his hereditary possession, and that he could transmit to his 
 son. But the crown of the empire was elective. Charles V. 
 was so anxious to secure the imperial dignity for his son, that 
 he retained the crown of the empire for some months after 
 abdicating that of Spain, still hoping to influence the elect- 
 ors in their choice. But there were so many obstacles in the 
 way of the recognition of the young Philip as emperor, that 
 Charles, anxious to retain the dignity in the family, reluctantly 
 yielded to the intrigues of his brother Ferdinand, who had 
 now become so powerful that he could perhaps triumph over 
 any little irregularity in the succession and silence murmurs. 
 
 Consequently, Charles, nine months after the abdication 
 of the thrones of the Low Countries and of Spain, tried the 
 experiment of abdicating the elective crown of the empire in 
 favor of Ferdinand. It was in many respects such an act as 
 if the President of the United States should abdicate in fay or 
 of some one of his own choice. The emperor had, however, 
 
FERDINAND I.—HIS WARS AND INTRIGUES. 16] 
 
 a semblance of right to place the scepter in the hands of 
 whom he would during his lifetime. But, upon the death 
 of the emperor, would his appointee still hold his power, or 
 would the crown at that moment be considered as falling from 
 his brow? It was the 7th of August, 1556, when the emperor 
 abdicated the throne of the empire in behalf of his brother 
 Ferdinand. It was a new event in history, without a pre- 
 cedent, and the matter was long and earnestly discussed 
 throughout the German States. Notwithstanding all Fer. 
 dinand’s energy, sagacity and despotic power, two years 
 elapsed before he could secure the acknowledgment of his 
 title, by the German States, and obtain a proclamation of his 
 imperial state. 
 
 The pope had thus far had such an amazing control over 
 the conscience, or rather the superstition of Europe, that the 
 choice of the electors was ever subject to the ratification of 
 the holy father. It was necessary for the emperor elect to 
 journey to Rome, and be personally crowned by the hands 
 of the pope, before he could be considered in legal possession 
 of the imperial title and of a right to the occupancy of the 
 throne. Julius II., under peculiar circumstances, allowed Max- 
 imilian to assume the title of emperor elect while he postponed 
 his visit to Rome for coronation; but the want of the papal 
 sanction, by the imposition of the crown upon his brow by 
 those sacred hands, thwarted Maximilian in some of his most 
 fondly-cherished measures. 
 
 Paul IV. was now pontiff, an old man, jealous of his pre- 
 rogatives, intolerant in the extreme, and cherishing the most 
 exorbitant sense of his spiritua! power. He execrated the 
 Protestants, and was indignant with Ferdinand that he had 
 shown them any mercy at all. But Ferdinand, conscious of 
 the importance of a papal coronation, sent a very obsequious 
 embassy to Rome, announcing his appointment as emperor, 
 and smploring the benediction of the holy father and the re- 
 ception of the crown from his hands. The haughty and dis 
 
162 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 dainful reply of the pope was characteristic of the times and 
 of the man. It was in brief, as follows: 
 
 “The Empcror Charles has behaved like a madman; and 
 his acts are no more to be respected than the ravings of insan- 
 ity. Charles V. received the imperial crown from the head of 
 the Church; in abdicating, that crown could only return to the 
 sacred hands which conferred it. ‘The nomination of Ferdi- 
 nand as his successor we pronounce to be null and void. The 
 alleged ratification of the electors is a mockery, dishonored 
 and vitiated as it is by the votes of electors polluted with 
 heresy. We therefore command Ferdinand to relinquish all 
 claim to the imperial crown.” 
 
 The irascible old pontiff, buried beneath the senseless 
 pomps of the Vatican, was not at all aware of the change 
 which Protestant preaching and writing had effected in the 
 public mind of Germany. Italy was still slumbering in the 
 gloom of the dark ages ; but light was beginning to dawn upon 
 the hills of the empire. One half of the population of the 
 German empire would rally only the more enthusiastically 
 around Ferdinand, if he would repel all papal assumptions with 
 defiance and contempt. Ferdinand was the wiser and the bet- 
 ter informed man of the two. He conducted with dignity 
 and firmness which make us almost forget his crimes. <A diet 
 was summoned, and it was quietly decreed that a papal coro- 
 nation was no longer necessary. That one short line was the 
 heaviest blow the papal throne had yet received. From it, it 
 never recovered and never can recover, 
 
 Paul IV. was astounded at such effrontery, and as soon as 
 he had recovered a little from his astonishment, alarmed in 
 view of such a declaration of independence, he took counsel! of 
 discretion, and humiliating as it was, made advances for a ree. 
 onciliation. Ferdinand was also anxious to be on good terms 
 with the pope. While negotiations were pending, Paul died, 
 his death being perhaps hastened by chagrin. Pius IV. sue 
 ceeded him, and pressed still more earnestly overtures for ree 
 
PERDINAND I1.—HIS WABS AND INTRIGUES. 163 
 
 onciliation. Ferdinand, through his ambassador, expressed 
 his willingness to pledge the accustomed devotion and rever- 
 ence to the head of the Church, omitting the word obedience. 
 But the pope was anxious, above all things, to have that em- 
 phatic word obey introduced into the ritual of subjection, and 
 after employing all the arts of diplomacy and cajolery, carried 
 his point. Ferdinand, with duplicity which was not honora- 
 ple, let the word remain, saying that it was not his act, but 
 that of his ambassador. The pope affected satisfaction with 
 the formal acknowledgment of his power, while Ferdinand 
 ever after refused to recognize his authority. Thus terminated 
 the long dependence, running through ages of darkness and 
 delusion, of the German emperors upon the Roman see. 
 
 Ferdinand did not trouble himself to receive the crown 
 from the pope, and since his day the emperors of Germany 
 have no longer been exposed to the expense and the trouble 
 of a journey to Rome for their coronation. Though Ferdinand 
 was strongly attached to the tenets of the papal church, and 
 would gladly have eradicated Protestantism from his domains, 
 he was compelled to treat the Protestants with some degree 
 of consideration, as he needed the aid of their arms in the 
 wars in which he was incessantly involved with the Turks, 
 He even made great efforts to introduce some measure of con- 
 ciliation which should reconcile the two parties, and thus re- 
 unite his realms under one system of doctrine and of worship. 
 
 Still Protestantism was making rapid strides all over Eu- 
 rope. It had become the dominant religion in Denmark and 
 Sweden, and, by the accession of Elizabeth to the throne of 
 England, was firmly established in that important kingdom, 
 In France also the reformed religion had made extensive in 
 roads, gathering to its defense many of the noblest spirits, in 
 rank and intellect, in the realm. The terrors of the inquisition 
 had thus far prevented the truth from making much progress 
 in Spain and Portugal. 
 
 With the idea of promoting reconciliation, Ferdinand 
 
164 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 adopted a measure which contributed greatly to his popular: 
 ity with the Protestants. He united with France and Spain 
 in urging Pius IV., a mild and pliant pontiff, to convene @ 
 council in Germany to heal the religious feud. He drew upa 
 memorial, which was published and widely scattered, declar- 
 ing that the Protestants had become far too powerful to be 
 treated with outrage or contempt ; that there were undeniable 
 wrongs in the Church which needed to be reformed; and that 
 no harm could accrue from permitting the clergy to marry, and 
 to administer both bread and wine to the communicants in the 
 Lord’s Supper. It was a doctrine of the Church of Rome, 
 that the laity could receive the bread only; the wine was re 
 served for the officiating priest. 
 
 This memorial of Ferdinand, drawn up with much distinct- 
 ness and great force of argument, was very grateful to the 
 Protestants, but very displeasing to the court of Rome. These 
 conflicts raged for several years without any decisive resulta, 
 The efforts of Ferdinand to please both parties, as usual, 
 pleased neither. By the Protestants he was regarded as a 
 persecutor and intolerant; while the Catholics accused him of. 
 lukewarmness, of conniving at heresy and of dishonoring the 
 Church by demanding of her concessions derogatory to her 
 authority and her dignity. - 
 
 Ferdinand, finding that the Church clung with deathly 
 tenacity to its corruptions, assumed himself quite the attitude 
 of areformer. A memorable council had been assembled at 
 Trent on the 15th of January, 1562. Ferdinand urged the 
 council to exhort the pope to examine if there was not room 
 for some reform in his own person, state or court. ‘ Because,” 
 said he, “the only true method to obtain authority for the 
 reformation of others, is to begin by amending oneself” He 
 commented upon the manifest impropriety of scandalous ine 
 dulgences; of selling the sacred offices of the Church to the 
 highest bidder, regardless of character; of extorting fees for 
 the administration of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper; of 
 
FERDINAND I.—HIS WARS AND INTRIGUBS., 165 
 
 offering prayers and performing the servires of public devo 
 tion in a language which the people could not understand ; and 
 other similar and most palpable abuses. Even the kings ot 
 France and Spain united with the emperor in these remon- 
 strances. 
 
 It is difficult now to conceive of the astonishment and in- 
 dignation with which the pope and his adherents received 
 these very reasonable suggestions, coming not from the Prot- 
 estants but from the most staunch advocates of the papacy. 
 The see of Rome, corrupt to its very core, would yield noth- 
 ing. The more senseless and abominable any of its corrup- 
 tions were, the more tenaciously did pope and cardinals cling 
 to them. At last the emperor, in despair of seeing any thing 
 accomplished, requested that the assembly might be dissolved, 
 saying, “ Nothing good can be expected, even if it continue 
 its sittings for a hundred years.” 
 
CHAPTER Xi. 
 DEATH OF FERDINAND I—ACCESSION OF MAXIMILIAN Ii, 
 From 1562 To 1576. 
 
 Tux Covnor. or TRent.—SPREAD OF THE REFORMATION.—FERDINAND'’S ATTEMPT TO I> 
 FLUENCE THB Popr.—His ARGUMENTS AGAINST CELIBAOY.—STUBBORNNESS OF THR 
 Popr.—MaAxiMILIAN I1.—D1IsPpLEASURE OF FERDINAND.—MOTIVES FOR NOT ABJURe 
 ING THE CaTHOLIC FatrH.—R&ELIGIOUS STRIFE IN EvROPE.—MAXIMILIAN’s ADDRESS 
 To CHarites 1X.—MutuaL ToLeRATION.—RoOMANTIO PastiME oF War.—HEROISM 
 or Nicnoxas, Count oF ZRINt.—AOoESSION OF PowER TO AUSTRIA.—ACOESSION OF 
 Ruopoirs Iif.—Deats or Maximinian, 
 
 HIS celebrated council of Trent, which was called with the 
 hope that by a spirit of concession and reform the relig- 
 
 ious dissensions which agitated Europe might be adjusted, de- 
 clared, in the very bravado of papal intolerance, the very worst 
 abuses of the Church to be essential articles of faith, which 
 could only be renounced at the peril of eternal condemnation, 
 and thus presented an insuperable barrier to any reconciliation 
 between the Catholics and the Protestants. Ferdinand was 
 disappointed, and yet did not venture to break with the pope by 
 withholding his assent from the decrees which were enacted. 
 The Lutheran doctrines had spread widely through Ferdi- 
 nand’s hereditary States of Austria. Several of the professors 
 in the university at Vienna had embraced those views; and 
 quite a number of the most powerful and opulent of the terri- 
 torial lords even maintained Protestant chaplains at their cas 
 tles, The majority of the inhabitants of the Austrian States 
 had, in the course of a few years, become Protestants. Though 
 Ferdinand did every thing he dared to do to check their prog- 
 ress, forbidding the circulation of Luther’s translation of the 
 
DEATH OF FERDINAND 1. 167 
 
 Bible, and throwing all the obstacles he could in the way of 
 Protestant worship, he was compelled to grant them very con- 
 siderable toleration, and to overlook the infraction of his de. 
 crees, that he might secure their aid to repel the Turks, 
 Providence seemed to overrule the Moslem invasion for the 
 protection of the Protestant faith. Notwithstanding all the 
 efforts of Ferdinand, the reformers gained ground in Austria 
 as in other parts of Germany. 
 
 The two articles upon which the Protestants at this time 
 placed most stress were the right of the clergy to marry and 
 the administration of the communion under both kinds, as it 
 was called; that is, that the communicants should partake of 
 both the bread and the wine. Ferdinand, having failed en- 
 tirely in inducing the council to submit to any reform, opened 
 direct communication with the pope to obtain for his subjects 
 indulgence in respect to these two articles. In advocacy of 
 this measure he wrote: 
 
 “In Bohemia no persuasion, no argument, no violence, not 
 even arms and war, have succeeded in abolishing the use of 
 the cup as well as the bread in the sacrament. In fact the 
 Church itself permitted it, although the popes revoked it by a 
 breach of the conditions on which it was granted. In the 
 other States, Hungary, Austria, Silesia, Styria, Carinthia, Car- 
 niola, Bavaria and other parts of Germany, many desire with 
 ardor the same indulgence. If this concession is granted they 
 may be reunited to the Church, but if refused they will be 
 driven into the party of the Protestants. So many of the 
 priests have been degraded by their diocesans for administer: 
 ing the sacrament in both kinds, that the country is almost 
 deprived of priests. Hence children die or grow up to matu- 
 rity without baptism ; and men and women, of all ages and of 
 all ranks, live like the brutes, in the grossest ignorance of God 
 and of religion.” 
 
 In reference to the marriage of the clergy he wrote: “If 
 a permission to the clergy to marry can not be granted, may 
 
168 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 not married men of learning and probity be ordained, accord: 
 ing to the custom of the eastern church; or married priests 
 be tolerated for a time, provided they act according to the 
 Catholic and Christian faith? And it may be justly asked 
 whether such concessions would not be far preferable to tol- 
 erating, as has unfortunately been done, fornication and con- 
 cubinage? I can not avoid adding, what is a common obser- 
 vation, that priests who live in concubinage are guilty of 
 greater sin than those who are married; for the last only 
 transgress a law which is capable of being changed, whereas 
 the first sin against a divine law, which is capable of neither 
 change nor dispensation.” 
 
 The pope, pressed with all the importunity which Ferdi- 
 nand could urge, reluctantly consented to the administration 
 of the cup to the laity, but resolutely refused to tolerate the 
 marriage of the clergy. Ferdinand was excessively annoyed 
 by the stubbornness of the court of Rome in its refusal tc 
 submit to the most reasonable reform, thus rendering it impos- 
 sible for him to allay the religious dissensions which were still 
 spreading and increasing in acrimony. His disappointment 
 was 80 great that it is said to have thrown him into the fever 
 of which he died on the 25th of July, 1564. 
 
 For several ages the archdukes of Austria had been en- 
 deavoring to unite the Austrian States with Hungary and Bo- 
 hemia under one monarchy. ‘The union had been temporarily 
 effected once or twice, but Ferdinand accomplished the per- 
 manent union, and may thus be considered as the founder of 
 the Austrian monarchy essentially as it now exists. As Arch- 
 duke of Austria, he inherited the Austrian duchies. By his 
 marriage with Anne, daughter of Ladislaus, King of Hungary 
 and Bohemia, he secured those crowns, which he made hered- 
 itary in his family. He left three sons. The eldest, Maxi 
 milian, inherited the archduchy of Austria and the crowns of 
 Bohemia and Hungary, of course inheriting, with Hungary 
 prospective war with the Turks. The second son, Ferdinand 
 
ACCESSION OF MAXIMILIAN II. 36e 
 
 had, as his legacy, the government and the revenues of the 
 Tyrol. The third son, Charles, received Styria. There were 
 nine daughters left, three of whom took the vail and the rest 
 formed illustrious marriages, 
 
 Ferdinand appears to have been a sincere Catholic, though 
 he saw the great corruptions of the Church and earnestly de- 
 sired reform. As he advanced in years he became more toler. 
 ant and gentle, and had his wise counsels been pursued Enu- 
 rope would have escaped inexpressible woes. Still he clung to 
 the Church, unwisely seeking unity of faith and discipline, 
 which can hardly be attained in this world, rather than tolera- 
 tion with allowed diversity. 
 
 Maximilian II. was thirty-seven years of age on his acces- 
 sion to the throne. Although he was educated in the court 
 of Spain, which was the most bigoted and intolerant in Europe, 
 yet he developed a character remarkable for mildness, affabil 
 ity and tolerance. He was indebted for these attractive traits 
 to his tutor, a man of enlarged and cultivated mind, and who 
 had, like most men of his character at that time, a strong lean- 
 ing towards Protestantism. These principles took so firm a 
 hold of his youthful mind that they could never be eradicated. 
 As he advanced in life he became more and more interested 
 in the Protestant faith. He received a clergyman of the re 
 formed religion as his chaplain and private secretary, and par- 
 took of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, from his hands, 
 in both kinds. Even while remaining in the Spanish court 
 he entered into a correspondence with several of the most in- 
 fluential advocates of the Protestant faith. Returning to Aus- 
 tria from Spain, he attended public worship in the chapels of 
 the Protestants, and communed with them in the sacrament of 
 the Lord’s Supper. When some of his friends warned him 
 that by pursuing such a course he could never hope to obtain 
 the imperial crown of Germany, he replied : 
 
 “‘] will sacrifice all worldiy interests for the sake of my 
 salvation.” 
 
170 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 His father, the Emperor Ferdinand, was so much displeased 
 wit his son’s advocacy of the Protestant faith, that after many 
 angry remonstrances he threatened to disinherit him if he did 
 not renounce all connection with the reformers. But Maxi- 
 milian, true to his conscience, would not allow the apprehension 
 of the loss of a crown to induce him to swerve from his faith, 
 Fully expecting to be thus cast off and banished from the 
 kingdom, he wrote te the Protestant elector Palatine: 
 
 ““T have so deeply offended my father by maintaining a 
 Lutheran preacher in my service, that I am apprehensive of 
 being expelled as a fugitive, and hope to find an asylum in 
 your court.” 
 
 The Catholics of course looked with apprehension to the 
 accession of Maximilian to the throne, while the Protestants 
 anticipated the event with great hope. There were, however, 
 many considerations of vast moment influencing Maximilian not 
 to separate himself, in form, from the Catholic church, Philip, 
 his cousin, King of Spain, was childless, and should he die with- 
 out issue, Ferdinand would inherit that magnificent throne, 
 which he could not hope to ascend, as an avowed Protestant, 
 without a long and bloody war. It had been the most ear- 
 nest dying injunction of his father that he should not abjure 
 the Catholic faith. His wife was a very zealous Catholic, as 
 was also each one of his brothers. There were very many 
 who remained in the Catholic church whose sympathies were 
 with the reformers—who hoped to promote reformation in 
 the Church without leaving it. Influenced by such consider- 
 ations, Maximilian made a public confession of the Catholic 
 faith, received his father’s confessor, and maintained, in his 
 court, the usages of the papal church. He was, however, the 
 kind friend of the Protestants, ever seeking to shield them 
 from persecution, claiming for them a liberal toleration, and 
 seeking, in all ways, to promote fraternal religious feeling 
 throughout his domains. 
 
 The prudence of Maximilian wonderfully allayed the bit- 
 
ACCESSION OF MAXIMILIAN II 171 
 
 terness of religious strife in Germany, while other portions of 
 Hurope were desolated with the fiercest warfare between the 
 Catholics and Protestants. In France, in particular, the con- 
 flict raged with merciless fury. It was on August 24th, 1572, 
 but a few years after Maximilian ascended the throne, when 
 the Catholics of France perpetrated the Massacre of St. Bar- 
 tholomew, perhaps the most atrocious crime recorded in his. 
 tory. The Catholics and Protestants in France were nearly 
 equally divided in numbers, wealth and rank. The papal 
 party, finding it impossible to erush their foes by force of 
 arms, resolved to exterminate them by a simultaneous mas- 
 sacre. They feigned toleration and reconciliation. The court 
 of Paris invited all the leading Protestants of the kingdom to 
 the metropolis to celebrate the nuptials of Henry, the young 
 King of Navarre, with Margaret, sister of Charles IX., the 
 reigning monarch. Secret orders were dispatched all over 
 the kingdom, for the conspirators, secretly armed, at a given 
 signal, by midnight, to rise upon the Protestants, men, 
 women and children, and utterly exterminate them. “ Let 
 not one remain alive,” said the King of France, “to tell the 
 story.” 
 
 The deed was nearly accomplished, The king himself, 
 from a window of the Louvre, fired upon his Protestant 
 subjects, as they fied in dismay through the streets. In a 
 few hours eighty thousand of the Protestants were mangled 
 corpses. Protestantism in France has never recovered from 
 this ‘low. Maximilian openly expressed his execration of 
 this deed, though the pope ordered Te Deums to be chanted 
 at Rome in exultation over the crime. Not long after this 
 horrible slaughter, Charles [X. died in mental torment. Henry 
 of Valois, brother of the deceased king, succeeded to the 
 throne. He was at that time King of Poland. Returning to 
 France, through Vienna, he had an interview with Maximil- 
 ian, who addressed him in those memorable words which have 
 often been quoted to the honor of the Austrian sovereign: 
 
172 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 “There is no crime greater in princes,” said Maxunilian, 
 “than to tyrannize over the consciences of their subjects. By 
 shedding the blood of heretics, far from honoring the common 
 Father of all, they incur the divine vengeance; and while 
 they aspire, by such means, to crowns in heaven, they justly 
 expose themselves to the loss of their earthly kingdoms.” 
 
 Under the peaceful and humane reign of Ferdinand, Ger- 
 many was kept in a general state of tranquillity, while storms 
 of war and woe were sweeping over almost all other parts of 
 Europe. During all his reign, Maximilian II. was unwearied 
 in his endeavors to promote harmony between the two great 
 religious parties, by trying, on the one hand, to induce the 
 pope to make reasonable concessions, and, on the other hand, 
 to induce the Protestants to moderate their demands. His 
 first great endeavor was to induce the pope to consent to the 
 marriage of the clergy. In this he failed entirely. He then 
 tried to form a basis of mutual agreement, upon which the 
 two parties could unite. His father had attempted this plan, 
 and found it utterly impracticable. Maximilian attempted it, 
 with just as little success. It has been attempted a thousand 
 times since, and has always failed. Good men are ever rising 
 who mourn the divisions in the Christian Church, and strive 
 to form some plan of union, where all true Christians can meet 
 and fraternize, and forget their minor differences. Alas! for 
 poor human nature, there is but little prospect that this plan 
 can ever be accomplished. There will be always those who 
 can not discriminate between essential and non-essential dif- 
 ferences of opinion. Maximilian at last fell back simply upon 
 the doctrine of a liberal toleration, and in maintaining this he 
 was eminently successful. 
 
 At one time the Turks were crowding him very hard in 
 Hungary. A special effort was requisite to raise troops te 
 repel them. Maximilian summoned a diet, and appealed to 
 the assembled nobles for supplies of men and money. In 
 Austria proper, Protestantism was now in the decided ascend: 
 
ACCESSION OF MAXIMILIAN Il. 173 
 
 ency. The nobles took advantage of the emperor’s wants to 
 reply— 
 
 ‘We are ready to march to the assistance of our sov: 
 ereign, to repel the Turks from Hungary, if the Jesuits are 
 first expelled from our territories.” 
 
 The answer of the king was characteristic of his policy and 
 of his career. “I have convened you,” he said, “to give me 
 contributions, not remonstrances. I wish you to help me 
 expel the Turks, not the Jesuits.” 
 
 From many a prince this reply would have excited exas- 
 peration. But Maximilian had established such a character 
 for impartiality and probity, that the rebuke was received 
 with applause rather than with murmurs, and the Protestants, 
 with affectionate zeal, rallied around his standard. So great 
 was the influence of the king, that toleration, as one of the 
 virtues of the court, became the fashion, and the Catholics 
 and Protestants vied with each other in the manifestation of 
 mutual forbearance and good will. They met on equal terms 
 in the palace of the monarch, shared alike in his confidence 
 and his favors, and codéperated cordially in the festivities of 
 the banqueting room, and in the toils of the camp. We 
 love to dwell upon the first beautiful specimen of toleration 
 which the world has seen in any court. It is the more beau- 
 tiful, and the more wonderful, as having occurred in a dark 
 age of bigotry, intolerance and persecution. And let us be 
 sufficiently candid to confess, that it was professedly a Roman 
 Catholic monarch, a member of the papal church, to whom 
 the world is indebted for this first recognition of true mental 
 freedom. It can not be denied that Maximilian II. was m 
 advance of the avowed Protestants of his day. 
 
 Pope Pius V. was a bigot, inflexible, overbearing ; and he 
 determined, with a bloody hand, to crush all dissent. From 
 his throne in the Vatican he cast an eagle eye to Germany, 
 and was alarmed and indignant at the innovations which Max- 
 imilian was permitting. In all haste he dispatched a legate 
 
x 
 
 174 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. a 
 
 to remonstrate strongly against such liberality. Maximilian 
 received the legate, Cardinal Commendon, with courtesy, but 
 for a time firmly refused to change his policy in obedience to 
 the exactions of the pope. The pope brought to bear upon 
 him all the influence of the Spanish court. He was threat 
 ened with war by all the papal forces, sustained by the then 
 immense power of the Spanish monarchy. For a time Max- 
 imilian was in great perplexity, and finally yielded to the pope 
 so far as to promise not to permit any further innovations 
 than those which he had already allowed, and not to extend 
 his principles of toleration into any of his States where they 
 had not as yet been introduced. Thus, while he did not re- 
 tract any concessions he had made, he promised to stop where 
 he was, and proceed no further. 
 
 _ Maximilian was so deeply impressed with the calamities of 
 war, that he even sent an embassy to the Turks, offering to 
 continue to pay the tribute which they had exacted of his 
 father, as the price of a continued armistice. But Solyman, 
 having made large preparations for the renewed invasion of 
 Hungary, and sanguine of success, haughtily rejected the offer, 
 and renewed hostilities. 
 
 Nearly all of the eastern and southern portions of Hungary 
 were already in the hands of the Turks, Maximilian held a 
 few important towns and strong fortresses on the western fron- 
 tier. Not feeling strong enough to attempt to repel the Turks 
 from the portion they already held, he strengthened his garri- 
 scns, and raising an army of eighty thousand men, of which 
 he assumed the command, he entered Hungary and marched 
 down the Danube about sixty miles to Raab, to await the foe 
 and act on the defensive. Solyman rendezvoused an immense 
 army at Belgrade, and commenced his march up the Danube. 
 
 “Old as I am,” said he to his troops, “I am determined 
 to chastise the house of Austria, or to perish in the attempt 
 beneath the walls of Vienna.” 
 
 It was beautiful spring weather, and the swelling buds and 
 
/ ACCESSION OF MAXIMILIAN Ir, 175 
 
 hourly increasing verdure, decorated the fields with loveliness, 
 For several days the Turks marched along the right bank of 
 the Danube, through green fields, and beneath a sunny sky, 
 encountering no foe. War seemed but as the pastime of a 
 festive day, as gay banners floated in the breeze, groups of 
 horsemen, gorgeously caparisoned, pranced along, and the tur- 
 baned multitude, in brilliant uniform, with jokes, and laugh- 
 ter and songs, leisurely ascended the majestic stream. A fleet 
 of boats filled the whole body of the river, impelled by sails 
 when the wind favored, or, when the winds were adverse, 
 driven by the strong arms of the rowers against the gentle 
 tide. Each night the white tents were spread, and a city for 
 a hundred thousand inhabitants rose as by magic, with its 
 grassy streets, its squares, its busy population, its music, its 
 splendor, blazing in all the regalia of war. As by magic the 
 city rose in the rays of the declining sun. As by magic it dis- 
 appeared in the early dawn of the morning, and the mighty 
 hosts moved on. 
 
 A few days thus passed, when Solyman approached the for- 
 tified town of Zigeth, near the confluence of the Drave and the 
 Danube. Nicholas, Count of Zrini, was intrusted with the 
 defense of this place, and he fulfilled his trust with heroism 
 and valor which has immortalized both his name and the for- 
 tress which he defended. Zrini had a garrison of but three 
 thousand men. An army of nearly a hundred thousand were 
 marching upon him. Zrini collected his troops, and took a 
 solemn oath, in the presence of all, that, true to God, to his 
 Christian faith, and his country, he never would surrender the 
 town to the Turks, but with his life. He then required each 
 soldier individually to take the same oath to his captain. All 
 the captains then, in the presence of the assembled troops, 
 took the same oath to him. 
 
 The Turks soon arrived and commenced an unceasing bom- 
 bardment day and night. The little garrison vigorously re- 
 sponded. The besieged made frequent sallies, spiking the guns 
 
176 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 of the besiegers, and again retiring behind their works. But 
 their overpowering foes advanced, inch by inch, till they got 
 possession of what was called the “old city.” The besieged’ 
 retiring to the “new city,” resumed the defense with unabatea 
 ardor. The storm of war raged incessantly for many days, 
 and the new city was reduced to a smoldering heap of fire 
 and ashes. The Turks, with incredible labor, raised immense 
 mounds of earth and stone, on the summits of which they 
 planted their batteries, where they could throw their shot, 
 with unobstructed aim, into every part of the city. Roads 
 were construeted across the marsh, and the swarming multi- 
 tudes, in defiance of all the efforts of the heroic little garri- 
 son, filled up the ditch, and were just on the rush to take the 
 place by a general assault, when Zrini abandoned the new city 
 to flames, and threw himself into the citadel. His force was 
 now reduced to about a thousand men. Day after day the 
 storm of war blazed with demoniac fury around the citadel, 
 Mines were dug, and, as by volcanic explosions, bastions, with 
 men and guns, were blown high into the air. The indomitable 
 Hungarians made many sallies, cutting down the gunners and 
 spiking the guns, but they were always driven back with heavy 
 loss. Repeated demands for capitulation were sent in and as 
 repeatedly rejected. For a week seven assaults were made 
 daily upon the citadel by the Turks, but they were always re- 
 pulsed. At length the outer citadel was entirely demolished. 
 Then the heroic band retired to the inner works. They were 
 now without ammunition or provisions, and the Turks, exas- 
 perated by such a defense, were almost gnashing their teeth 
 with rage. The old sultan, Solyman, actually died from the in- 
 tensity of his vexation and wrath. The death of the sultan 
 was concealed from the Turkish troops, and a general assault 
 was arranged upon the inner works. The hour had now come 
 when they must surrender or die, for the citadel was all bat~ 
 tered into a pile of smoldering ruins, and there were no ram. 
 parts capable of checking the progress of the foe. Zrini as 
 
ACCESSION OF MAXIMILIAN Il. 177 
 
 gembled his little band, now counting but six hundred, and 
 said, 
 
 “Remember your oath. We must die in the flames, or 
 perish with hunger, or go forth to meet the foe. Let us die 
 like men. Follow me, and do as I do.” 
 
 They made a simultaneous rush from their defenses into 
 the thickest of the enemy. For a few moments there was a 
 scene of wildest uproar and confusion, and the brave defend- 
 ers were all silent in death. The Turks with shouts of triumph 
 now rushed into the citadel. But Zrini had fired trains lead- 
 ing to the subterranean vaults of powder, and when the ruins 
 were covered with the conquerors, a sullen roar ran beneath 
 the ground and the whole citadel, men, horses, rocks and ar- 
 tillery were thrown into the air, and fell a commingled mass 
 of ruin, fire and blood. A more heroic defense history has 
 not recorded. Twenty thousand Turks perished in this sicge. 
 The body of Zrini was found in the midst of the mangled 
 dead. His head was cut off and, affixed to a pole, was raised 
 as a trophy before the tent of the deceased sultan. 
 
 The death of Solyman, and the delay which this desperate 
 siege had caused, embarrassed all the plans of the invaders, and 
 they resolved upon a retreat. The troops were consequently 
 withdrawn from Hungary, and returned to Constantinople. 
 
 Maximilian, behind his intrenchments at Raab, did not 
 dare to march to the succor of the beleaguered garrison, for 
 overpowering numbers would immediately have destroyed 
 bim had he appeared in the open field. But upon the with- 
 drawal of the Turks he disbanded his army, after having re. 
 plenished his garrisons, and returned to Vienna. Selim suc. 
 ceeded Solyman, and Maximilian sent an embassy to Constan- 
 tinople to offer terms of peace. At the same time, to add 
 weight to his negotiations, he collected a large army, and made 
 the most vigorous preparations for the prosecution of the war. 
 
 Selim, just commencing his reign, anxious to consolidate 
 his power, and embarrassed by insurrection in his own realms, 
 
178 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 ~ 
 
 was giad to conclude an armistice on terms highly favorable» 
 to Maximilian. John Sigismond, who had been crowned by~ 
 the Turks, as their tributary King of Hungary, was to retain 
 Transylvania.. The Turks were to hold the country generally: 
 between Transylvania and the river Teiss, while Ferdinand 
 was to have the remainder, extending many hundred miles 
 from the Teiss to Austria. The Prince of Transylvania was’ 
 compelled, though very reluctantly, to assent to this treaty. 
 He engaged not to assume the title of King of Hungary, ex-- 
 cept in correspondence with the Turks. The emperor prom 
 
 ised him one of his nieces in marriage, and in return it was’ 
 agreed that should John Sigismond die without male issue; 
 Transylvania should revert to the crown of Hungary. 
 
 Soon after this treaty, John Sigismond died, before his: 
 marriage with the emperor’s niece, and Transylvania was again’ 
 united to Hungary and came under the sway of Maximilian: 
 This event formed quite an accession to the power of the Aus» 
 trian monarch, as he now held all of Hungary save the south. 
 ern and central portion where the Turks had garrisoned the 
 fortresses, The pope, the King of Spain, and the Venetiana, 
 now sent united ambassadors to the emperor urging him to 
 summon the armies of the empire and drive the Turks entirely 
 out of Hungary. Cardinal Commmendon assured the emperor, 
 in the name of the holy father of the Church, that it was no 
 sin to violate any compact with the infidel. Maximilian nobly 
 replied, 
 
 “The faith of treaties ought to be considered as invies 
 lable, and a Christian can never be justified in breaking an 
 oath.” 
 
 Maximilian never enjoyed vigorous health, and being anx- 
 1ous to secure the tranquillity of his extended realms after his’ 
 death, he had his eldest son, Rhodolph, in a diet at Presburg; 
 crowned King of Hungary. Rhodolph at once entered’ upon’ 
 the government of his reaim as viceroy during the life of his 
 father Thus he would have all the reins of government in hia’ 
 
ACCESSION OF MAXIMILIAN Il. 179 - 
 
 hands, and, at the death of the emperor, there would be no 
 apparent change. 
 
 It will be remembered that Ferdinand had, by violence 
 and treachery, wrested from the Bohemians the privilege of 
 electing their sovereign, and had thus converted Bohemia into 
 an hereditary monarchy. Maximilian, with characteristic pru- 
 dence, wished to maintain the hereditary right thus estab- 
 lished, while at the same time he wished to avoid wounding 
 the prejudices of those who had surrendered the right of suf- 
 frage only to fraud and the sword. He accordingly convoked 
 a diet at Prague. The nobles were assembled in large num- 
 bers, and the occasion was invested with unusual solemnity, 
 The emperor himself introduced to them his son, and recome 
 mended him to them as their future sovereign. The nobles 
 were much gratified by so unexpected a concession, and with 
 enthusiasm accepted their new king. The emperor had thus 
 wisely secured for his son the crowns of Hungary and Bohe- 
 mia. 
 
 Having succeeded in these two important measures, Max- 
 imilian set about the more difficult enterprise of securing for 
 his son his succession upon the imperial throne. This wasa 
 difficult matter in the strong rivalry which then existed be- 
 tween the Catholics and the Protestants. With caution and 
 conciliation, encountering and overturning innumerable ob- 
 stacles, Maximilian proceeded, until having, as he supposed, a 
 fair chance of success, he summoned the diet of electors at 
 Ratisbon. But here: new difficulties arose. The Protestants 
 were jealous of their constantly-imperiled privileges, and 
 wished to surround them with additional safeguards, The 
 Catholics, on the contrary, stimulated by the court of Rome, 
 wished to withdraw the toleration already granted, and to 
 pursue the Protestant faith with new rigor. The meeting of 
 the diet was long and stormy, and again they were upon the 
 point of a violent dissolution. But the wisdom, moderation 
 and perseverance of Maximilian finally prevailed, and his sue 
 
-3¥80 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 eess was entire. Rhodolph II. was unanimously chosen tc 
 succeed him upon the imperial throne, and was crowned at 
 Ratisbon on the Ist of November, 1575. 
 
 Poland was strictly an elective monarchy. The tumultu- 
 ous nobles had established a law prohibiting the election of 
 a successor during the lifetime of the monarch. Their last 
 king had been the reckless, chivalrous Henry, Duke of Anjou, 
 brother of Charles IX. of France. Charles 1X. having died 
 without issue, Henry succeeded him upon the throne of France, 
 and abdicated the crown of the semi-barbaric wilds of Poland. 
 The nobles were about to assemble for the election. There 
 were many influential candidates. Maximilian was anxious te 
 obtain the crown for his son Ernest. Much to the surprise of 
 Maximilian, he himself was chosen king. Protestantism had 
 gained the ascendency in Poland, and a large majority of the 
 nobles united upon Maximilian. The electors honored both 
 themselves and the emperor in assigning, as the reason for 
 their choice, that the emperor had conciliated the contending 
 factions of the Christian world, and had acquired more glory 
 by his pacific policy than other princes had acquired in the 
 exploits of war. 
 
 There were curious conditions at that time assigned to the 
 occupancy of the throne of Poland. The elected monarch, 
 before receiving the crown, was required to give his pledge 
 that he would reside two years uninterruptedly in the king- 
 dom, and that then he would not leave without the consent 
 of the nobles. He was also required to construct four for- 
 tresses at his own expense, and to pay all the debts of the last 
 monarch, however heavy they might be, including the arrears 
 of the troops. He was also to maintain a sort of guard of 
 honor, consisting of ten thousand Polish horsemen. 
 
 In addition to the embarrassment which these conditions 
 presented, there were many indications of jealousy on the part 
 of other powers, in view of the wonderful aggrandizement of 
 Austria. Encouraged by the emperor’s delay and by the hos 
 
ACCESSION OF MAXIMILIAN It, 181 
 
 sility of other powers, a minority of the nobles chose Stephen 
 Bathori, a Transylvanian prince, King of Poland; and to 
 strengthen his title, married him to Anne, sister to Sigismond 
 Augustus, the King of Poland who preceded the Duke of 
 Anjou. Maximilian thus aroused, signed the articles of agree- 
 ‘ment, and the two rival monarchs prepared for war. The 
 kingdoms of Europe were arraying themselves, some on the 
 one side and some on the other, and there was the prospect of 
 2 long, desperate and bloody strife, when death stilled the 
 tumult. 
 
 Maximilian had long been declining. On the 12th of Oc- 
 tober, 176, he breathed his last at Ratisbon. He apparently 
 died the death of the Christian, tranquilly surrendering his 
 spirit to his Saviour. He died in the fiftieth year of his age 
 and the twelfth of his reign. He had lived, for those dark 
 days, eminently the life of the righteous, and his end was 
 peace. 
 
 “So fades the summer cloud away, 
 So sinks the gale when storms are o'er 
 
 fo gently shuts the eye of day, 
 &o dies a@ wave along the shore.’ 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OHARACTER OF MAXIMILIAN IL—SUCCESSION OF 
 RHODOLPH III. 
 
 From 1576 To 1604. 
 
 OSARAOTER OF MAXIMILIAN.—His ACCOMPLISHMENTS.—H1s Wirs.—F ate OF HIS OnIL 
 DEEN.—RHoDOLPH II].—Tue Liserty oF WorsHip.—MEANs OF EMANOIPATION.—= 
 RuopoLpPn’s ATTEMPTS AGAINST PROTESTANTISM.—DEOLARATION OF A HIGHER LAW, 
 —THEOLOGIOAL DIFFERENOES.—THE CONFEDERAOY AT HEILBEUN.—THE GREGORIAN 
 CALENDAR.— INTOLERANCE IN BOHEMIA.—THE TRAP OF THRE MoNKS.—INVASION OF 
 THE TURKS.—THEIRZ Drreat.—COALITION WITH SIGISMOND.—SALE OF TRANSYLVA> 
 NIA.—RvuLE or Basta.—THEr EMPIRE OAPTURED AND REOAPTURED.—DEVASTATIO¥N 
 OF THE COUNTRY.—TREATMENT OF STEPHEN BOTSKOI. 
 
 T is indeed refreshing, in the midst of the long list of selfish 
 and ambitious sovereigns who have disgraced the thrones 
 of Europe, to meet with such a prince as Maximilian, a gentle- 
 man, a philosopher, a philanthropist and a Christian. Henry 
 of Valois, on his return from Poland to France, visited Maxi- 
 milian at Vienna. Henry was considered one of the most 
 polished men of his age. He remarked in his palace at Paris 
 that in all his travels he had never met a more accomplished 
 gentleman than the Emperor Maximilian. Similar is the tes- 
 timony of all his contemporaries, With all alike, at all times, 
 and under all circumstances, he was courteous and affable. 
 His amiability shone as conspicuously at home as abroad, and 
 he was invariably the kind husband, the tender father, the in- 
 dulgent master and the faithful friend. 
 
 In early life he had vigorously prosecuted his studies, and 
 thus possessed the invaluable blessing of a highly cultivated 
 mind. Fond of the languages, he not only wrote and con- 
 versed in the Latin tongue with fluency and elegance, but was 
 quite at home in all the languages of his extensive domains, 
 
CHARACTER OF MAXIMILIAN II, 183 
 
 Notwithstanding the immense cares devolving upon the 
 raler of so extended an empire, he appropriated a portion of 
 time every day to devotional reading and prayer; and his 
 hours were methodically arranged for business, recreation and 
 repose. The most humble subject found easy access to his 
 person, and always obtained a patient hearing. When he was 
 chosen King of Poland, some ambassadors from Bohemia vol- 
 untarily went to Poland to testify to the virtues of their king, 
 It was a heartfelt tribute, such as few sovereigns have ever 
 received, 
 
 ** We Bohemians,” said they, ‘are as happy under his gov- 
 ernment as if he were our father. Our privileges, laws, rights, 
 liberties and usages are protected and defended. Not less 
 just than wise, he confers the offices and dignities of the king- 
 dom only on natives of rank, and is not influenced by favor or 
 artifice. He introduces no innovations contrary to our immu- 
 nities; and when the great expenses which he incurs for the 
 good of Christendom render contributions necessary, he lev- 
 ies them without violence, and with the approbation of the 
 States. But what may be almost considered a miracle is, the 
 prudence and impartiality of his conduct toward persons of a 
 different faith, always recommending union, concord, peace, 
 toleration and mutual regard. He listens even to the mean- 
 est of his subjects, readily receives their petitions and renders 
 impartial justice to all.” 
 
 Not an act of injustice sullied his reign, and during his ad- 
 ministration nearly all Germany, with the exception of Hun- 
 gary, enjoyed almost uninterrupted tranquillity. Catholics and 
 Protestants unite in his praises, and have conferred upon him 
 the surname of the Delight of Mankind. His wife Mary was 
 the daughter of Charles V. She was an accomplished, exem- 
 plary woman, entirely devoted to the Catholic faith. For this 
 devotion, notwithstanding the tolerant spirit of her husband, 
 she was warmly extolled by the Catholics, Gregory XIIL 
 called her the firm column of the Catholic faith, and Pius V 
 
184 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 pronounced her worthy of being worshiped. After the death 
 of her husband she returned to Spain, to the bigoted court of 
 her bigoted brother Philip. Upon reaching Madrid she de. 
 veloped the spirit which dishonored her, in expressing great 
 joy that she was once more in a country where no heretic waa 
 tolerated. Soon after she entered a nunnery where she re 
 mained seven years until her death. 
 
 It is interesting briefly to trace out the history of the chil- 
 dren of this royal family. It certainly will not tend to make 
 one any more discontented to move in a humbler sphere. 
 Maximilian left three daughters and five sons. 
 
 Anne, the eldest daughter, was engaged to her cousin, Don 
 Carlos, only son of her uncle Philip, King of Spain. As he 
 was consequently heir to the Spanish throne, this was a bril- 
 liant match. History thus records the person and character 
 of Don Carlos. He was sickly and one of his legs was shorter 
 than the other. His temper was not only violent, but furious, 
 breaking over all restraints, and the malignant passions were 
 those alone which governed him. He always slept with two 
 naked swords under his pillow, two loaded pistols, and several 
 loaded guns, with a chest of fire-arms at the side of his bed. 
 He formed a conspiracy to murder his father. He was ar- 
 rested and imprisoned. Choking with rage, he called for a fire 
 and threw himself into the flames, hoping to suffocate himself 
 Being rescued, he attempted to starve himself. Failing in 
 this, he tried to choke himself by swallowing a diamond. He 
 threw off his clothes, and went naked and barefoot on the 
 stone floor, hoping to engender some fatal disease. For eleven 
 days he took no food but ice. At length the wretched man 
 died, and thus Anne lost her lover. But Philip, the father of 
 Don Carlos, and own uncle of Anne, concluded to take her for 
 himself. She lived a few years as Queen of Spain, and died 
 four years after the death of her father, Maximilian. 
 
 Elizabeth, the second daughter, was beautiful. At sixteen 
 years of age she married Charles [X., King of France, whe 
 
CHARACTER OF MAXIMILIAN II. 185 
 
 was then twenty years old. Charles 1X. ascended the throne 
 when but ten years of age, under the regency of his infamous 
 mother, Catherine de Medici, perhaps the most demoniac fe- 
 male earth has known. Under her tutelage, her boy, equally 
 impotent in body and in mind, became as pitiable a creature as 
 ever disgraced a throne. The only energy he ever showed 
 was in shooting the Protestants from a window of the Louvre 
 in the horrible Massacre of St. Bartholomew, which he planned 
 at the instigation of his fiend-like mother. A few wretched 
 years the youthful queen lived with the monster, when his 
 death released her from that bondage. She then returned to 
 Vienna, a young and childless widow, but twenty years of age. 
 She built and endowed the splendid monastery of St. Mary 
 de Angelis, and having seen enough of the pomp of the world, 
 shut herself up from the world in the imprisonment of its 
 cloisters, where she recounted her beads for nineteen years, 
 until she died in 1592. 
 
 Margaret, the youngest daughter, after her father’s death, 
 accompanied her mother to Spain. Her sister Anne soon after 
 died, and Philip I1., her morose and debauched husband, hav- 
 ing already buried four wives, and no one can tell how many 
 guilty favorites, sought the hand of his young and fresh niece, 
 But Margaret wisely preferred the gloom of the cloister to the 
 Babylonish glare of the palace. She rejected the polluted and 
 withered hand, and in solitude and silence, as a hooded nun, she 
 remained immured in her cell for fifty-seven years. Then her 
 pure spirit passed from a joyless life on earth, we trust, to a 
 happy nome in heaven. 
 
 Rhodolph, the eldest son, succeeded his father, and in the 
 subsequent pages we shall record his career. 
 
 Ernest, the second son, was a mild, bashful young man, of 
 a temperament so singularly melancholy that he was rarely 
 known to smile. His brother Rhodolph gave him the appoint 
 ment of Governor of Hungary. He passed quietly down the 
 stream of time until he was forty-two years of age, when he 
 
186 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 died of the stone, a disease which had long tortured him with 
 excruciating pargs. | 
 
 Matthias, the third son, became a restless, turbulent man, 
 whose deeds we shall have occasion to record in connection 
 with his brother Rhodolph, whom he sternly and successfully 
 opposed. . tale | 
 
 Maximilian, the fourth son, when thirty years of age was 
 elected King of Poland. An opposition party chose John, son 
 of the King of Sweden. The rival candidates appealed to the 
 cruel arbitration of the sword. In a decisive battle Maximil- 
 ian’s troops were defeated, and he was taken prisoner. He 
 was only released upon his giving the pledge that he renounced 
 all his right to the throne. He rambled about, now governing 
 @ province, and now fighting the Turks, until he died unmar- 
 ried, sixty years of age. 
 
 Albert, the youngest son, was destined to the Church. He 
 was sent to Spain, and under the patronage of his royal uncle 
 he soon rose to exalted ecclesiastical dignities, He, however, 
 eventually renounced these for more alluring temporal hon- 
 
 ors. Surrendering his cardinal’s hat, and archiepiscopal robes, — 
 
 he espoused Isabella, daughter of Philip, and from the gov- 
 ernorship of Portugal was promoted to the sovereignty of the 
 Netherlands. Here he encountered only opposition and war. 
 After a stormy and unsuccessful life, in which he was thwarted 
 in all his plans, he died childless. 
 
 From this digression let us return to Rhodolph IIL, the 
 heir to the titles and the sovereignties of his father the em- 
 peror. It was indeed a splendid inheritance which fell to his 
 lot. He was the sole possessor of the archduchy of Austria, 
 King of Bohemia and of Hungary, and Emperor of Germany. 
 He was but twenty-five years of age when he entered upon 
 the undisputed possession of all these dignities. His natural 
 disposition was mild and amiable, his education had been care- 
 fully attended to, his moral character was good, a rare virtue 
 in those days, and he had already evinced much industry, ew 
 
SUCCESSION OF RHODOLPH III. 187 
 
 ergy and talents for business. His father had left the finances 
 and the internal administration of all his realms in good con- 
 dition; his moderation had greatly mitigated the religious 
 animosities which disturbed other portions of Europe, and all 
 obstacles to a peaceful and prosperous reign seemed to have 
 been removed. 
 
 But all these prospects were blighted by the religious big- 
 otry which had gained a firm hold of the mind of the young 
 emperor. When he was but twelve years of age he was sent 
 to Madrid to be educated. Philip IL, of Spain, Rhodolph’s 
 uncle, had an only daughter, and no son, and there seemed to 
 be no prospect that his queen would give birth to another 
 child. Philip consequently thought of adopting Rhodolph as 
 his successor to the Spanish throne, and of marrying him to 
 his daughter. In the court of Spain where the Jesuits held 
 supreme sway, and where Rhodolph was intrusted to their 
 guidance, the superstitious sentiments which he had imbibed 
 from his mother were still more deeply rooted. The Jesuits 
 found Rhodolph a docile pupil; and never on earth have there 
 been found a set of men who, more thoroughly than the Jes- 
 uits, have understood the art of educating the mind to sub- 
 jection. Rhodolph was instructed in all the petty arts of 
 intrigue and dissimulation, and was brought into entire sub- 
 serviency to the Spanish court. Thus educated, Rhodolph 
 received the crown. 
 
 He commenced his reign with the desperate resolve to 
 erush out Protestantism, either by force or guile, and to bring 
 back,his realms to the papal church. Even the toleration of 
 Maximilian, in those dark days, did not allow freedom of 
 worship to any but the nobles. The wealthy and emancipated 
 citizens. of Vienna, and other royal cities, could not establish 
 achurch of their own; they could only, under protection of 
 the nobles, attend the churches which the nobles sustained. 
 In other words, the people were slaves, who were hardly 
 thought of in any state arrangements. The nobles were 
 
188 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 merely the slaveholders, As there was not difference of 
 color to mark the difference between the slaveholder and the 
 slaves or vassals, many in the cities, who had in various way@ 
 achieved their emancipation, had become wealthy and in- 
 structed, and were slowly claiming some few rights. The 
 country nobles could assemble their vassals in the churches 
 where they had obtained toleration. In some few cases some 
 of the citizens of the large towns, who had obtained emanci- 
 pation from some feudal oppressions, had certain defined po- 
 litical privileges granted them. But, in general, the nobles 
 or slaveholders, some having more, and some having less 
 wealth and power, were all whom even Maximilian thought 
 of including in his acts of toleration. A learned man in the 
 universities, or a wealthy man in the walks of commerce, was 
 compelled to find shelter under the protection of some power- 
 ful noble. There were nobles of all ranks, from the dukes, 
 who could bring twenty thousand armed men into the field, 
 down to the most petty, impoverished baron, who had perhaps 
 not half a dozen vassals, 
 
 Rhodolph’s first measure was to prevent the burghers, aa 
 they were called, who were those who had in various ways 
 obtained emancipation from vassal service, and in the large 
 cities had acquired energy, wealth and an air of independ- 
 ence, from attending Protestant worship. The nobles were 
 very jealous of their privileges, and were prompt to combine 
 whenever they thought them infringed. Fearful of rousing 
 the nobles, Rhodolph issued a decree, confirming the toleras 
 tion which his father had granted the nobles, but forbidding 
 the burghers from attending Protestant worship. This was 
 very adroitly done, as it did not interfere with the vassals of 
 the rural nobles on their estates; and these burghers were 
 freed men, over whom the nobles could claim no authority. 
 At the same time Rhodolph silenced three of the most elo- 
 quent and influential of the Protestant ministers, under the 
 plea that they assailed the Catholic church with too much vire 
 
SUCCESSION OF BHODOLPH Ill. 189 
 
 lence ; and he also forbade any one thenceforward to officiate 
 as a Protestant clergyman without a license from him. These 
 were very decisive acts, and yet very adroit ones, as they 
 did not directly interfere with any of the immunities of the 
 nobles. 
 
 The Protestants were, however, much alarmed hy these 
 measures, as indicative of the intolerant policy of the new 
 king. The preachers met together to consult. They corre- 
 sponded with foreign universities respecting the proper course 
 to pursue; and the Protestant nobles met to confer upon the 
 posture of affairs. As the result of their conferences, they 
 issued a remonstrance, declaring that they could not yield to 
 such an infringement of the rights of conscience, and that 
 “they were bound to obey God rather than man.” 
 
 Rhodolph was pleased -with this resistance, as it afforded 
 him some excuse for striking a still heavier blow. He de- 
 clared the remonstrants guilty of rebellion. As a punishment, 
 he banished several Protestant ministers, and utterly forbade 
 the exercise of any Protestant worship whatever, in any of 
 the royal towns, including Vienna itself. He communicated 
 with the leading Catholics in the Church and in the State, 
 urging them to act with energy, concert and unanimity. He 
 removed the Protestants from office, and supplied their places 
 with Catholics. He forbade any license to preach or aca- 
 demical degree, or professorship in the universities from being 
 conferred upon any one who did not sign the formulary of 
 the Catholic faith. He ordered a new catechism to be drawn 
 up for universal use in the schools, that there should be no 
 more Protestant education of children; he allowed no town 
 to choose any officer without his approbation, and he refused 
 to ratify any choice which did not fall upon a Catholic. No 
 person was to be admitted to the rights of burghership, until 
 he had taken an oath of submission to the Catholic priest 
 hood. These high-handed measures led to the outbreak of a 
 few insurrections, which the emperor crushed with iron rigor 
 
2190 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 In the course of a few years, by the vigorous and unrelenting” 
 prosecution of these measures, Rhodolph gave the Catholics’ 
 the ascendency in all his realms, 
 
 While the Catholics were all united, the Protestants were 
 shamefully divided upon the most trivial points of discipline, 
 or upon abstruse questions in philosophy above the reach of 
 mortal minds. It was as true then, as in the days of our 
 Saviour, that “the children of this world are wiser in their gen- 
 eration than the children of light.” Henry IV., of France, 
 who had not then embraced the Catholic faith, was anxious to 
 unite the two great parties of Lutherans and Calvinists, who- 
 were as hostile to each other as they were to the Catholics, 
 He sent an ambassador to Germany to urge their union. He 
 entreated them to call a general synod, suggesting, that as 
 they differed only on the single point of the Lord’s Supper, it 
 would be easy for them to form some basis of fraternal and: 
 harmonious action. 
 
 The Catholic church received the doctrine, so called, of 
 transubstantiation ; that is, the bread and wine, used in the 
 Lord’s Supper, is converted into the actual body and. blood 
 of Jesus Christ, that: it is no longer bread and wine, but real 
 flesh and blood; and none the less so, because it does not ap- 
 pear such to our senses, Luther renounced the doctrine of 
 transubstantiation, and adopted, in its stead, what he called 
 consubstantiation ; that is, that after the consecration of the 
 elements, the body and blood of Christ are substantially pres- 
 ent with (cum et sub,) with and under, the substance of the 
 bread and wine. Calvin taught that the bread and wime rep- 
 resented the real body and blood of Christ, and that the 
 body and blood were spiritually present in the sacrament. I 
 is a deplorable exhibition of the weakness of good men, that: 
 the Lutherans and the Calvinists should have wasted their 
 energies in contending together upon such a point. But we 
 moderns have no right to boast. Precisely the same spirit is 
 manifested now, and denominations differ and strive together. 
 
SUCCESSION OF RHODOLPH III. 7191 
 
 upon questions which the human mind can never settic, The 
 spirit which then animated the two parties may be imferred 
 from the reply of the Lutherans, 
 
 “The partisans of Calvin,” they wrote, “ have accumuiated 
 such numberless errors in regard to the person of Christ, the 
 communication of His merits and the dignity of human nature ; 
 have given such forced explanations of the Scriptures, and 
 adopted so many blasphemies, that the question of the Lords 
 Supper, far from being the principal, has become the least 
 point of difference. An outward union, merely for worldly 
 purposes, in which each party is suffered to maintain its pe- 
 culiar tenets, can neither be agreeable to God nor useful to 
 the Church. These considerations induced us to insert into 
 the formulary of concord a condemnation of the Calvinistical 
 errors; and to declare our public decision that false principles 
 should not be covered with the semblance of exterior union, 
 and tolerated under pretense of the right of private judgment, 
 but that all should submit to the Word of God, as the only 
 rule to which their faith and instructions should be con- 
 formable.” 
 
 They, in conclusion, very politely informed King Henry 
 IV. himself, that if he wished to unite with them, he must sign 
 their creed. This was sincerity, honesty, but it was the sin- 
 cerity and honesty of minds but partially disinthralled from the 
 bigotry of the dark ages. While the Protestants were thus 
 unhappily disunited, the pope codperated with the emperor, 
 and wheeled all his mighty forces into the line to recover the 
 ground which the papal church had lost. Several of the more 
 enlightened of the Protestant princes, seeing all their efforts 
 paralyzed by disunion, endeavored to heal the schism. But 
 the Lutheran leaders would not listen to the Calvinists, nor 
 the Calvinists to the Lutherans, and the masses, as usual, 
 blindly followed their leaders. 
 
 Several of the Calvinist princes and nobles, the Lutherans 
 
 refusing to meet with them, united in a confederacy at Heil- 
 i 
 
192 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 brun, and drew up a long list of grievances, declaring that, 
 until they were redressed, they should withhold the suc- 
 cors which the emperor had solicited to repel the Turks. 
 Most of these grievances were very serious, sufficiently so to 
 rouse men to almost any desperation of resistance. But it 
 would be amusing, were it not humiliating, to find among 
 them the complaint that the pope had changed the calendar 
 from the Julian to the Gregorian. 
 
 By the Julian calendar, or Old Style as it was called, the 
 solar year was estimated at three hundred and sixty-five days 
 and six hours; but it exceeds this by about eleven minutes, 
 As no allowance was made for these minutes, which amount to 
 a day in about one hundred and thirty years, the current year 
 had, in process of ages, advanced ten days beyond the real 
 time. Thus the vernal equinox, which really took place on 
 the 10th of March, was assigned in the calendar to the 21st. 
 To rectify this important error the New Style, or Gregorian 
 calendar, was introduced, so called from Pope Gregory XII. 
 Ten days were dropped after the 4th of October, 1582, and the 
 5th was called the 15th. This reform of the calendar, correct 
 and necessary as it was, was for a long time adopted only by 
 the Catholic princes, so hostile were the Protestants to any 
 thing whatever which originated from the pope. In their list 
 of grievances they mentioned this most salutary reform as 
 one, stating that the pope and the Jesuits presumed even to 
 change the order of times and years. 
 
 This confederacy of the Calvinists, unaided by the Luther- 
 ans, accomplished nothing; but still, as year after year the 
 disaffection increased, their numbers gradually increased also, 
 antil, on the 12th of February, 1603, at Heidelberg they en: 
 tered into quite a formidable alliance, offensive and defensive. 
 
 Rhodolph, encouraged by success, pressed his measure of 
 intolerance with renovated vigor. Having quite effectually 
 abolished the Protestant worship in the States of Austria, he 
 turned his attention to Bohemia, where, under the mild gov 
 
SUCCESSION OF RHODOLPHR III. 193 
 
 ernment of his father, the Protestants had enjoyed a degree of 
 liberty of conscience hardly known im any other part of En. 
 rope. The realm was startled by the promulgation of a de- 
 cree forbidding both Calvinists and Lutherans from holding 
 any meetings for divine worship, and declaring them incapaci- 
 tated from holding any official employment whatever. At the 
 same time he abolished all. their schools, and either closed all 
 their churches, or placed in them Catholic preachers. These 
 same decrees were also promulgated and these same meas 
 ures adopted in Hungary. And still the Protestants, insanely 
 quarreling among themselves upon the most abstruse points of 
 theological philosophy, chose rather to be devoured piecemeal 
 by their great enemy than to combine in self-defense, 
 
 The emperor now turned from his own dominions of Aus 
 tria, Hungary and Bohemia, where he reigned in undisputed 
 sway, to other States of the empire, which were governed by 
 their own independent rulers and laws, and where the power 
 of the emperor was shadowy and limited. He began with the 
 eity of Aix-la-Chapelle, in a Prussian province on the Lower 
 Rhine; sent an army there, took possession of the town, ex 
 pelled the Protestants from the magistracy, driving some of 
 them into exile, inflicting heavy fines upon others, and abol- 
 ishing entirely the exercise of the Protestant religion. 
 
 He then turned to Donauworth, an important city of Ba- 
 varia, upon the Upper Danube. This was a Protestant city, 
 having within its walls but few Catholics. There was in 
 the city one Catholic religious establishment, a Benedictine 
 abbey. The friars enjoyed unlimited freedom of conscience 
 and worship within their own walls, but were not permitted 
 to occupy the streets with their processions, performing the 
 forms and ceremonies of the Catholic church. The Catholics, 
 encouraged by the emperor, sent out a procession from the 
 walis of the abbey, with torches, banners, relics and all the 
 pageants of Catholic worship. The magistrates stopped the 
 procession, tuok away their banners and sent them back te 
 
194 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 the abbey, and then ¢. Ye »d the procession to proceed. Soon 
 after the friars got up another procession on a funeral occa 
 sion. The magistrates, apprehensive that this was a trap te 
 excite them to some opposition which would render it plausi 
 ble for the emperor to interfere, suffered the procession to 
 proceed unmolested. In a few days the monks repeated the 
 experiment. The populace had now become excited, and there 
 were threats of violence. The magistrates, fearful of the con- 
 sequences, did every thing in their power to soothe the peo- 
 ple, and urged them, by earnest proclamation, to abstain from 
 all tumult. For some time the procession, displaying all the 
 nated pomp of papal worship, paraded the streets undisturbed. 
 But at length the populace became ungovernable, attacked the 
 monks, demolished their pageants and pelted them with mire 
 back into the convent. 
 
 This was enough. The emperor published the ban of the 
 empire, and sent the Duke of Bavaria with an army to execute 
 the decree. Resistance was hopeless. The troops took pos- 
 session of the town, abolished the Protestant religion, and de- 
 livered the churches to the Catholics. 
 
 The Protestants now saw that there was no hope for them 
 but in union. Thus driven together by an outward pressure 
 which was every day growing more menacing and severe, the 
 chiefs of the Protestant party met at Aschhausen and estab- 
 lished a confederacy to continue for ten years. Thus united, 
 they drew up a list of grievances, and sent an embassy to pre- 
 sent their demands to the emperor. And now came a very 
 serious turn in the fortunes of Rhodolph. Notwithstanding 
 the armistice which had been concluded with the Turks by 
 Rhodolph, a predatory warfare continued to rage along the 
 borders, Neither the emperor nor the sultan, had they wished 
 it, could prevent fiery spirits, garrisoned in fortresses frowning 
 at each other, from meeting occasionally in hostile encounter. 
 And both parties were willing that their soldiers should have 
 enough to do to keep up their courage and their warlike spirit. 
 
SUCCESSION OF RHODOLPH Ill. 198 
 
 Aggression succeeding aggression, *ziUtimes on one side and 
 sometimes on the other, the sultan at last, in a moment of ex- 
 asperation, resolved to break the truce. 
 
 A large army of Turks invaded Croatia, took several for- 
 tresses, and marching up the valley of the Save, were opening 
 before them a route into the heart of the Austrian States. 
 The emperor hastily gathered an army to oppose them, They 
 met before Siseck, at the confluence of the Kulpa and the 
 Save. The Turks were totally defeated, with the loss of 
 twelve thousand men, Exasperated by the defeat, the sultan 
 roused his energies anew, and war again raged in all its hor- 
 rors. The advantage was with the Turks, and they gradually 
 forced their way up the valley of the Danube, taking fortress 
 after fortress, till they were in possession of the important town 
 of Raab, within a hundred miles of Vienna. 
 
 Sigismond, the waivode or governor of Transylvania, an 
 energetic, high-spirited man, had, by his arms, brought the 
 provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia under subjection to him. 
 Having attained such power, he was galled at the idea of 
 holding his government under the protection of the Tarks. 
 He accordingly abandoned the sultan, and entered into a ceo- 
 alition with the emperor. The united armies fell furiously 
 upon the Turks, and drove them back to Constantinople. 
 
 The sultan, himself a man of exceedingly ferocious charac 
 ter, was thoroughly aroused by this disgrace. He raised an 
 immense army, placed himself at its head, and in 1596 again 
 invaded Hungary. He drove the Austrians everywhere before 
 him, and but for the lateness of the season would have bom- 
 barded Vienna. Sigismond, in the hour of victory, sold Tran- 
 sylvania to Rhodolph for the governorship of some provinces 
 in Silesia, and a large annual pension. There was some fight- 
 ing before the question was fully settled in favor of the em- 
 peror, and then he placed the purchased and the conquered 
 province under the government of the imperial genera! Basta. 
 
 The rule of Basta was so despotic that the Transylvanians 
 
196 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 rose in revolt, and under an intrepid chief, Moses Tzekeli, ap- 
 pealed to the Turks for aid. The Turks were rejoiced again to 
 find the Christians divided, and hastened to avail themselves of 
 the codperation of the disaffected. ‘The Austrians were driven 
 from Transylvania, and the Turks aided in crowning Tzekeli 
 Prince of Transylvania, under the protection of the Porte. 
 The Austrians, however, soon returned in greater force, killed 
 Tzekeli in the confusion of battle, and reconquered the coun- 
 try. During all this time wretched Hungary was ravaged 
 with incessant wars between the Turks and Austrians. Army 
 after army swept to and fro over the smoldering cities and 
 desolated plains. Neither party gained any decisive advan- 
 tage, while Hungary was exposed to misery which no pen can 
 describe. Cities were bombarded, now by the Austrians and 
 now by the Turks, villages were burned, harvests trodden 
 down, every thing eatable was consumed. Outrages were 
 perpetrated upon the helpless population by the ferocious 
 Turks which can not be told. 
 
 The Hungarians lost all confidence in Rhodolph. The big- 
 oted emperor was so much engaged in the attempt to extir- 
 pate what he called heresy from his realms, that he neglected 
 to send armies sufficiently strong to protect Hungary from 
 these ravages. He could have done this without much diffi- 
 culty ; but absorbed in his hostility to Protestantism, he mere- 
 ly sent sufficient troops to Hungary to keep the country in a 
 constant state of warfare. He filled every important govern- 
 mental post in Hungary with Catholics and foreigners, To all 
 the complaints of the Hungarians he turned a deaf ear; and 
 his own Austrian troops frequently rivaled the Turks in dev- 
 astation and pillage. At the same time he issued the most 
 intolerant edicts, depriving the Protestants of all their rights, 
 and endeavoring to force the Roman Catholic religion upon 
 the community. 
 
 He allowed, and even encouraged, his rapacious generals 
 to insult and defraud the Protestant Hungarian nobles, seiz 
 
SUCCESSION OF RHODOLPH II. 197 
 
 ing their castles, confiscating their estates and driving them 
 into exile. This oppression at last became unendurable. The 
 people were driven to despair. One of the most illustrious 
 nobles of Hungary, a magnate of great wealth and distinction, 
 Stephen Botskoi, repaired to Prague to inform the emperor ot 
 the deplorable state of Hungary and to seek redress, He was 
 treated with the utmost indignity; was detained for hours in 
 the ante-chamber of the emperor, where he encountered the 
 most cutting insults from the minions of the court. The in- 
 dignation of the high-spirited noble was roused to the high. 
 est pitch. And when, on his return to Hungary, he found his 
 estates plundered and devastated by order of the imperial 
 governor, he was all ready to head an insurrection, 
 
CHAPTER XITf. 
 
 RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS. 
 
 From 1604 ro 1609. 
 
 . (Bersror’s Mantresto.—Horrisiz Sorrerine In TRANSYLVANIA.—CHARAOTER OF BOF 
 SKOL-—-CONFIDENCE OF THE PROTESTANTS.--SUPERSTITION OF RHODOLPH.—-HIs My¥s- 
 gio Sroupies.--AOCQUIREMENTS OF MatTTs1as.—Sonemes or Marrutas.—His m- 
 @Rxvasine Pownr.—Treaty with THE TurKs.—Demanps on Ruopo.ra.—Tas 
 Compromisn.—Prrripy of Matrutas.—T'ne MArGRAvVITE.—FILLIBUSTERING.—1HE 
 Peopiy’s Dirt.—A Hint to Royarty.—Tuet BLoopiess TRIUMPH.—DEMANDS OF 
 ah GERMANS.—ADDRESS OF THE Prinos OF ANHALT TO THE Kina, 
 
 eae BOTSKOI issued a spirited manifesto to hig 
 
 countrymen, urging them to seek by force of arms that 
 redress which they could obtain in ro other way. The Hun 
 garians flocked in crowds to his standard. Many soldiers de 
 serted from the service of the emperor and joined the insure 
 rection. Botskoi soon found himself in possession of a force 
 sufficiently powerful to meet the Austrian troops in the field, 
 The two hostile armies soon met in the vicinity of Cassan, 
 The imperial troops were defeated with great slaughter, and 
 the city of Cassau fell into the hands of Botskoi; soon his vic 
 torious troops took several other important fortresses. The 
 inhabitants of Transylvania, encouraged by the success of Bot 
 skoi, and detesting the imperial rule, also in great numbers 
 crowded his ranks and intreated him to march into Transylva- 
 nia. He promptly obeyed their summons, The misery of the 
 Transylvanians was, if possible, still greater than that of the 
 Hungarians. Their country presented but a wide expanse of 
 ruin and starvation. Every aspect of comfort and industry 
 was obliterated. The famishing inhabitants were compelled to 
 use the most disgusting animals for food ; and when these were 
 
RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIASB, 199 
 
 gone, in many cases they went to the grave-yard, in the fren- 
 zied torments of hunger, and devoured the decaying bodies of 
 the dead. Pestilence followed in the train of these woes, and 
 the land was filled with the dying and the dead. 
 
 The Turks marched to the aid of Botskoi to expel the Aus- 
 trians. Even the sway of the Mussulman was pretorable to 
 that of the bigoted Rhodolph. Hungary, Transylvania and 
 Turkey united, and the detested Austrians were driven out of 
 Transylvania, and Botskoi, at the head of his victorious army, 
 and hailed by thousands as the deliverer of Transylvania, was 
 inaugurated prince of the province. He then returned to 
 Hungary, where an immense Turkish army received him, in 
 the plains of Rahoz, with regal honors. Here a throne was 
 erected. The banners of the majestic host fluttered in the 
 breeze, and musical bands filled the air with their triumphal 
 strains as the regal diadem was placed upon the brow of Bot- 
 gkoi, and he was proclaimed King of Hungary. The Sultan 
 Achment sent, with his congratulations to the victorious no- 
 ble, a saber of exquisite temper and finish, and a gorgeous 
 standard. The grand vizier himself placed the royal diadem 
 upon his brow. 
 
 Botskoi was a nobleman in every sense of the word. He 
 thought it best publicly to accept these honors in gratitude to 
 the sultan for his friendship and aid, and also to encourage and 
 embolden the Hungarians to retain what they had already ac- 
 quired. He knew that there were bloody battles still before 
 them, for the emperor would doubtless redouble his efforts to 
 regain his Hungarian possessions. At the same time Botskoi, 
 in the spirit of true patriotism, was not willing even to appear 
 to have usurped the government through the energies of the 
 sword. He therefore declared that he should not claim the 
 crown unless he should be freely elected by the nobles; and 
 that he accepted these honors simply as tokens of the confi- 
 dence of the allied army, and as a means of strengthening 
 their power to resist the emperor. 
 
00 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The campaign was now urged with great vigor, and nearly 
 all of Hungary was conquered. Such was the first great dis 
 aster which the intolerance and folly of Rhodolph brought 
 upon him. The Turks and the Hungarians were now good 
 friends, cordially coéperating. A few more battles would place 
 them in possession of the whole of Hungary, and then, in their 
 alliance they could defy all the power of the emperor, and 
 penetrate even the very heart of his hereditary dominions of 
 Austria. Rhodolph, in this sudden peril, knew not where te 
 look for aid. The Protestants, who constituted one half of 
 the physical force, not only of Bohemia and of the Austrian 
 States, but of all Germany, had been insulted and oppressed 
 beyond all hope of reconciliation. They dreaded the papal 
 emperor more than the Mohammedan sultan. They were 
 ready to hail Botskoi as their deliverer 1rom intolerable des- 
 potism, and to swell the ranks of his army. Botskoi wasa 
 Protestant, and the sympathies of the Protestants all over 
 Germany were with him. LElated by his advance, the Prot, 
 estants withheld all contributions from the emperor, and be- 
 gan to form combinations in favor of the Protestant chief. 
 Rhodolph was astonished at this sudden reverse, and quite in 
 dismay. He had no resource but to implore the aid of the 
 Spanish court. 
 
 Rhodolph was as superstitious as he was bigoted and cruel. 
 Through the mysteries of alchymy he had been taught to be- 
 lieve that his life would be endangered by one of his own blood. 
 The idea haunted him by night and by day; he was to be as- 
 sassinated, and by a near relative. He was afraid to marry 
 lest his own child might prove his destined murderer. He 
 was afraid to have his brothers marry lest it might be a nephew 
 who was to perpetrate the deed. He did not dare to attend 
 ehurch, or to appear any where in public without taking the 
 greatest precautions against any possibility of attack. Tho 
 galleries of his palace were so arranged with windows in the 
 
RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIASB. 201 
 
 roof, that he could pass from one. apartment to another shel 
 tered by impenetrable walls. 
 
 This terror, which pursued him every hour, solkied his en- 
 ergies ; and while the Turks were drawing nearer to his capi 
 tal, and Hungary had broken from his sway, and insurrection 
 was breaking out in all parts of his dominions, he secluded 
 himself in the most retired apartments of his palace at Prague, 
 haunted by visions of terror, as miserable himself as he had 
 already made millions of his subjects, He devoted himself to 
 the study of the mystic sciences of astrology and alchymy. 
 He became irritable, morose, and melancholy even to mad- 
 ness. Foreign ambassadors could not get admission to his 
 presence. His religion, consisting entirely in ecclesiastical rit- 
 uals and papal dogmas, not im Christian morals, could not 
 dissuade him from the most degrading sensual vice. Low 
 born mistresses, whom he was continually changing, became 
 his only companions, and thus sunk in sin, shame and misery, 
 he virtually abandoned his ruined realms to their fate. 
 
 Rhodolph had received the empire from the hands of his 
 noble father in a state of the very highest prosperity. In 
 thirty years, by shameful misgovernment, he had carried it to 
 the brink of ruin. Rhodolph’s third brother, Matthias, was 
 now forty-nine years of age. He had been educated by the 
 illustrious Busbequias, whose mind had been liberalized by 
 study in the most celebrated universities of Flanders, France 
 and Italy. His teacher had passed many years as an ambassa- 
 dor in the court of the sultan, and thus had been able to give 
 his pupil a very intimate acquaintance with the resources, the 
 military tactics, the manners and customs of the Turks. He 
 excelled in military exercises, and was passionately devoted to 
 the art of war. In all respects he was the reverse of his 
 brother—energetic, frank, impulsive. The two brothers, so 
 dissimilar, had no ideas in common, and were always involved 
 in bickerings. 
 
 The Netherlands had risen in revolt against the infamous 
 
202 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Philip (1. of Spain. They chose the intrepid and warlike Mat 
 thias as their leader. With alacrity he assumed the perilous 
 post. The rivalry of the chiefs thwarted his plans, and he re- 
 signed his post and returned to Austria, where his brother, the 
 emperor, refused even to see him, probably fearing assassina- 
 tion. Matthias took up his residence at Lintz, where he iived 
 for some time in obscurity and penury. His imperial brother 
 would neither give him help nor employment. The restless 
 prince fretted like a tiger in his cage. 
 
 in 1595 Rhodolph’s second brother, Ernest, died childless, 
 and thus Matthias became heir presumptive to the crown of 
 Austria. From that time Rhodolph made a change, and in- 
 trusted him with high offices. Still the brothers were no 
 nearer to each other im affection. Rhodolph dreaded the am- 
 bition and was jealous of the rising power of his brother. 
 He no longer dared to treat him ignominiously, lest his brother 
 should be provoked to some desperate act of retaliation. On 
 the other hand, Matthias despised the weakness and supersti- 
 tion of Rhodolph. The increasing troubles in the realm and 
 the utter inefficiency of Rhodolph, convinced Matthias that 
 the day was near when he must thrust Rhodolph from the 
 throne he disgraced, and take his seat upon it, or the splendid 
 hereditary domains which had descended to them from their 
 ancestors would pass fom their hands forever. 
 
 With this object in view, he did all he could to conciliate 
 the Catholics, while he attempted to secure the Protestants by 
 promising to return to the principles of toleration established 
 by his father, Maximilian. Matthias rapidly increased in popu- 
 iarity, and as rapidly Rhodolph was sinking into disgrace, 
 Catholics and Protestants saw alike that the ruin of Austria 
 was impending, and that apparently there was no hope but in 
 the deposition of Rhodolph and the enthronement of Matthias, 
 
 It was not difficult to accomplish this revolution, and yet 
 it required energy, secrecy and an extended combination, 
 Even the weakest reigning monarch has pewer in his hands 
 
RHODOLPH ITI. AND MATTHIAS. 203 
 
 which can only be wrested from him by both strength and 
 skill. Matthias first gained over to his plan his younger 
 brother, Maximilian, and two of his cousins, princes of the 
 Styrian line. They entered into a secret agreement, by which 
 they declared that in consequence of the incapacity of Rho- 
 dolph, he was to be considered as deposed by the will of 
 Providence, and that Matthias was entitled to the sovereignty 
 as head of the house of Austria, Matthias then gained, by 
 the varied arts of diplomatic bargaining, the promised support 
 of several other princes. He purchased the codperation of Bots 
 koi by surrendering to him the whole of Transylvania, and all 
 of Hungary to the river Theiss, which, including Transylvania, 
 constitutes one half of the majestic kingdom. Matthias agreed 
 to grant general toleration to all Protestants, both Lutherana 
 and Calvinists, and also to render them equally eligible with 
 the Catholics to all offices of emolument and honor. Both 
 parties then agreed to unite against the Turks if they refused 
 to accede to honorable terms of peace. The sultan, conscious 
 that such a union would be more than he could successfully 
 oppose, listened to the conditions of peace when they after- 
 wards made them, as he had never condescended to listen be- 
 fore. it is indicative of the power which the Turks had af 
 that day attained, that a truce with the sultan for twenty 
 years, allowing each party to retain possession of the terri- 
 tories which they then held, was purchased by paying a sum 
 outright, amounting to two hundred thousand dollars, The 
 annual tribute, however, was no longer to be paid, and thus 
 Christendom was released from the degradation of vassalage 
 to the Turk. 
 
 Rhodolph, who had iong looked with a suspicicus eye upon 
 Matthias, watching him very narrowly, began now to see in- 
 dications of the plot. He therefore, aided by the counsel and 
 the energy of the King of Spain, who was implacable in his 
 hostility to Matthias, resolved to make his cousin Ferdinand, 
 & Styrian prince, his heir to succeed him upon the throne 
 
204 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 He conferred upon Ferdinand exalted dignities; appointed 
 him to preside in his stead at a diet at Ratisbon, and ix 
 sued a proclamation full of most bitter recriminations against 
 Matthias. 
 
 Matters had now come to such a pass that Matthias was 
 compelled either to bow in humble submission to his brother, 
 or by force of arms to execute his purposes. With such an 
 alternative he was not a man long to delay his decision. Still 
 he advanced in his plans, though firmly, with great circum- 
 spection. To gain the Protestants was to gain one half of 
 the physical power of united Austria, and more than one half 
 of its energy and intelligence. He appointed a rendezvous for 
 his troops at Znaim in Moravia, and while Rhodolph was tim- 
 idly secluding himself in his palace at Prague, Matthias left 
 Vienna with ten thousand men, and marched to meet them, 
 He was received by the troops assembled at Znaim with en- 
 thusiasm. Having thus collected an army of twenty-five thou- 
 sand men, he entered Bohemia. On the 10th of May, 1608, 
 he reached Craslau, within sixty miles of Prague. Great mul- 
 titudes now crowded around him and openly espoused his 
 cause. He now declared openly and to all, that it was his in- 
 tention to depose his brother and claim for himself the gov- 
 ernment of Hungary, Austria and Bohemia. 
 
 He then urged his battalions onward, and pressed with 
 rapid march towards Prague. Rhodolph was now roused to 
 some degree of energy. He summoned all his supporters to 
 rally around him. It was a late hour for such a call, but the 
 Catholic nobles generally, all over the kingdom, were instantly 
 in motion, Many Protestant nobles also attended the assem. 
 bly, hoping to extort from the emperor some measures of 
 toleration. ‘The emperor was so frightened that he was ready 
 to promise almost any thing. He even crept from his secluded 
 apartments and presided over the meeting in person. The 
 Protestant nobles drew up a paper demanding the same tolera 
 tion which Maximilian had granted, with the additional permis 
 
RHODOLPH I1Il. AND MATTHIAS 908 
 
 sion to build churches and to have their own burying-grounds, 
 With this paper, to which five or six hundred signatures were 
 attached, they went to the palace, demanded admission to the 
 emperor, and required him immediately to give his assent to 
 them. Jt was not necessary for them to add any threat, for 
 tae emperor knew that there was an Austrian and Hungarian 
 army within a few hours’ march. 
 
 While matters were in this state, commissioners from Mat- 
 thias arrived to inform the king that he must cede the crown 
 to his brother and retire into the Tyrol. The emperor, in ter 
 ror, inquired, “ What shallI do?” The Protestants demanded 
 an immediate declaration, either that he would or would not 
 grant their request. His friends told him that resistance was 
 unavailing, and that he must come to an accommodation, Still 
 the emperor had now thirty-six thousand troops in and around 
 Prague. They were, however, inspired with no enthusiasm 
 for his person, and it was quite doubtful whether they would 
 fight. A few skirmishes took place between the advance 
 guards with such results as to increase Rhodolph’s alarm. 
 
 He consequently sent envoys to his brother. They met at 
 Liebau, and after a negotiation of four days they made a par- 
 tial compromise, by which Rhodolph ceded to Matthias, with- 
 out reservation, Hungary, Austria and Moravia. Matthias 
 was also declared to be the successor to the crown of Bohe- 
 mia should Rhodolph die without issue male, and Matthias 
 was immediately to assume the title of “appointed King of 
 Bohemia.” The crown and scepter of Hungary were surren- 
 dered to Matthias. He received them with great pomp at the 
 head of his army, and then leading his triumphant battalions 
 out of Bohemia, he returned to Vienna and entered the city 
 with all the military parade of a returning conqueror. 
 
 Matthias had now gained his great object, but he was not 
 at all inclined to fuifill his promises. He assembled the nobles 
 of Anstria, to receive from them their oaths of aliegiance, 
 But the Protestants, taught caution by long experience, wished 
 
206 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA 
 
 first to see the decree of toleration which he had promised, 
 Many of the Protestants, at a distance from the capital, not 
 waiting for the issuing of the decree, but relying upon his 
 promise, reéstablished their worship, and the Lord of Inzen- 
 dorf threw open his chapel to the citizens of the town. But 
 Matthias was now disposed to play the despot. He arrested 
 the Lord of Inzendorf, and closed his church. He demanded 
 of all the lords, Protestant as well as Catholic, an uncondi- 
 tional oath of allegiance, giving vague promises, that perhaps 
 at some future time he would promulgate a decree of tolera- 
 tion, but declaring that he was not bound to do so, on the 
 miserable quibble that, as he had received from Rhodolph 
 a hereditary title, he was not bound to grant any thing but 
 what he had received. 
 
 The Protestants were alarmed and exasperated. They 
 grasped their arms; they retired in a body from Vienna to 
 Hern; threw garrisons and provisions into several important 
 fortresses ; ordered a levy of every fifth man; sent to Hun- 
 gary and Moravia to rally their friends there, and with amaz- 
 ing energy and celerity formed a league for the defense of 
 their faith. Matthias was now alarmed. He had not antici- 
 pated such energetic action, and he hastened to Presburg, the 
 capital of Hungary, to secure, if possible, a firm seat upon the 
 throne. A large force of richly caparisoned troops followed 
 him, and he entered the capital with splendor, which he hoped 
 would dazzle the Hungarians. The regal crown and regalia, 
 studded with priceless jewels, which belonged to Hungary, he 
 took with him, with great parade. Hungary had been de 
 prived of these treasures, which were the pride of the nation, 
 for seventy years. But the Protestant nobles were not to be 
 cajoled with such tinsel. They remained firm in their de- 
 mands, and refused to accept him as their sovereign until the 
 promised toleration was granted. Their claims were very 
 distinct and intelligible, demanding full toleration for both 
 Calvinists and Lutherans, and equal eligibility for Protestants 
 
RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS. 207 
 
 @ith Catholics, to all governmental offices; none but native 
 Hungarians were to be placed in office ; the kmg was to reside 
 m Hungary, and when necessarily absent, was to intrust the 
 government to a regent, chosen jointly by the kmg and the 
 nobles; Jesuits were not to be admitted into the kingdom; 
 no foreign troops were to be admitted, unless there was war 
 with the Turks, and the king was not to declare war without 
 the consent of the nobles. 
 
 Matthias was very reluctant to sign such conditions, for he 
 was very jealous of his newly-acquired power as a sovereign 
 But a refusal would have exposed him to a civil war, with such 
 forces arrayed against him as to render the result at least 
 doubtful. The Austrian States were already in open insur. 
 rection. The emissaries of Rhodolph were busy, fanning the 
 flames of discontent, and making great promises to those who 
 would restore Rhodolph to the throne. Intolerant and odious 
 as Rhodolph had been, his great reverses excited sympathy, 
 and many were disposed to regard Matthias but as a usurper, 
 Thus influenced, Matthias not only signed all the conditions, 
 but was also constrained to carry them into immediate execu. 
 tion. These conditions being fulfilled, the nobles met on the 
 19th of November, 1606, and elected Matthias king, and in- 
 augurated him with the customary forms. 
 
 Matthias now returned to Vienna, to quell the insurrection 
 m the Austrian States. The two countries were so entirely 
 independent of each other, though now under the same ruler, 
 that he had no fear that his Hungarian subjects would inter. 
 fere at all in the internal administration of Austria, Matthias 
 was resolved to make up for the concessions he had granted 
 the Hungarians, by ruling with more despotic sway in Austria. 
 The pope proffered him his aid. The powerful bishops of 
 Passau and Vienna assured him of efficient support, and em 
 couraged the adoption of energetic measures, ‘Thus strength- 
 ened Matthias, who was so plant and humble in Hungary, 
 gssumed the most haughty airs of the sovereign in Austria, 
 
ve THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA... 
 
 He peremptorily ordered the Protestants to be silent, and te 
 cease their murmurings, or he would visit them with the most 
 exemplary punishment. 
 
 North-east of the duchy of Austria, and lying between the 
 kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, was the province of 
 Moravia, This territory was about the size of the State of 
 Massachusetts, and its chief noble, or governor, held the title 
 of margrave, or marquis. Hence the province, which belonged 
 to the Austrian empire, was called the margraviate of Mo- 
 ravia. It contained a population of a little over a million. 
 The nobles of Moravia immediately made common cause with 
 those of Austria, for they knew that they must share the same 
 fate. Matthias was again alarmed, and brought to terms, On 
 the 16th of March, 1609, he signed a capitulation, which re- 
 stored to all the Austrian provinces all the toleration which 
 they had enjoyed under Maximilian II. The nobles then, of all 
 the States of Austria, took the oath of allegiance to Matthias, 
 
 The ambitious monarch, having thus far succeeded, looked 
 with a covetous eye towards Transylvania. That majestic 
 province, on the eastern borders of Hungary, being three times 
 the size of Massachusetts, and containing a population of about 
 two millions, would prove a splendid addition to the Hun- 
 garian kingdom. While Matthias was secretly encouraging 
 what in modern times and republican parlance is called a 
 fillibustering expedition, for the sake of annexing Transyl- 
 vania to the area of Hungary, a new object of ambition, and 
 one still more alluring, opened before him. 
 
 The Protestants in Bohemia were quite excited when they 
 heard of the great privileges which their brethren in Hungary, 
 and in the Austrian provinces had extorted from Matthias, 
 This rendered them more restless under the intolerable bur- 
 dens imposed upon them. Soon after the armies of Matthias 
 had withdrawn from Bohemia, Rhodolph, according to his 
 promise, summoned a diet to deliberate upon the state of af 
 fairs. The Protestants, who despised Rhodolph, attended th 
 
RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS. 209 
 
 diet, resolved to demand reform, and, if necessary, to seek it 
 by force of arms. They at once assumed a bold front, and 
 refused to discuss any civil affairs whatever, until the freedom 
 of religious worship, which they had enjoyed under Maximil- 
 ian, was restored to them. But Rhodolph, infatuated, and 
 under the baleful influence of the Jesuits, refused to listen to 
 their appeal. 
 
 Matthias, informed of this state of affairs, saw that there 
 was a fine opportunity for him to place himself at the head of 
 the Protestants, who constituted not only a majority in Bohe- 
 mia, but were also a majority in the diet. He therefore sent 
 his emissaries among them to encourage them with assurances 
 of his sympathy and aid. The diet which Rhodolph had sum- 
 moned, separated without coming to other result than rousing 
 thoroughly the spirit of the Protestants. They. boldly called 
 another diet to meet in May, in the city of Prague itself, un- 
 der the very shadow of the palace of ‘Rhodolph, and sent dep- 
 uties to Matthias, and to the Protestant princes generally of 
 the German empire, soliciting their support. Rhodolph issued 
 a proclamation forbidding them to meet. Regardless of this 
 injunction they met, at the appointed time and place, opened 
 the meeting with imposing ceremonies, and made quiet prep- 
 aration to repel force with force. These preparations were so 
 effectually made that upon an alarm being given that the troops 
 of Rhodolph were approaching to disperse the assembly, in less 
 than an hour twelve hundred mounted knights and more than 
 ten thousand foot soldiers surrounded their hall as a guard. 
 
 This was a very broad hint to the emperor, and it surpris- 
 ingly enlightened him. He began to bow and to apologize, 
 and to asserverats upon his word of honor that he meant to do 
 what was right, and from denunciations, he passed by a single 
 step to cajolery and fawning. It was, however, only his in- 
 tention to gain time till he could secure the codperation of the 
 pope, and other Catholic princes. The Protestants, however, 
 were not to be thus deluded. As unmindful -f his protesta 
 
S10 THE HOUSE OF AUBTRIA. 
 
 tions as they had been of his menaces, they proceeded eso 
 lately in establishing an energetic organization for the defense 
 of their civil and religious rights. They decreed the levying 
 of an army, and appointed three of the most distinguished 
 nobles as generals. The decree was hardly passed before it 
 was carried into execution, and an army of three thousand 
 foot soldiers, and two thousand horsemen was assembled as by 
 magic, and their numbers were daily increasing. 
 
 Rhodolph, still cloistered in his palace, looked with amaze- 
 ment upon this" rising storm. He had no longer energy for 
 any decisive action. With mulish obstinaey he would con- 
 cede nothing, neither had he force of character to marsha 
 any decisive resistance. But at last he saw that the hand of 
 Matthias was also in the movement; that his ambitious, unre 
 lenting brother was coéperating with his foes, and would inev 
 itably hurl him from the throne of Bohemia, as he had already 
 done from the kingdom of Hungary and from the dukedom of 
 Austria. He was panic-stricken by this sudden revelation, 
 and in the utmost haste issued a decree, dated July 5th, 1669, 
 granting to the Protestants full toleration of religious worship, 
 and every other right they had demanded. The despotic old 
 king became all of a sudden as docile and pliant as a child. 
 He assured his faithful and well-beloved Protestant subjects that 
 they might worship God in their own chapels without any mo- 
 lestation ; that they might build churches ; that they might es- 
 tablish schools for their children ; that their clergy might meet 
 in ecclesiastical councils ; that they might choose chiefs, who 
 should be confirmed by the sovereign, to watch over their 
 religious privileges and to guard against any infringement of 
 this edict; and finally, all ordinances contrary to this act of free 
 and full toleration, which might hereafter be issued, either by 
 the present sovereign or any of his successors, were declared 
 null and void. 
 
 The Protestants behaved nobly in this hour of bloodless 
 triumph, ‘Their demands were reasonable and honorable, and 
 
 
 
RHODOLPH III. AND MATYHIASB. 211 
 
 they sought no infringement whatever of the rights of others, 
 Their brethren of Silesia had aided them in this great achieve- 
 ment. The duchy of Silesia was then dependent upon Bohe- 
 mia, and was just north of Moldavia. It contained a popula 
 tion of about a million and a half, scattered over a territory 
 of about fifteen thousand square miles. The Protestants de- 
 manded that the Silesians should share in the decree. ‘‘ Most 
 certainly,” replied the amiable Rhodolph. An act of general 
 amnesty for all political offenses was then passed, and peace 
 was restored to Germany. 
 
 Never was more forcibly seen, than on this occasion, the 
 power of the higher classes over the masses of the people. In 
 fact, popular tumults, disgraceful mobs, are almost invariably 
 excited by the higher classes, who push the mob on while they 
 themselves keep in the background. It was now for the in- 
 terest of the leaders, both Catholic and Protestant, that there 
 should be peace, and the populace immediately imbibed that 
 spirit. The Protestant chapel stood by the side of the Romish 
 cathedral, and the congregations mingled freely in courtesy and 
 kindness, as they passed to and from their places of worship. Mu- 
 tual forbearance and good will seemed at once to be restored. 
 
 And now the several cities of the German empire, where 
 religious freedom had been crushed by the emperor, began to 
 throng his palace with remonstrants and demands, They, uni- 
 ted, resolved at every hazard to attain the privileges which 
 their brethren in Bohemia and Austria had secured. The 
 Prince of Anhalt, an able and intrepid man, was dispatched to 
 Prague with a list of grievances. In very plain language he 
 mveighed against the government of the emperor, and de 
 manded for Donauworth and other cities of the German empire, 
 the civil and religious freedom of which Rhodolph had de- 
 prived them; declaring, without any softening of expression, 
 that if the emperor did not peacefully grant their requests, 
 they would seek redress by force of arms. The humiliated 
 and dishonored emperor tried to pacify the prince by vague 
 
gi2 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 promises and honeyed words, to which the prince replied in 
 language which at once informed the emperor that the time for 
 dalliance had passed. 
 
 “T fear,” said the Prince of Anhalt, in words which sov- 
 ereigns are not accustomed to hear, “that this answer will 
 rather tend to prolong the dispute than to tranquillize the united 
 princes. I am beund in duty to represent to your imperial 
 ‘“ajesty the dangerous flame which I now see bursting forth 
 in Germany. Your counselors are ill adapted to extinguish 
 this rising flame—those counselors who have brought you 
 into such imminent danger, and who have nearly destroyed 
 public confidence, credit and prosperity throughout your do- 
 minions. I must likewise exhort your imperial majesty to 
 take all important affairs into consideration yourself, intreat- 
 ing you to recollect the example of Julius Czesar, who, had he 
 not neglected to read the note presented to him as he was 
 going to the capitol, would not have received the twenty 
 wounds which caused his death.” 
 
 This last remark threw the emperor into a paroxysm of 
 terror. He had long been trembling from the apprehension 
 of assassination. This allusion to Julius Cesar he considered 
 an intimation that his hour was at hand. His terror was sc 
 great that Prince Anhalt had to assure him, again and again, 
 that he intended no such menace, and that he was not aware 
 that any conspiracy was thought of any where, for his death, 
 The emperor was, however, so alarmed that he promised any 
 thing and every thing. He doubtless intended to fulfill his 
 promise, but subsequent troubles arose which absorbed all 
 his remaining feeble energies, and obliterated past engage- 
 ments from his mind. 
 
 Matthias was watching all the events with the intensest 
 eagerness, as affording a brilliant prospect to him, to obtain 
 the crown of Bohemia, and the scepter of the empire. This 
 ambition consumed his days and his nights, verifying the ad 
 age, “uneasy lies the head which wears a crown.” 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS. 
 
 From 1609 ro 1612. 
 
 DEFFIOCULTIES AS TO THE SucoEssiION.—Hostitity or Henry IV. To THE House or Avs 
 TRIA.—ASSASSINATION OF HeNrY IV.—SIMILARITY IN SULLY’s AND NAPOLEON'S 
 PLans.—EXULTATION OF THE CATHOLICS.—THE BrotHERs’ Oompaot.—How Rao 
 DOLPH KEPT 17T.—Seizure OF PRAGUE.—RHODOLPH A PRISONER.—TuHE Kine’s AB- 
 DIOATION.—CONDITIONS ATTACHED TO THE CROWN.—RAGE OF RHODOLPH.—MA'TTHIAS 
 ELECTED Kine.—Tue EmMpeEror’s RESIDENOE.—REJOIOINGS OF THE PROTESTANTS.— 
 REPLY OF THE. AMBASSADORS.—THE NUREMBURG DiIET.—THE UNKINDEST CUT 0? 
 ALL.—RHODOLPH’s HUMILIATION AND DEATH. 
 
 ND now suddenly arose another question which threat- 
 
 ened to involve all Europe in war. The Duke of Cleves, 
 Juliers, and Berg died without issue. This splendid duchy, 
 or rather combination of duchies, spread over a territory of 
 several thousand square miles, and was inhabited by over a 
 million of inhabitants. There were many claimants to the 
 succession, and the question was so singularly intricate and 
 involved, that there were many who seemed to have an equal 
 right to the possession. The emperor, by virtue of his im- 
 perial authority, issued an edict, putting the territory in se- 
 questration, till the question should be decided by the proper 
 tribunals, and, in the meantime, placing the territory in the 
 hands of one of his own family as administrator. 
 
 This act, together with the known wishes of Spain to pre- 
 vent so important a region, lying near the Netherlands, from 
 falling into the hands of the Protestants, immediately changed 
 the character of the dispute into a religious contest, and, as 
 by magic, all Europe wheeled into line on the one side or the 
 other. Every other question was lost sight of, in the all 
 
214 THE HOUSE OF AUSTEIA. 
 
 absorbing one, Shall the duchy fall into the hands ot the Pro. | 
 estants or the Catholics ? 
 
 Henry IV. of France zealously espoused the cause of the 
 Protestants. He was very hostile to the house of Austna for 
 the assistance it had lent to that celebrated league which for'so 
 many years had deluged Frauce in blood, and cept Henry IV. 
 from the throne; and he was particularly anxious to humble 
 that proud power. Though Henry IV., after fighting for 
 many years the battles of Protestantism, had, from motives 
 of policy, avowed the Romish faith, he could never forget his 
 mother’s instructions, his early predilections and his old friends 
 and supporters, the Protestants; and his sympathies were. al- 
 ways with them. Henry IV., as sagacious and energetic as 
 he was ambitious, saw that he could never expect a more fae 
 vorable moment to strike the house of Austria than the one 
 then presented. The Emperor Rhodolph was weak, and 
 universally unpopular, not only with his own subjects, but 
 
 throughout Germany. The Protestants were ali inimical to 
 him, and he was involved in desperate antagonism with his 
 energetic brother Matthias. Stili he was a formidable foe, as, 
 in a war involving religious questions, he could rally around 
 him all the Catholic powers of Europe. 
 
 Henry IV., preparatory to pouring his troops into the 
 German empire, entered into secret negotiations with Eng- 
 land, Denmark, Switzerland, Venice, whom he easily pur- 
 chased with offers of plunder, and with the Protestant princes 
 of minor power on the continent. There were not a few, in- 
 different upon religious matters, who were ready to engage in 
 any enterprise which would humble Spain and Austria. Henry 
 collected a large furce on the frontiers of Germany, and, with 
 ample materials of war, was prepared, at a given me ‘to 
 burst into the territory of the empire. 
 
 The Catholics watched these movements with alarm, and. 
 began also to organize. Rhodolph, who, from his position ag 
 emperor, should have been their leader, was a wretched hy 
 
 
 
BHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS. 215 
 
 pochondriac, trembling before imaginary terrors, a prey to 
 the most gloomy superstitions, and still concealed in the se: 
 cret chambers of his palace. He was a burden to his party, 
 and was regarded by them with contempt. Matthias waa 
 watching him, as the tiger watches its prey. To human eyes 
 it would appear that the destiny of the house of Austria was 
 sealed. Just at that critical point, one of those unexpected 
 eveuts occurred, which so often rise to thwart the deepest 
 laid schemes of man. 
 
 On the 14th of May, 1610, Henry IV. left the Louvre in 
 his carriage to visit his prime minister, the illustrious Sully, 
 who was sick. The city was thronged with the multitudes 
 assembled to witness the triumphant entry of the queen, who 
 had just been crowned. It was a beautiful spring morning, 
 and the king sat in his carriage with several of his nobles, the 
 windows of his carriage being drawn up. Just as the carriage 
 was turning up from the rue St. Honore into the rue Fer 
 ronnerie, the passage was found blocked up by two carts, 
 The moment the carriage stopped, a man sprung from the 
 crowd upon one of the spokes of the wheel, and grasping a 
 part of the coach with his right hand, with his left plunged 
 a dagger to the hilt into the heart of Henry IV. Instantly 
 withdrawing it, he repeated the blow, and with nervous 
 strength again penetrated the heart. The king dropped dead 
 into the arms of his friends, tne blood gushing from the 
 wound and from his mouth. The wretched assassin, a fanatie 
 monk, Francis Ravaillac, was immediately seized by the guard. 
 With difficulty they protected him from being torn in pieces 
 by the populace. He was reserved for a more terrible fate, 
 - and was subsequently put to death by the most frightful tor. 
 tures human ingenuity could devise. 
 
 The poniard of the assassin changed the fate of Europe. 
 Henry IV. had formed one of the grandest plans which ever 
 entered the human mind. Though it is not at all probatle 
 
 that hb could have executed it, the attempt, with the immense 
 J 
 
216 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 means he had at his disposal, and with his energy as a warrior 
 and diplomatist, would doubtless have entirely altered the 
 aspect of human affairs. There was very much in his plan to 
 secure the approval of all those enlightened men who were 
 mourning over the incessant and cruel wars with which Eu- 
 rope was ever desolated. His intention was to reconstruct 
 Europe into fifteen States, as nearly uniform in size and power 
 as possible. These States were, according to their own choice, 
 to be monarchical or republican, and were to be associated on 
 a plan somewhat resembling that of the United States of 
 North America. In each State the majority were to decide 
 which religion, whether Protestant or Catholic, should be es- 
 tablished. The Catholics were all to leave the Protestant 
 States, and assembie in their own. In like manner the Prot- 
 estants were to abandon the Catholic kingdoms. This was 
 the very highest point to which the spirit of toleration had 
 then attained. All Pagans and Mohammedans were to be 
 driven out of Europe into Asia, A civil tribunal was to be 
 organized to settle all national difficulties, so that there should 
 be no more war. ‘There was to be a standing army belonging 
 to the confederacy, to preserve the peace, and enforce its de- 
 crees, consisting of two hundred and seventy thousand in- 
 fantry, fifty thousand cavalry, two hundred cannon, and one 
 hundred and twenty ships of war. 
 
 This plan was by no means so chimerical as at first glance 
 it might seem to be. The sagacious Sully examined it in all 
 its details, and gave it his cordial support. The codperation 
 of two or three of the leading powers would have invested 
 the plan with sufficient moral and physical support to render 
 its success even probable. But the single poniard of the 
 monk Ravaillac arrested it all. 
 
 The Emperor Napoleon I. had formed essentially the same 
 plan, with the same humane desire to put an end to intermin 
 able wars; but he had adopted far nobler principles of toler» 
 tion. 
 
RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAB, 217 
 
 “ One of my great plans,” said be at St. Helena, “ was the 
 rejoining, the concentration of those same geographical nations 
 which have been disunited and parcelled out by revolution and 
 policy. There are dispersed in Europe upwards of thirty mil- 
 ions of French, fifteen millions of Spaniards, fifteen millions of 
 Italians, and thirty millions of Germans, It was my intention 
 to incorporate these several people each into one nation. It 
 would have been a noble thing to have advanced into posterity 
 with such a train, and attended by the blessings of future ages, 
 I felt myse!f worthy of this glory. 
 
 “After this summary simplification, it would have been 
 possible to indulge the chimera of the beau ideal of civiliza 
 tion. In this state of things there would have been some 
 chance of establishing in every country a unity of codes, of 
 principles, of opinions, of sentiments, views and interests, 
 Tren perhaps, by the help of the universal diffusion of knowl- 
 edge, one might have thought of attempting in the great hu- 
 man family the application of the American Congress, or the 
 Amphictyons of Greece. What a perspective of power, gran- 
 deur, happiness and prosperity would thus have appeared. 
 
 “The concentration of thirty or forty millions of French. 
 men was completed and perfected. That of fifteen millions of 
 Spaniards was nearly accomplished. Because I did not sub- 
 due the Spaniards, it will henceforth be argued that they were 
 invincible, for nothing is more common than to convert acci- 
 dent into principle. But the fact is that they were actually 
 conquered, and, at the very moment when they escaped me, 
 the Cortes of Cadiz were secretly in treaty with me. They 
 were not delivered either by their own resistance or by the 
 efforts of the English, but by the reverses which I sustained at 
 different points, and, above all, by the error I ccmnitted in 
 transferring my whole forces to the distance of thee thon- 
 sand miles from them. Had it not been for this, the Span- 
 ish government would have been shortiy consolidatey the 
 public mind would have been tvanquiliznd, wa kostile pev‘ies 
 
218 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 would have been rallied together. Three or four years would 
 have restored the Spaniards to profound peace and brilliant 
 prosperity. ‘They would have become a compact nation, and 
 I should have well deserved their gratitude, for I should have 
 saved them from the tyranny by which they are now oppressed, 
 and the terrible agitations which await them. , 
 
 “‘ With regard to the fifteen millions of Italians, their con- 
 centration was already far advanced ; it only wanted maturity. 
 The people were daily becoming more firmly established in 
 the unity of principles and legislation, and also in the unity of 
 thought and feeling—that certain and infallible cement of hu- 
 man thought and ‘concentration. The union of Piedmont to 
 France, and the junction of Parma, Tuscany and Rome, were, 
 in my mind, only temporary measures, intended merely to 
 guarantee and promote the national education of the Italians, 
 The portions of Italy that were united to France, though that 
 union might have been regarded as the result of invasion on 
 our part, were, in spite of their Italian patriotism, the very 
 places that continued most attached to us. 
 
 ** All the south of Europe, therefore, would soon have been 
 rendered compact in point of locality, views, opinions, senti- 
 meuts and interests. In this state of things, what would have 
 been the weight of all the nations of the North? What hu- 
 man efforts could have broken through so strong a barrier ? 
 The concentration of the Germans must have been effected 
 more gradually, and therefore I had done no more than sim- 
 plify their monstrous complication. Not that they were un- 
 prepared for concentralization ; on the contrary, they were 
 too well prepared for it, and they might have blindly risen in 
 reaction against us before they had comprehended our de- 
 signs. How happens it that no German prince has yet formed 
 a just notion of the spirit of his nation, and turned it to good 
 account ? Certainly if Heaven had made me a prince of Ger. 
 many, amid the critical events of our times I should infallibly 
 have governed the thirty millions of Germans combined ; and, 
 
RHODOLPH I11 AND MATTHIAB. 319 
 
 from what I know of them, I think I may venture to affirm 
 that if they had once elected and proclaimed me they would not 
 have forsaken me, and I should never have been at St. Helena. 
 
 ‘* At all events,” the emperor continued, after a moment’s 
 pause, “this concentration will be brought about sooner or 
 iater by the very force of events, The impulse is given, and 
 I think tkat since my fall and the destruction of my system, no 
 grand equilibrium can possibly be established in Kurope except 
 by the concentration and confederation of the principal na 
 tions. ‘The sovereign who in the first great conflict shall sin- 
 cerely embrace the cause of the people, will find himself at the 
 head of Europe, and may attempt whatever he pleases.” 
 
 Thus similar were the plans of these two most illustrious 
 men. But from this digression let us return to the affairs of 
 Austria. With the death of Henry IV., fell the stupendous 
 plan which his genius conceived, and which his genius alone 
 could execute. The Protestants, all over Europe, regarded 
 his death as a terrible blow. Still they did not despair of se- 
 curing the contested duchy for a Protestant prince. The fall 
 of Henry IV. raised from the Catholics a shout of exultation, 
 and they redoubled their zeal. 
 
 The various princes of the house of Austria, brothers, un. 
 cles, cousins, holding important posts all over the empire, were 
 much alarmed in view of the peril to which the family ascend- 
 ing was exposed by the feebleness of Rhodolph. They held 
 a private family conference, and decided that the interests of 
 all required that there should be reconciliation between Mat- 
 thias and Rhodolph; or that, in their divided state, they would 
 fall victims to their numerous foes, The brothers agreed to 
 an outward reconciliation ; but there was not the slightest miti 
 gation of the rancor which filled their hearts. Matthias, how 
 ever, consented to acknowledge the superiority of his brother, 
 the emperor, to honor him as the head of the family, and to 
 hold his possessions as fiefs of Rhodolph intrusted to him by 
 favor. WRhodolph, while hating Matthias, and watchiag for an 
 
220 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 opportunity to crush him, promised to regard him hereafter ag 
 a brother and a friend. 
 
 And now Rhodolph developed unexpected energy, ming: 
 led with treachery and disgraceful duplicity. He secretly and 
 treacherously invited the Archduke Leopold, who was also 
 Bishop of Passau and Strasbourg, and one of the most bigoted 
 of the warrior ecclesiastics of the papal church, to invade, with 
 an army of sixteen thousand men, Rhodolph’s own kingdom 
 of Bohemia, under the plea that the wages of the soldiers had 
 not been paid. It was his object, by thus introducing an ar- 
 my of Roman Catholics into his kingdom, and betraying into 
 their hands several strong fortresses, then to place himself at 
 their head, rally the Catholics of Bohemia around him, annul 
 all the edicts of toleration, crush the Protestants, and then to 
 march to the punishment of Matthias. 
 
 The troops, in accordance with their treacherous plan, burst 
 into Upper Austria, where the emperor had provided that 
 there should be no force to oppose them. They spread them- 
 selves over the country, robbing the Protestants and destroy- 
 ing their property with the most wanton cruelty. Crossing 
 the Danube they continued their march and entered Bohemia. 
 Still Rhodolph kept quiet in his palace, sending no force to 
 oppose, but on the contrary contriving that towns and for- 
 tresses, left defenseless, should fall easily into their hands, 
 Bohemia was in a terrible state of agitation. Wherever the 
 invading army appeared, it wreaked dire vengeance upon the 
 Protestants, The leaders of the Protestants hurriedly ran to- 
 gether, and, suspicious of treachery, sent an earnest appeal to 
 the king. 
 
 The infamous emperor, not yet ready to lay aside the vail, 
 called Heaven to witness that the irruption was made without 
 his knowledge, and advised vigorous measures to repel the foe, 
 while he carefully thwarted the execution of any such meas- 
 ures, At the same time he issued a proclamation to Leopold, 
 eommanding him to retire. Leopold understood all this be 
 
RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS, 221 
 
 forehand, and smiling, pressed on. Aided by the treason of 
 the king, they reached Prague, seized one of the gates. mas- 
 sacred the guard, and took possession of the capital. The 
 emperor now came forward and disclosed his plans. Tho for- 
 eign troops, holding Prague and many other of the most im- 
 portant towns and fortresses in the kingdom, took the oath of 
 allegiance to Rhodolph as their sovereign, and he placed in 
 their hands five pieces of heavy artillery, which were planted 
 in battery on an eminence which commanded the town. A 
 part of Bohemia rallied around the king in support «f these 
 atrocious measures, 
 
 But all the Protestants, and all who had any sympat! y with 
 the Protestants, were exasperated to the highest pitch. They 
 immediately dispatched messengers to Matthias and t« their 
 friends in Moravia, imploring aid. Matthias immediately atart- 
 ed eight thousand Hungarians on the march. As they en- 
 tered Bohemia with rapid steps and pushed their way toward 
 Prague they were joined every hour by Protestant levies pour- 
 ing in from all quarters. So rapidly did their ranks imcrease 
 that Leopold’s troops, not daring to await their arrival, in a 
 panic, fled by night. ‘They were pursued on their retreat, at- 
 tacked, and put to flight with the loss of two thousand men. 
 The ecclesiastical dul.e, in shame and confusion, slunk away to 
 his episcopal castle of Passau. 
 
 The contemptible Rhodolph now first proposed terms of 
 reconciliation, and then implored the clemency of his indig- 
 nant conquerors. They turned from the overtures of the per- 
 jured monarch with disdain, burst into the city of Prague, 
 surrounded every avenue to the palace, and took Rhodolph a 
 prisoner. Soon Matthias arrived, mounted in regal splendor, 
 at the head of a gorgeous retinue. The army received him 
 with thunders of acclaim. Rhodolph, a captive in his palace, 
 heard the explosion of artillery, the ringing of bells and the 
 shouts of the populace, welcoming his dreaded and detested 
 rival to the capital. It was the 20th of March, 1611. 
 
S32 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Tho nobles commanded Rhodolph to summon a diet. Tha 
 humiliated, degraded, helpless emperor knew full well what 
 this signified, but dared not disobey. He summoned 2 diet, 
 It was immediately convened. Rhodolph sent in a message, 
 saying, | 
 
 “Since, on account of my advanced age, lam no ionger 
 capable of supporting the weight of government, I hereby 
 abdicate the throne, and earnestly desire that my brother Mat- 
 thias may be crowned without delay.” 
 
 The diet were disposed very promptly to gratify the king 
 in his expressed wishes. But there arose some very formidar 
 ble difficulties. The German princes, who were attached to 
 the cause which Rhodolph had go cordially espoused, and whe 
 foresaw that his fall threatened the ascendency of Protestant 
 ism throughout the empire, sent their ambassadors to the Be: 
 hemian nobles with the menace of the vengeance of the em 
 pire, if they proceeded to the deposition of Rhodolph and to 
 the inauguration of Matthias, whom they stigmatized as am 
 usurper. This unexpected interposition reanimated the hopes 
 of Rhodolph, and he instantly found such renovation of youth 
 and strength as to feel quite able to bear the burden of the 
 crown a little longer; and consequently, notwithstanding hig 
 abdication, through his friends, all th: most accomplished 
 mechanism of diplomacy, with its menaces, its bribes, and ita 
 artifice were employed to thwart. the movements of Matthias 
 and his friends, $ 
 
 There was still another very great difficulty. Matthias 
 was very ambitious, and wished to be a sovereign, with sove 
 ereign power. He was very reluctant to surrender the least 
 portion of those prerogatives which his regal ancestors had 
 grasped, But the nobles deemed this a favorable opportunity 
 to regain their lost power. They were disposed to make @ 
 hard bargain with Matthias. They demanded—1st, that the 
 _ throne should no longer be hereditary, but elective; 2d, that 
 the nobles should be permitted to meet in a diet, or congress, 
 
RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS, 223 
 
 to deliberate upon public affairs whenever and wherever they 
 pleased ; 3d, that all financial and military affairs should be 
 left in their hands; 4th, that although the king might appoint 
 all the great officers of state, they might remove any of 
 them at pleasure; 5th, that it should be the privilege of the 
 nobles to form all foreign alliances; 6th, that they were to be 
 empowered to form an armed force by their own authority. 
 
 Matthias hesitated in giving his assent to such demands, 
 which seemed to reduce him to a cipher, conferring upon 
 him only the shadow of a crown. Rhodolph, however, who 
 was eager to make any concessions, had his agents busy 
 through the diet, with assurances that the emperor would 
 grant all these concessions. But Rhodolph had fallen too 
 low to rise again. The diet spurned all his offers, and chose 
 Matthias, though he postponed his decision, upon these ar- 
 ticles until he could convene a future and more general diet, 
 Rhodolph had eagerly caught at the hope of regaining his 
 crown. As his messengers returned to him in the palace with 
 the tidings of their defeat, he was overwhelmed with indigna- 
 tion, shame and despair. In a paroxysm of agony he threw 
 up his window, and looking out upon the city, exclaimed, 
 
 *O Prague, unthankful Prague, who hast been so highly 
 elevated by me; now thou spurnest at thy benefactor. May 
 the curse and vengeance of God fall upon thee and all Bo- 
 hemia.” 
 
 The 23d of May. was appointed for the coronation. The 
 nobles drew up a paper, which they required Rhodolph to 
 sign, absolving his subjects from their oath of allegiance to 
 him. The degraded king writhed in helpless indignation, for 
 he was a captive. With the foolish petulance of a spoiled child, 
 as he affixed his signature in almost an illegible scrawl, he 
 dashed blots of ink upon the paper, and then, tearing the pen 
 to pieces, threw it upon the floor, and trampled it beneath hia 
 feet. 
 
 It was still apprehended that the adherents of Rhodolph 
 
S24 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 might make some armed demonstration in his favor. As a 
 precaution against this, the city was filled with troops, the 
 gates closed, and carefully guarded. The nobles met in the 
 great hall of the palace. It was called a meeting of the 
 States, for it included the higher nobles, the higher clergy, 
 and a few citizens, as representatives of certain privileged 
 cities. The forced abdication of Rhodolph was first read. I¢ 
 was as follows :— 
 
 “Tn conformity with the humble request of the States of 
 our kingdom, we graciously declare the three estates, as wel. 
 as all the inhabitants of all ranks and conditions, free from all 
 subjection, duty and obligation; and we release them from 
 their oath of allegiance, which they have taken to us as their 
 king, with a view to prevent all future dissensions and con- 
 fusion. We do this for the greater security and advantage 
 of the whole kingdom of Bohemia, over which we have ruled 
 six-and-thirty years, where we have almost always resided, 
 and which, during our administration, has been maintained in 
 peace, and increased in riches and splendor. We accordingly, 
 in virtue of this present voluntary resignation, and after due 
 reflection, do, from this day, release our subjects from all duty 
 and obligation.” 
 
 Matthias was then chosen king, in accordance with all the 
 ancient customs of the hereditary monarciy of Bohemia. The 
 States immediately proceeded to his coronation, Every ef 
 fort was made to dazzle the multitude with the splendors of 
 the coronation, and to throw a halo of glory around the 
 event, not merely as the accession of a new monarch to the 
 throne, but as the introduction of a great reform in Wigner 
 the nation in its pristine rights, 
 
 While the capital was resounding with these rejoicings, 
 Rhodoilph had retired to a villa at some distance from the city, 
 in a secluded glen among the mountains, that he might olose 
 his ears against the hateful sounds. The next day Matthias, 
 fraternally or maliciously, for it is not easy to judge which 
 
RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS, 225 
 
 motive actuated him, sent a stinging message of assumed grat. 
 itude to his brother, thanking him for relinquishing in his 
 brother’s favor his throne and his palaces, and expressing the 
 hope that they might still live together in fraternal confidence 
 and affection. 
 
 Matthias and the States consulted their own honor rather 
 than Rhodolph’s merits, in treating him with great mag- 
 nanimity. Though Rhodolph had lost, one by one, all his own 
 hereditary or acquired territories, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, 
 he still retained the imperial crown of Germany. This gave 
 him rank and certain official honors, with but little real power. 
 The emperor, who was also a powerful sovereign in his own 
 right, could marshal his own forces to establish his decrees, 
 But the emperor, who had no treasury or army of his own, 
 was powerless indeed. 
 
 The emperor was permitted to occupy one of the palaces 
 at Prague. He received an annual pension of nearly a mil- 
 lion of dollars; and the territories and ‘revenues of four lord- 
 ships were conferred upon him. Matthias having consoli- 
 dated his government, and appointed the great officers of 
 his kingdom, left Prague without having any interview with 
 his brother, and returned to his central capital at Vienna, 
 where he married Anne, daughter of his uncle Ferdinand 
 of Tyrol. 
 
 The Protestants all over the German empire hailed these 
 events with public rejoicing. Rhodolph had been their im- 
 placable foe. He was now disarmed and incapable of doing 
 them any serious injury. Matthias was professedly their 
 friend, had been placed in power mainly as their sovereign, 
 and was now invested with such power, as sovereign of the col- 
 lected realms of Austria, that he could effectually protect them 
 from persecution. This success emboldened them to unite in 
 a strong, wide-spread confederacy for the protection of their 
 rights, The Protestant nobles and princes, with the most dis- 
 tinguished of their clergy from all parts of the German em- 
 
226 THE HOUSE OF AURTRIA., 
 
 pire, held a congress at Rothenburg. This great assembly, in 
 the number, splendor and dignity of its attendants, vied with 
 regal diets. Many of the most illustrious princes of the em- 
 pire were there in person, with imposing retinues. The em- 
 peror and Matthias both deemed it expedient to send ambas- 
 sadors to the meeting. The congress at Rothenburg was one 
 of the most memorable movements of the Protestant party. 
 They drew up minute regulations for the government of their 
 confederacy, established a system of taxation among them- 
 selves, made efficient arrangements for the levying of troops, 
 established arsenals and magazines, and strongly garrisoned a 
 fortress, to be the nucleus of their gathering should they at 
 any time be compelled to appeal to arms. 
 
 Rhodolph, through his ambassadors, appeared before this 
 resplendent assembly the mean and miserable sycophant he 
 ever was in days of disaster. He was so silly as to try to win 
 them again to his cause. He coaxed and made the most lib- 
 eral promises, but all in vain. Their reply was indignant and 
 decisive, yet dignified. 
 
 “We have too long,” they replied, “ been duped by spe- 
 cious and deceitful promises. We now demand actions, not 
 words. Let the emperor show us by the acts of his adminis- 
 tration that his spirit is changed, and then, and then only, 
 can we confide in him.” 
 
 Matthias was still apprehensive that the emperor might 
 rally the Catholic forces of Germany, and in union with the 
 pope and the formidable power of the Spanish court, make an 
 attempt to recover his Bohemian throne. It was manifest that 
 with any energy of character, Rhodolph might combine Cathe 
 lic Europe, and inundate the plains of Germany with blood, 
 While it was very important, therefore, that Matthias should 
 do every thing he could to avoid exasperating the Catholics, 
 it was essential to his cause that he should rally around him 
 the sympathies of the Protestants. 
 
 The ambassadors of Matthias respectfully announced to the 
 
RHODOLPH I11. AND MATTHIAS. 229 
 
 congress the events which had transpired in Bohemia in the 
 transference of the crown, and solicited the support of the 
 congress. The Protestant princes received this communication 
 with satisfaction, promised their support in case it should be 
 - needed, and, conscious of the danger of provoking Rhodolph 
 to any desperate efforts to rouse the Catholics, recommended 
 that he should be treated with brotherly kindness, and, at the 
 same time, watched with a vigilant eye. 
 
 Rhodolph, disappointed here, summoned an electoral meet- 
 ing of the empire, to be held at Nuremburg on the 14th of 
 December, 1711. He hoped that a majority of the electors 
 would be his friends. Before this body he presented a very 
 pathetic account of his grievances, delineating in most melan- 
 choly colors the sorrows which attend fallen grandeur. He 
 detailed his privations and necessities, the straits to which he 
 was reduced by poverty, his utter inability to maintain a state 
 befitting the imperial dignity, and implored them, with the 
 eloquence of « Neapolitan mendicant, to grant him a suitable 
 establishment, and not to abandon him, in his old age, to pene 
 ury and dishonor. 
 
 The reply of the electors to the dispirited, degraded, down 
 trodden old monarch was the unkindest cut of all. Much as 
 Rhodolph is to be execrated and despised, one can hardly re 
 frain from an emotion of sympathy in view of this new blow 
 which fell upon him. A deputation sent from the electoral 
 college met him in his palace at Prague. Mercilessly they re 
 capitulated most of the complaints which the Protestants had 
 brought against him, declined rendering him any pecuniary 
 relief, and requested him to nominate some one to be chosen 
 as his successor on the imperial throne. 
 
 ‘‘'The emperor,” said the delegation in conclusion, “ is hime 
 self the principal author of his own distresses and misfortunes, 
 The contempt into which he has fallen and the disgrace which, 
 through him, is reflected upon the empire, is derived from his 
 own indolence and his obstinacy in following perverse counsels, 
 
328 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 He might have escaped all these calamities if, instead of re- 
 signing himself to corrupt and interested ministers, he had 
 followed the salutary counsels of the electors.” 
 
 They closed this overwhelming announcement by demand: 
 ing the immediate assembling of a diet to elect an emperor 
 to succeed him on the throne of Germany. Rhodolph, not yet 
 quite sufficiently humiliated to officiate as his own executioner, 
 though he promised to summon a diet, evaded the fulfillment 
 of his promise. The electors, not disposed to dally with him 
 at all, called the assembly by their own authority to meet on 
 the 31st of May. 
 
 This seemed to be the finishing blow. Rhodolph, now 
 sixty years of age, enfeebled and emaciated by disease and 
 melancholy, threw himself upon his bed to die. Death, so 
 often invoked in vain by the miserable, came to his aid. He 
 welcomed its approach. To those around his bed he remarked, 
 
 ‘When a youth, I experienced the most exquisite pleas- 
 ure in returning from Spain to my native country. How much 
 more joyful ought I to be when I am about to be delivered 
 from the calamities of human nature, and transferred to a 
 heavenly country where there is no change of time, and where 
 no sorrow can enter |!” 
 
 In the tomb let him be forgotten. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MATTHIAS. 
 From 1612 To 1619. 
 
 Mavrezas etzorzep Evprror or GerMany.—His pesporio Caarsores.—Hm Prase 
 THW ARTED.—MULHEM.—GATHERING CLOoUDS.—F amILy Inteiens.—CoRoNation OF 
 Ferpinanp.—His Bicotry.—Henry, Count or THURN.—OONVENTION AT PRaGYR 
 —Tue Kine’s Repry.—T'ae Dis cast.—AMUSING DEFENSE OF AN OUTEAGE.—FER- 
 DINAND’s Mantresto._-Szizure or CarpinaL Kurses.—TI'sz Kine’s Ragn—Rm® 
 TREAT OF THE Kine’s Troors.—HuMILiaTion oF 'xeDinanD.—Tus DirriouLTies 
 BEFEREED,—DEATH OF RIATTHIAS. 
 
 wee the death of Rhodolph, Matthias promptly offered 
 
 himself as a candidate for the. imperial crown. But the 
 Catholics, suspicious of Matthias, in consequence of his con- 
 nection with the Protestants, centered upon the Archduke 
 Albert, sovereign of the Netherlands, as their candidate. Many 
 of the Protestants, also, jealous of the vast power Matthias was 
 attaining, and not having full confidence in his integrity, offered 
 their suffrages to Maximilian, the younger brother of Matthias. 
 But notwithstanding this want of unanimity, political intrigus 
 removed all difficulties and Matthias was unanimously elected 
 Emperor of Germany. 
 
 The new emperor was a man of renown. His wonderfnl 
 achievements had arrested the attention of Europe, and it was 
 expected that in his hands the administration of the empire 
 would be conducted with almost unprecedented ekill and vigor. 
 But clouds and storms immediately began to lower around tie 
 throre. Matthias had no spirit of toleration in his heart, and 
 every tolerant act he had assented to, had been extorted from 
 him, He was, by nature, a despot, and most reluctantly, tor 
 the sake of grasping the reins of power, he had relinquished 
 
280 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 a few of the royal prerogatives. He had thus far evaded many 
 of the claims which had been made upon him, and which he 
 had partially promised to grant, and now, being both king and 
 emperor, he was disposed to grasp all power, both secular and 
 religious, which he could attain. 
 
 Matthias’s first endeavor was to recover ‘Transylvania. This 
 province had fallen into the hands of Gabriel Bethlehem, who 
 was under the protection of the Turks. Matthias, thinking 
 that a war with the infidel would be popular, summoned a 
 diet and solicited succors to drive the Turks from Moldavia 
 and Wallachia, where they had recently established themselves. 
 The Protestants, however, presented a list of grievances which 
 they wished to have redressed before they listened to his re- 
 quest. The Catholics, on the other hand, presented a list of 
 their grievances, which consisted, mainly, in privileges granted 
 the Protestants, which they also demanded to have redressed 
 before they could vote any supplies to the emperor. These 
 demands were so diametrically hostile to each other, that there 
 could be no reconciliation. After an angry debate the diet 
 broke up in confusion, having accomplished nothing. 
 
 Matthias, disappointed in this endeavor, now applied to the 
 several States of his widely extended Austrian domains—to 
 his own subjects. A general assembly was convened at Lintz. 
 Matthias proposed his plans, urging the impolicy of allowing 
 the Turks to retain the conquered provinces, and to remain in 
 the ascendency in Transylvania. But here again Matthias was 
 disappointed. The Bohemian Protestants were indignant in 
 view of some restrictions upon their worship, imposed by the 
 emperor to please the Catholics. The Hungarians, weary of 
 the miseries of war, were disposed on any terms to seek peace 
 with the Turks. The Austrians had already expended an im- 
 mense amount of blood and money on the battle-fields of Hun- 
 gary, and urged the emperor to send an ambassador to treat 
 for peace. Matthias was excessively annoyed in being thug 
 thwarted in all his plans. 
 
MATTHIAS. 231 
 
 Just at this time a Turkish envoy arrived at Vienna, pro- 
 posing a truce for twenty years. The Turks had never befora 
 condescended to send an embassage to a Christian power. 
 This afforded Matthias an honorable pretext for abandoning 
 his warlike plan, and the truce was agreed to. 
 
 The incessant conflict between the Catholics and Protes. 
 tants allowed Germany no repose. A sincere toleration, such 
 as existed during the reign of Maximilian IL, established fra. 
 ternal feelings between the contending parties. But it re 
 quired ages of suffering and peculiar combination of circum: 
 stances, to lead the king and the nobles to a cordial consent to 
 that toleration. But the bigotry of Rhodolph and the trick. 
 ery of Matthias, had so exasperated the parties, and rendered 
 them so suspicious of each other, that the emperor, even had 
 he been so disposed, could not, but by very slow and gradual 
 steps, have secured reconciliation. Rnodolph had put what 
 was calied the ban of the empire upon the Protestant city of 
 _ Aix-la-Chapelle, removing the Protestants from the magistracy, 
 and banishing their chiefs from the city. When Rhodolph 
 was sinking into disgrace and had lost his power, the Protes: 
 tants, being in the majority, took up arms, reélected their 
 magistracy, and expelled the Jesuits from the city. The 
 Catholics now appealed to Matthias, and he insanely revived 
 the ban against the Protestants, and commissioned Albert, 
 Archduke of Cologne, a bigoted Catholic, to march with an 
 army to Aix-la-Chapelle and enforce its execution. 
 
 Opposite Cologne, on the Rhine, the Protestants, in the 
 days of bitter persecution, had established the town of Mul- 
 heim. Several of the neighboring Protestant princes defended 
 with their arms the refugees who settled there from all parts 
 of Germany. The town was strongly fortified, and here the 
 Protestants, with arms in their hands, maintained perfect free- 
 dom of religious worship. The city grew rapidly and became 
 one of the most important fortresses upon the river. The 
 Catholics, jealous of its growing power, appealed to the ene 
 
982 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 peror. He issued a decree ordering the Protestants to demol- 
 ish every fortification of the place within thirty days; and te 
 put up no more buildings whatever. 
 
 These decrees were both enforced by the aid of a Spanish 
 army of thirty thousand men, which, having executed the ban, 
 descended the river and captured several others of the most 
 important of the Protestant towns. Of course all Germany 
 was in a ferment. Everywhere was heard the clashing of 
 arms, and every thing indicated the immediate outburst of civil 
 war. Matthias was in great perplexity, and his health rap- 
 idly failed beneath the burden of care and sorrow. All the 
 thoughts of Matthias were now turned to the retaining of the 
 triple crown of Bohemia, Hungary and the empire, in the 
 family. Matthias was old, sick and childless, Maximilian, his 
 next brother, was fifty-nine years of age and unmarried. The 
 next brother, Albert, was fifty-eight, and without children. 
 Neither of the brothers could consequently receive the crowns 
 with any hope of retaining them in the family. Matthias 
 turned to his cousin Ferdinand, head of the Styrian branch of 
 the family, as the nearest relative who was hkely to continue 
 the succession. In accordance with the custom which had 
 grown up, Matthias wished to nominate his successor, aud 
 have him recognized and crowned before his death, so that im 
 mediately upon his death the new sovereign, already crowned, 
 could enter upon the government without any interregnum, 
 
 The brothers, appreciating the importance of retaining the 
 crown in the family, and conscious that all the united influ- 
 ence they then possessed was essential to securing that re- 
 sult, assented to the plan, and coéperated in the nomination 
 of Ferdinand. All the arts of diplomatic intrigue were called 
 into requisition to attain these important ends. The Bo- 
 hemian crown was now electoral; and it was necessary to 
 persuade the electors to choose Ferdinand, one of the most 
 mtolerant Catholics who ever swayed a scepter. The crown 
 of Hungary was nominally hereditary. But the turbulem 
 
MATTHIAS, 233 
 
 nobles, ever armed, and strong in their fortresses, would ac 
 cept no monarch whom they did not approve. To secure 
 also the electoral vote for Emperor of Germany, while pare 
 ties were so divided and so bitterly hostile to each other, re 
 quired the most adroit application of bribes and menaces. 
 
 Matthias made his first movement in Bohemia. Having 
 adopted previous measures to gain the support of the prin. 
 cipal nobles, he summoned a diet at Prague, which he at- 
 tended in person, accompanied by Ferdinand. In a brief 
 speech he thus addressed them. 
 
 ** As I and my brothers,” said the king, “ are without chil 
 dren, I deem it necessary, for the advantage of Bohemia, 
 and to prevent future contests, that my cousin Ferdinand 
 should be proclaimed and crowned king. I therefore request 
 you to fix a day for the confirmation of this appointment.” 
 
 Some of the leading Protestants opposed this, on the 
 ground of the known intolerance of Ferdinand. But the 
 majority, either won over by the arts of Matthias, or dread- 
 ing civil war, accepted Ferdinand. He was crowned on the 
 10th of June, 1616, he promising not to interfere with the 
 government during the lifetime of Matthias. The emperor 
 now turned to Hungary, and, by the adoption of the same 
 measures, secured the same results, ‘The nobles accepted 
 Ferdinand, and he was solemnly crowned at Presburg. 
 
 Ferdinand was Archduke of Styria, a province of Austria 
 embracing a little more than eight thousand square miles, 
 being about the size of the State of Massachusetts, and con- 
 taining about a million of inhabitants. He was educated by 
 the Jesuits after the strictest manner of their religion. He 
 became so thoroughly imbued with the spirit of his monastic 
 education, that he was anxious to assume the cowl of the 
 monk, and enter the order of the Jesuits, His devotion to 
 the papal church assumed the aspect of the most inflexible 
 intolerance towards all dissent. In the administration of the 
 government of his own duchy, he had given free swing tc 
 
984 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 his bigotry. Marshaling his troops, he had driven all the 
 Protestant preachers from his domains, He had made a vil- 
 grimage to Rome, to receive the benediction of the pope, and. 
 another to Loretto, where, prostrating himself before the mi- 
 raculous image, he vowed never to cease his exertions until 
 he had extirpated all neresy from his territories. He often 
 declared that he would beg his bread from door to door, sub- 
 mit to every insult, to every calamity, sacrifice even life itself, 
 rather than suffer the true Church to be injured. Ferdinand 
 was no time-server—no hypocrite. He was a genuine bigot, 
 incere and conscientious, Animated by this spirit, although 
 two thirds of the inhabitants of Styria were Protestants, he 
 banished all their preachers, professors and schoolmasters$ 
 closed their clurches, seminaries and schools; even tore down 
 the churches and school-houses; multiplied papal institutions, 
 and called in teachers and preachers from other States. 
 
 Matthias and Ferdinand now seemed jointly to reign, and 
 the Protestants were soon alarmed by indications that a new 
 spirit was animating the councils of the sovereign. The most 
 inflexible Catholics were received as the friends and advisers 
 of the king. The Jesuits loudly exulted, declaring that heresy 
 was no longer to be tolerated. Banishments and confiscas 
 tions were talked of, and the alarm of the Protestants became 
 intense and universal: they looked forward to the commence- 
 ment of the reign of Ferdinand with terror. 
 
 As was to be expected, such wrongs and perils called out 
 an avenger. Matthew Henry, Count of Thurn, was one of 
 the most illustrious and wealthy of the Bohemian nobles; He 
 had long been a warm advocate of the doctrines of the Refor- 
 mation; and having, in the wars with the Turks, acquired a 
 great reputation for military capacity and courage, and being: 
 also a man of great powers of eloquence, and of exceedingly 
 popular manners, he had become quite the idol of the Prot+ 
 estant party. He had zealously opposed the election of Fer. 
 dinand to the throne of Bohemia, and had thus increased that 
 
MATTHIAS. 285 
 
 jealousy and dislike with which both Matthias and Ferdinand 
 had previously regarded so formidable an opponent. He was, 
 in consequence, very summarily deprived of some very im- 
 portant dignities. This roused his impetuous spirit, and caused 
 the Protestants more confidingly to rally around him as a 
 martyr to their cause. 
 
 The Count of Thurn, as prudent as he was bold, as delib- 
 erate as he was energetic, aware of the fearful hazard of en- 
 tering into hostilities with the sovereign who was at the 
 same time king of all the Austrian realms, and Emperor of 
 Germany, conferred with the leading Protestant princes, and 
 organized a confederacy so strong that all the energies ot 
 the empire could with difficulty crush it. They were not dis. 
 posed to make any aggressive movements, but to defend their 
 rights if assailed. The inhabitants of a town in the vicinity 
 of Prague began to erect a church for Protestant worship. 
 The Roman Catholic bishop, who presided over that diocese, 
 forbade them to proceed. They plead a royal edict, which 
 authorized them to erect the church, and continued their 
 work, regardless of the prohibition. Count Thurn encouraged 
 them to persevere, promising them ample support. The 
 bishop appealed to the Emperor Matthias. He also issued 
 his prohibition; but aware of the strength of the Protestants, 
 did not venture to attempt to enforce it by arms. Ferdi- 
 nand, however, was not disposed to yield to this spirit, and 
 by his influence obtained an order, demanding the immediate 
 surrender of the church to the Catholics, or its entire demo- 
 lition. The bishop attempted its destruction by an armed 
 force, but the Protestants defended their property, and sent 
 @committee to Matthias, petitioning for a revocation of the 
 mandate. ‘These deputies were seized and imprisoned by the 
 king, and an imperial force was sent to the town, Brunau, to 
 take possession of the church. From so small a beginning 
 rose the Thirty Years’ War. 
 
 Count Thurn immediately summoned a convention of six 
 
286 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 delegates from each of the districts, called circles in Bohemia, x! ae 
 The delegates met at Prague on the 16th of March, 161el* 
 An immense concourse of Protestants from all parts of the sum 
 rounding country accompanied the delegates to the capital, 
 Count Thurn was 2 man of surpassing eloquence, and seeme@ 
 to control at will all the passions of the human heart. In the” | } 
 boldest strains of eloquence he addressed the assembly, and 
 roused them to the most enthusiastic resolve to defend at ail 
 hazards their civil and religious rights. They unanimously 
 passed a resolve that the demolition of the church and the sus 
 pension of the Protestant worship were violations of the royal 
 edict, and they drew up a petition to the emperor demande 
 ing the redress of this grievance, and the liberation of the 
 imprisoned deputies from Brunau. ‘The meeting then ad- 
 journed, to be reassembled soon to hear the reply of the enw 
 peror. 
 
 As the delegates and the multitudes who accompanied 
 them returned to their homes, they spread everywhere the im- 
 pression produced upon their minds by the glowing eloquence 
 of Count Thurn. The Protestant mind was roused to the 
 highest pitch by the truthful representation, that the court had 
 adopted a deliberate plan for the utter extirpation of Protes- 
 tant worship throughout Bohemia, and that foreign troops 
 were to be brought in to execute this decree. These convic- 
 tions were strengthened and the alarm increased by the defiant 
 reply which Matthias sent back from his palace in Vienna te 
 his Bohemian subjects. He accused the delegates of treason 
 and of circulating false and slanderous reports, and declared 
 that they should be punished according to their deserts, He 
 forbade them to meet again, or to interfere in any way with 
 the affairs of Brunan, stating that at his leisure he would re 
 pair to Prague and attend to the business himseif. 
 
 The king could not have framed an answer better calow 
 lated to exasperate the people, and rouse them to the most 
 determined resistance. Count Thurn, regardless of the pro 
 
 
 
 
MATTHIAS, 237 
 
 hibition, called the delegates together and read to them the 
 answer, which the king had not addressed to them but to the 
 council of regency. He then addressed them again in those 
 impassioned strains which he had ever at command, and 
 roused them almost to fury against those Catholic lords who 
 had dictated this answer to the king and obtained his sig- 
 nature. 
 
 The next day the nobles met again. They came to the 
 place of meeting thoroughly armed and surrounded by their 
 retainers, prepared to repel force by force. Count Thurn now 
 wished to lead them to some act of hostility so decisive that 
 they would be irrecoverably committed. The king’s council 
 of regency was then assembled in the palace of Prague. The 
 regency consisted of seven Catholics and three Protestants. 
 For some unknown reason the Protestant lords were not pres- 
 ent on this occasion. Three of the members of the regency, 
 Slavata and Martinetz and the burgrave of Prague, were pecu- 
 liarly obnoxious on account of the implacable spirit with which 
 they had ever persecuted the reformers. These lords were the 
 especial friends of Ferdinand and had great influence with 
 Matthias, and it was not doubted that they had framed the 
 answer which the emperor had returned. Incited by Count 
 Thurn, several of the most resolute of the delegates, led by 
 the count, proceeded to the palace, and burst into the room 
 where the regency was in session. 
 
 Their leader, addressing Slavata, Martinetz, and Diepold, 
 the burgrave, said, “‘ Our business is with you. We wish to 
 know if you are responsible for the answer returned to us by 
 the king.” 
 
 “That,” one of them replied, “is a secret of state which 
 we are not bound to reveal.” 
 
 *“‘ Let us follow,” exclaimed the Protestant chief, “the an- 
 cient custom of Bohemia, and hurl them from the window.” 
 
 They were in a room in the tower of the castle, and it was 
 eighty feet to the water of the moat. The Catholic lords were 
 
238 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 instantly seized, dragged to the window and thrust out. Ab 
 most incredible as it may seem, the water and the mud of 
 the moat so broke their fall, that neither of them was killed. 
 They all recovered from the effecis of their fall. Having per. 
 formed this deed, Count Thurn and his companions returned 
 to the delegates, informed them of what they had done, and 
 urged them that the only hope of safety now, for any Protes: 
 tant, was for all to unite in open and desperate resistance. Then 
 mounting his horse, and protected by a strong body-guard, he 
 rode through the streets of Prague, stopping at every cor- 
 ner to harangue the Protestant populace. The city was 
 thronged on the occasion by Protestants from all parts of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 “fT do not,” he exclaimed, “ propose myself as your chief, 
 but as your companion, in that peril which will lead us to 
 happy freedom or to glorious death. The die is thrown. It 
 is too late to recall what is past. Your safety depends alone 
 on unanimity and courage, and if you hesitate to burst asun- 
 der your chains, you have no alternative but to perish by the 
 hands of the executioner.” 
 
 He was everywhere greeted with shouts of enthusiasm, 
 and the whole Protestant population were united a3 one man 
 in the cause. Even many of the moderate Catholics, disgusted 
 with the despotism of the newly elected king, which embraced 
 civil as well as religious affairs, jomed the Protestants, for they 
 feared the loss of their civil rights more than they dreaded 
 the inroads of heresy. 
 
 With amazing celerity they now organized to repel the 
 force which they knew that the emperor would immediately 
 send to crush them. Within three days their plans were all 
 matured and an organization effected which made the king 
 tremble in his palace. Count Thurn was appointed their com- 
 mander, an executive committee of thirty very efficient men 
 was chosen, which committee immediately issued orders for the 
 levy of troops all over the kingdom. Envoys were sent ‘te 
 
MATTHIAS. 239 
 
 Moravia, Silesia, Lusatia, and Hungary, and to the Protestants 
 all over the German empire. The Archbisnop of Prague was 
 expelled from the city, and the Jesuits were also banished. 
 They then issued a proclamation in defense of their con- 
 duct, which they sent to the king with a firm but respectful 
 letter. 
 
 One can not but be amused in reading their defense of the 
 outrage against the council of regency. “We have thrown 
 from the windows,” they said, “the two ministers who have 
 been the enemies of the State, together with their creature 
 and fiatterer, in conformity with an ancient custom prevalent 
 throughout all Bohemia, as well as in the capital. This cus 
 tom is justified by the example of Jezebel in holy Writ, whe 
 was thrown from a window for persecuting the people of Gods 
 and it was common among the Romans, and all other nations 
 of antiquity, who hurled the disturbers of the. public peace 
 from rocks and precipices.” 
 
 Matthias had very reluctantly sent his insulting and defi- 
 ant answer to the reasonable complaints of the Protestants, 
 and he was thunderstruck in contemplating the storm which 
 had thus been raised—a storm which apparently no human 
 wisdom could now allay. There are no energies so potent 
 as those which are aroused by religious convictions. Matthias 
 well knew the ascendency of the Protestants all over Bohemia, 
 and that their spirit, once thoroughly aroused, could not be eas- 
 ily quelled by any opposing force he could array. He was 
 also aware that Ferdinand was thoroughly detested by the 
 Protestant leaders, and that it was by no means improbable 
 that this revolt would thwart all his plans in securing his sue- 
 cession. 
 
 As the Protestants had not renounced their allegiance, 
 Matthias was strongly disposed to measures of conciliation, 
 and several of the most influential, yet fair-minded Catholics 
 supported him in these views. The Protestants were too nu- 
 merous to be annihilated, and too strong in their desperation 
 
 K 
 
240 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 to be crushed. But Ferdinand, guided by the Jesuits, was im- 
 placable. He issued a manifesto, which was but a transcript 
 of his own soul, and which is really sublime in the sincerity 
 and fervor of its intolerance. 
 
 *“ All attempts,” said he, “to bring to reason a people whom 
 God has struck with judicial blindness will be in vain. Since 
 the introduction of heresy into Bohemia, we have seen nothing 
 but tumults, disobedience and rebellion. While the Catholics 
 and the sovereign have displayed only lenity and moderation, 
 these sects have become stronger, more violent and more inso- 
 lent; having gained all their objects in religious affairs, they 
 turn their arms against the civil government, and attack the 
 supreme authority under the pretense of conscience; not con- 
 tent with confederating themselves against their sovereign, 
 they have usurped the power of taxation, and have made alli- 
 ances with foreign States, particularly with the Protestant 
 princes of Germany, in order to deprive him of the very means 
 of reducing them to obedience. They have left nothing to the 
 sovereign but his palaces and the convents; and after their re- 
 cent outrages against his ministers, and the usurpation of the 
 regal revenues, no object remains for their vengeance and ra- 
 pacity but the persons of the sovereign and his successor, and 
 the whole house of Austria. 
 
 “Tf sovereign power emanates from God, these atrocious 
 deeds must proceed from the devil, and therefore must draw 
 down divine punishment. Neither can God be pleased with 
 the conduct of the sovereign, in conniving at or acquiescing in 
 all the demands of the disobedient, Nothing now remains for 
 - him, but to submit to be lorded by his subjects, or to free him- 
 self from this disgraceful slavery before his territories are 
 formed into a republic. The rebels have at length deprived 
 themselves of the only plausible argument which their preach. 
 ers have incessantly thundered from the pulpit, that they were 
 contending for religious freedom; and the emperor and the 
 nouse of Austria have now the fairest opportunity to convince 
 
MATTATAS. 24) 
 
 the world that their sole object is only to deliver themselves 
 from slavery and restore their legal authority. ‘Chey are se 
 cure of divine support, and they have only the alternative of 
 # war by which they may regain their power, or a peace which 
 is far more dishonorable and dangerous than war. If success- 
 fal, the forfeited property of the rebels will defray the expense 
 of their armaments ; if the event of hostilities be unfortunate, 
 they can only lose, with honor, and with arms in their hands, 
 the rights and prerogatives which are and will be wrested from 
 them with shame and dishonor. It is better not to reign than 
 to be the slave of subjects. It is far more desirable and glo- 
 rious to shed our blood at the foot of the throne than to be 
 driven from it like criminals and malefactors.” 
 
 Matthias endeavored to unite his own peace policy with 
 the energetic warlike measures urged by Ferdinand. He at- 
 tempted to overawe by a great demonstration of physical force, 
 while at the same time he made very pacific proposals, Ap- 
 plying to Spain for aid, the Spanish court sent him eight thou- 
 sand troops from the Netherlands; he also raised, in his own 
 dominions, ten thousand men. Having assembled this force he 
 sent word to the Protestants, that if they would disband their 
 force he would do the same, and that he would confirm the 
 coyal edict, and give full security for the maintenance of their 
 civil and religious privileges. The Protestants refused to dis 
 band, knowing that they could place no reliance upon the word 
 of the unstable monarch who was crowded by the rising power 
 of the energetic Ferdinand. The ambitious naturally deserted 
 the court of the sovereign whose days were declining, to en- 
 list in the service of one who was just entering upon the king- 
 ly power. 
 
 Ferdinand was enraged at what he considered the pusilla- 
 nimity of the king. Maximilian, the younger brother of Mat- 
 thias, cordially espoused the cause of Ferdinand. Cardinal 
 Kleses, a Catholic of commanding mfluence and of enlight- 
 ened, liberal views, was the counselor of the king. Ferdinand 
 
£42 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 and Maximilian resolved that he should no longer have access 
 to the ear of the pliant monarch, but he could be removed from 
 the court only by violence. With an armed band they en- 
 tered the palace at Vienna, seized the cardinal in the midst of 
 the court, stripped him of his robes, hurried him into a car- 
 riage, and conveyed him to a strong castle in the midst of 
 the mountains of the Tyrol, where they held him a close pris- 
 oner. ‘The emperor was at the time confined to his bed with 
 the gout. As soon as they had sent off the cardinal, Ferdi- 
 nand and Maximilian repaired to the royal chamber, informed 
 the emperor of what they had done, and attempted to justify 
 the deed on the plea that the cardinal was a weak and wicked 
 minister whose policy would certainly divide and ruin the 
 house of Austria. 
 
 The emperor was in his bed as he received this insulting 
 announcement of a still more insulting outrage. For a moment 
 he was speechless with rage. But he was old, sick and power- 
 less. This act revealed to him that the scepter had fallen from 
 his hands. Ina paroxysm of excitement, to prevent himself 
 from speaking he thrust the bed-clothes into his mouth, nearly 
 suffocating himself Resistance was in vain. He feared that 
 should he manifest any, he also might be torn from his palace, 
 a captive, to share the prison of the cardinal. In sullen indig- 
 nation he submitted to the outrage. 
 
 Ferdinand and Maximilian now pursued their energetic 
 measures of hostility unopposed. They immediately put the 
 army in motion to invade Bohemia, and boasted that the Prot- 
 estants should soon be punished with severity which would 
 teach them a lesson they would never forget. But the Prot- 
 estants were on the alert. Every town in the kingdom had 
 joined in the confederacy, and in a few weeks Count Thurn 
 found himself at the head of ten thousand men inspired with 
 the most determined spirit. The Silesians and Lusatians 
 marched to help them, and the Protestant league of Germany 
 sent them timely supplies. The troops of Ferdinand found 
 
MATTHIAS, 248 
 
 @pponents in every pass and in every defile, and in their en- 
 deavor to force their way through the fastnesses of the moun- 
 tains, were frequently driven back with great loss. At length 
 the troops of Ferdinand, defeated. at every point, were come 
 pelled to retreat in shame back to Austria, leaving all Bohemia 
 in the hands of the Protestants, 
 
 Ferdinand was now in trouble and disgrace. His plans had 
 signally failed. The Protestants all over Germany were in 
 arms, and their spirits roused to the highest pitch; many of 
 the moderate Catholics refused to march against them, declar- 
 ing that the Protestants were right in resisting such oppres- 
 sion. They feared Ferdinand, and were apprehensive that his 
 despotic temper, commencing with religious intolerance, would 
 terminate in civil tyranny. It was evident to all that the Prot- 
 estants could not be put down by force of arms, and even 
 Ferdinand was so intensely humiliated that he was constrained 
 to assent to the proposal which Matthias made to refer their dif 
 ficulty to arbitration. Four princes were selected as the ref 
 erees—the Electors of Mentz, Bavaria, Saxony and Palatine 
 They were to meet at Egra the 14th of April, 1619. 
 
 But Matthias, the victim of disappointment and grief, waa 
 now rapidly approaching his end. The palace at Vienna was 
 shrouded in gloom, and no smiles were seen there, and no 
 sounds of joy were heard in those regal saloons. The wife of 
 Matthias, whom he tenderly loved, oppressed by the humilia- 
 tion and anguish which she saw her husband enduring, died of 
 a broken heart. Matthias was inconsolable under this irre- 
 trievable loss. Lying upon his bed tortured with the pain of 
 the gout, sinking under incurable disease, with no pleasant 
 memories of the past to cheer him, with disgrace and disaster 
 accumulating, and with no bright hopes beyond the grave, he 
 loathed life and dreaded death. The emperor in his palace 
 was perhaps the most pitiable object which could be found in 
 all his realms. He tossed upon his pillow, the victim of re. 
 morse and despair, now condemning himself for his cruei 
 
944 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 treatment of his brother Rhodolph, now mveighing bitterly 
 against the inhumanity and arrogance of Ferdinand and Max- 
 imilian, On the 20th of March, 1619, the despairing spirit of 
 the emperor passed away to the tribunal of the “ King of 
 
 kings and the Lord of lords,’ 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 FERDINAND II. 
 
 From 1619 To 1621. 
 
 Possrsstons of tor Emprror.—Power OF THE PROTESTANTS OF BOHEMIA.—GENERAL 
 Spirit oF INSURREOTION.—ANXIETY OF FERDINAND.—INSURREOTION LED BY COUN? 
 THURN.—UNPOPULARITY OF THE EMPEROR.—AFFEOTING DECLARATION OF THE EM- 
 PEROR.—INSURREOTION IN VIENNA.—THE ARRIVAL OF SuccoR.—FERDINAND SEEKS 
 THE IMPERIAL THRONE.—REPUDIATED BY BoHEMIA.—THE PALATINATE.—FREDERIO 
 OFFEKED THE CROWN OF BOHEMIA.—FREDERIO OROWNED.—REVOLT IN HUNGARY.— 
 DESPERATE CONDITION OF THE EMPEROR.—CATHOLIO LEAGUE.-—THE CALVINISTS AND 
 THE PuRITANS.—DUPLIOITY OF THE EMPEROR.—FOREIGN COMBINATIONS.—TRUOB 
 BETWEEN THE CATHOLICS AND THE PROTESTANTS.—THE ATTACK UPON BOHEMIA.— 
 Battie OF THE WHITE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 ERDIN AND, who now ascended the throne by right of 
 the coronation he had already received, was in the prime 
 of life, being but forty-one years of age, and was in possession 
 of a rare accumulation of dignities. He was Archduke of Aus- 
 tria, King of Hungary and of Bohemia, Duke of Styria, Ca- 
 rinthia and Carniola, and held joint possession, with his two 
 brothers, of the spacious territory of the Tyrol. Thus all these 
 wide-spread and powerful territories, with different languages, 
 different laws, and diverse manners and customs, were united 
 under the Austrian monarchy, which was now undeniably one 
 of the leading powers of Europe. In addition to all these titles 
 and possessions, he was a prominent candidate for the imperial 
 crown of Germany. ‘To secure this additional dignity he coul¢ 
 vely upon his own family influence, which was very powerful, 
 and also upon the aid of the Spanish monarchy. When we 
 contemplate his accession in this light, he appears as one of the 
 most powerful monarchs who ever ascended a throne. 
 But there is another side to the picture. The spirit of re- 
 
246 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA: 
 
 bellion against his authority had spread through nearly all tie 
 territories, and he had neither State nor kingdom where his 
 power seemed stable. In whatever direction he turned his 
 eyes, he saw either the gleam of hostile arms or the people in 
 a tumult just ready to combine against him, 
 
 The Protestants of Bohemia had much to encourage them, 
 All the kingdom, excepting one fortress, was in their possession, 
 All the Protestants of the German empire had espoused their 
 cause. The Silesians, Lusatians and Moravians were in open 
 revolt. The Hungarian Protestants, animated by the success 
 of the Bohemians, were eager to follow their example and 
 throw off the yoke of Ferdinand. With iron tyranny he had 
 silenced every Protestant voice in the Styrian provinces, and 
 had crushed every semblance of religious liberty. But the 
 successful example of the Bohemians had roused the Styrians, 
 and they also were on the eve of making a bold move in de- 
 fense of their rights. Even in Austria itself, and beneath the 
 very shadow of the palaces of Vienna, conspiracies were rife, 
 and insurrection was only checked by the presence of the 
 army which had been driven out of Bohemia. 
 
 Even Ferdinand could not be blind to the difficulties which 
 were accumulating upon him, and to the precarious tenure of 
 his power. He saw the necessity of persevering in the attempt 
 at conciliation which he had so reluctantly commenced. And 
 yet, with strange infatuation, he proposed an accommodation 
 in a manner which was deemed insulting, and which tended 
 only to exasperate. The very day of his accession to the 
 throne, he sent a commission to Prague, to propose a truce; 
 but, instead of conferring with the Protestant leaders, he 
 seemed to treat them with intentional contempt, by address 
 ing his proposal to that very council of regency which had 
 become so obnoxious. The Protestants, justly regarding this 
 #8 an indication of the implacable state of his mind, and con 
 scious that the proposed truce would only enable him more 6& 
 fectually to rally his forces, made no reply whatever to his pro- 
 
FERDINAND II. 24% 
 
 posais. Ferdinand, perceiving that he had made a great mis- 
 take, and that he had not rightly appreciated the spirit of his 
 foes, humbled himself a little more, and made still another 
 attempt at conciliation. But the Protestants had now resolved 
 that Ferdinand should never be King of Bohemia. It had 
 become an established tenet of the Catholic church that it is 
 not necessary to keep faith with heretics. Whatever solemn 
 promises Ferdinand might make, the pope would absolve him 
 from all sin in violating them. 
 
 Count Thurn, with sixteen thousand men, marched into 
 Moravia. The people rose simultaneously to greet him. He 
 entered Brunn, the capital, in triumph. The revolution was 
 mmediate and entire. They abolished the Austrian govern- 
 ment, established the Protestant worship, and organized a 
 new government similar to that which they had instituted in 
 Bohemia. Crossing the frontier, Count Thurn boldly entered 
 Austria and, meeting no foe capable of retarding his steps, he 
 pushed vigorously on even to the very gates of Vienna. As 
 he had no heavy artillery capable of battering down the walls, 
 and as he knew that he had many partisans within the walls 
 of the city, he took possession of the suburbs, blockaded the 
 town, and waited for the slow operation of a siege, hoping 
 thus to be able to take the capital and the person of the sov- 
 ereign without bloodshed. 
 
 Ferdinand had brought such trouble upon the country, that 
 he was now almost as unpopular with the Catholics as with the 
 Protestants, and all his appeals to them for aid were of but 
 little avail. The sudden approach of Count Thurn had amazed 
 and discomfited him, and he knew not in what direction to 
 look for aid. Cooped up in his capital, he could hold no com- 
 munication with foreign powers, and his own subjects mani- 
 fested no disposition to come to his rescue. The evidences 
 of popular discontent, even in the city, were every hour be- 
 coming more manifest, and the unhappy sovereign was im 
 hourly expectation of an insurrection in the streets. 
 
248 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 The surrender of Vienna involved the loss of Austria 
 With the loss of Austria vanished all hopes of the imperia! 
 crown. Bohemia, Austria, and the German scepter gone, 
 Hungary would soon follow; and then, his own Styrian ter 
 ritories, sustained and aided by their successful neighbors, 
 would speedily discard his sway. Ferdinand saw it all clearly, 
 and was in an agony of despair. He has confided to his con- 
 fessor the emotions which, in those terrible hours, agitated 
 his soul. It is affecting to read the declaration, indicative as 
 it is that the most cruel and perfidious man may be sincere 
 and even conscientious in his cruelty and crime. To his Jes- 
 uitical confessor, Bartholomew Valerius, he said, 
 
 “T have reflected on the dangers which threaten me and 
 my family, both at home and abroad. With an enemy in the 
 suburbs, sensible that the Protestants are plotting my ruin, I 
 implore that help from God which I can not expect from man. 
 I had recourse to my Saviour, and said, ‘ Lord Jesus Christ, 
 Thou Redeemer of mankind, Thou to whom all hearts are 
 opened, Thou knowest that I seek Thy honor, not my own. If 
 it be Thy will, that, in this extremity, I should be overcome by 
 iny enemies, and be made the sport and contempt of the world, 
 I will drink of the bitter cup. Thy will be done” I had 
 hardly spoken these words before I was inspired with new 
 hope, and felt a full conviction that God would frustrate the 
 designs of my enemies,” 
 
 Nerved by such a spirit, Ferdinand was prepared to en- 
 dure all things rather than yield the slightest poimt. Hour 
 after hour his situation became more desperate, and still he 
 remained inflexible. Balls from the batteries of Count Thurn 
 struck even the walls of his palace; murmurs filled the streets, 
 and menaces rose to his ears from beneath his windows. * Let 
 us put his evil counselors to the sword,” the disaffected ex- 
 claimed ; “shut him up in a convent; and educate his chik 
 dren ‘a the Protestant religion.” 
 
 At length the crisis had apparently arrived. Insurrection 
 
FERDINAND II. 349 
 
 was organized. Clamorous bands surged through the streets, 
 and there was a state of tumult which no police force could 
 quell. A band of armed men burst into the palace, forced 
 their way into the presence of Ferdinand, and demanded the 
 surrender of the city. At that moment, when Ferdinand 
 might well have been in despair, the unexpected sound of 
 trumpets was heard in the streets, and the tramp of a squadron 
 of cavalry. The king was as much amazed as were tho ‘n- 
 surgents. The deputies, not knowing what it meant, in great 
 alarm retreated from the palace. The squadron swept the 
 streets, and surrounded the palace. They had been sent to 
 the city by the general who had command of the Austrian 
 forces, and, arriving at full speed, had entered unexpectedly 
 at the only gate which the besiegers had not guarded. 
 
 Their arrival, as if by heavenly commission, and the tid- 
 ings they brought of other succor near at hand, reanimated 
 the king and his partisans, and instantly the whole aspect of 
 things within the city was changed. Six hundred students in 
 the Roman Catholic institutions of the city flew to arms, and 
 organized themselves as a body-guard of the king. All the 
 zealous Catholics formed themselves into military bands, and 
 this encouraged that numerous neutral party, always existing 
 in sucn seasons of uncertainty, ready to join those who shall 
 prove to be the strongest. The Protestants fled from the city, 
 and sought protection under the banners of Count Thurn. 
 
 In the meantime the Catholics in Bohemia, taking advan- 
 tage of the absence of Count Thurn with his troops, had sur- 
 rounded Prague, and were demanding its capitulation. This 
 rendered it necessary for the Bohemian army immediately to 
 strike their tents and return to Bohemia. Never was there a 
 more sudden and perfect deliverance. It was, however, de- 
 liverance only from the momentary peril. The great elements 
 of discontent and conflict remained unchanged. 
 
 It was very evident that the difficulties which Ferdinand 
 had to encounter in his Austrian dominions, were so immense 
 
250 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 that he could not hope to surmount them without foreign aid 
 He consequently deemed it a matter important above all oth 
 ers to secure the imperial throne. Without this strength the 
 loss of all his Austrian possessions was inevitable. With the 
 influence and the power which the crown of Germany would 
 confer upon him he could hope to gain all, Ferdinand imme. 
 diately left Vienna and visited the most influential of the Ger- 
 man princes to secure their support for his election. The 
 Catholics all over Germany, alarmed by the vigor and energy 
 which had been displayed by the Protestants, laid aside their 
 several preferences, and gradually all united upon Ferdinand. 
 The Protestants, foolishly allowing their Lutheran and Calvin- 
 istic differences to disunite them, could not agree in their cane 
 didate. Consequently Ferdinand was elected, and immediate- 
 ly crowned emperor, the 9th of September, 1619. 
 
 The Bohemians, however, remained firm in their resolve 
 to repudiate him utterly as their king. They summoned a 
 diet of the States of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia 
 to meet at Prague. Delegates also attended the diet from 
 Upper and Lower Austria, as also many nobles from distant 
 Hungary. The diet drew up a very formidable list of griev- 
 ances, and declared, in view of them, that Ferdinand had for- 
 feited all right to the crown of Bohemia, and that consequent 
 ly it was their duty, in accordance with the ancient usages, to 
 proceed to the election of a sovereign. The Catholics were 
 now so entirely in the minority in Bohemia that the Protes- 
 tants held the undisputed control. They first chose the Elect- 
 or of Saxony. He, conscious that he could maintain his post 
 only by a long and uncertain war, declined the perilous dignity. 
 They then with great unanimity elected Frederic, the Elector 
 of Palatine. ) 
 
 The Palatinate was a territory bordering on Bohemia, of 
 over four thousand square miles, and contained nearly seven 
 hundred thousand inhabitants. The elector, Frederic V., was 
 thus a prince of no small power in his own right. He had mar 
 
PERDINAND II. $51 
 
 ried a daughter of James I. of England, and had many powe 
 erful relatives. Frederic was an affable, accomplished, kind. 
 hearted man, quite ambitious, and with but little force of 
 character. He was much pleased at the idea of being elevated 
 to the dignity of a king, and was yet not a little appalled in 
 contemplating the dangers which it was manifest he must en- 
 counter. His mother, with maternal solicitude, trembling for 
 her son, intreated him not to accept the perilous crown. His 
 
 ’ father-in-law, James, remonstrated against it, sternly declaring 
 that he would never patronize subjects in rebellion againsé 
 their sovereign, that he would never acknowledge Frederic’s 
 title as king, or render him, under any circumstances, eithea 
 sympathy or support. On the other hand the members of the 
 Protestant league urged his acceptance; his uncles united 
 strongly with them in recommending it, and above all, his fascie 
 nating wife, whom he dotingly loved, and who, delighted at 
 the idea of being a queen, threw herself into his arms, and 
 plead in those persuasive tones which the pliant heart of Fred- 
 eric could not resist. The Protestant clergy, also, in a strong 
 delegation waited upon him, and intreated him in the name of 
 that Providence which had apparently proffered to him the 
 crown, to accept it in fidelity to himself, to his sesso and to 
 the true religion, 
 
 The trembling hand and the tearful eye with which Fred- 
 erie accepted the crown, proved his incapacity to bear the bur 
 den in those stormy days. Placing the government of the 
 Palatinate in the hands of the Duke of Deux Ponts, he repaired, 
 with his family, to Prague. <A rejoicing multitude met him at 
 several feayues from the capital, and escorted him to the city 
 with an unwonted display of popular enthusiasm. He was 
 crowned with splendor such as Bohemia had never witnessed 
 before. 
 
 For a time the Bohemians surrendered themselves to the 
 most extravagant joy. Frederic was exceedingly amiable, and 
 just the prince to win, in calm and sunny days, the enthusias 
 
253 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 tic admiration of his subjects. They were highly gratified 
 in having the King of Bohemia dwell in his own capital at 
 Prague, a privilege and honor which they had seldom enjoyed. 
 Many of the German princes acknowledged Frederic’s title, as 
 did also Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Vienna, The revolu- 
 tion in Bohemia was apparently consummated, and to the ordi- 
 nary observer no cloud could be seen darkening the horizon. 
 
 The Bohemians were strengthened in their sense of seour | 
 ity by a similar revolution which was taking place in Hungary. 
 As soon as Ferdinand left Vienna, to seek the crown of Ger- 
 many, the Protestants of Hungary threw off their allegiance 
 to Austria, and rallied around the banners of their bold, in- 
 domitable leader, Gabriel Bethlehem. They fell upon the im- 
 perial forces with resistless fury and speedily dispersed them. 
 Having captured several of the most important fortresses, and 
 having many troops to spare, Gabriel Bethlehem sent eighteen 
 thousand men into Moravia to aid Count Thurn to disperse 
 the imperial forces there. He then marched triumphantly to 
 Presburg, the renowned capital of Hungary, within thirty 
 miles of Vienna, where he was received by the majority of the 
 inhabitants with open arms. He took possession of the sacred 
 crown and of the crown jewels, called an assembly of the no- 
 bles from the various States of Hungary and Transylvania, 
 and united them in a firm band against Ferdinand. He now 
 marched up the banks of the Danube into Austria. Count 
 Thurn advanced from Moravia to meet him. The junction of 
 their forces placed the two leaders tn command of sixty thou- 
 sand men. They followed along the left bank of the majestic 
 Danube until they arrived opposite Vienna. Here they found 
 eighteen thousand troops posted to oppose. After a short con. 
 flict, the imperial troops retreated from behind their intrench- 
 ments across the river, and blew up the bridge. 
 
 In such a deplorable condition did the Emperor Ferdinand 
 find his affairs, as he returned from Germany to Austria. He 
 was apparently in a desperate position, and no human sagacity 
 
— 
 
 FERDINAND ff. 383 
 
 could foresee how he could retrieve his fallen fortunes, Ap- 
 parently, could his despotic arm then have been broken, Ka 
 rope might have been spared many years of war and woe. 
 But the designs of Providence are inscrutable. Again there 
 was apparently almost miraculous interposition. The imperisl 
 troops were rapidly concentrated in the vicinity of Vienna, te 
 prevent the passage of the broad, deep and rapid river by the 
 allied army. A strong force was dispatched down the right 
 bank of the Danube, which attacked and dispersed a force 
 left to protect the communication with Hungary. The season 
 was far advanced, and it was intensely cold in those northern 
 latitudes. The allied army had been collected so suddenly, 
 that no suitable provision had been made for feeding so vast 
 a host. Famine added its terrors to the cold blasts which 
 menacingly swept the plains, and as there was imminent dam 
 ger that the imperial army might cut off entirely the com 
 munication of the allies with Hungary, Gabriel Bethlehem 
 decided to relinquish the enterprise of taking Vienna, and 
 retired unimpeded to Presburg. Almost every fortress in 
 Hungary was now in the possession of the Hungarians, and 
 Ferdinand, though his capital was released, saw that Hungary 
 as well as Bohemia had escaped from his hands. At Pre» 
 burg Gabriel was, with imposing ceremonies, proclaimed King 
 of Hungary, and a decree of proscription and banishment was 
 issued against all the adherents of Ferdinand. 
 
 Germany was now divided into two great leagues, the 
 Catholic and the Protestant. Though nominally religious 
 parties, they were political as weil as religious, and subject to 
 all the fiuctuations and corruptions attendmg such combina: 
 tions. The Protestant league, composed of princes of every 
 degree of dignity, who came from all parts of Germany, 
 proudly mounted and armed, and attended by armed retain- 
 ers, from a few score to many hundreds or even thousands, 
 met at Nuremburg. It was one of the most influential and 
 imposing assemblages which had ever gathered in Kurope. 
 
954 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The Catholics, with no less display of pomp and power, 
 for their league embraced many of the haughtiest sovereigns 
 in Europe, met at Wurtzburg. There were, of course, not a 
 few who were entirely indifferent as to the religious questions 
 involved, and who were Catholics or Protestants, in sub- 
 serviency to the dictates of interest or ambition. Both par- 
 ties contended with the arts of diplomacy as well as with 
 those of war. The Spanish court was preparing a powerful 
 armament to send from the Netherlands to the help of Fer- 
 dinand. The Protestants sent an army to Ulm to watch their 
 movements, and to cut them off. 
 
 Ferdinand was as energetic as he had previously proved 
 himself inflexible and persevering. In person he visited 
 Munich, the capital of Bavaria, that he might more warmly 
 interest in his favor Maximilian, the illustrious and warlike 
 duke. The emperor made him brilliant promises, and secured 
 his cordial coéperation. The Duke of Bavaria, and the Elector 
 of the Palatinate, were neighbors and rivals; and the em- 
 peror offered Maximilian the spoils of the Palatinate, if they 
 should be successful in their warfare against the newly elected 
 Bohemian king. Maximilian, thus persuaded, placed all his 
 force at the disposal of the emperor. 
 
 The Elector of Saxony was a Lutheran; the Elector Pal- 
 atine a Calvinist. ‘The Lutherans believed, that after the con- 
 secration of the bread and wine at the sacramental table, 
 the body and blood of Christ were spiritually present with 
 that bread and wine. This doctrine, which they called con- 
 substantiation, they adopted in antagonism to the papal doc: 
 trine of transubstantiation, which was that the bread and 
 Wine were actually transformed into, and became the real 
 body and blood of Christ. 
 
 The difference between the Calvinists and the Lutherans, 
 as we have before mentioned, was that, while the former con- 
 sidered the bread and wine in the sacraments as representing 
 the body and the blood of Christ, the latter considered the body 
 
FERDINAND II. 255 
 
 and the blood as spiritually present in the consecrated elements, 
 This trivial difference divided brethren who were agreed 
 upon all the great points of Christian faith, duty and obliga- 
 tion. Itis melancholy, and yet instructive to observe, through 
 the course of history, how large a proportion of the energies 
 of Christians have been absorbed in contentions against each 
 other upon shadowy points of doctrine, while a world has 
 been perishing in wickedness, The most efficient men in the 
 Church on earth, have had about one halt of their energies 
 paralyzed by contentions with their own Christian brethren, 
 It is so now. The most energetic men, in pleading the cause 
 of Christ, are often assailed even more unrelentingly by 
 brethren who differ with them upon some small point of 
 doctrine, than by a hostile world. 
 
 Human nature, even when partially sanctified, is frail in- 
 deed. The Elector of Saxony was perhats a good man, but 
 he was a weak one. He was a zealous Lutheran, and was 
 shocked that a Calvinist, 2 man who held the destructive 
 error that the bread and wine only represented the body and 
 the blood of Christ, should be raised to the throne of Bo- 
 hemia, and thus become the leader of the Protestant party. 
 The Elector of Saxony and the Elector of the Palatine had 
 also been naturally rivals, as neighbors, and possessors of about 
 equal rank and power. Though the Calvinists, to conciliate - 
 the Lutherans, had offered the throne to the Elector of Saxony, 
 and he had declined it, as too perilous a post for bim to oc 
 cupy, still he was weakly jealous of his rival who had assumed 
 that post, and was thus elevated above him to the kingly 
 dignity. | 
 
 Ferdinand understood all this, and shrewdly availed him 
 self of it. He plied the elector with arguments and prom- 
 ises, assuring him that the points in dispute were political 
 merely and not religious; that he had no intention of oppos. 
 ing the Protestant religion, and that if the elector would aban. 
 don the Protestant league, he would reward him with a large 
 
$56 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 accession of territory. It seems incredible that the Elector of 
 Saxony could have been influenced by such representations, 
 But so it was. Averring that he could not in conscience up- 
 hold a man who did not embrace the vital doctrine of the spir. _ 
 itual presence, he abandoned his Protestant brethren, and 
 drew with him the Landgrave of Hesse, and several other 
 Lutheran princes. This was a very serious defection, which 
 disheartened the Protestants as much as it encouraged Ferdi- 
 nand. 
 
 The wily emperor having succeeded so admirably with the 
 Protestant elector, now turned to the Roman Catholic court 
 of France—that infamous court, still crimsoned with the blood 
 of the St. Bartholomew massacre. Then, with diplomatic ter- 
 giversation, he represented that the conflict was not a political 
 one, but purely religious, involving the interests of the Church, 
 He urged that the peace of France and of Europe required 
 that the Protestant heresy should be utterly effaced; and he 
 provoked the resentment of the court by showing how much 
 aid the Protestants in Europe had ever received from the Pala- 
 tinate family. Here again he was completely successful, and 
 the young king, Louis XIII., who was controlled by his big- 
 oted yet powerful minister, the Duke of Luines, cordially es- 
 poused his cause. 
 
 Spain, intolerant, despotic, hating Protestantism with per- 
 fect hatred, was eager with its aid. A well furnished army of 
 twenty-four thousand men was sent from the Netherlands, and 
 also a large sum of money was placed in the treasury of Fer- 
 dinand. -Even the British monarch, notwithstanding the 
 clamors of the nation, was maneuvered into neutrality. And 
 most surprising of all, Ferdinand was successful in securing 
 a truce with Gabriel Bethlehem, which, though it conferred 
 peace upon Hungary, deprived the Bohemians of their power 
 fal support. 
 
 The Protestants were strong in their combination; but 
 etill it was a power of fearful strength now arrayed against 
 
é 
 
 FERDINAND II. 287 
 
 them. It was evident that Europe was on the eve of a long 
 and terrible struggle. The two forces began to assemble, 
 The Protestants rendezvoused at Ulm, under the command of 
 the Margrave of Anspach. The Catholic troops, from their 
 wide dispersion, were concentrating at Guntzburg, to be led 
 by the Duke of Bavaria. The attention of all Europe was 
 arrested by these immense gatherings. All hearts were 
 oppressed with solicitude, for the parties were very equally 
 matched, and results of most momentous importance were de- 
 pendent upon the issue. 
 
 In this state of affairs the Protestant league, which ex- 
 tended through Europe, entered into a truce with the Catho- 
 lic league, which also extended through Europe, that they 
 should both withdraw from the contest, leaving Ferdinand and 
 the Bohemians to settle the dispute as they best could, This 
 seemed very much to narrow the field of strife, but the meas- 
 ure, in its practical results, was far more favorable to Ferdinand 
 than to the Bohemians. The emperor thus disembarrassed, by | 
 important concessions, and by menaces, brought the Protest- 
 ants of Lower Austria into submission. The masses, over- 
 awed by a show of power which they could not resist, yielded ; 
 the few who refused to bow in homage to the emperor were 
 punished as guilty of treason. 
 
 Ferdinand, by these cautious steps, was now prepared to 
 concentrate his energies upon Bohemia. He first attacked the 
 dependent provinces of Bohemia, one by one, sending an army 
 of twenty-five thousand men to take them unprepared. Have 
 ing subjected all of Upper Austria to his sway, with fifty thou. 
 sand men he entered Bohemia. Their march was energetic 
 and sanguinary. With such an overpowering force they took 
 fortress after fortress, scaling ramparts, mercilessly cutting 
 down garrisons, plundering and burning towns, and massa- 
 creing the inhabitants. Neither sex nor age was spared, and 
 a brutal soldiery gratified their passions in the perpetration of 
 indescribable horrors. Even the Duke of Bavaria was shocked 
 
858 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 at such barbarities, and entered his remonstrances against 
 them. Many iarge towns, terrified by the atrocities perpe- 
 trated upon those who resisted the imperial arms, threw open 
 their gates, hoping thus, by submission, to appease the ven- 
 geance of the conqueror. 
 
 Frederic was a weak man, not at all capable of encounter- 
 ing such a storm, and the Bohemians had consequently no one 
 to rally and to guide them with efficiency. His situation was 
 now alarming in the extreme. He was abandoned by the | 
 Protestant league, hemmed in on every side by the imperial 
 troops, and his hereditary domains of the Palatinate were over- 
 run by twenty thousand Spaniards. His subjects, alarmed ag 
 his utter inefficiency, and terrified by the calamities which were 
 falling, like avalanche after avalanche upon them, became dis 
 satisfied with him, and despairing respecting their own fate, 
 He was a Calvinist, and the Lutherans, had never warmly re 
 ceived him. The impotent monarch, instead of establishing 
 himself in the affections of his subjects, by vigorously driving 
 the invaders from his realms, with almost inconceivable silli- 
 ness endeavored to win their popularity by balls and smiles, 
 pleasant words and masquerades. In fact, Frederic, by his 
 utter inefficiency, was a foe more to be dreaded by Bohemia 
 than Ferdinand. . 
 
 The armies of the emperor pressed on, throwing the whole 
 kingdom into a state of consternation and dismay. The army 
 of Frederic, which dared not emerge from its intrenchments 
 at Pritznitz, about fifty miles south of Prague, consisted of 
 but twenty-two thousand men, poorly armed, badly clothed, 
 wretckedly supplied with military stores, and almost in a state 
 of mutiny from. arrears of pay. The generals were in per- 
 plexity and disagreement. Some, in the recklessness of de- 
 spair, were for marching to meet the foe and to risk a battle; 
 others were for avoiding a conflict, and thus protracting the 
 war till the severity of winter should drive their enemies from 
 the field, when they would have some time to prepare for 
 
FERDINAND Il. 259 
 
 another year’s campaign. ‘These difficulties led Frederie to 
 apply for a truce. But Ferdinand was too wise to lose by 
 wasting time in negotiations, vantage ground he had already 
 gained. He refused to listen to any word except the une 
 quivocal declaration that Frederic relinquished all right to the 
 crown. Pressing his forces onward, he drove the Bohemians 
 from behind their ramparts at Pritznitz, and pursued them 
 down the Moldau even to the walls of Prague. 
 
 Upon a magnificent eminence called the White Mountain, 
 which commanded the city and its most important approaches, 
 the disheartened army of Frederic stopped in its flight, and 
 made its last stand. The enemy were in hot pursuit. The 
 Bohemians in breathless haste began to throw up intrench- 
 ments along the ravines, and to plant their batteries on the 
 hills, when the banners of Ferdinand were seen approaching. 
 The emperor was too energetic a warrior to allow his panic- 
 stricken foes time to regain their courage. Without an hour’s 
 delay he urged his victorious columns to the charge. The 
 Bohemians fought desperately, with far more spirit than could 
 have been expected. But they were overpowered by num- 
 bers, and in one short hour the army of Frederic was an- 
 nihilated. Four thousand were left dead upon the field, one 
 thousand were drowned in the frantic attempt to swim the 
 Moldau, and the rest were either dispersed as fugitives over 
 hill and valley or taken captive. The victory of the emperor 
 was complete, the hopes of Frederic crushed, and the fate of 
 Bohemia sealed. 
 
 The contemptible Frederic, while this fierce battle was 
 raging beneath the very walls of his capital, instead of placing 
 himself at the head of his troops, was in the heart of the city, 
 in the banqueting-hall of his palace, bowing and smiling and 
 feasting his friends. The Prince of Anhalt, who was in com- 
 mand of the Bohemian army, had sent a most urgent message 
 to the king, intreating him to dispatch immediately to his aid 
 all the troops in the city, and especially to repair himself tc 
 
269 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA. 
 
 the camp to encourage the troops by bis presence. Frederse 
 was at the table when he received this message, and sent word 
 back that he could not come until after dinner. As soon a3 
 the combat commenced, another still more urgent message was 
 sent, to which he returned-the same reply. After dinner he 
 mounted his horse and rode to the gate which led to the 
 White Mountain. The thunders of the terrible battle filled 
 the air; the whole city was in the wildest state of terror and 
 confusion ; the gates barred and barricaded. Even the king 
 could not get out. He climbed one of the towers of the wall 
 and looked out upon the gory field, strewn with corpses, where 
 his army had been, but was no more. He returned hastily to 
 his palace, and met there the Prince of Anhalt, who, with a 
 few fugitives, had succeeded in entering the city by one of the 
 gates. 
 
 The city now could not defend itself for an hour. The 
 batteries of Ferdinand were beginning to play upon the walls, 
 when Frederic sent out a flag of truce soliciting a cessation of 
 hostilities for twenty-four hours, that they might negotiate re 
 specting peace. The peremptory reply returned was, that 
 there should not be truce for a single moment, unless Fred. 
 eric would renounce all pretension to the crown of Bohemia, 
 With such a renunciation truce would be granted for eight 
 hours. Frederic acceded to the demand, and tle noise of war 
 was hushed, . 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 FERDINAND II. 
 
 - From 1621 To 1629. 
 
 Pesmiannory or Frepreic.—InTReaTiEs OF THE CITIZENS OF Pracur.—SHAMBYOL 
 Furicut oF FREDERIO.— VENGEANOE INFLIOTED UPON BoHEMIA.—PROTESTANTISM AND 
 OIviL Ferrpom.—V ast Power oF THE EMPEROR.—ALARM OF EvRopr.—Jamrs L— 
 TREATY oF MARRIAGE FOR THE PRINCE OF WALES.—CARDINAL RICHELIEV.—NEW 
 Lxeacuk or THE PROTESTANTS.— DESOLATING WAR.—DEFEAT OF THE KinG oF DEN- 
 MARK.—ENERGY OF WALLENSTEIN.—TkIuUMPH OF FERDINAND.—NeEw Aors or IN- 
 TOLERANOE.—SEVERITIES IN BOHEMIA.—DESOLATION OF THE KtnepomM.—DIssATIS- 
 FACTION OF THE DuER oF Bavania.—MEETING OF THE CATHOLIC PRINCES.—THE 
 EMPBEOER HUMBLED. 
 
 HE citizens of Prague were indignant at the pusillanimity 
 of Frederic. In a body they repaired to the palace and 
 tried to rouse his feeble spirits. They urged him to adopt a 
 manly resistance, and offered to mount the ramparts and beat 
 off the foe until succor could arrive. But Frederic told them 
 that he had resolved to leave Prague, that he should escape 
 during the darkness of the night, and advised them to capitu- 
 late on the most favorable terms they could obtain. The in- 
 habitants of the city were in despair. They knew that they 
 had nothing to hope from the clemency of the conqueror, and 
 that there was no salvation for them from irretrievable ruin 
 but in the most desperate warfare. Even now, though the 
 enemy was at their gates, their situation was by no means 
 hopeless with a leader of any energy. 
 
 “ We have still,” they urged, “sufficient strength to with- 
 stand a siege. The city is not invested on every side, and 
 reinforcements can enter by some of the gates. We have 
 ample means in the city to support all the treops which can 
 
262 «THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 be assembled within its walls. The soldiers who have escaped 
 from the disastrous battle need but to see the Bohemian ban- 
 ners again unfurled and to hear the blast of the bugle, to re- 
 turn to their ranks. Eight thousand troops are within a few 
 hours’ march of us. There is another strong band in the rear 
 of the enemy, prepared to cut off their communications, 
 Several strong fortresses, filled with arms and ammunition, 
 are still in our possession, and the Bohemians, animated by the 
 remembrance of the heroic deeds of their ancestors, are eager 
 to retrieve their fortunes.” 7 
 
 Had Fiederic possessed a tithe of the perseverance and 
 energy of Ferdinand, with these resources he might soon have 
 arrested the steps of the conqueror. Never was the charac- 
 teristic remark of Napoleon to Ney better verified, that ‘‘ an 
 army of deer led by a lion is better than an army of lions led 
 by a deer.” Frederic was panic-stricken for fear he might 
 fall into the hands of Ferdinand, from whom he well knew that 
 he was to expect no mercy. With ignominious haste, aban- 
 doning every thing, even the coronation regalia, at midnight, 
 surrounded by a few friends, he stole out at one of the gates 
 of the city, and putting spurs to his horse, allowed himself no . 
 rest until he was safe within the walls of Berlin, two hundred 
 miles from Prague. 
 
 The despairing citizens, thus deserted by their sovereign, 
 and with a victorious foe at their very walls, had no alterna- 
 tive but to throw open their gates and submit to the mercy of 
 the conqueror. The next day the whole imperial army, under 
 the Duke of Bavaria, with floating banners and exultant mnu- 
 sic, entered the streets of the capital, and took possession of the 
 palaces. The tyrant Ferdinand was as vengeful and venomous 
 as he was vigorous and unyielding. The city was immediately 
 disarmed, and the government intrusted to a vigorous Roman 
 Catholic prince, Charles of Lichtenstein. A strong garrison 
 was left in the city to crush, with a bloody hand, any indica — 
 tions of insurrection, and then the Duke of Bavaria returned 
 
FERDINAND It, 263 
 
 with most of his army to Munich, his capital, tottering be- 
 neath the burden of plunder. 
 
 There war a moment’s ull before the tempest of imperial 
 wrath burst upon doomed Bohemia. Ferdinand seemed to 
 deliberate, and gather his strength, that he might strike a 
 blow which would be felt forever. He did strike such a blow 
 —one which has been remembered for two hundred years, and 
 which will not be forgotten for ages to come—one which 
 _ doomed parents and children to weary years of vagabondage, 
 penury and woe which must have made life a burden. 
 
 On the night of the 21st of January, three months after 
 the capitulation, and when the inhabitants of Prague had be- 
 gun to hope that there might, after all, be some mercy in the 
 bosom of Ferdinand, forty of the leading citizens of the place 
 were simultaneously arrested. They were torn from their fami- 
 lies and thrown into dungeons where they were kept in terrific 
 suspense for four months. They were then brought before an 
 imperial commission and condemned as guilty of high treason. 
 All their property was confiscated, nothing whatever being 
 left for their helpless families. Twenty-three were immediate- 
 ly executed upon the seaffold, and all the rest were either con- 
 signed to life-long imprisonment, or driven into banishment. 
 Twenty-seven other nobles, who had escaped from the king- 
 dom, were declared traitors, Their castles were seized, their 
 property confiscated and presented as rewards to Roman Cath- 
 olic nobles who were the friends of Ferdinand, An order 
 was then issued for all the nobles and landholders throughout 
 the kingdom to send in a confession of whatever aid they had 
 rendered, or encouragement they had given to the insurres- 
 tion, And the most terrible vengeance was threatened against 
 any on¢ who should afterward be proved guilty of any act 
 whatever of which he had not made confession. The conster 
 nation which this decree excited was so great, that not only 
 was every one anxious to confess the slightest act which could 
 be construed as unfriendly to the emperor, but many, in their 
 
 iL 
 
964 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 terror, were driven to accuse themselves of guilt, who had 
 taken no share in the movement. Seven hundred nobles, and 
 the whole body of Protestant landholders, placed their names 
 on the list of those who confessed guilt and implored pardon. 
 The fiend-like emperor, then, in the mockery of merey, de- 
 clared that in view of his great clemency and their humble 
 confession, he would spare their forfeited lives, and would only 
 punish them by depriving them of their estates. He took their 
 mansions, their estates, their property, and turned them adrift 
 upon the world, with their wives and their children, fugitives 
 and penniless. Thus between one and two thousand of the 
 most ancient and noble families of the kingdom were rendered 
 houseless and utterly beggared. Their friends, involved with 
 them in the same woe, could render no assistance. ‘They were 
 denounced as traitors; no one dared befriend them, and their 
 possessions were given to those who had rallied beneath the ban- 
 ners of the emperor. “To the victors belong the spoils.” No 
 pen can describe the ruin of these ancient families. No imagi- 
 nation can follow them in their steps of starvation and despair, 
 until death came to their relief, 
 Ferdinand considered Protestantism and rebellion as syn- 
 onymous terms. And well he might, for Protestantism has 
 ever been arrayed as firmly against civil as against religious 
 despotism. The doctrines of the reformers, from the days of 
 Luther and Calvin, have always been associated with political 
 liberty. Ferdinand was determined to crush Protestantism. 
 The punishment of the Elector Palatine was to be a signal and 
 an appalling warning to all who in future should think of disput- 
 ing the imperial sway. The elector himself, having renounced 
 the throne, had escaped beyond the emperor’s reach. But Fer- 
 dinand tcok possession of his ancestral territories and divided 
 them among his Roman Catholic allies. The electoral vote 
 which he held in the diet of the empire, Ferdinand transferred 
 to the Duke of Bavaria, thus reducing the Protestant vote to 
 two, and securing an additional Catholic suffrage. The ban of 
 
FERDINAND I1. 968 
 
 the empire was also published against the Prince of Anhalt, 
 the Count of Hohenloe, and the Duke Jaegendorf, who had 
 been supporters of Frederic. ‘This ban of the empire deprived 
 them of their territories, of their rank, and of their posses 
 sions. 
 
 The Protestants throughout the empire were terrified by 
 these fierce acts of vengeance, and were fearful of sharing 
 the same fate. They now regretted bitterly that they had dis 
 banded their organization. They dared not make any move 
 against the emperor, who was flushed with pride and power, 
 lest he should pounce at once upon them. The emperor con- 
 sequently marched unimpeded in his stern chastisements, 
 Wrederic was thus deserted entirely by the Protestant union 3 
 and his father-in-law, James of England, in accordance with 
 his threat, refused to lend him any aid. Various most heroic 
 efforts were made by a few intrepid nobles, but one after 
 another they were crushed by the iron hand of the emperor. 
 
 Ferdinand, having thus triumphed over all his foes, and 
 having divided their domains among his own followers, called 
 a meeting of the electors who were devoted to his cause, at 
 Ratisbon, on the 25th of February, 1623, to confirm what he 
 had done. In every portion of the empire, where the arm of 
 the emperor could reach them, the Protestants were receiving 
 heavy blows. They were now thoroughly alarmed and aroused. 
 The Catholics all over Kurope were renewing their league ; all 
 the Catholic powers were banded together, and Protestantisna 
 seemed on the eve of being destroyed by the sword of perse- 
 cution. 
 
 Other parts of Europe also began to look with alarm upon 
 the vast power acquired by Austria. There was but little of 
 conciliation in the character of Ferdinand, and his unbounded 
 success, while it rendered him more haughty, excited also the 
 jealousy of the neighboring powers. In Lower Saxony, nearly 
 all the nobles and men of influence were Protestants. The 
 principal portion of the ecclesiastical property was in their 
 
266 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 hands, It was very evident that unless the despotism of Fer- 
 dinand was checked, he would soon wrest from them their 
 titles and possessions, and none the less readily because he had 
 succeeded in bribing the Elector of Saxony to remain neutral 
 while he tore the crown of Bohemia from the Elector of the 
 Palatine, and despoiled him of his wide-spread ancestral tere 
 ritories. 
 
 James I. of England had been negotiating a marriage of 
 his son, the Prince of Wales, subsequently Charles I., with 
 the daughter of the King of Spain. This would have been, 
 in that day, a brilliant match for his son; and as the Span- 
 ish monarch was a member of the house of Austria, and a 
 codperator with his cousin, the Emperor Ferdinand, in all his 
 measures in Germany, it was an additional reason why James 
 should not interfere in defense of his son-in-law, Frederic of 
 the Palatine. But now this match was broken off by the in- 
 fiuence of the haughty English minister Buckingham, who had 
 the complete control of the feeble mind of the British mon- 
 arch. A treaty of marriage was soon concluded between the 
 Prince of Wales and Henrietta, a princess of France. There 
 was hereditary hostility between France and Spain, and both 
 England and France were now quite willing to humble the 
 house of Austria. The nobles of Lower Saxony availed them- 
 selves of this new turn in the posture of affairs, and obtained 
 promises of aid from them both, and, through their interces- 
 sion, aid also from Denmark and Sweden. 
 
 Richelieu, the imperious French minister, was embar- 
 rassed by two antagonistic passions. He was eager to humble 
 the house of Austria; and this he could only do by lending 
 aid to the Protestants. On the other hand, it was the great 
 object of his ambition to restore the royal authority to un- 
 limited power, and this he could only accomplish by aiding 
 the house of Austria to crush the Protestants, whose love of 
 freedom all despots have abhorred. Impelled by these con- 
 flicting passions, he did all in his power to extirpate Protest- 
 
FERDINAND I! 267 
 
 antism from France, while he omitted neither lures nor m- 
 trigues to urge the Protestants in Germany to rise against the 
 despotism of Austria. Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, was 
 personally inimical to Ferdinand, m consequence of injuries 
 he had received at his hands. Christian IV. of Denmark was 
 cousin to Elizabeth, the mother of Frederic, and, in addition 
 to this interest in the conflict which relationship gave him, he 
 was also trembling lest some of his own possessions should 
 soon be wrested from him by the all-grasping emperor. A 
 year was employed, the year 1624, in innumerable secret m 
 trigues, and plans of combination, for a general rising of the 
 Protestant powers. It was necessary that the utmost secrecy 
 should be observed in forming the coalition, and that ail 
 should be ready, at the same moment, to codperate against a 
 foe so able, so determined and so powerful. 
 
 Matters being thus essentially arranged, the States of Lower 
 Saxony, who were to take the lead, held a meeting at Sege- 
 berg on the 25th of March, 1625. They formed a league for 
 the preservation of their religion and liberties, settled the- 
 amount of money and men which each of the contracting par- 
 ties was to furnish, and chose Christian IV., King of Denmark, 
 their leader. The emperor had for some time suspected that 
 @ confederacy was in the process of formation, and had kept a 
 watchful eye upon every movement. The vail was now laid 
 aside, and Christian IV. issued a proclamation, stating the 
 reasons why they had taken up arms against the emperor. 
 This was the signal for a blaze of war, which wrapped all 
 northern Europe in a wide conflagration. Victory ebbed 
 and flowed. Bohemia, Hungary, Denmark, Austria—all the 
 States of the empire, were swept and devastated by pursuing 
 and retreating armies. But gradually the emperor gained. 
 First he overwhelmed all opposition in Lower Saxony, and 
 riveting anew the shackles of despotism, rewarded his follow- 
 ers with the spoils of the vanquished. Then he silenced every 
 murmur in Austria, so that no foe dared lift up the voice or 
 
268 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 peep. Then he poured his legions into Hungary, swept back 
 the tide of victory which had been following the Hungarian 
 banners, and struck blow after blow, until Gabriel Bethlehem 
 was compelled to cry for peace and mercy. Bohemia, pre- 
 viously disarmed and impoverished, was speedily struck down. 
 
 And now the emperor turned his energies against the 
 panic-stricken King of Denmark. He pursued him from for- 
 tress to fortress; attacked him in the open field, and beat 
 him; attacked him behind his intrenchments, and drove him 
 from them through the valleys, and over the hills, across 
 rivers, and into forests; bombarded his cities, plundered his 
 provinces, shot down his subjects, till the king, reduced almost 
 to the last extremity, implored peace. The emperor repelled 
 his advances with scorn, demanding conditions of debasement 
 more to be dreaded than death. The King of Denmark fled 
 to the isles of the Baltic. Ferdinand took possession of the 
 shores of this northern sea, and immediately commenced with 
 vigor creating a fleet, that he might have sea as well as land 
 forces, that he might pursue the Danish monarch over the 
 water, and that he might more effectually punish Gustavus 
 Adolphus of Sweden. He had determined to dethrone this 
 monarch, and to transfer the crown of Sweden to Sigismond, 
 his brother-in-law, King of Poland, who was almost as zealous 
 a Roman Catholic as was the emperor himself. 
 
 He drove the two Dukes of Mecklenburg from their ter 
 ritory, and gave the rich and beautiful duchy, extending along 
 the south-eastern shore of the Baltic, to his renowned general, 
 Wallenstein. This fierce, ambitious warrior was made gen- 
 eralissimo of all the imperial troops by land, and admiral of 
 the Baltic sea. Ferdinand took possession of all the ports, 
 from the mouth of the Keil, to Kolberg, at the mouth of the 
 Persante. Wismar, on the magnificent bay bearing the same 
 name, was made the great naval depot; and, by building, 
 buying, hiring and robbing, the emperor soon collected quite 
 a formidable fleet. The immense duchy of Pomerania was 
 
FERDINAND II. 269 
 
 just north-east of Mecklenburg, extending along the eastern 
 shore of the Baltic sea some hundred and eighty miles, and 
 about sixty miles in breadth. Though the duke had in no way 
 displeased Ferdinand, the emperor grasped the magnificent 
 duchy, and held it by the power of his resistless armies, 
 Crossing a narrow arm of the sea, he took the rich and pop- 
 ulous islands of Rugen and Usedom, and laid siege to the city 
 of Stralsund, which almost commanded the Baltic sea. 
 
 The kings of Sweden and Denmark, appalled by the rapid 
 strides of the imperial general, united all their strength to re- 
 sist him. They threw a strong garrison into Stralsund, and 
 sent the fleets of both kingdoms to aid in repelling the attack, 
 and succeeded in baffling all the attempts of Wallenstein, and 
 finally in driving him off, though he had boasted that “he 
 would reduce Stralsund, even if it were bound to heaven with 
 chains of adamant.” Though frustrated in this attempt, the 
 armies of Ferdinand had swept along so resistlessly, that the 
 King of Denmark was ready to make almost any sacrifice fo. 
 peace. A congress was accordingly held at Lubec in May, 1629, 
 when peace was made; Ferdinand retaining a large portion 
 of his conquests, and the King of Denmark engaging no Jonger 
 to interfere in the affairs of the empire. 
 
 Ferdinand was now triumphant over all his foes. The 
 Protestants throughout the empire were crushed, and all their 
 allies vanquished. He now deemed himself omnipotent, and 
 with wild ambition contemplated the utter extirpation of Prot- 
 estantism, and the subjugation of nearly all of Europe to his 
 sway. He formed the most intimate alliance with the branch 
 of his house ruling over Spain, hoping that thus the house of 
 Austria might be the arbiter of the fate of Europe. The 
 condition of Europe at that time was peculiarly favorable for 
 the designs of the emperor. Charles I. of England was strug- 
 gling against that Parliament which soon deprived him both 
 of his crown and his head. France was agitated, from the 
 Rhine to the Pyrenees, by civil war, the Catholics striving tc 
 
270 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 exterminate the Protestants. Insurrections in Turkey absorbed 
 all the energies of the Ottoman court, leaving them no time 
 to think of interfering with the affairs of Europe. The King 
 of Denmark was humiliated and prostrate. Sweden was 00 
 far distant and too feeble to excite alarm. Sigismond of Po- 
 land was in intimate alliance with the emperor. Gabriel Beth- 
 lehem of Hungary was, languishing on a bed of disease and 
 pain, and only asked permission to die in peace. 
 
 The first step which the emperor now took was to revoke 
 all the concessions which had been granted to the Protestanta, 
 In Upper Austria, where he felt especially strong, he abolished 
 the Protestant worship utterly. In Lower Austria he was 
 slightly embarrassed by engagements which he had so solemnly 
 made, and dared not trample upon them without some lit- 
 tle show of moderation. First he prohibited the circulation 
 of all Protestant books; he then annulled all baptisms and 
 marriages performed by Protestants ; then all Protestants were 
 excluded from holding any civil or military office; then he is- 
 sued a decree that all the children, without exception, should 
 be educated by Catholic priests, and that every individual 
 should attend Catholic worship. Thus coil by coil he wound 
 around his subjects the chain of unrelenting intolerance. 
 
 in Bohemia he was especially severe, apparently delighting 
 to punish those who had made a struggle for civil and relig- 
 ious liberty, Every school teacher, university professor and 
 Christian minister, was ejected from office, and their places in 
 schools, universities and churches were supplied by Catholic 
 monks. No person was allowed to exercise any mechanical 
 trade whatever, unless he professed the Roman Catholic faith. 
 A very severe fine was inflicted upon any one who should be 
 detected worshiping at any time, even in family prayer, ae 
 cording to the doctrines and customs of the Protestant church. 
 Protestant marriages were pronounced illegal, their children 
 illegitimate, their wills invalid. The Protestant poor were 
 driven from the hospitals and the alms-houses. No Protestant 
 
FERDINAND It, 271 
 
 was allowed to reside in the capital city of Prague, but, what- 
 ever his wealth or rank, he was driven ignominiously from the 
 metropolis. | 
 
 In the smaller towns and remote provinces of the kingdom, 
 a military force, accompanied by Jesuits and Capuchin friars, 
 sought out the Protestants, and they were exposed to every 
 conceivable insult and indignity. Their houses were pillaged, 
 their wives and children surrendered to all the outrages of a 
 cruel soldiery ; many were massacred ; many, hunted like wild 
 beasts, were driven into the forest ; many were put to the tor- 
 ture, and as their bones were crushed and quivering nerves 
 were torn, they were required to give in their adhesion to the 
 Catholic faith. ‘The persecution to which the Bohemians were 
 subjected has perhaps never been exceeded in severity. 
 
 While Bohemia was writhing beneath these woes, the em- 
 peror, to secure the succession, repaired in regal pomp to 
 Prague, and crowned his son King of Bohemia. He then is- 
 sued a decree abolishing the right which the Bohemians had 
 claimed, to elect their king, forbade the use of the Bohemian 
 language in the court and in all public transactions, and an- 
 nulled all past edicts of toleration. He proclaimed that no 
 religion but the Roman Catholic should henceforth be toler- 
 ated in Bohemia, and that all who did not immediately return 
 to the bosom of the Church should be banished from the king- 
 dom. This cruel edict drove into banishment thirty thousand 
 families. These Protestant families composed the best portion 
 of the community, including the most illustrious in rank, the 
 most intelligent, the most industrious and the most virtuous. 
 No State could meet with such a loss without feeling it deeply, 
 and Bohemia has never yet recovered from the blow. One of 
 the Bohemian historians, himself 2 Roman Catholic, thus de- 
 scribes the change which persecution wrought in Bohemia : 
 
 “The records of history scarcely furnish a similar example 
 of such a change as Bohemia underwent during the reign of 
 Ferdinand II. In 1620, the monks and a few of the nobility 
 
272 . THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 only excepted, the whole country was entirely Protestant. At 
 the death of Ferdinand it was, in appearance at least, Catholic. 
 Till the battle of the White Mountain the States enjoyed more 
 exclusive privileges than the Parliament of England. They 
 enacted laws, imposed taxes, contracted alliances, declared 
 war and peace, and chose or confirmed their kings. But all 
 these they now lost. 
 
 “Till this fatal period the Bohemians were daring, un- 
 daunted, enterprising, emulous of fame; now they have lost 
 all their courage, their national pride, their enterprising spirit, 
 Their courage lay buried in the White Mountain. Individuals 
 still possessed personal valor, military ardor and a thirst of 
 glory, but, blended with other nations, they resembled the 
 waters of the Moldau which join those of the Elbe. These 
 united streams bear ships, overflow lands and overturn rocks ; 
 yet the Elbe is only mentioned, and the Moldau forgotten. 
 
 “The Bohemian language, which had been used in all the 
 courts of justice, and which was in high estimation among the 
 nobles, fell into contempt. The German was introduced, be- 
 came the general language among the nobles and citizens, and 
 was used by the monks in their sermons. The inhabitants of 
 the towns began to be ashamed of their native tongue, which 
 was confined to the villages and called the language of peas 
 ants. The arts and sciences, so highly cultivated and esteemed 
 under Rhodolph, sunk beyond recevery. During the period 
 which immediately followed the banishment of the Protestanta, 
 Bohemia scarcely produced one man who became eminent in 
 any branch of learning. ‘The greater part of the schools were 
 conducted by Jesuits and other monkish Kee and nothing 
 tanght therem but bad Latin. 
 
 “It can not be denied that several of the Jesuits were men 
 of great learning and science; but their system was to keep 
 the people in ignorance. Agreeably to this principle they 
 gave their scholars only the rind, and kept to themselves the 
 pulp of literature. With this view they traveled from town to 
 
FERDINAND 12, 273 
 
 sown 28 missionaries, and went from house to house, examin- 
 ing all books, which the landlord was compelled under pain of 
 eternal damnation to produce. The greater part they confis- 
 cated and burnt. They thus endeavored to extinguish the 
 ancient literature of the country, labored to persuade the stu- 
 dents that before the introduction of their order into Bohe- 
 mia nothing but ignorance prevailed, and carefully concealed 
 the learned labors and even the names of our ancestors.” 
 
 Ferdinand, having thus bound Bohemia hand and foot, and 
 having accomplished all his purpose in that kingdom, now en- 
 deavored, by cautious but very decisive steps, to expel Prot- 
 estant doctrines from all parts of the German empire. Decree 
 succeeded decree, depriving Protestants of their rights and 
 conferring upon the Roman Catholics wealth and station. He 
 had a powerful and triumphant standing army at his control, 
 under the energetic and bigoted Wallenstein, ready and able 
 to enforce his ordinances’ No Protestant prince dared to 
 make any show of resistance. All the church property was 
 torn from the Protestants, and this vast sum, together with 
 the confiscated territories of those Protestant princes or no- 
 bles who had ventured to resist the emperor, placed at his dis- 
 posal a large fund from which to reward his followers. The 
 emperor kept, however, a large portion of the spoils in his own 
 hands for the enriching of his own family. 
 
 This state of things soon alarmed even the Catholics, The 
 emperor was growing too powerful, and his power was bear- 
 mg profusely its natural fruit of pride and arrogance. The 
 army was insolent, trampling alike upon friend and foe. As 
 there was no longer any war, the army had become merely 
 the sword of the emperor to maintain his despotism. Wallen- 
 stein had become so essential to the emperor, and possessed 
 such power at the head of the army, that he assumed all the 
 air and state of a sovereign, and insulted the highest nobles 
 and the most powerful bishops by his assumptions of superior- 
 ity. The electors of the empire perceiving that the emperor 
 
274 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA, 
 
 was centrolidms power in his own hands, and that they would 
 soon become merely provincial governors, compelled to obey 
 his laws and subject to his appointment and removal, began to 
 whisper to each other their alarm. 
 
 The Duke of Bavaria was one of the most powerful princes 
 of the German empire. He had been the rival of Count Wal- 
 ‘enstein, and was now exceedingly annoyed by the arrogance of 
 this haughty military chief. Wallenstein was the emperor's 
 right arm of strength. Inflamed by as intense an ambition as 
 ever burned in a human bosom, every thought and energy 
 was devoted to self-aggrandizement. He had been educated 
 a Protestant, but abandoned those views for the Catholic faith 
 which opened a more alluring field to ambition. Sacrificing 
 the passions of youth he married a widow, infirm and of ad- 
 vanced age, but of great wealth, The death of his wrinkled 
 bride oon left him the vast property without incumbrance. 
 He then entered into a matrimonial alliance which favored 
 his political prospects, marrying Isabella, the daughter of 
 Count Harruch, who was one of the emperor’s greatest fe 
 vorites. 
 
 When Ferdinand’s fortunes were at a low ebb, and he knew 
 not in which way to find either money or an army, Wallen- 
 stein offered to raise fifty thousand men at his own expense, 
 to pay their wages, supply them with arms and all the muni. 
 tions of war, and to call upon the emperor for no pecuniary 
 assistance whatever, if the emperor would allow him to retain 
 the plunder he could extort from the conquered. Upon this 
 majestic scale Wallenstein planned to act the part of a high- 
 wayman. Ferdinand’s necessities were so great that he glad- 
 ly availed himself of this infamous offer. Wallenstein made 
 money by the bargain. Wherever he marched he compelled 
 the people to support his army, and to support it luxuriously. 
 The emperor had now constituted him admiral of the Baltic 
 fleet, and had conferred upon him the title of duke, with the 
 splendid duchy of Mecklenburg, and the principality of Sagan 
 
FERDINAND It. 275 
 
 in Silesia. His overbearing conduct and his enormous extor. 
 tions—he having, in seven years, wrested from the German 
 princes more than four hundred million of dollars—excited a 
 general feeling of discontent, in which the powerful Duke of 
 Bavaria took the lead. 
 
 Envy is a stronger passion than political religion. Zsalous 
 as the Duke of Bavaria had been in the cause of the papal 
 ehurch, he now forgot that church in his zeal to abase an ar- 
 rogant and insulting rival. Richelieu, the prime minister of 
 France, was eagerly watching for opportunities to humiliate 
 the house of Austria, and he, with alacrity, met the advances 
 of the Duke of Bavaria, and conspired with him to form a Cath- 
 olic league, to check the ambition of Wallenstein, and to arres$ 
 the enormous strides of the emperor. With this object in view, 
 a large number of the most powerful Catholic princes met at 
 Heidelberg, in March, 1629, and passed resolutions soliciting 
 Ferdinand to summon a diet of the German empire to take 
 into consideration the evils occasioned by the army of Wallen- 
 stein, and to propose a remedy. The emperor had, in his 
 arrogance, commanded the princes of the various States in 
 the departments of Suabia and Franconia, to disband their 
 troops. To this demand they returned the bold and spirited 
 reply, 
 
 “Till we have received an indemnification, or a pledge for 
 the payment of our expenses, we will neither disband a single 
 soldier, nor relinquish a foot of territory, ecclesiastical or secu- 
 lar, demand it who will.” 
 
 The emperor did not venture to disregard the request for 
 him to summon a diet. Indeed he was anxious, on his own 
 account, to convene the electors, for he wished to secure the 
 election of his son to the throne of the empire, and he needed 
 puccors to aid him in the ambitious wars which he was waging 
 in various and distant parts of Europe. The diet was assem- 
 bled at Ratisbon: the emperor presided in person. As he had 
 important favors to solicit, he assumed a very conciliatory tone 
 
276 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 He expressed his regret that the troops had been guilty of such 
 disorders, and promised immediate redress. He then, suppos- 
 ing that his promise would be an ample satisfaction, very gra- 
 ciously solicited of them the succession of the imperial throne 
 for his son, and supplies for his army. 
 
 But the electors were not at all in a pliant mood. Some 
 were resolved that, at all hazards, the imperial army, which 
 threatened Germany, should be reduced, and that Wallenstein 
 should be dismissed from the command. Others were equally 
 determined that the crown of the empire should not descend 
 to the son of Ferdinand. The Duke of Bavaria headed the 
 party who would debase Wallenstein; and Cardinal Richelieu, 
 with all the potent influences of intrigue and bribery at the 
 command of the French court, was the soul of the party re- 
 solved to wrest the crown of the empire from the house of 
 Austria. Richelieu sent two of the most accomplished diplo- 
 matists France could furnish, as ambassadors to the diet, who, 
 while maintaining, as far as possible, the guise of friendship, 
 were to do every thing in their power to thwart the election 
 of Ferdinand’s son. These were supplied with inexhaustible 
 means for the purchase of votes, and were authorized to make 
 any promises, however extravagant, which should be deemed 
 essential for the attainment of their object. 
 
 Ferdinand, long accustomed to have his own way, was not 
 anticipating any serious resistance. He was therefore amazed 
 and confounded, when the diet returned to him, instead of 
 their humble submission and congratulations, a long, detailed, 
 emphatic remonstrance against the enormities perpetrated by 
 the imperial army, and demanding the immediate reduction 
 of the army, now one hundred and fifty thousand strong, and 
 the dismission of Wallenstein, before they could proceed to 
 any other business whatever. This bold stand animated the 
 Protestant princes of the empire, and they began to be clam- 
 orous for their rights. Some of the Catholics even, espoused 
 their cause, warning Ferdinand that, unless he granted the 
 
FERDINAND Il. 274 
 
 Protestants some degree of toleration, they would seek redress 
 by joining the enemies of the empire. 
 
 It would have been impossible to frame three demands 
 more obnoxious to the emperor. To crush the Protestants 
 had absorbed the energies of his life; and now that they were 
 utterly prostrate, to lift them up and place them on their feet 
 again, was an idea he could not endure. The imperial army 
 had been his supple tool. By its instrumentality he had 
 gained all his power, and by its energies alone he retained 
 that power. To disband the army was to leave himself de- 
 fenseless. Wallenstein had been every thing to the emperor, 
 and Ferdinand still needed the support of his inflexible and 
 unscrupulous energies. Wallenstein was in the cabinet of the 
 emperor advising him in this hour of perplexity.. His counsel 
 _ was characteristic of his impetuous, headlong spirit. He ad- 
 vised the emperor to pour his army into the territory of the 
 Duke of Bavaria; chastise him and all his associates for their 
 insolence, and thus overawe the rest. But the Duke of Ba- 
 varia was in favor of electing the emperor’s son as his suc 
 cessor on the throne of the empire; and Ferdinand’s heart 
 was fixed upon this object. 
 
 “Dismiss Wallenstein, and reduce the army,” said the 
 Duke of Bavaria, “and the Catholic electors will vote for 
 your son; grant the required toleration to the Protestants, 
 and they will vote for him likewise.” 
 
 The emperor yielded, deciding in his own mind, aided by 
 the Jesuitical suggestions of a monk, that he could after- 
 wards recall Wallenstein, and assemble anew his dispersed 
 battalions. He dismissed sixteen thousand of his best cav- 
 alry; suspended some of the most obnoxious edicts against 
 the Protestants, and implored Wallenstein to resign his post. 
 The emperor was terribly afraid that this proud general would 
 refuse, and would lead the army to mutiny. The emperor 
 accordingly accompanied his request with every expression 
 of gratitude and regret, and assured the general of his con- 
 
278 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 tinued favor. Wallenstein, well aware that the disgrace 
 would be but temporary, quietly yielded. He dismissed the 
 envoys of the emperor with presents, wrote a very submis- 
 sive letter, and, with much ostentation of obedience, retired 
 to private life, 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 BERDINAND IL AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, 
 
 From 1629 To 1632. 
 
 VRxATION of FerpInaND.—Gustavus ADOLPHUS.—ADDRESS TO THE NoBLzs oF SwEDEE. 
 Marcu or GusTavus.—APPEAL TO THE PRoTEssTANTS.—MaGDEBURG Jomns Gua 
 FAVUS.—DESTRUCTION OF THE Crry.—OCoNSTERNATION OF THE PROTESTANTS.—H&e 
 ULTATION OF THE CATHOLICS.—THE ELzoror of SAXONY DRIVEN FROM HIS DomMAINS.<~ 
 Barrie or Letesico.—THe SweEDES PENETRATS Bouemia.—FREEDOM oFr CONSCIENOB 
 ESTABLISHED.—DEATH OF TILLY.—THE RETIREMENT OF WALLENSTEIN.—THE CoMe 
 MAND RESUMED BY WALLENSTEIN.—OAPTURE OF PrRAGUE.—ENCOUNTER BETWEEN 
 WALLENSTEIN AND Gustavous.—Batris or LuTzen.—D£EaTs or GUSTAVUS. 
 
 HE hand of France was conspicuous in wresting all these 
 sacrifices from the emperor, and was then still more con- 
 Spicuous in thwarting his plans for the election of his son. 
 The ambassadors of Richelieu, with diplomatic adroitness, 
 urged upon the diet the Duke of Bavaria as candidate for the 
 imperial crown. This tempting offer silenced the duke, and 
 he could make no more efforts for the emperor. The Prot 
 estants greatly preferred the duke to any one of the race of 
 the bigoted Ferdinand. The emperor was excessively cha- 
 grined by this aspect of affairs, and abruptly dissolved the diet. 
 He felt that he had been duped by France; that a cunning 
 monk, Richelieuw’s ambassador, had outwitted him. In his 
 vexation he exclaimed, “ A Capuchin friar has disarmed me 
 with his rosary, and covered six electoral caps with his 
 cowl.” 
 
 The emperor was meditating vengeance—the recall of 
 Wallenstein, the reconstruction of the army, the annulling of 
 the edict of toleration, the march of an invading force into the 
 territories of the Duke of Bavaria, and the chastisement of 
 
280 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 all, Catholics as well as Protestants, who had aided in thwart 
 ing his plans—when suddenly a new enemy appeared. Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, reigning over his remote 
 realms on the western shores of the Baltic, though a zealous 
 Protestant, was regarded by Ferdinand as a foe too distant 
 and too feeble to be either respected or feared. But Gus- — 
 tavus, a man of exalted abilities, and of vast energy, was 
 watching with intense interest the despotic strides of the em- 
 peror.* In his endeavors to mediate in behalf of the Protest- 
 ants of Germany, he had encountered repeated insults on the 
 part of Ferdinand. The imperial troops were now approach- 
 ing his own kingdom. They had driven Christian IV., King 
 of Denmark, from his continental territories on the eastern 
 shore of the Baltic, had already taken possession of several of 
 the islands, and were constructing a fleet which threatened 
 the command of that important sea. Gustavus was alarmed, 
 and roused himself to assume the championship of the civil 
 and religious liberties of Europe. He conferred with all the 
 leading Protestant princes, formed alliances, secured funds, 
 stationed troops to protect his own frontiers, and then, as- 
 sembling the States of his kingdom, entailed the succession 
 of the crown on his only child Christiana, explained to them 
 his plans of war against the emperor, and concluded a digni- 
 fied and truly pathetic harangue with the following words. 
 “The enterprise in which I am about to engage is not 
 one dictated by the love of conquest or by personal ambition. 
 Our honor, our religion and our independence are imperiled. 
 gam to encounter great dangers, and may fall upon the field 
 of battle. If it be God’s will that I should die in the defense 
 of liberty, of my country and of mankind, I cheerfully surren- 
 der myself to the sacrifice. It is my duty as a sovereign to 
 obey the King of kings without murmuring, and to resign the 
 power I have received from His hands whenever it shall suit 
 His all-wise purposes. JI shall yield up my last breath with the 
 firm persuasion that Providence will support my subjects be- 
 
FERDINAND If. AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 28] 
 
 cause they are faithful and virtuous, and that my ministers, 
 generals and senators will punctually discharge their duty to 
 my child because they love justice, respect me, and feel for 
 their country.” 
 
 The king himself was affected as he uttered these words, 
 and tears moistened the eyes of many of the stern warriors 
 who surrounded him, With general acclaim they approved of 
 his plan, voted him all the succors he required, and enthusi- 
 astically offered their own fortunes and lives to his service. 
 Gustavus assembled a fleet at Elfsnaben, crossed the Baltic 
 sea, and in June, 1630, landed thirty thousand troops in 
 Pomerania, which Wallenstein had overrun. The imperial 
 army, unprepared for such an assault, fled before the Swedish 
 king. Marching rapidly, Gustavus took Stettin, the capital 
 of the duchy, situated at the mouth of the Oder, and com- 
 manding that stream. Driving the imperial troops everywhere 
 before him from Pomerania, and pursuing them into the ad- 
 joining Mark of Brandenburg, he took possession of a large part 
 of that territory. He issued a proclamation to the inhabitants 
 of Germany, recapitulating the arbitrary and despotic acts of 
 the emperor, and calling upon all Protestants to aid in an en- 
 terprise, in the success of which the very existence of Protest- 
 antism in Germany seemed to be involved. But so utterly 
 had the emperor crushed the spirits of the Protestants by his 
 fiend-like severity, that but few ventured to respond to his 
 appeal. The rulers, however, of many of the Protestant 
 States met at Leipsic, and without venturing to espouse the 
 cause of Gustavus, and without even alluding to his invasion, 
 they addressed a letter to the emperor demanding a redress 
 of grievances, and informing him that they had decided to 
 establish a permanent council for the direction of their own 
 affairs, and to raise an army of forty thousand men for their 
 own protection. 
 
 Most of these events had occurred while the emperor, with 
 Wallenstein, was at Ratisbon, intriguing to secure the succes 
 
g22 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 sion of the imperial crown for hisson. They both looked upen 
 the march of the King of Sweden into the heart of Germany 
 as the fool-hardy act of a mad adventurer. The courtiers ridie 
 culed his transient conquests, saying, “ Gustavus Adolphus is 
 aking of snow. Like a snowball he will melt in a southern 
 clime.” Wallenstein was particularly contemptuous. “I will 
 whip him back to his country,” said he, “like a truant school- 
 boy, with rods.” Ferdinand was for a time deceived by these 
 representations, and was by no means aware of the real peril 
 which threatened him. The diet which the emperor had as- 
 sembled made a proclamation of war against Gustavus, but 
 adopted no measures of energy adequate to the occasion. The 
 emperor sent 2 silly message to Gustavus that if he did not 
 retire immediately from Germany he would attack him with 
 his whole force. To this folly Gustavus returned a contempt- 
 uous reply. 
 
 A few of the minor Protestant princes now ventured to 
 take arms and join the standard of Gustavus. The important 
 city of Magdeburg, in Saxony, on the Elbe, espoused his cause, 
 This city, with its bastions and outworks completely come 
 manding the Elbe, fermed one of the strongest fortresses of 
 Europe. It contained, exclusive of its strong garrison, thirty 
 thousand inhabitants. It was now evident to Ferdinand that 
 Vigorous action was called for. He could not, consistently 
 with his dignity, recall Wallenstein in the same breath with 
 which he had dismissed him. He accordingly concentrated 
 his troops and placed them under the command of Count 
 Tilly. The imperial troops were dispatched to Magdeburg, 
 They surrounded the doomed city, assailed it furiously, and 
 proclaimed their intention of making it a signal mark of im 
 perial vengeance, Notwithstanding the utmost efforts of 
 Gustavus to hasten to their relief, he was foiled in his en — 
 deavors, and the town was carried by assault on the 10th of 
 May. Never, perhaps, did earth witness a more cruel exh. 
 bition of the horrors of war. The soul sickens in the contem 
 
FERDINAND II. AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 2838 
 
 plation of outrages so fiend-like. We prefer to give the naz. 
 rative of these deeds, which it is the duty of history to record, 
 in the language of another. 
 
 *¢ All the horrors ever exercised against a captured place 
 were repeated and almost surpassed, on this dreadful event, 
 which, notwithstanding all the subsequent disorders and the 
 lapse of time, is still fresh in the recollection of its inhabitants 
 and of Germany. Neither age, beauty nor innocence, neither 
 infancy nor decrepitude, found refuge or compassion from the 
 fury of the licentious soldiery. No retreat was sufficiently se- 
 cure to escape their rapacity and vengeance; no sanctuary 
 sufficiently sacred to repress their lust and cruelty. Infants 
 were murdered before the eyes of their parents, daughters 
 and wives violated in the arms of their fathers and husbands. 
 Some of the imperial officers, recoiling from this terrible scene, 
 flew to Count Tilly and supplicated him to put a stop to the 
 carnage. ‘Stay yet an hour,’ was his barbarous reply ; ‘ let 
 the soldier have some compensation for his dangers and fa- 
 tigues.’ 
 
 “The troops, left to themselves, after sating their passions, 
 and almost exhausting their cruelty in three hours of pillage 
 and massacre, set fire to the town, and the flames were in an 
 instant spread by the wind to every quarter of the place. 
 Then opened a scene which surpassed all the former horrors, 
 Those who had hitherto escaped, or who were forced by the 
 flames from their hiding-places, experienced a more dreadful 
 fate. Numbers were driven into the Elbe, others massacred 
 with every species of savage barbarity—the wombs of preg- 
 nant women ripped up, and infants thrown into the fire or 
 impaled on pikes and suspended over the flames. History has 
 no terms, poetry no language, painting no colors to depict 
 all the horrors of the scene. In less than ten hours the mosé 
 rich, the most flourishing and the most populous town in Ger 
 many was reduced to ashes. The cathedral, a single convent 
 and 2 few miserable huts, were all that were left of its numer 
 
Jae THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 ous buildings, and scarcely more than a thousand souls all that 
 remained of more than thirty thousand inhabitants. 
 
 ‘After an interval of two days, when the soldiers were 
 fatioued, if not sated, with devastation and slaughter, and when 
 the flames had begun to subside, Tilly entered the town in tri- 
 umph, To make room for his passage the streets were cleared 
 and six thousand carcasses thrown into the Elbe. He ordered 
 the pillage to cease, pardoned the scanty remnant of the im 
 habitants, who had taken refuge in the cathedral, and, sar 
 rounded by flames and carnage, had remained three days with- 
 out food or refreshment, under all the terrors of impending 
 fate. After hearing a Ze Deum in the midst of military pomp, 
 he paraded the streets; and even though his unfeeling heart 
 seemed touched with the horrors of the scene, he could ne 
 refrain from the savage exultation of boasting to the emperor, 
 and comparing the assault of Magdeburg to the sack of Troy 
 and of Jerusalem.” 
 
 This terrible display of vengeance struck the Protestants 
 with consternation, The extreme Catholic party were exult- 
 ant, and their chiefs met in a general assembly and passed res- 
 olutions approving the course of the emperor and pledging 
 him their support. Ferdinand was much encouraged by this 
 change in his favor, and declared his intention of silencing all 
 Protestant voices. He recalled an army of twenty-four thoa- 
 sand men from Italy. They crossed the Alps, and, as they 
 marched through the frontier States of the empire, they spres@ 
 devastation and ruin through all the Protestant territories, 
 exacting enormous contributions, compelling the Protestant 
 princes, on oath, to renounce the Protestant league, and to unite 
 with the Catholic confederacy against the King of Sweden, 
 
 In the meantime, Gustavus pressed forward into the duchy 
 of Mecklenburg, driving the imperial troops before him. Tilly 
 retired into the territory of the Elector of Saxony, robbing, 
 burning and destroying everywhere. Uniting his force with 
 the army from Italy he ravaged the country, resistlessly ad- 
 
PERDINAND II. AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 28% 
 
 vancing even to Leipsic, and capturing the city. The elector, 
 quite unable to cope with so powerful a foe, retired with his 
 troops to the Swedish camp, where he entered into an offensive 
 and defensive alliance with Gustavus. The Swedish army, 
 thus reinforced, hastened to the relief of Leipsio, and arrived 
 before its walls the very day on which the city surrendered. 
 
 Tilly, with the pride of a conqueror, advanced to meet 
 them. The two armies, about equal in numbers, and com- 
 manded by their renowned captains, met but a few miles from 
 the city. Neither of the commanders had ever before suffered 
 a defeat. It was a duel, in which one or the other must fall, 
 Every soldier in the ranks felt the sublimity of the hour. For 
 some time there was marching and countermarching—the 
 planting of batteries, and the gathering of squadrons and solid 
 columns, each one hesitating to strike the first blow. At last 
 the signal was given by the discharge of three pieces of cannon 
 from one of the batteries of Tilly. Instantly a thunder peal rolled 
 along the extended lines from wing to wing. The awful work 
 of death was begun. Hour after hour the fierce and bloody 
 fight continued, as the surges of victory and defeat swept to 
 and fro upon the plain. But the ever uncertain fortune of bat- 
 tle decided in favor of the Swedes. As the darkness of even- 
 ing came prematurely on, deepened by the clouds of smoke 
 which canopied the field, the imperialists were everywhere 
 flying in dismay. Tilly, having been struck by three balls, 
 was conveyed from the field in excruciating pain to a retreat 
 in Halle. Seven thousand of his troops lay dead upon the 
 field. Five thousand were taken prisoners. All the imperial 
 artillery and baggage fell into the hands of the conqueror. 
 The rest of the army was so dispersed that but two thousand 
 could be rallied under the imperial banners. 
 
 Gustavus, thus triumphant, dispatched a portion of his army, 
 under the Elector of Saxony, to rescue Bohemia from the ty- 
 rant grasp of the emperor. Gustavus himself, with another 
 portion, marched in various directions to cut off the resources 
 
286 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 of the enemy and to combine the scattered parts of the Prop 
 estant confederacy. His progress was like the tranquil march 
 of a sovereign in his own dominions, greeted by the enthusi- 
 asm of his subjects. He descended the Maine to the Rhine, 
 and then ascending the Rhine, took every fortress from Maine 
 to Strasbourg. While Gustavus was thus extending his con- 
 quests through the very heart of Germany, the Elector of Sax- 
 ony reclaimed all of Bohemia from the imperial arms. Prague 
 itself capitulated to the Saxon troops. Count Thurn led the 
 Saxon troops in triumph over the same bridge which he, but 8 
 few months before, had traversed a fugitive. He found, im- 
 paled upon the bridge, the shriveled heads of twelve of his 
 sompanions, which he enveloped in black satin and buried 
 with funeral honors. 
 
 The Protestants of Bohemia rose enthusiastically to greet 
 their deliverers. Their churches, schools and universities were 
 reéstablished. Their preachers resumed their functions. Many 
 returned from exile and rejoiced in the restoration of their 
 confiscated property. The Elector of Saxony retaliated upon 
 the Catholics the cruel wrongs which they had inflicted upon 
 the Protestants. Their castles were plundered, their nobles 
 driven into exile, and the conquerors loaded themselves with 
 the spoils of the vanquished. 
 
 But Ferdinand, as firm and inexorable in adversity as in 
 prosperity, bowed not before disaster. He roused the Catho- 
 ics to a sense of their danger, organized new coalitions, raised 
 new armies. ‘Tilly, with recruited forces, was urged on to ar- 
 rest the march of the conqueror. Burning under the sense of 
 shame for his defeat at Leipsic, he placed himself at the head 
 of his veterans, fell, struck by a musket-ball, and died, after a 
 few days of intense suffering, at the age of seventy-three. 
 The vast Austrian empire, composed of so many heterogeneous 
 States, bound together only by the iron energy of Ferdinand, 
 seemed now upon the eve of its dissolution. The Protestants, 
 who composed, in most of the States a majority, were cordially 
 
PERDINAND I!1. AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 28? 
 
 rallying beneath the banners of Gustavus. They had beer in 
 a state of despair. They now rose in exalted hope. Many of 
 the minor princes who had been nominally Catholics, but whose 
 Christian creeds were merely political dogmas, threw them- 
 selves into the arms of Gustavus, Even the Elector of Bavaria 
 was so helpless in his isolation, that, champion as he had been 
 of the Catholic party, there seemed to be no salvation for him 
 but in abandoning the cause of Ferdinand. Gustavus was now, 
 with a victorious army, in the heart of Germany. He was in 
 possession of the whole western country from the Baltic to the 
 frontiers of France, and apparently a majority of the popula 
 tion were in sympathy with him. 
 
 Ferdinand at first resolved, in this dire extremity, to as 
 sume himself the command of his armies, and in person to enter 
 the field. This was heroic madness, and his friends soon con- 
 vinced him of the folly of one so inexperienced in the arts of 
 war undertaking to cope with Gustavus Adolphus, now the 
 most experienced and renowned captain in Europe. He then 
 thought of appointing his son, the Archduke Ferdinand, com 
 mander-in-chief. But Ferdinand was but twenty-three years 
 of age, and though a young man of decided abilities, was by 
 no means able to encounter on the field the skill and heroism 
 of the Swedish warrior. In this extremity, Ferdinand was 
 compelled to turn his eyes to his discarded general Wal- 
 lenstein. 
 
 This extraordinary man, in renouncing, at the command 
 of his sovereign, his military supremacy, retired with bound- 
 less wealth, and assumed a style of living surpassing even 
 regal splendor. His gorgeous palace at Prague was patrolled 
 by sentinels. A body-guard of fifty halberdiers, in sumptuous 
 uniform, ever waited in his ante-chamber. Twelve nobles at- 
 tended his person, and four gentlemen ushers introduced te 
 his presence those whom he condescended to favor with an 
 audience. Sixty pages, taken from the most illustrious fami 
 
 lies, embellished his courts. His steward was a baron of tho 
 M 
 
288 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 highest rank; and even the chamberlain of the emperor had 
 left Ferdinand’s court, that he might serve in the more 
 princely palace of this haughty subject. A hundred guests 
 dined daily at his table. His gardens and parks were em- 
 bellished with more than oriental magnificence. Even his 
 stables were furnished with marble mangers, and supplied 
 with water from an ever-living fountain. Upon his journeys 
 he was accompanied by a suite of twelve coaches of state and 
 fifty carriages. A large retinue of wagons conveyed his plate 
 and equipage. Fifty mounted grooms followed with fifty led 
 horses richly caparisoned.* 
 
 Wallenstein watched the difficulties gathering around the 
 emperor with satisfaction which he could not easily disguise. 
 Though intensely eager to be restored to the command of 
 the armies, he affected an air of great indifference, and when 
 the emperor suggested his restoration, he very adroitly played 
 the coquette. The emperor at first proposed that his son, the 
 Archduke Ferdinand, should nominally have the command, 
 while Wallenstein should be his executive and advisory gen- 
 eral. ‘J would not serve,” said the impious captain, ‘‘ as sec- 
 ond in command under God Himself,” 
 
 After long negotiation, Wallenstein, with well-feigned re- 
 luctance, consented to relinquish for a few weeks the sweets 
 of private life, and to recruit an army, and bring it under 
 suitable discipline. He, however, limited the time of his 
 command to three months. With his boundless wealth and 
 amazing energy, he immediately set all springs in motion. 
 Adventurers from all parts of Europe, lured by the splendor 
 of his past achievements, crowded his ranks. In addition to 
 his own vast opulence, the pope and the court of Spain opened 
 freely to him their purses, As by magic he was in a few 
 weeks at the head of forty thousand men. In companies, 
 regiments and battalions they were incessantly drilled, and 
 by the close of three months this splendid army, thoroughly 
 
 * Coxe’s “ House of Austria,” ii, 254. 
 
FERDINAND I1. AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 289 
 
 farnished, and in the highest state of discipline, was presented 
 to the emperor. Kvery step he had taken had convinced, 
 and was intended to convince Ferdinand that his salvation 
 depended upon the energies of Wallenstein. Gustavus was 
 now, in the full tide of victory, marching from the Rhine 
 to the Danube, threatening to press his conquests even to 
 Vienna. Ferdinand was compelled to assume the attitude 
 of a suppliant, and to implore his proud general to accept the 
 command of which he had so recently been deprived. Wal- 
 lenstein exacted terms so humiliating as in reality to divest 
 the emperor of his imperial power. He was to be declared 
 generalissimo of all the forces of the empire, and to be in. 
 vested with unlimited authority. The emperor pledged him- 
 self that neither he nor his son would ever enter the camr. 
 Wallenstein was to appoint all his officers, distribute all re 
 wards, and the emperor was not allowed to grant either a 
 pardon or a safe-conduct without the confirmation of Wallen- 
 stein. The general was to levy what contribution he pleased 
 upon the vanquished enemy, confiscate property, and no peace 
 or truce was to be made with the enemy without his consent. 
 Finally, he was to receive, either from the spoils of the enemy, 
 or from the hereditary States of the empire, princely remu- 
 neration for his services. 
 
 Armed with such enormous power, Wallenstein consented 
 to place himself at’ the head of the army. He marched to 
 Prague, and without difficulty took the city. Gradually he 
 drove the Saxon troops from all their fortresses in Bohemia, 
 Then advancing to Bavaria, he effected a junction with Ba- 
 varian troops, and found himself sufficiently strong to attempt 
 to arrest the march of Gustavus. The imperial force now 
 amounted to sixty thousand men. Wallenstein was so san- 
 guine of success, that he boasted that in a few days he would 
 decide the question, whether Gustavus Adolphus or Wallen- 
 stein was to be master of the world. The Swedish king was 
 at Nuremberg with but twenty thousand men, when he heard 
 
290 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIAe 
 
 of the approach of the imperial army, three times outnumber 
 ing hisown. Disdaining to retreat, h : threw up redoubts, and 
 prepared for a desperate defense. As Wallenstein brought 
 up his heavy battalions, he was so much overawed by the 
 military genius which Gustavus had displayed in his strong 
 intrenchments, and by the bold front which the Swedes pre- 
 sented, that notwithstanding his boast, he did not dare to 
 hazard an attack. He accordingly threw up intrenchments 
 opposite the works of the Swedes, and there the two armies 
 remained, looking each other in the face for eight weeks, 
 neither daring to withdraw from behind their intrenchments, 
 and each hoping to starve the other party out. Gustavus did 
 every thing in his power to provoke Wallenstein to the at- 
 tack, but the wary general, notwithstanding the importunities 
 of his officers, and the clamors of his soldiers, refused to risk 
 an engagement. Both parties were all the time strengthening 
 their intrenchments and gathering reinforcements. 
 
 At last Gustavus resolved upon an attack. He led his 
 troops against the intrenchments of Wallenstein, which re- 
 sembled a fortress rather than a camp. The Swedes clambered 
 over the intrenchments, and assailed the imperialists with as 
 much valor and energy as mortals ever exhibited. They were 
 however, with equal fury repelled, and after a long conflict 
 were compelled to retire again behind their fortifications with 
 the loss of three thousand of their best troops. For another 
 fortnight the two armies remained watching each other, and 
 then Gustavus, leaving a strong garrison in Nuremberg, slowly 
 and defiantly retired. Wallenstein stood so much in fear of 
 the tactics of Gustavus that he did not even venture to molest 
 his retreat. During this singular struggle of patient endur- 
 ance, both armies suffered fearfully from sickness and famine. 
 In the city of Nuremberg ten thousand perished. Gustavus 
 buried twenty thousand of his men beneath his intrenchments, 
 And in the imperial army, after the retreat of Gustavus, but 
 thirty thousand troops were left to answer the roll-call. 
 
FERDINAND II. AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 292 
 
 Wallenstein claimed, and with justice, the merit of having 
 arrested the steps of Gustavus, though he could not boast of 
 any very chivalrous exploits. After various maneuvering, and 
 desolating marches, the two armies, with large reinforcements, 
 met at Lutzen, about thirty miles from Leipsic. It was in the 
 edge of the evening when they arrived within sight of each 
 other’s banners. Both parties passed an anxious night, pre 
 paring for the decisive battle which the dawn of the morning 
 would usher in. 
 
 Wallenstein was fearfully alarmed. He had not willingly 
 met his dreaded antagonist, and would now gladly escape the 
 issues of battle. He called a council of war, and even sug- 
 gested a retreat. But it was decided that such an attempt in 
 the night, and while watched by so able and vigilant a foe, 
 would probably involve the army in irretrievable ruin, besides 
 exposing his own name to deep disgrace. The imperial troops, 
 thirty thousand strong, quite outnumbered the army of Gus- 
 tavus, and the officers of Wallenstein unanimously advised to 
 give battle. Wallenstein was a superstitious man and deeply 
 devoted to astrological science. He consulted his astrologers, 
 and they declared the stars to be unpropitious to Gustavus. 
 This at once decided him. He resolved, however, to act on 
 the defensive, and through the night employed the energies of 
 his army in throwing up intrenchments. In the earliest dawn 
 of the morning mass was celebrated throughout the whole 
 camp, and Wallenstein on horseback rode along behind the 
 redoubts, urging his troops, by every consideration, to fight 
 valiantly for their emperor and their religion. 
 
 The morning was dark and lowering, and such an impene- 
 trable fog enveloped the armies that they were not visible to 
 each other. It was near noon ere the fog arose, and the two 
 armies, in the full blaze of an unclouded sun, gazed, awe- 
 stricken, upon each other. The imperial troops and the Swed- 
 ish troops were alike renowned ; and Gustavus Adolphus and 
 Wallenstein were, by universal admission, the two ablest cap- 
 
902 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 tains in Europe. Neither force could even affect to despise 
 the other. The scene unfolded, as the vapor swept away, was 
 one which even war has seldom presented. The vast plain 
 of Lutzen extended many miles, almost as smooth, level and 
 treeless as a western prairie. Through the center of this plain 
 ran a nearly straight and wide road. On one side of this 
 road, in long line, extending one or two miles, was the army 
 of Wallenstein. His whole front was protected by a ditch and 
 redoubts bristling with bayonets. Behind these intrenchments 
 his army was extended ; the numerous and well-mounted cay- 
 alry at the wings, the artillery, in ponderous batteries, at the 
 center, with here and there solid squares of infantry to meet 
 the rush of the assailing columns. On the other side of the 
 road, and within musket-shot, were drawn up in a parallel line 
 the troops of Gustavus. He had interspersed along his double 
 line bands of cavalry, with artillery and platoons of musket- 
 eers, that he might be prepared from any point to make or 
 repel assault. The whole host stood reverently, with uncovered 
 heads, as a public prayer was offered. The Psalm which Watts 
 has so majestically versified was read— 
 
 “God is the refuge of his saints, 
 When storms of dark distress invade; 
 Ere we can offer our complaints, 
 Behold him present with his aid. 
 
 “Tet mountains from their seats be hurled 
 Down to the deep, and buried there, 
 Convulsions shake the solid world; 
 Our faith shall never yield to fear.” 
 
 ffrom twenty thousand voices the solemn hymn arose and 
 flouted over the field—celestial songs, to be succeeded by de- 
 moniac clangor. Both parties appealed to the God of bat- 
 tle; both parties seemed to feel that their cause was just. 
 Alas for man! 
 Gustavus now ordered the attack. A solid column emerged 
 from his ranks, crossed the road, in breathless silence ap- 
 proached the trenckes, while both armies looked on. They 
 
FERDINAND II. AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, 295 
 
 were received with a volcanic sheet of flame which pros- 
 trated half of them bleeding upon the sod. Gustavus or- 
 dered column after column to follow on to support the assail- 
 ants, and to pierce the enemy’s center. In his zeal he threw 
 himself from his horse, seized a pike, and rushed to head the 
 attack. Wallenstein energetically ordered up cavalry and ar- 
 tillery to strengthen the point so fiercely assailed. And now 
 the storm of war blazed along the whole lines. A sulphureous 
 canopy settled down over the contending hosts, and thunder- 
 ings, shrieks, clangor as of Pandemonium, filled the air. The 
 king, as reckless of life as if he had been the meanest soldier, 
 rushed to every spot where the battle raged the fiercest. 
 Learning that his troops upon the left were yielding to the 
 imperial fire, he mounted his horse and was galloping across 
 the field swept by the storm of war, when a bullet struck his 
 arm and shattered the bone. Almost at the same moment 
 another bullet struck his breast, and he fell mortally wounded 
 from his horse, exclaiming, “ My God! my God !” 
 
 The command now devolved upon the Duke of Saxe Wei 
 mar. The horse of Gustavus, galloping along the lines, con- 
 veyed to the whole army the dispiriting intelligence that their 
 beloved chieftain had fallen. The duke spread the report that 
 he was not killed, but taken prisoner, and summoned all to the 
 rescue. This roused the Swedes to superhuman exertions. 
 They rushed over the ramparts, driving the infantry back upon 
 the cavalry, and the whole imperial line was thrown into con- 
 fusion. Just at that moment, when both parties were in the 
 extreme of exhaustion, when the Swedes were shouting vic- 
 tory and the imperialists were flying in dismay, General 
 Pappenheim, with eight fresh regiments of imperial cavalry, 
 came galloping upon the field. This seemed at once to restore 
 the battle to the imperialists, and the Swedes were apparently 
 undone. But just then a chance bullet struck Pappenheim 
 and he fell, mortally wounded, from his horse. The cry ran 
 through the imperia. ranks, “ Pappenheim is killed and the 
 
994 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 battle is lost.” No further efforts of Wallensteix were of any 
 avail to arrest the confusion. His whole host turned and fled, 
 Fortunately for them, the darkness of the approaching night, 
 and 2 dense fog settling upon the plain, concealed them from 
 their pursuers. During the night the imperialists retired, and 
 in the morning the Swedes found themselves in possession of | 
 the field with no foe in sight. But the Swedes had no heart 
 to exult over their victory. The loss of their beloved king 
 was a greater calamity than any defeat could have been. His 
 mangled body was found, covered with blood, in the midst of 
 heaps of the slain, and so much mutilated with the tramplings 
 of cavalry as to be with difficulty recognized. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PERDINANDII., FERDINAND III. AND LEOPOLDI 
 From 1632 To 1662. 
 
 CHARACTER OF GusTAVUS ADOLPHUS.—EXULTATION OF THE I MPERIALISTS.—DISGRAORB 
 OF WALLENSTEIN.—HE OFFERS TO SURRENDER TO. THE SWEDISH GENERAL.—HIS 
 ASSASSINATION.—FERDINAND’s SON ELECTED AS HIS SUCORSSOR.—DEATH OF F'ER- 
 DINAND.—CLOSE OF THE WAR.—ABDIOATION OF CHRISTINA.—CHARLES GUSTAVUS. 
 —PREPARATIONS FOR War.—DEATH oF FERDINAND III.—LxropcLD ELECTED Eme 
 PEROE.—HOostTILities RENEWED.—DEATH OF CHARLES GUSTAVUS.—DIET CONVENED. 
 —INVASION OF THE TURKS. : 
 
 HE battle of Lutzen was fought on the 16th of November, 
 1632. It is generally estimated that the imperial troops 
 were forty thousand, while there were but twenty-seven thou- 
 sand in the Swedish army. Gustavus was then thirty-eight 
 years of age. A plain stone still marks the spot where he fell. 
 A few poplars surround it, and it has become a shrine visited 
 by strangers from all parts of the world. ‘Traces of his blood 
 are still shown in the town-house of Lutzen, where his body 
 was transported from the fatal field. The buff waistcoat he 
 wore in the engagement, pierced by the bullet which took hie 
 life, is preserved as a trophy in the arsenal at Vienna. 
 
 Both as a monarch and a man, this illustrious sovereign 
 stands in the highest ranks. He possessed the peculiar power 
 of winning the ardent attachment of all who approached him. 
 Every soldier in the army was devoted to him, for he shared 
 all their toils and perils. ‘ Cities,” he said, “are not taken by 
 keeping in tents; as scholars, in the absence of the master, 
 shut their books, so my troops, without my presence, would 
 alacken their blows.” 
 
 In very many traits of character he resembled Napoleon, 
 
296 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 combining in his genius the highest attributes of the statesman 
 and the soldier. Like Napoleon he was a predestinarian, be- 
 lieving himself the child of Providence, raised for the accom- 
 plishment of great purposes, and that the decrees of his des- 
 tiny no foresight could thwart. When urged to spare his 
 person in the peril of battle, he replied, 
 
 ‘“* My hour is written in heaven, and can not be reversed.” 
 
 Frederic, the unhappy Elector of the Palatine, and King of 
 Bohemia, who had been driven from his realms by Ferdinand, 
 and who, for some years, had been wandering from court to 
 court in Europe, seeking an asylum, was waiting at Mentz, 
 trusting that the success of the armies of Gustavus would soon 
 restore him to his throne. The death of the king shattered 
 all his hopes. Disappointment and chagrin threw him into a 
 fever of which he died, in the thirty-ninth year of his age. 
 The death of Gustavus was considered by the Catholics such 
 a singular interposition of Providence in their behalf, that, 
 regardless of the disaster of Lutzen, they surrendered them- 
 selves to the most enthusiastic joy. Even in Spain bells were 
 rung, and the streets of Madrid blazed with bonfires and illu- 
 minations. At Vienna it was regarded as a victory, and 7 
 Deums were chanted in the cathedral. Ferdinand, however, 
 conducted with a decorum which should be recorded to his 
 honor. He expressed the fullest appreciation of the grand 
 qualities of his opponent, and in graceful words regretted his 
 untimely death. When the bloody waistcoat, perforated by 
 the bullet, was shown him, he turned from it with utterances 
 of sadness and regret. Even if this were all feigned, it shows 
 a sense of external propriety worthy of record. 
 
 It was the genius of Gustavus alone which had held to- 
 gether the Protestant confederacy. No more aid of any effi- 
 ciency could be anticipated from Sweden. Christina, the 
 daughter and heiress of Gustavus, was in her seventh year, 
 The crown was claimed by her cousin Ladislaus, the King of 
 Poland, and this disputed succession threatened the kingdom 
 
FERDINAND II. 297 
 
 with the calami-ies of civil war. The Senate of Sweden in 
 this emergence sonducted with great prudence. That they 
 might secure an honorable peace they presented a bold front 
 of war. A council . f regency was appointed, abundant suc- 
 cors in men and monvy voted, and the Chancellor Oxenstiern, 
 @ man of commanding civil and military talents, was intrusted 
 with the sole conduct of the war. The Senate declared the 
 young queen the legitimate successor to the throne, and for- 
 bade all allusion to the claims of Ladislaus, under the penalty 
 of high treason. 
 
 Oxenstiern proved himself worthy to be the successor of 
 Gustavus. He vigorously renewed alliances with the German 
 princes, and endeavored to follow out the able plans sketched 
 by the departed monarch. Wallenstein, humiliated by his de- 
 feat, had fallen back into Bohemia, and now, with moderation 
 strangely inconsistent with his previous career, urged the em- 
 peror to conciliate the Protestants by publishing a decree of 
 general amnesty, and by proposing peace on favorable terms. 
 But the iron will of Ferdinand was inflexible. In heart, exult- 
 ing that his most formidable foe was removed, he resolved with 
 unrelenting vigor to prosecute the war. The storm of battle 
 raged anew; and to the surprise of Ferdinand, Oxenstiern 
 moved forward with strides of victory as signal as those of 
 his illustrious predecessor. Wallenstein meanly attempted to 
 throw the blame of the disaster at Lutzen upon the alleged 
 cowardice of his officers, Seventeen of them he hanged, and 
 consigned fifty others to infamy by inscribing their names 
 upon the gallows. 
 
 So haughty a man could not but have many enemies at 
 court. They combined, and easily persuaded Ferdinand, who 
 had also been insulted by his arrogance, again to degrade 
 him. Wallenstein, informed of their machinations, endeav- 
 ored to rally the army to a mutiny in his favor. Ferdinand, 
 alarmed by this intelligence, which even threatened his own 
 dethronement, immediately dismissed Wallenstein from the 
 
298 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 command, ari dispatched officers from Vienna to seize his 
 person, dead or alive. This roused Wa lenstein to despera- 
 tion. Haviag secured the codperaticn of his leading officers, 
 he dispatched envoys to the Swed! h camp, offering to sur- 
 render important fortresses to Oxe astiern, and to join him 
 against the emperor. It was an atrocious act of treason, and 
 so marvellous in its aspect, that Oxenstiern regarded it as 
 mere duplicity on the part of Wallenstein, intended to lead 
 him into a trap. He therefore dismissed the envoy, rejecting 
 the offer. His officers now abandoned him, and Gallas, who 
 was appointed as his successor, took command of the army. 
 
 With a few devoted adherents, and one regiment of troops, 
 he took refuge in the strong fortress of Egra, hoping to main- 
 tain himself there until he could enter into some arrangement 
 with the Swedes. The officers around him, whom he had 
 elevated and enriched by his iniquitous bounty, entered into a 
 conspiracy to purchase the favor of the emperor by the as- 
 sassination of their doomed general. It was a very difficult 
 enterprise, and one which exposed the conspirators to the 
 most imminent peril. 
 
 On the 25th of February, 1634, the conspirators gave a 
 magnificent entertainment in the castle. They sat long at the 
 table, wine flowed freely, and as the darkness of night envel- 
 oped the castle, fourteen men, armed to the teeth, rushed into 
 the banqueting hall from two opposite doors, and fell upon 
 the friends of Wallenstein, Though thus taken by surprise, 
 they fought fiercely, and killed several of their assailants be- 
 fore they were cut down. They all, however, were soon dis- 
 patched. The conspirators, fifty in number, then ascended 
 the stairs of the castle to the chamber of Wallenstein. They 
 cut down the sentinel at his door, and broke into the room. 
 Wallenstein had retired to his bed, but alarmed by the clamor, 
 he arose, and was standing at the window in his shirt, shouting 
 from it to the soldiers for assistance. 
 
 “ Are you,” exclaimed one of the conspirators, “ the traitor 
 
FERDINAND If, 295 
 
 who is going to deliver the imperial troops to the enemy, and 
 tear the crown from the head of the emperor ?” 
 
 Wallenstein was perfectly helpless. He looked around, 
 and deigned no reply. “ You must die,” continued the con- 
 spirator, advancing with his halberd. Wallenstein, in silence, 
 opened his arms to receive the blow. The sharp blade pierced 
 his body, and he fell dead upon the fioor. The alarm now 
 spread through the town. The soldiers seized their arms, and 
 fiocked to avenge their general. But the leading friends of 
 Wallenstein were slain; and the other officers easily satisfied the 
 fickle soldiery that their general was a traitor, and with rather 
 a languid cry of “Long live Ferdinand,” they returned to duty. 
 
 Two of the leading assassins hastened to Vienna to inform 
 the emperor of the deed they had perpetrated. It was wel- 
 
 _ come intelligence to Ferdinand, and he finished the work 
 
 they had thus commenced by hanging and beheading the ad- 
 herents of Wallenstein without mercy. The assassins wero 
 abundantly rewarded. The emperor still prosecuted the war 
 with perseverance, which no disasters could check. Grad- 
 ually the imperial arms gained the ascendency. The Prot- 
 estant princes became divided and jealous of each other. The 
 emperor succeeded in detaching from the alliance, and negoe 
 tiating a separate peace with the powerful Electors of Saxony 
 and Brandenburg. He then assembled a diet at Ratisbon on 
 the 15th of September, 1639, and without much difficulty 
 secured the election of his son Ferdinand to succeed him on 
 the imperial throne. The emperor presided at this diet in 
 person. He was overjoyed in the attainment of this great ob- 
 ject of his ambition. He was now fifty-nine years of age, in 
 very feeble health, and quite worn out by 4 life of incessant 
 anxiety and toil. He returned to Vienna, and in four months, 
 on the 15th of February, 1637, breathed his last. 
 
 For eighteen years Germany had now been distracted by 
 war. The contending parties were so exasperated against 
 each othe, that no human wisdom could, at once, allay the 
 
800 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 strife. The new king and emperor, Ferdinand III., wisned for 
 peace, but he could not obtain it on terms which he thought 
 honorable to the memory of his father. The Swedish army 
 was still in Germany, aided by the Protestant princes of the 
 empire, and especially by the armies and the treasury of 
 France. The thunders of battle were daily heard, and the 
 paths of these hostile bands were ever marked by smoldering 
 ruins and blood. Vials of woe were emptied, unsurpassed in 
 apocalyptic vision. In the siege of Brisac, the wretched in- 
 habitants were reduced to such a condition of starvation, that 
 a guard was stationed at the burying-ground to prevent them 
 from devouring the putrid carcasses of the dead. 
 
 For eleven years history gives us nothing but a dismal 
 record of weary marches, sieges, battles, bombardments, con- 
 flagrations, and all the unimaginable brutalities and miseries 
 of war. The war had now raged for thirty years. Hundreds 
 of thousands of lives had been lost. Millions of property had 
 been destroyed, and other millions squandered in the arts of 
 destruction. Nearly all Europe had been drawn into this vor- 
 tex of fury and misery. All parties were now weary. And yet 
 seven years of negotiation had been employed before they 
 could consent to meet to consult upon a general peace. At 
 length congresses of the belligerent powers were assembled 
 in two important towns of Westphalia, Osnabruck and Mun- 
 ster. Ridiculous disputes upon etiquette rendered this divis- 
 ion of the congress necessary. The ministers of electors en- 
 ioyed the title of excellency. The ministers of princes claimed 
 the same title. Months were employed in settling that 
 question. Then a difficulty arose as to the seats at table, who 
 were entitled to the positions of honor. After long debate, 
 this point was settled by having a large round table made, to 
 which there could be no head and no foot. 
 
 For four years the great questions of European policy 
 were discussed by this assembly. The all-important treaty, 
 known in history as the peace of Westphalia, and which es 
 
PERDINAND If, $33 
 
 tablished the general condition of Europe for one hundred 
 and fifty years, was signed on the 24th of October, 1648. The 
 contracting parties included all the great and nearly all the 
 minor powers of Europe. The articles of this renowned treaty 
 are vastly too voluminous to be recorded here. The family 
 of Frederic received back the Palatinate of which he had 
 been deprived. The Protestants were restored to nearly all 
 the rights which they had enjoyed under the beneficent reign 
 of Maximilian If. The princes of the German empire, kings, 
 dukes, electors, marquises, princes, of whatever name, pledged 
 themselves not to oppress those of their subjects who differed 
 from them in religious faith. The pope protested against thia 
 toleration, but his protest was disregarded. The German em 
 pire lost its unity, and became a conglomeration of three hun- 
 dred independent sovereignties. Each petty prince or duke, 
 though possessing but a few square miles of territory, was 
 recognized as a sovereign power, entitled to its court, ita 
 army, and its foreign alliances. The emperor thus lost much 
 of that power which he had inherited from his ancestors; as 
 those princes, whom he had previously regarded as vassala, 
 now shared with him sovereign dignity. 
 
 Ferdinand Iil., however, weary of the war which for so 
 many years had allowed him not an hour of repose, gladly ac. 
 ceded to these terms of peace, and in good faith employed 
 himself in carrying out the terms of the treaty. After the 
 exchange of ratifications another congress was assembled at 
 Nuremburg to settle some of the minute details, which contin- 
 wed in session two years, when at length, in 1651, the armies 
 were disbanded, and Germany was released from the presence 
 of a foreign foe. 
 
 Internal peace being thus secured, Ferdinand was anxions, 
 before his death, to secure the succession of the imperial crown 
 eo his son who bore his own name. He accordingly assembled 
 a meeting of the electors at Prague, and by the free use of 
 bribes and diplomatic intrigue, obtained their engagement to 
 
802 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 support his son. He accomplished his purpose, and Ferdinand, 
 quite to the astonishment of Germany, was vhosen unanimous. 
 ly, King of the Romans—the title assumed by the emperor 
 elect. In June, 1653, the young prince was crowned at Ratis- 
 bon. The joy of his father, however, was of short duration. 
 In one year from that time the small-pox, in its most loathsome 
 form, seized the prince, and after a few days of anguish he died. 
 His father was almost inconsolable with grief. As soon as he 
 had partially recovered from the blow, he brought forward his 
 second son, Leopold, and with but little difficulty secured for 
 him the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia, but was disappointed 
 in his attempts to secure the suffrages of the German electors. 
 
 With energy, moderation and sagacity, the peacefully dis- 
 posed Ferdinand so administered the government as to allay 
 for seven years all the menaces of war which were continually 
 arising. For so longa period had Germany been devastated 
 by this most direful of earthly calamities, which is indeed the 
 accumulation of all conceivable woes, ever leading in its train 
 pestilence and famine, that peace seemed to the people a heav- 
 enly boon. The fields were again cultivated, the cities and 
 villages repaired, and comfort began again graduaily to make 
 its appearance in homes long desolate. It is one of the deep- 
 est mysteries of the divine government that the destinies of 
 millions should be so entirely placed in the hands of a single 
 man. Had Ferdinand II. been an enlightened, good man, 
 millions would have been saved from life-long ruin and misery. 
 
 One pert young king, in the search of glory, kindled again 
 the lurid flames of war. Christina, Queen of Sweden, daugh- 
 ter of Gustavus Adolphus, influenced by romantic dreams, ab- 
 dicated the throne and retired to the seclusion of the cloister 
 Her cousin, Charles Gustavus, succeeded her. He thought it 
 a fine thing to play the soldier, and to win renown by consign- 
 ing the homes of thousands to blood and misery. He was a 
 king, and the power was in his hands. Merely to gratify this 
 fiend-like ambition, he laid claim to the crown of Poland, and 
 
FERDINAND 1ITt, 803 
 
 raised an army for the invasion of that kingdom. A portion 
 of Poland was then n a state of insurrection, the Ukraine 
 Cossacks having risen against John Cassimar, the king. Charles 
 Gustavus thought that this presented him an opportunity to 
 obtain celebrity as a warrior, with but little danger of failure. 
 He marched into the doomed country, leaving behind him a 
 wake of fire and blood. Cities and villages were burned ; the 
 soil was drenched with the blood of fathers and sons, his bugle 
 blasts were echoed by the agonizing groans of widows and or 
 phans, until at last, in an awful battle of three days, under the 
 walls of Warsaw, the Polish army, struggling in self-defense, 
 was cut to pieces, and Charles Gustavus was crowned a cone 
 queror. Elated by this infernal deed, the most infernal which 
 mortal man can commit, he began to look around to decide 
 in what direction to extend his conquests, __ 
 
 Ferdinand II1., anxious as he was to preserve peace, could 
 not but look with alarm upon the movements which now 
 threatened the States of the empire. It was necessary to pre- 
 sent a barrier to the inroads of such a ruffian. He according- 
 ly assembled a diet at Frankfort and demanded succors to op 
 pose the threatened invasion on the north, He raised an army, 
 entered into an alliance with the defeated and prostrate, yet 
 still struggling Poles, and was just commencing his march, 
 when he was seized with sudden illness and died, on the 3d of 
 March, 1657. Ferdinand wasa good man. He was not re- 
 sponsible for the wars which desolated the empire during the 
 first years of his reign, for he was doing every thing in his 
 power to bring those wars to a close. His administration was 
 a blessing to millions. Just before his death he said, and with 
 truth which no one will controvert, “ During my whole reign 
 no one can reproach me with a single act which I knew to be 
 unjust.” Happy is the monarch who can go into the presence 
 of the King of kings with such a conscience. 
 
 The death of the emperor was caused by a singular acce 
 dent. He was not very well, and was lying upon a couch ip 
 
804 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 one of the chambers of his palace. He had an infant son, but 
 2 few weeks old, lying in a cradle in the nursery. A fire broke 
 out in the apartment of the young prince. The whole palace 
 was instantly in clamor and confusion. Some attendants seized 
 the cradle of the young prince, and rushed with it to the cham- 
 ber of the emperor. In their haste and terror they struck the 
 cradle with such violence against the wall that it was broken 
 to pieces and the child fell, screaming, upon the floor. The ery 
 of fire, the tumult, the bursting into the room, the dashing of 
 the cradle and the shrieks of the child, so shocked the debili- 
 tated king that he died within an hour. 
 
 Leopold was but eighteen years of age when he succeeded 
 to the sovereignty of all the Austrian dominions, including the 
 crowns of Hungary and Bohemia. It was the first great ob- 
 ject of his ambition to secure the imperial throne also, which 
 his father had failed to obtain for him. Louis XIV. was now 
 the youthful sovereign of France. He, through his ambitious 
 and able minister, Mazarin, did every thing in his power to 
 thwart the endeavors of Ferdinand, and to obtain the brilliant 
 prize for himself. The King of Sweden united with the French 
 court in the endeavor to aoase the pride of the house of Aus- 
 tria, But notwithstanding all their efforts, Leopold carried 
 his point, and was unanimously elected emperor, and crowned 
 on the 31st of July, 1657. The princes of the empire, how- 
 ever, greatly strengthened in their independence by the arti- 
 cles of the peace of Westphalia, increasingly jealous of their 
 rights, attached forty-five conditions to their acceptance of 
 Leopold as emperor. Thus, notwithstanding the imperial title, 
 Leopold had as little power over the States of the empire as 
 the President of the United States has over the internal con- 
 cerns of Maine or Louisiana. In all such cases there is ever a 
 conflict between two parties, the one seeking the centralization 
 of power, and the other advocating its dispersion into various 
 distant central points. 
 
 The flames of war which Charles Gustavus had kindled 
 
LEOPOLD 1. 805 
 
 were still blazing. Leopoid continued the alliance which his 
 father had formed with the Poles, and sent an army of sixteen 
 thousand men into Poland, hoping to cut off the retreat of 
 Charles Gustavus, and take him and all his army prisoners 
 But the Swedish monarch was as sagacious and energetic as 
 he was unscrupulous and ambitious. Both parties formed al- 
 hances. State after State was drawn into the conflict. The 
 flame spread like a conflagration. Fleets met in deadly con- 
 flict on the Baltic, and crimsoned its waves with blood. The 
 thunders of war were soon again echoing over all the plains 
 of northern and western Germany—and all this because a 
 proud, unprincipled young man, who chanced to be a king, 
 wished to be called a hero. 
 
 He accomplished his object. Through burning homes and 
 bleeding hearts and crushed hopes he marched to his renown. 
 The forces of the empire were allied with Denmark and Po- 
 land against him. With skill and energy which can hardly 
 find a parallel in the tales of romance, he baffled all the com- 
 binations of his foes. Energy is a noble quality, and-we may 
 admire its exhibition even though we detest the cause which 
 has called it forth. The Swedish fleet had been sunk by the 
 Danes, and Charles Gustavus was driven from the waters of 
 the Baltic. With a few transports he secretly conveyed an 
 army across the Cattegat to the northern coast of Jutland, 
 marched rapidly down those inhospitable shores until he came 
 to the narrow strait, called the Little Belt, which separates 
 Jutland from the large island of Fyen. He crossed this strait 
 on the ice, dispersed a corps of Danes posted to arrest him, 
 traversed the island, exposed to all the storms of mid-winter, 
 some sixty miles to its eastern shore. A series of islands, with 
 intervening straits clogged with ice, bridged by along ana 
 circuitous way his passage across the Great Belt. A march 
 of ten miles across the hummocks, rising and falling with the 
 tides, landed him upon the almost pathless snows of Lange- 
 land. Crossing that dreary waste diagonally some dozen miles 
 
~ 
 
 $06 THH HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 to another arm of the sea ten miles wide, which the ices of a 
 winter of almost unprecedented severity had also bridged, 
 pushing boldly on, with a recklessness which nothing but suo 
 cess redeems from stupendous infatuation, he crossed this fra 
 gile surface, which any storm might crumble beneath his feet, 
 and landed upon the western coast of Laaland. A march of 
 thirty-five miles over a treeless, shelterless and almost unin- 
 habited expanse, brought him to the eastern shore. Easily 
 erossing a narrow strait about a mile in width, he plunged into 
 the forests of the island of Falster. A dreary march of twenty- 
 seven miles conducted him to the last remaining arm of the 
 sea which separated him from Zealand. This strait, from 
 twelve to fifteen miles in breadth, was also closed by ice, 
 Charles Gustavus led his hardy soldiers across it, and then, 
 with accelerated steps, pressed on some sixty miles to Copen- 
 hagen, the capital of Denmark. In sixteen days after landing 
 in Jutland, his troops were encamped in Zealand before the 
 gates of the capital. 
 
 The King of Denmark was appalled at such a sudden ap- 
 parition. His allies were too remote to render him any as 
 sistance. Never dreaming of such an attack, his capital was 
 quite defenseless in that quarter. Overwhelmed with terror 
 and despondency, he was compelled to submit to such terms 
 as the conqueror might dictate. The conqueror was inexor- 
 able in his demands. Sweden was aggrandized, and Denmark 
 humiliated. 
 
 Leopold was greatly chagrined by this sudden prostration 
 of his faithful ally. In the midst of these scenes of ambition 
 and of conquest, the “ king of terrors” came with his summons 
 to Charles Gustavus, The passage of this blood-stained war- 
 rior to the world of spirits reminds us of the sublime vision 
 of Isaiah when the King of Babylon sank into the grave: 
 
 “ Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy 
 coming ; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief 
 ones of the earth; if hath raised up from their thrones aff 
 
LEOPOLD YI, 307 
 
 the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto 
 thee, 
 
 **¢ Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become 
 like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and 
 *he noise of thy viols; the worm is spread under thee, and the 
 worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lu- 
 cifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to tho 
 ground which didst weaken the nations ! 
 
 “They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee ané 
 conside* thee, saying, ‘Is this the man that made the earth to 
 tremble, and didst shake kingdoms; that made the world as 
 a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not 
 the house of his prisoners ?’ ” 
 
 The death of Charles Gustavus was the signal for the strife 
 of war to cease, and the belligerent nations soon came to terms 
 of accommodation. But scarcely was peace proclaimed ere 
 new troubles arose in Hungary. The barbarian Turks, with 
 their head-quarters at Constantinople, lived in a state of con- 
 tinual anarchy. The cimeter was their only law. The palace 
 of the sultan was the scene of incessant assassinations. Noth- 
 ing ever prevented them from assailing their neighbors but 
 incessant quarrels among themselves. The life of the Turkish 
 empire was composed of bloody insurrections at home, and 
 still more bloody wars abroad. Mahomet IV. was now sultan. 
 He was but twenty years of age. <A quarrel for ascendency 
 among the beauties of his harem had involved the empire in 
 a civil war. The sultan, after a long conflict, crushed the in- 
 gurrection with a blood-red hand. Having restored internal 
 tranquillity, he prepared as usual for foreign war. By intrigue 
 and the force of arms they took possession of most of the 
 fortresses of Transylvania, and crossing the frontier, entere@ 
 Hungary, and laid siege to Great Wardein. 
 
 Leopold immediately dispatched ten thousand men to suc 
 cor the besieged town and to garrison other important for- 
 tresses. His succors arrived too late. Great Wardein fel) 
 
a68 HE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 into the hands of the Turks, and they commenced their mer- 
 @iless ravages. Hungary was in a wretched condition. The 
 king, residing in Vienna, was merely a nominal sovereign. 
 Chosen by nobles proud of their independence, and jealons 
 of each other and of their feudal rights, they were unwilling 
 to delegate to the sovereign any efficient power. They would 
 erown him with great splendor of gold and jewelry, and 
 crowd his court in their magnificent display, but they would 
 not grant him the prerogative to make war or peace, to levy 
 taxes, or to exercise any other of the peculiar attributes of 
 sovereignty. The king, with all his sounding titles and gor- 
 .geous parade, was in reality but the chairman of a committee 
 of nobles, The real power was with the Hungarian diet. 
 This diet, or congress, was a peculiar body. Originally it 
 consisted of the whole body of nobles, who assembled annue 
 ally on horseback on the vast plain of Rakoz, near Buda, 
 Kighty thousand nobles, many of them with powerful revenues, . 
 were frequently convened at these tumultuous gatherings, 
 The people were thought to have no rights which a noble was 
 bound to respect. They lived in hovels, hardly superior to 
 those which a humane farmer now prepares for his swine, 
 The only function they fulfilled was, by a life of exhausting toil 
 and suffering, to raise the funds which the nobles expended in 
 their wars and their pleasure; and to march to the field of blood 
 ‘when summoned by the bugle. In fact history has hardly 
 condescended to allude to the people. We have minutely de 
 tailed the intrigues and the conflicts of kings and nobles, when 
 generation after generation of the masses of the people have 
 passed away, as little thought of as billows upon the beach. 
 These immense gatherings of the nobles were found to be 
 go unwieldy, and so inconvenient for the transaction of any 
 efficient business, that Sigismond, at the commencement of the 
 fifteenth century, introduced a limited kind of representation 
 The bishops, who stood first in wealth, power and rank, and 
 the highest dukes attended in person. The nobles of less 
 
LEOPOLD YX. £0 
 
 _ exalted rank sent their delegates, and the assembly, much 
 diminished in number, was transferred from the open plain te 
 the city of Presburg. The diet, at the time of which we write, 
 was assembled once in three years, and at such other times as 
 the sovereign thought it necessary to convene it. The diet 
 controlled the king, unless he chanced to be a man of such 
 commanding character, that by moral power he could bring 
 the diet to his feet. A clause had been inserted in the coro- 
 nation oath, that the nobles, without guilt, could oppose the 
 authority of the king, whenever he transgressed their privi- 
 leges; it was also declared that no foreign troops could be 
 introduced into the kingdom without the consent of the 
 diet. 
 
 Under such a government, it was inevitable that the king 
 should be involved in a continued conflict with the nobles. 
 The nobles wished for aid to repel the Turks; and yet they 
 were unwilling that an Austrian army should be introduced 
 into Hungary, lest it should enable the king to enlarge those 
 prerogatives which he was ever seeking to extend, and which 
 they were ever endeavoring to curtail. 
 
 Leopold convened the diet at Presburg. They had a 
 stormy session. Leopold had commenced some persecution 
 of the Protestants in the States of Austria. This excited the 
 alarm of the Protestant nobles of Hungary; and they had 
 reason to dread the intolerance of the Roman Catholics, more 
 than the cimeter of the Turk. They openly accused Leopold 
 of commencing persecution, and declared that it was his in- 
 tention to reduce Hungary to the state to which Ferdinand If. 
 had reduced Bohemia. They met all the suggestions of 
 Leopold, for decisive action, with so many provisos and pre 
 cautions, that nothing could be done. It is dangerous to sur- 
 render one’s arms to a highway robber, or one whom we fear 
 may prove such, even if he does promise with them to aid in 
 repelling a foe. The Catholics and the Protestants became 
 involved in altercation, and the diet was abruptly dissolved. 
 
 —— 
 
310 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The Turks eagerly watched their movements, and, en- 
 couraged by these dissensions, soon burst into Hungary with 
 _ @n army of one hundred thousand men. They crossed the 
 Drave at Hsseg, and, ascending the valley of the Danube, 
 directly north one kundred and fifty miles, crossed that stream 
 unopposed at Buda. Still ascending the stream, which here 
 flows from the west, they spread devastation everywhere 
 around them, until they arrived nearly within sight of the 
 steeples of Vienna. The capital was in consternation. To 
 add to their terror and their peril, the emperor was danger 
 ously sick of the small-pox, a disease which had so often 
 proved fatal to members of the royal family. One of the im- 
 perial generals, near Presburg, in a strong position, held the 
 invading army in check a few days. The ministry, in their 
 consternation, appealed to all the powers of Christendom te 
 hasten to the rescue of the cross, now so seriously imperiled 
 by the crescent. Forces flowed in, which for a time arrested 
 the further advance of the Moslem banners, and afforded time 
 to prepare for more efficient action. 
 
GHAPTER XX. 
 
 LEOPOLD I. 
 
 From 1662 To 1697. 
 
 Eseasion or THE TurKs.—A TREATY CONCLUDED.—Possesstons OF LEOPOLD.<<ItTv a 
 SION OF THE FRENcH.—LEAGUB OF AUGSBURG.—DEVASTATION OF THE PALAT?- 
 NATE.—INVASION OF HuNGARY.—EMERIO TEKELL—UNIoN oF Emerio TEKELI 
 WITH THH TuURKS.—LECPOLD APPLIES TO SOBIESKI.—HzE IMMEDIATELY MAROHES TO 
 His Aip.—THEr TURKS CONQUERED.—SOBIESKYS TREIUMPHAL REOCEPTIONS.—MBAN+ 
 Ness OF LroroLp.—RrvENncE upon Huneary.—PEAOE CONOLUDED.—CONTEST FOB 
 SPaIn. ; 
 
 HILE Europe was rousing itself to repel this invasion of 
 
 the Turks, the grand vizier, leaving garrisons in the 
 strong fortresses of the Danube, withdrew the remainder of 
 his army to prepare for.a still more formidable invasion the 
 ensuing year. Most of the European powers seemed disposed 
 to render the emperor some aid. The pope transmitted to 
 him about two hundred thousand dollars. France sent a de- 
 tachment of six thousand men, Spain, Venice, Genoa, Tus- 
 _ eany and Mantua, forwarded important contributions of money 
 and military stores. Early in the summer the Turks, in a pow- 
 erful and well provided army, commenced their march anew. 
 Ascending the valley of the Save, where they encountered no 
 opposition, they traversed Styria, that they might penetrate 
 to the seat of war through a defenseless frontier. The troops 
 assembled by Leopold, sixty thousand in number, under the 
 renowned Prince Montecuculi, stationed themselves in a very 
 strong position at St. Gothard, behind the river Raab, which 
 flows into the Danube about one hundred miles below Vienna, 
 Here they threw up their intrenchments and prepared to re 
 
 sist the progress of the invader. 
 N 
 
$12 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The Turks soon arrived and spread themselves out in mili 
 tary array upon the opposite side of the narrow but rapid 
 stream, As the hostile armies were preparing for an engage- 
 ment, a young Turk, magnificently mounted, and in gorgeous 
 uniform, having crossed the stream with a party of cavalry, 
 rode in advance of the troop, upon the p.ain, and in the spirit 
 of ancient chivalry challenged any Christian knight to meet 
 him in single combat. The Chevalier of Lorraine accepted 
 the challenge, and rode forth to the encounter. Both armies 
 looked silently on to witness the issue of the duel. It was of 
 but a few moments’ duration. Lorraine, warding off every 
 blew of his antagonist, soon passed his sword through the 
 body of the Turk, and he fell dead from his horse. The victor 
 returned to the Christian camp, leading in triumph the splendid 
 steed of his antagonist. 
 
 And now the signal was given for the general battle. The 
 Turks impetuously crossing the narrow stream, assailed the 
 Christian camp in all directions, with their characteristic physt- 
 cal bravery, the most common, cheap and vulgar of ali earth- 
 ly virtues. A few months of military discipline will make 
 fearless soldiers of the most ignominious wretches who can be 
 raked from the gutters of Christian or heathen lands, The 
 battle was waged with intense fierceness on both sides, and 
 was long continued with varying success. At last the Turks — 
 were routed on every portion of the field, and leaving nearly 
 twenty thousand of their number either dead upon the plain 
 or drowned,in the Raab, they commenced a precipitate flight. 
 
 Leopold was, for many reasons, very anxious for peace, and 
 fmmediately proposed terms very favorable to the Turks. The 
 sultan was so disheartened by this signal reverse that he readily 
 tistened to the propositions of the emperor, and within nine 
 days after the battle of St. Gothard, to the astonishment of all 
 Kurope, a truce was concluded for twenty years. The Hunga- 
 rians were much displeased with the terms of this treaty ; for 
 in the first place, it was contrary to the laws of the kingdom 
 
LEOPOLD I 318 
 
 for the king to make peace without the consent of the diet, 
 and in the second place, the conditions he offered the Turke 
 were humiliating to the Hungarians. Leopold confirmed to 
 the Turks their ascendency in Transylvania, and allowed them 
 to retain Great Wardein, and two other important fortresses 
 in Hungary. It was with no little difficulty that the emperor 
 persuaded the diet to ratify these terms. 
 
 Leopold is to be considered under the twofold light of sov 
 ereign of Austria and Emperor of Germany. We have seen 
 that his power as emperor was quite limited. His power as 
 sovereign of Austria, also varied greatly in the different States 
 of his widely extended realms. In the Austrian duchies prop- 
 er, upon the Danube, of which he was, by long hereditary de 
 scent, archduke, his sway was almost omnipotent. In Bohee 
 mia he was powerful, though much less so than in Austria, and 
 it was necessary for him to move with caution there, and not 
 to disturb the ancient usages of the realm lest he should excite 
 insurrection. In Hungary, where the laws and customs were 
 entirely different, Leopold held merely a nominal, hardly a 
 recognized sway. The bold Hungarian barons, always steeb 
 elad and mounted for war, in their tumultuous diets, governed 
 the kingdom. There were other remote duchies and princt 
 palities, too feeble to stand by themselves, and ever changing 
 masters, as they were conquered or sought the protection of 
 other powers, which, under the reign of Leopold, were por- 
 tious uf wide extended Austria. Another large and vastly 
 important accession was now made to his realms, The Tyrol, 
 which, in its natural features, may be considered but an exten- 
 sion of Switzerland, is a territory of about one hundred miles 
 square, traversed through its whole extent by the Alps, Ly: 
 ing just south of Austria it is the key to Italy, opening through 
 its defiles a passage to the sunny plains of the Peninsula; and 
 through those fastnesses, guarded by frowning castles, no foe 
 could force his way, into the valleys of the Tyrol. The most 
 sablime road in Europe is that over Mount Brenner, along the 
 
814 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA 
 
 banks of the Adige. This province had jong been in the hands 
 of members of the Austrian family 
 
 On the 15th of June, 1665, Sigismond Francis, Duke of 
 Tyrol, and cousin of Leopold, died, leaving no issue, and the - 
 province escheated with its million of inhabitants to Leopold, 
 as the next heir. This brought a large accession of revenue 
 and of military force, to the kingdom. Austria was now the 
 leading power in Europe, and Leopold, in rank and position, 
 the most illustrious sovereign. Louis XIV. had recently mar- 
 ried Maria Theresa, eldest daughter of Philip IV., King of 
 Spain. Philip, who was anxious to retain the crown of Spain 
 in his own family, extorted from Maria Theresa, and from her 
 husband, Louis XIV., the renunciation of all right of succes- 
 sion, in favor of his second daughter, Margaret, whom he be- 
 trothed to Leopold. Philip died in September, 1665, leaving 
 these two daughters, one of whom was married to the King of 
 France, and leaving also an infant son, who succeeded to the 
 throne under the regency of his mother, Ann, daughter of Fer- 
 dinand III., of Austria. Margaret was then too young to be 
 married, but in a year from this time, in September, 1666, her 
 nuptials were celebrated with great splendor at Madrid. The 
 ambitious French monarch, taking advantage of the minority 
 of the King of Spain, and of the feeble regency, and in defi- 
 ance of the solemn renunciation made at his marriage, resolved 
 to annex the Spanish provinces of the Low Countries to France, 
 and invaded the kingdom, leading himself an army of thirty 
 thousand men. The Spanish court immediately appealed to 
 Leopold for assistance, But Leopold was so embarrassed by 
 troubles in Hungary, and by discontents in the empire that he 
 could render no efficient aid. England, however, and other 
 powers of Europe, jealous of the aggrandizement of Louis 
 XIV. combined, and compelled him to abandon a large pore 
 tion of the Netherlands, though he still retained several for 
 tresses, The ambition of Louis XIV. was inflamed, not checked 
 by this reverse, and all Europe was involved again in bloody 
 
LEOPOLD I. 315 
 
 wars. The aggressions of France, and the devastations of 
 Turenne in the Palatinate, roused Germany to listen to the 
 appeals of Leopold, and the empire declared war against 
 France. Months of desolating war rolled on, decisive of no 
 results, except universal misery. The fierce conflict continued 
 with unintermitted fury until 1679, when the haughty mon- 
 arch of France, who was as sagacious in diplomacy as he was 
 able in war, by bribes and threats succeeded in detaching one 
 after another from the coalition against him, until Leopold, de- 
 serted by nearly all his allies, was also compelled to accede to 
 peace. 
 
 France, under Louis XIV., was now the dominant power 
 in Europe. Every court seemed to be agitated by the in- 
 trigues of this haughty sovereign, and one becomes weary of 
 describing the incessant fluctuations of the warfare. The ar- 
 rogance of Louis, his unblushing perfidy and his insulting as- 
 sumptions of superiority over all other powers, exasperated 
 the emperor to the highest pitch. But the French monarch, 
 by secret missions and abounding bribes, kept Hungary in 
 continued commotion, and excited such jealousy in the differ. 
 ent States of the empire, that Leopold was compelled to sub- 
 mit in silent indignation to wrongs almost too grievous for 
 human nature to bear. 
 
 At length Leopold succeeded in organizing another coali- 
 tion to resist the aggressions of Louis XIV. The Prince of 
 Orange, the King of Sweden and the Elector of Brandenburg 
 were the principal parties united with the emperor in this *>n- 
 federacy, which was concluded, under the name of the “ League 
 of Augsburg,” on the 21st of June, 1686. An army of sixty 
 thousand men was immediately raised. From all parts of 
 Germany troops were now hurrying towards the Rhine. Louis, 
 alarmed, retired from the Palatinate, which he had overrun, 
 and, to place a barrier between himself and his foes, ordered 
 the utter devastation of the unhappy country. The diabolical 
 order was executed by Turenne. The whole of the Palatinate 
 
316 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 was surrendered to pillage and conflagration. The elector 
 from the towers of his castle at Mannkeim, saw at one time 
 two cities and twenty-five villages in flames. He had no force 
 sufficient to warrant him to leave the wills of his fortress to 
 oppose the foe. He was, however, so moved to despair by the 
 sight, that he sent a challenge to Turenne to meet him in sin- 
 gle combat. Turenne, by command of the king, declined ac- 
 cepting the challenge. More than forty large towns, besides 
 innumerable villages, were given up to the flames. It was 
 mid-winter. The fields were covered with snow, and swept 
 by freezing blasts. The wretched inhabitants, parents and 
 children, driven into the bleak plains without food or clothing 
 or shelter, perished miserably by thousands. The devastation 
 of the Palatinate is one of the most cruel deeds which war has 
 ever perpetrated. For. these woes, which no imagination can 
 guage, Louis XIV. is responsible. He has escaped any ade 
 quate earthly penalty for the crime, but the instinctive sense 
 of justice implanted in every breast, demands that he should 
 not escape the retributions of a righteous God. ‘“ After death 
 cometh the judgment.” 
 
 This horrible deed roused Germany. All Europe now 
 combined against France, except Portugal, Russia and a few 
 of the Italian States. The tide now turned in favor of the 
 house of Austria. Germany was so alarmed by the arrogance 
 of France, that, to strengthen the power of the emperor, the 
 diet with almost perfect unanimity elected his son Joseph, 
 though a lad but eleven years of age, to succeed to the imperial 
 throne. Indeed, Leopold presented his son in a manner which 
 seemed to claim the crown for him as his hereditary right, and 
 the diet did not resist that claim. France, rich and powerful, 
 with marvelous energy breasted her host of foes. All Europe 
 was in a blaze. The war raged on the ocean, over the marshes 
 of Holland, along the banks of the Rhine, upon the plains of 
 Italy, through the defiles of the Alps and far away on the 
 steppes of Hungary and the shores of the Kuxine, To all these 
 
LEOPOLD 1. $17 
 
 points the emperor was compelled to send his troops. Year 
 after year of carnage and woe rolled on, during which hardly 
 a happy family could be found in all Europe. 
 
 * Man’s inhumanity to man 
 Made countless millions mourn.” 
 
 At last all parties became weary of the war, and none of the 
 powers having gained any thing of any importance by these 
 long years of crime and misery, for which Louis XIV., as the 
 aggressor, is mainly responsible, peace was signed on the 30th 
 of October, 1697. One important thing, indeed, had been ac- 
 complished. The rapacious Louis XIV. had been checked in 
 his career of spoliation. But his insatiate ambition was by no 
 means subdued. He desired peace only that he might more 
 successfully prosecute his plans of aggrandizement. He soon, 
 by his system of robbery, involved Europe again in war. Per- 
 haps no man has ever lived who has caused more bloody 
 deaths and more wide-spread destruction of human happiness 
 than Louis XIV. We wonder not that in the French Revolu- 
 tion an exasperated people should have rifled his sepulcher 
 and spurned his skull over the pavements as a foot-ball. 
 
 Leopold, during the progress of these wars, by the aid of 
 the armies which the empire furnished him, recovered all of 
 Hungary and Transylvgnia, driving the Turks beyond the 
 Danube. But the proud Hungarian nobles were about as much 
 opposed to the rule of the Austrian king as to that of the 
 Turkish sultan. ‘The Protestants gained but little by the 
 change, for the Mohammedan was about as tolerant as the pa- 
 pist. They all suspected Leopold of the design of establish 
 ing over them despotic power, and they formed a secret con- 
 federacy for their own protection. Leopold, released from his 
 warfare against France and the Turks, was now anxious to 
 consolidate his power in Hungary, and justly regarding the 
 Roman Catholic religion as the great bulwark against liberty 
 encouraged the Catholics to persecute the Protestants. 
 
£i8 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Leopold took advantage of this conspiracy to march aj 
 army into Hungary, and attacking the discontented nobles, 
 who had raised an army, he crushed them with terrible se- 
 verity. No mercy was shown. He exhausted the energies of 
 confiscation, exile and the scaffold upon his foes; and then, 
 having intimidated all so that no one dared to murmur, de- 
 clared the monarchy of Hungary no longer elective but hered- 
 itary, like that of Bohemia. He even had the assurance to 
 summon a diet of the nobles to confirm this decree which de. 
 frauded them of their time-honored rights. The nobles who 
 were summoned, terrified, instead of obeying, fled into Tran- 
 sylvania. ‘The despot then issued an insulting and menacing 
 proclamation, declaring that the power he exercised he re- 
 ceived from God, and calling upon all to manifest implicit 
 submission under peril of his vengeance. He then extorted a 
 large contribution of money from the kingdom, and quartered 
 upon the inhabitants thirty thousand troops to awe them into 
 subjection. 
 
 This proclamation was immediately followed by another, 
 changing the whole form of government of the kingdom, and 
 establishing an unlimited despotism. He then moved vigor- | 
 ously for the extirpation of the Protestant religion. The 
 Protestant pastors were silenced ; courts were instituted for 
 the suppression of heresy; two hundred and fifty Protestant 
 ministers were sentenced to be burned at the stake, and then, 
 as an act of extraordinary clemency, on the part of the des- 
 pot, their pun ‘hment was commuted to hard labor in the 
 galleys for life. All the nameless horrors of inquisitorial 
 eruelty desolated the land. 
 
 Catholics and Protestants were alike driven to despair by 
 these civil and religious outrages. They combined, and were 
 aided both by France and Turkey; not that France and Ture 
 key loved justice and humanity, but they hated the house of 
 Austria, and wished to weaken its power, that they might 
 enrich themselves Ly the spoils, A noble chief, Emeric Te- 
 
LEOPOLD I. are 
 
 keh, who had fled from Hungary to Poland, and who hated 
 Austria as Hannibal hated Rome, was invested with the com- 
 mand of the Hungarian patriots. Victory followed his stand- 
 ard, until the emperor, threatened with entire expulsion irom 
 the kingdom, offered to reéstablish the ancient laws which he 
 had abrogated, and to restore to the Hungarians all those 
 civil and religious privileges of which he had so ruthlessly 
 defrauded them. 
 
 But the Hungarians were no longer to be deceived by his 
 perfidious promises. They continued the war; and the sultan 
 sent an army of two hundred thousand men to codperate wit 
 Tekeli. The emperor, unable to meet so formidable an army, 
 abandoned his garrisons, and, retiring from the distant parts 
 of the kingdom, concentrated his troops at Presburg. But 
 with all his efforts, he was able to raise an army of only forty 
 thousand men. The Duke of Lorraine, who was intrusted 
 with the command of the imperial troops, was compelled to 
 retreat precipitately before outnumbering foes, and he fled 
 ' upon the Danube, pursued by the combined Hungarians and 
 Turks, until he found refuge within the walls of Vienna, The 
 city was quite unprepared for resistance, its fortifications being 
 dilapidated, and its garrison feeble. Universal consternation 
 seized the inhabitants. All along the valley of the Danube 
 the population fled in terror before the advance of the Turks, 
 Leopold, with his family, at midnight, departed ingloriously 
 from the city, to seek a distant refuge. The citizens followed 
 the example of their sovereign, and all the roads leading west- 
 ward and northward from the city were crowded with fugi- 
 tives, in carriages, on horseback and on foot, and with all 
 kinds of vehicles laden with the treasures of the metropolis, 
 The churches were filled with the sick and the aged, patheti- 
 cally imploring the protection of Heaven. 
 
 The Duke of Lorraine conducted with great energy, re 
 pairing the dilapidated fortifications, stationing in posts of 
 peril the veteran troops, and marshaling the citizens and the 
 
320 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 students to coéperate with the garrison, On the 14th of July, 
 1682, the banners of the advance guard of the Turkish army 
 were seen from the walls of Vienna. Soon the whole mighty 
 host, like an inundation, came surging on, and, surrounding ~ 
 the city, invested it on all sides, The terrific assault from in- 
 numerable batteries immediately commenced. The besieged 
 were soon reduced to the last extremity for want of provisions, 
 and famine and pestilence rioting within the walls, destroyed 
 more than the shot of the enemy. The suburbs were de- 
 stroyed, the principal outworks taken, several breaches were 
 battered in the walls, and the terrified inhabitants were hourly 
 in expectation that the city would be taken by storm. There 
 can not be, this side of the world of woe, any thing more ter. 
 rible than such an event. 
 
 The emperor, in his terror, had dispatched envoys all over 
 Germany to rally troops for the defense of Vienna and the 
 empire. He himself had hastened to Poland, where, with 
 frantic intreaties, he pressed the king, the renowned John 
 Sobieski, whose very name was a terror, to rush to his relief 
 Sobieski left orders for a powerful army immediately to com- 
 mence their march. But, without waiting for their compar- 
 atively slow movements, he placed himself at the head of three 
 thousand Polish horsemen, and, without incumbering himself 
 with luggage, like the sweep of the whirlwind traversed Si- 
 lesia and Moravia, and reached Tulen, on the banks of the 
 Danube, about twenty miles above Vienna. He had been 
 told by the emperor that here he would find an army await- 
 ing him, and a bridge constructed, by which he could cross 
 the stream, But, to his bitter disappointment, he found no 
 army, and the bridge unfinished. Indignantly he exclaimed, 
 
 “What does the emperor mean? Does he think me a 
 mere adventurer? I left my own army that I might take 
 eommand of his, It is not for myself that I fight, but for 
 him.” 
 
 Notwithstanding this disappointment, he called into re 
 
LEOPOLD f. $21 
 
 quisitior:. all his energies to meet the crisis. The bridge was 
 pushed forward to its completion. The loitering German 
 troops were hurried on to the rendezvous, After a few days 
 the Polish troops, by forced marches, arrived, and Sobieski 
 found himself at the head of sixty thousand men, experienced 
 soldiers, and well supplied with all the munitions of war. On 
 the 11th of September the inhabitants of the city were over 
 joyed, in descrying from the towers of the city, in the dis- 
 tance, the approaching banners of the Polish and German 
 army. Sobieski ascended an elevation, and long and carefully 
 scrutinized the position of the besieging host. He then 
 calmly remarked, 
 
 “The grand vizier has selected a bad position. I under- 
 stand him. He is ignorant of the arts of war, and yet thinks 
 that he has military genius. It will be so easy to conquer 
 him, that we shall obtain no honor from the victory.” | 
 
 Karly the next morning, the 12th of September, the Polish 
 and German troops rushed to the assault, with such amazing 
 impetuosity, and guided by such military skill, that the Turks 
 were swept before them as by atorrent. The army of the 
 grand vizier, seized by a panic, fled so precipitately, that they 
 left baggage, tents, ammunition and provisions behind. The 
 garrison emerged from the city, and codperated with the 
 victors, and booty of indescribable value fell into their hands. 
 As Sobieski took possession of the abandoned camp, stored 
 with all the wealth and luxuries of the East, he wrote, in a 
 tone of pleasantry to his wife, 
 
 “The grand vizier has left me his heir, and I inherit mil- 
 lions of ducats. When I return home I shall not be met with 
 the reproach of the Tartar wives, ‘You are not a man, be 
 cause you have come back without booty, ” 
 
 The inhabitants of Vienna flocked out from the city to 
 greet the king as an angel deliverer sent from heaven. The next 
 morning the gates of the city were thrown open, the streets 
 were garlanded witb flowers, and the King of Poland had a 
 
822 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 triumphal reception in the streets of the metropolis. The 
 enthusiasm and gratitude of the people passed all ordinary 
 bounds. The bells rang their merriest peals; files of maid- 
 ens lined his path, and acclamations, bursting from the hearts 
 greeted him every step of his way. They called him their 
 father and deliverer. They struggled to kiss his feet and even 
 to touch his garments. With difficulty he pressed through the 
 grateful crowd to the cathedral, where he prostrated himself 
 before the altar, and returned thanks to God for the signal vic- 
 tory. As he returned, after a public dinner, te his camp, he 
 said, ‘‘ This is the happiest day of my life.” 
 
 Two days after this, Leopold returned, trembling and hu- 
 miliated to his capital. He was received in silence, and with 
 undisguised contempt. His mortification was intense, and he 
 could not endure to hear the praises which were everywhere 
 lavished upon Sobieski. Jealousy rankled in his heart, and 
 he vented his spite upon all around him. It was necessary 
 that he should have an interview with the heroic king who had 
 so nobly come to his rescue. But instead of meeting him with 
 a warm and grateful heart, he began to study the punctilios of 
 etiquette, that the dreaded interview might be rendered as 
 cold and formal as possible. 
 
 Sobieski was merely an elective monarch. Leopold was a 
 hereditary king and an emperor. Leopold even expressed 
 some doubt whether it were consistent with his exalted digni- 
 ey to grant the Polish king the henor of an audience. He in- 
 quired whether an elected monarch had ever been admitted te 
 the presence of an emperor; and if so, with what forms, in 
 the present case, the king should be received. The Duke 
 of Lorraine, of whom he made the inquiry, disgusted with 
 the mean spirit of the emperor, nobly replied, “ With open 
 arms.” 
 
 But the soulless Leopold had every movement punetili- 
 ously arranged according to the dictates of his ignoble spirit. 
 The Polish and Austrian armies were drawn up in opposite 
 
LEOPOLD I. 323 
 
 fines upon the plain before the city. Ata concerted signal the 
 emperor and the king emerged from their respective ranks, 
 and rode out upon the open plain to meet each other. Sobi- 
 eski, a man of splendid bearing, magnificently mounted, and 
 dressed in the brilliant uniform of a Polish warrior, attracted 
 all eyes and the admiration of all hearts. His war steed 
 pranced proudly as if conscious of the royal burden he bore, 
 and of the victories he had achieved. Leopold was an ungain- 
 ly man at the best. Conscious of his inability to vie with the 
 hero, in his personal presence, he affected the utmost simpli- 
 city of dress and equipage. Humiliated also by the cold recep- 
 sion he had met and by the consciousness of extreme unpopu- 
 larity in both armies, he was embarrassed and dejected. The 
 contrast was very striking, adding to the renown of Sobieski, 
 and sinking Leopold still deeper in contempt. — 
 
 The two sovereigns advanced, formally saluted each other 
 with bows, dismounted and embraced. A few cold words were 
 exchanged, when they again embraced and remounted to re 
 view the troops. But Sobieski, frank, cordial, impulsive, was 
 so disgusted with this reception, so different from what he had 
 a right to expect, that he excused himself, and rode to his tent, 
 leaving his chancellor Zaluski to accompany the emperor on 
 the review. As Leopold rode along the lines he was received 
 in contemptuous silence, and he returned to his palace in Vi- 
 enna, tortured by wounded pride and chagrin. 
 
 The treasure abandoned by the Turks was so abundant 
 that five days were spent in gathering it up. The victorious 
 army then commenced the pursuit of the retreating foe. About 
 one hundred and fifty miles below Vienna, where the majestic 
 Danube turns suddenly from its eastern course and flows to- 
 ward the south, is situated the imperial city of Gran. Upon 
 a high precipitous rock, overlooking both the town and the 
 river, there had stood for centuries one of the most imposing 
 fortresses which mortal hands have ever reared. For seventy 
 years this post had been in the hands of the Turks, and strong. 
 
824 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 ly garrisoned by four: thousand troops, had bid detiance te 
 every assault. Here the thinned and bleeding battalions of 
 the grand vizier sought refuge. Sobieski and the Duke of 
 Lorraine, flushed with victory, hurled their masses upon the 
 disheartened foe, and the*Turks were routed with enormous 
 slaughter. Seven thousand gory corpses of the dead strewed 
 ‘ the plain. Many thousands were driven into the river and 
 drowned. The fortress was taken, sword in hand ; and the rem- 
 nant of the Moslem army, in utter discomfiture, fled down the 
 Danube, hardly resting, by night or by day, till they were safe 
 behind the ramparts of Belgrade. « 
 
 Both the German and the Polish troops were disgusted 
 with Leopold. Having reconquered Hurtigary for the emperor, 
 they were not disposed to remain longer in his service. Most 
 of the German auxiliaries, disbanding, returned to their own 
 countries. Sobieski, declaring that he was willing to fight 
 against the Turks, but not against Tekeli and his Christian 
 confederates, led back his troops to Poland. The Duke of Lor- 
 raine was now left with the Austrian troops to struggle against 
 Tekeli with the Hungarian patriots. The Turks, exasperated 
 by the defeat, accused Tekeli of being the cause. By stratagem 
 he was seized and sent in chains to Constantinople. The chief 
 who succeeded him turned traitor and joined the imperialists, 
 Fhe cause of the patriots was ruined. Victory now kept pace 
 with the march of the Duke of Lorraine. The Turks were 
 driver from all their fortresses, and Leopold again had Hun- 
 gary at his feet. His vengeance was such as might have been 
 expected from such a man. 
 
 Far away, in the wilds of northern Hungary, at the base 
 of the Carpathian, mountains, on the river Tarcza, one of the 
 tributaries of the Theiss, is the strongly fortified town of 
 Kperies. At this remote spot the diabolical emperor estab- 
 lished his revolutionary tribunal, as if he thought that the 
 shrieks of his victims, there echoing through the savage de- 
 files of the mountains, could not awaken the horror of civik 
 
os, 
 
 LEOPOLD I. £e3 
 
 ized Europe. His armed bands scoured the country and trans 
 ported to Eperies every individual, man, woman and child, 
 who was even suspected of sympathizing with the insurgents, 
 There was hardly a man of wealth or influence in the king- 
 dom who was not dragged before this horrible tribunal, com. 
 posed of ignorant, brutal, sanguinary officers of the king. Their 
 summary trial, without any forms of justice, was an awful trag- 
 edy. They were thrown into dupgeons; their property con- 
 fiscated ; they were exposed to the most direfu!l tortures which 
 human ingenuity could devise, to extort confession and to com- 
 pel them to criminate friends. By scores they were daily con- 
 signed to the scaffold. Thirty executioners, with their assist- 
 ants, found constant employment in beheading tne condemned. 
 {In the middle of the town, the scaffold was raised for this 
 butchery. The spot is still called “The Bloody Theater of 
 Eperies.” 
 
 Leopold, having thus glutted his vengeance, defiantly COMe 
 voked a diet and crowned his son Joseph, a boy twelve years 
 of age, as King of Hungary, practically saying to the nobles, 
 “Dispute his hereditary right now, if you dare.” The em- 
 peror had been too often instructed in the vicissitudes of war 
 to feel that even in this hour of triumph he was perfectly safe, 
 He knew that other days might come; that other foes might 
 rise; and that Hungary could never forget the rights of which 
 she had been defrauded. He therefore exhausted all the arts 
 of threats and bribes to induce the diet to pass a decree that 
 the crown was no longer elective but hereditary. It is mar- 
 velous that in such an hour there could have been any energy 
 left to resist his will. But with all his terrors he could only 
 extort from the diet their consent that the succession to the 
 crown should be confirmed in the males, but that upon the 
 extinction of the male line the crown, instead of being hered- 
 itary in the female line, should revert to the nation, who should 
 again confer it by the right of election. 
 
 Leopold reluctantly yielded to this, as the most he could 
 
$26 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 then hope to accomplish, The emperor, elated by success, 
 assumed such imperious airs as to repel from him all his former 
 allies. For several years Hungary was but a battle-field where 
 Austrians and Turks met in incessant and bloody conflicts. 
 But Leopold, in possession of all the fortresses, succeeded in 
 repelling each successive invasion. 
 
 Both parties became weary of war. In November, 1697, 
 negotiations were opened at Carlovitz, and a truce was con- 
 cluded for twenty-five years. The Turks abandoned both 
 Hungary and Transylvania, and these two important provinces 
 became more firmly than ever before, integral portions of the 
 Austrian empire. By the peace of Carlovitz the sultan lost 
 one half of his possessions in Europe. Austria, in the grandeur 
 of her territory, was never more powerful than at this hour: 
 extending across the whole breadth of Europe, from the valley 
 of the Rhine to the Euxine sea, and from the Carpathian 
 mountains to the plains of Italy. A more heterogeneous con- 
 glomeration of States never existed, consisting of kingdoms, 
 archduchies, duchies, principalities, counties, margraves, land- 
 graves and imperial cities, nearly all with their hereditary 
 rulers subordinate to the emperor, and with their local cus- 
 toms and laws. 
 
 Leopold, though a weak and bad man, in addition to all 
 this power, swayed also the imperial scepter over all the States 
 of Germany. Though his empire over all was frail, and his 
 vast dominions were liable at any moment to crumble to pieces, 
 ae still was not content with consolidating the realms he held, 
 but was anxiously grasping for more. Spain was the prize now 
 to be won. Louis XIV., with the concentrated energies of 
 the French kingdom, was claiming it by virtue of his marriage 
 with the eldest daughter of the deceased monarch, notwith- 
 standing his solemn renunciation of all right at his marriage 
 in favor of the second daughter. Leopold, as the husband 
 of the second daughter, claimed the crown, in the event, 
 then impending, of the death of the imbecile and childless 
 
LEOPOLD 1. $29 
 
 king. This quarrel agitated Europe to its center, and deb 
 uged her fields with blood. If the elective franchise is at 
 times the source of agitation, the law of hereditary succes 
 sion most certainly does not always eonfer tranquillity and 
 
 peso, 
 
CHAPTER XXf. 
 
 LEOPOLD I. AND THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 
 From 1697 to 1710. 
 
 Pur Sranisu Sucorssion.—THE [mPoTEeNor OF CHARLES II.—APPEAL TO THE Popr.—Hw 
 DEOISION.—DEATH OF CHARLES II.—AOOESSION OF PHILIP V.—INDIGNATION OF AUSB- 
 TRIA.—THE OUTBREAK OF WAR.—CHARLES III. oROWNED.—INSURREEOCTION IN HuN- 
 G@ARY.—DEFECTION OF BAVARIA.—THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM.—DxrATH OF LEOPOLD 
 I.—ELEONORA.—ACOESSION OF JOSEPH I.—CHARLES XII. oF SweDEN.—CHARLES ITI- 
 in SPAIN.—BATTLE OF MALPLAQUET.—CHABLES AT BARCELONA.—CHAELES AT Mae 
 DEID. 
 
 HARLES IL, King of Spain, was one of the most impo- 
 tent of men, in both body and mind. The law of hered- 
 itary descent had placed this semi-idiot upon the throne of 
 Spain to control the destinies of twenty millions of people. 
 The same law, in the event of his death without heirs, would 
 carry the crown across the Pyrenees to a little boy in the pal- 
 ace of Versailles, or two thousand miles, to the banks of the 
 Danube, to another little boy in the gardens of Vienna, 
 Louis XIV. claimed the Spanish scepter in behalf of his wife, 
 the Spanish princess Maria Theresa, and her son. Leopold 
 elaimed it in behalf of his deceased wife, Margaret, and her 
 child. For many years before the death of Philip II. the en- 
 voys of France and Austria crowded the court of Spain, em- 
 ploying all the arts of intrigue and bribery to forward the in- 
 terests of their several sovereigns. The different courts of 
 Kurope espoused the claims of the one party or the other, 
 accordingly as their interests would be promoted by the ag- 
 grandizement of the house of Bourbon or the house of Haps- 
 burg. 
 Louis XIV. prepared to strike a sudden blow by gathering 
 
LEOPOLD I. AND THE SPANISH SUCCESSION, +829 
 
 an army of one hundred thousand men in his fortresses near the 
 Spanish frontier, in establishing immense magazines of military 
 stores, and in filling the adjacent harbors with ships of war. 
 The sagacious French monarch had secured the coéperation 
 of the pope, and of some of the most influential Jesuits who 
 surrounded the sick and dying monarch. Charles I. had long 
 been harassed by the importunities of both parties that he 
 should give the influence of his voice in the decision. Tor- 
 tured by the incessant vacillations of his own mind, he: was 
 at last influenced, by the suggestions of his spiritual advisers, 
 to refer the question to the pope. He accordingly sent an em- 
 bassage to the pontiff with a letter soliciting counsel. 
 
 ** Having no children,” he observed, “and being obliged 
 to appoint an heir to the Spanish crown from a foreign family, 
 we find such great obscurity in the law of succession, that we 
 are unable to form a settled determination. Strict justice is 
 our aim; and, to be able to decide with that justice, we have 
 offered up constant prayers to God. We are anxious to act 
 rightly, and we have recourse to your holiness, as to an infal- 
 lible guide, intreating you to consult with the cardinals and 
 divines, and, after having attentively examined the testaments 
 of our ancestors, to decide according to the rules of right and 
 equity.” 
 
 Pope Innocent XII. was already prepared for this appeal, 
 - and was engaged to act as the agent of the French court. 
 The hoary-headed pontiff, with one foot in the grave, affected 
 the character of great honesty and impartiality. He required 
 forty days to examine the important case, and to seek divine 
 assistance. He then returned the following answer, admirably 
 adapted to influence a weak and superstitious prince: 
 
 “ Being myself,” he wrote, “in a situation similar to that 
 of his Catholic majesty, the King of Spain, on the point of 
 appearing at the judgment-seat of Christ, and rendering an 
 account to the sovereign pastor of the flock which has been 
 intrusted to my care, J] am bound to give such advice as will 
 
330 THE HOUSB OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 not reproach my conscience on the day of judgment. Yous 
 majesty ought not to put the interests of the house of Austria 
 m competition with those of eternity. Neither should you be 
 ignorant that the French claimants are the rightful heirs of 
 the crown, and no member of the Austrian family has the 
 smallest legitimate pretension. It is therefore your duty to 
 omit no precaution, which your wisdom can suggest, to render 
 justice where justice is due, and to secure, by every means in 
 your’ power, the undivided succession of the Spanish monarchy 
 to the French claimants.” 
 
 Charles, as fickle as the wind, still remained undecided, 
 and his anxieties preying upon his feeble frame, already ex- 
 hausted by disease, caused him rapidly to decline. He was 
 now confined to his chamber and his bed, and his death wag 
 hourly expected. He hated the French, and all his sympathies 
 were with Austria. Some priests entered his chamber, pro- 
 fessedly to perform the pompous and sepulchral service of the 
 church of Rome for the dying. In this hour of languor, and 
 in the prospect of immediate death, they assailed the imbecile 
 monarch with all the terrors of superstition. They depicted 
 the responsibility which he would incur should he entail on 
 the kingdom the woes of a disputed succession ; they assured 
 him that he could not, without unpardonable guilt, reject the 
 decision of the holy father of the Church ; and growing more 
 eager and excited, they denounced upon him the vengeance of 
 Aimighty God, if he did not bequeath the crown, now falling 
 from his brow, to the Bourbons of France. 
 
 The dying, half-delirious king, appalled by the terrors of 
 eternal damnation, yielded helplessly to their demands. A 
 will was already prepared awaiting his signature. With a 
 hand trembling in death, the king attached to it his name; 
 but as he did so, he burst into tears, exclaiming, “I am al 
 ready nothing.” It was supposed that he could then survive 
 but a few hours. Contrary to all expectation he revived, and 
 expressed the keenest indignation and anguish that he had 
 
LBOPOLD I. AND THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 891 
 
 been thus beguiled to decide against Austria, and in favor ot 
 France. He even sent a courier to the emperor, announcing 
 his determination to decide in favor of the Austrian claimant. 
 The flickering flame of life, thus revived for a moment, glim- 
 mered again in the socket and expired. The wretched king 
 died the 1st of November, 1699, in the fortieth year of his 
 age, and the thirty-sixth of his reign, 
 
 On the day of his death a council of State was convened, 
 and the will, the very existence of which was generally un- 
 known, was read. It declared the Dauphin of France, son or 
 the Spanish princess Maria Theresa, to be the successor to all 
 the Spanish dominions; and required all subjects and vassals 
 of Spain to acknowledge him. The Austrian party were as- 
 tounded at this revelation. The French party were prepared 
 to receive it without any surprise. Theson of Maria Theresa 
 was dead, and the crown consequently passed to her grandson 
 Philip. Louis XIV. immediately acknowledged his title, when 
 he was proclaimed king, and took quiet possession of the 
 throne of Spain on the 24th of November, 1700, as Philip V. 
 
 It was by such fraud that the Bourbons of France attained 
 the succession to the Spanish crown; a fraud as palpable as 
 was ever committed; for Maria Theresa had renounced all 
 her rights to the throne; this renunciation had been con- 
 firmed by the will of her father Philip IV., sanctioned by the 
 Cortes of Spain, and solemnly ratified by her husband, Louis 
 XIV. Such is “legitimacy—the divine right of kings.” All 
 the great powers of Europe, excepting the emperor, promptly 
 acknowledged the title of Philip V. 
 
 Leopold, enraged beyond measure, dispatched envoys te 
 rouse the empire, and made the most formidable preparations 
 for war. <A force of eighty thousand men was soon as- 
 sembled. The war commenced in Italy. Leopold sent down 
 his German troops through the defiles of the Tyrol, and, in 
 the valley of the Adige, they encountered the combined ar- 
 mies of France, Spain and Italy. Prince Eugene, who had 
 
832 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 already acquired great renown in the wars against the Turks 
 though by birth a French noble, had long been in the Austrian 
 service, and led the Austrian troops. William, of England, 
 jealous of the encroachments of Louis XIV., and leading with 
 him the States of Holland, formed an alliance with Austria. 
 This was pretty equally dividing the military power of Europe, 
 and a war of course ensued, almost unparalleled in its san- 
 guinary ferocity. The English nation supported the monarch; 
 the House of Lords, in an address to the king, declared that 
 “his majesty, his subjects and his allies, could never be secure 
 till the house of Austria should be restored to its rights, and 
 the invader of the Spanish monarchy brought to reason.” 
 Forty thousand sailors and forty thousand land troops were 
 promptly voted for the war. 
 
 William died on the 16th of March, in consequence of a 
 fall from his horse, and was succeeded by Anne, daughter of 
 James II. She was, however, but nominally the sovereign. 
 The infamously renowned Duke of Marlborough became the 
 real monarch, and with great skill and energy prosecuted the 
 eleven years’ war which ensued, which is known in history as 
 the War of the Spanish Succession. For many months the 
 conflict raged with the usual fluctuations, the Austrian forces 
 being commanded on the Rhine by the Duke of Marlborough, 
 and in Italy by Prince Eugene. Portugal soon joined the 
 Austrian alliance, and Philip V. and the French becoming un- 
 popular in Spain, a small party rose there, advocating the 
 claims of the house of Austria. ‘Thus supported, Leopold, at 
 Vienna, declared his son Charles King of Spain, and crowned 
 him as such in Vienna. By the aid of the English fleet he 
 passed from Holland to England, and thence to Lisbon, where 
 a powerful army was assembled to invade Spain, wrest the 
 srown from Philip, and place it upon the brow of Charlies 
 Ii. 
 
 And now Leopold began to reap the bitter consequences 
 ot his atrocious conduct m Hungary. The Hungarian nobles 
 
LEOPOLD I. AND THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 883 
 
 embraced this opportunity, when the imperial armies were 
 fully engaged, to rise in a new and formidable invasion. Fran- 
 cis Ragotsky, a Transylvanian prince, led in the heroic enter: 
 prise. He was of one of the noblest and wealthiest families 
 of the realm, and was goaded to activn by the bitterest wrongs, 
 His grandfather and uncle had been beheaded; his father 
 robbed of his property and his rank; his cousin doomed to 
 perpetual imprisonment; his father-in-law proscribed, and his 
 mother driven into exile. The French court immediately 
 opened a secret correspondence with Ragotsky, promising him 
 large supplies of men and money, and encouraging him with 
 hopes of the codperation of the Turks. Ragotsky secretly 
 assembled a band of determined followers, in the savage soli- 
 tudes of the Carpathian mountains, and suddenly descended into 
 the plains of Hungary, at the head of his wild followers, call 
 ing upon his countrymen to rise and shake off the yoke of the 
 detested Austrian. Adherents rapidly gathered around his 
 standard ; several fortresses fell into his hands, and he soon 
 found himself at the head of twenty thousand well armed 
 troops, The flame of insurrection spread, with electric rapid- 
 ity, through all Hungary and Transylvania. 
 
 The tyrant Leopold, as he heard these unexpected tidings, 
 was struck with consternation. He sent all the troops he could 
 collect to oppose the patiiots, but they could make no impres- 
 sion upon an indignant nation in arms. He then, in his panic, 
 attempted negotiation. But the Hungarians demanded terms 
 both reasonable and honorable, and to neither of these could 
 the emperor possibly submit. They required that the mon- 
 archy should no longer be hereditary, but elective, according 
 to immemorial usage; that the Hungarians should have the 
 right to resist illegal power without the charge of treason; 
 that foreign officers and garrisons should be removed from the 
 kingdom ; that the Protestants should be reéstablished in the 
 free exercise of their religion, and that their confiscated es- 
 tates should be restored. The despot could not listen for one 
 
834 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 moment to requirements so just; and appalled by the advance 
 of the patriots toward Vienna, he recalled the troops from 
 Italy. 
 
 About the same time the Duke of Bavaria, disgusted with 
 the arrogance and the despotism of Leopold, renounced alle. 
 giance to the emperor, entered into an alliance with the 
 French, and at the head of forty thousand troops, French and 
 Bavarians, commenced the invasion of Austria from the west. 
 Both Eugene and Marlborough hastened to the rescue of the 
 emperor. Combining their forces, with awful slaughter they 
 mowed down the French and Bavarians at Blenheim, and then 
 overran all Bavaria. The elector fled with the mutilated rem- 
 nants of his army to France. The conquerors seized all the 
 fortresses, all the guns and ammunition; disbanded the Bava- 
 rian troops, took possession of the revenues of the kingdom, 
 and assigned to the heart-broken wife of the duke a humble 
 residence in the dismantled capital of the duchy. 
 
 The signal victory of Blenheim enabled Leopold to con- 
 centrate his energies upon Hungary. It was now winter, and 
 the belligerents, during these stormy months, were active in 
 making preparations for the campaign of the spring. But Leo- 
 pold’s hour was now tolled. That summons came which prince 
 and peasant must alike obey, and the emperor, after a few 
 months of languor and pain, on the 5th of May, 1705, passed 
 away to that tribunal where each must answer for every deed 
 done :n the body. He was sixty-five years of age, and had 
 occupied the throne forty-six years, This is the longest reign 
 recorded in the Austrian annals, excepting that of Frederic IIL 
 
 The reign of Leopold was eventful and woeful. It was al- 
 most one continued scene of carnage. In his character there 
 was a singular blending of the good and the bad. In what is 
 usually called moral character he was irreproachable. He was 
 a faithful husband, a kind father, and had no taste for any sen- 
 sual pleasures. In his natural disposition he was melancholy, 
 and se exceedingly reserved, that he lived in his palace almost 
 
LEOPOLD 1. AND THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 888 
 
 the life of a recluse. Though he was called the most learned 
 prince of his age, a Jesuitical education had so poisoned and 
 debauched his mind, that while perpetrating the most griev- 
 ous crimes of perfidy and cruelty, he seemed sincerely to feel 
 that he was doing God service. His persecution of the Prot- 
 estants was persistent, relentless and horrible; while at the 
 same time he was scrupulous in his devotions, never allowing 
 the cares of business to interfere with the prescribed duties of 
 the Church. Zhe Church, the human church of popes, cardi- 
 nals, bishops and priests, was his guide, not the divine Bible. 
 Hence his darkness of mind and his crimes. Pope Innocent 
 XI. deemed him worthy of canonization. But an indignant 
 world must in justice inscribe upon his tomb, “Tyrant and 
 Persecutor.” | 
 
 He was three times married ; first, to Margaret, daughter 
 of Philip IV. of Spain ; again, to Claudia, daughter of Ferdi. 
 nand of Tyrol; and a third time, to Eleonora, daughter of 
 Philip, Elector Palatine. The character and history of his 
 third wife are peculiarly illustrative of the kind of religion in- 
 culcated in that day, and of the beautiful spirit of piety often 
 exemplified in the midst of melancholy errors. 
 
 In the castle of her father, Eleonora was taught, by priests 
 and nuns, that God was only acceptably worshiped by self- 
 sacrifice and mortification. The devout child longed for the 
 love of God more than for any thing else. Guided by the 
 teachings of those who, however sincere, certainly misunder- 
 stood the spirit of the gospel, she deprived herself of every 
 innocent gratification, and practiced upon her fragile frame all 
 the severities of an anchorite. She had been taught that 
 celibacy was a virtue peculiarly acceptable to God, and reso- 
 lutely declined all solicitations for her hand. 
 
 The emperor, after the death of his first wife, sought Hleo- 
 nora as his bride. It was the most brilliant match Europe 
 could offer. Eleonora, from religious scruples, rejected the 
 offer, notwithstanding all the rete Sane of her parents, whe 
 
836 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 could not feel reconciled to the loss of so splendid an allianoe, 
 The devout maiden, in the conflict, exposed herself, bonnet 
 less, to sun and wind, that she might render herself unat- 
 tractive, tanned, sun-burnt, and freckled, so that the emperor 
 might not desire her. She succeeded in repelling the suit, and 
 the emperor married Claudia of the Tyrol. The court of the 
 Hlector Palatine was brilliant in opulence and gayety. Eleo- 
 nora was compelled to mingle with the festive throng in the 
 scenes of pomp and splendor; but her thoughts, her affections, 
 were elsewhere, and all the vanities of princely life had no in- 
 fluence in leading her heart from God. She passed several 
 hours, every day, in devotional reading and prayer. She kept 
 a very careful register of her thoughts and actions, scrutiniz- 
 ing and condemning with unsparing severity every question- 
 able emotion. Every sick bed of the poor peasants around, 
 she visited with sympathy and as a tender nurse. She groped 
 her way into the glooms of prison dungeons to convey solace 
 to the prisoner. She wrought ornaments for the Church, and 
 toiled, even to weariness and exhaustion, in making garments 
 for the poor. 
 
 Claudia in three years died, and the emperor again was 
 .eft a widower. Again he applied for the hand of Eleonora, 
 Her spiritual advisers now urged that it was clearly the will 
 of God that she should fill the first throne of the universe, as 
 the patroness and protectress of the Catholic church. For 
 such an object she would have been willing to sweep the streets 
 or to dieinadungeon. Yielding to these persuasions she mar- 
 ried the emperor, and was conveyed, as in a triumphal march, 
 to the gorgeous palaces of Vienna. But her character and her 
 mode of life were not changed. Though she sat at the impe- 
 rial table, which was loaded with every conceivable luxury, 
 she condemned herself to fare as humble and abstemious as 
 could be found in the hut of the most impoverished peasant, 
 It was needful for her at times to appear in the rich garb of 
 @n empress, but to prevent any possible indulgence of pride, 
 
FRANZ JOSEPH 
 
 
 
 Austria. 
 

 
LEOPOLD I. AND THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 337 
 
 she had her bracelets and jewelry so arranged with sharp brads 
 as to keep her in contmued suffering by the laceration of the 
 flesh. 
 
 She was, notwithstanding these austerities, which she prac- 
 ticed with the utmost secrecy, indefatigable in the discharge 
 of her duties as a wife and an empress. She often attended 
 the opera with the emperor, but always took with her the 
 Psalms of David, bound to resemble the books of the performe 
 ance, and while the tragic or the comic scenes of the stage 
 were transpiring before her, she was studying the devout lyrica 
 of the Psalmist of Israel. She translated al! the Psalms into 
 German verse; and also translated from the French, and had 
 printed for the benefit of her subjects, a devotional work en- 
 titled, ‘‘ Pious Reflections for every Day of the Month.” Dur- 
 ing the last sickness of her husband she watched with un- 
 wearied assiduity at his bed-side, shrinking from no amount 
 of exhaustion or toil, She survived her husband fifteen years, 
 devoting all this time to austerities, self-mortification and deeds 
 of charity. She died in 1720; and at her express request was 
 buried without any parade, and with no other inscription upon 
 ber tomb than— _ 
 
 as ELEONORA, 
 A POOR SINNEB, 
 Died, January 17, 1720. 
 
 Joseph, the eldest son of Leopold, was twenty-five years 
 of age when, by the death of his father, he was called to the 
 throne as both king and emperor, He immediately and cor 
 dially coéperated with the alliance his father had formed, and 
 pressed the war against France, Spain and Italy. Lows XIV 
 was not a man, however, to be disheartened by disaster. 
 Though thousands of his choicest troops had found a grave 
 at Blenheim, he immediately collected another army of one 
 hundred and sixty thousand men, and pushed them forward te 
 the seat of war on the Rhine and the Danube. Marlborough 
 
338 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 and Eugene led Austrian forces to the field still more power 
 fal. The whole summer was spent in marches, countermarches 
 and bloody battles on both sides of the Rhine. Winter came, 
 and its storms and snows drove the exhausted, bleeding com- 
 batants from the bleak plains to shelter and the fireside. All 
 Europe, through the winter months, resounded with prepara- 
 tions for another campaign. There was hardly a petty prince 
 on the continent who was not drawn into the strife—to decide 
 whether Philip ef Bourbon or Charles of Hapsburg, was en- 
 titled by hereditary descent to the throne of Spain. 
 
 And now suddenly Charles XII. of Sweden burst in upon 
 the scene, like a meteor amidst the stars of midnight. A 
 more bloody apparition never emerged from tue sulphureous 
 canopy of war. Having perfect contempt for all enervating 
 pleasures, with an iron frame and the abstemious habits of a 
 Spartan, he rushed through a career which has excited the 
 wonder of the world. He joined the Austrian party; struck 
 down Denmark at a blow; penetrated Russia in mid-winter, 
 driving the Russian troops before him as dogs scatter wolves ; 
 pressed on triumphantly to Poland, through an interminable 
 series of battles; drove the king from the country, and placed 
 a new sovereign of his own selection upon the throne; and 
 then, proudly assuming to hold the balance between the rival 
 powers of France and Austria, made demands of Joseph I., as 
 if the emperor were but the vassal of the King of Sweden. 
 France and Austria were alike anxious to gain the coéperation 
 of this energetic arm. 
 
 Early in May, 1706, the armies of Austria and France, each 
 about seventy thousand strong, met in the Netherlands. Marl. 
 borough led the allied Austrian troops; the Duke of Bavaria 
 was in command of the French. The French were again 
 routed, almost as disastrously as at Blenheim, losing thirteen 
 thousand men and fifty pieces of artillery. On the Rhine and 
 in Italy the French arms were also in disgrace. Throughout 
 the summer battle succeeded battle, and siege followed siege. 
 
LEOPOLD I. AND THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 8368 
 
 When the snows of another winter whitened the plains of Ku 
 rope, the armies again retired to winter quarters, the Austriar 
 party having made very decided progress as the result of he 
 campaign. Marlborough was in possession of most of the 
 Netherlands, and was threatening France with invasion. Eu- 
 gene had driven the French out of Italy, and had brought 
 many of the Italian provinces under the dominion of Aus. 
 tria. | 
 
 In Spain, also, the warfare was fiercely raging, Charles IIL, 
 who had been crowned in Vienna King of Spain, and who, as 
 we have mentioned, had been conveyed to Lisbon by a British 
 fleet, joined by the King of Portugal, and at the head of an 
 allied army, marched towards the frontiers of Spain. The 
 Spaniards, though they disliked the French, hated virulently 
 the English and the Dutch, both of whom they considered 
 heretics. Their national pride was roused in seeing England, 
 Holland and Portugal marching upon them to place over Spain 
 an Austrian king. The populace rose, and after a few san- 
 guinary conflicts drove the invaders from their borders, De- 
 cember’s storms separated the two armies, compelling them to 
 seek winter quarters, with only the frontier line between them, 
 It was in one of the campaigns of this war, in 1704, that the 
 English took the rock of Gibraltar, which they have held from 
 that day till this. 
 
 The British people began to remonstrate bitterly against 
 this boundless expenditure of blood and treasure merely to re- 
 move a Bourbon prince, and place a Hapsburg prince upon 
 the throne of Spain. Both were alike despotic in character, 
 and Europe had as much to fear from the aggressions of the 
 house of Austria as from the ambition of the King of France. 
 The Emperor Joseph was very apprehensive that the English 
 court might be induced to withdraw from the alliance, and 
 fearing that they might sacrifice, as the price of accommoda 
 tion, his conquests in Italy, he privately concluded with France| 
 & treaty of neutrality for Italy. This secured to him what he 
 
$40 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 had already acquired there, and saved France and Spain frem 
 the danger of losing any more Italian States. 
 
 Though the allies were indignant, and remonstrated against 
 this transaction, they did not see fit to abandon the war. Im- 
 mense preparations were made to invade France from the Neth- 
 erlands and from Piedmont, in the opening of the spring of 1707. 
 Both efforts were only successful in spreading far and wide 
 conflagration and blood. The invaders were driven from the 
 kingdom with heavy loss. The campaign in Spain, this year, 
 was also exceedingly disastrous to the Austrian arms. The 
 heterogeneous army of Charles III., composed of Germans, 
 English, Dutch, Portuguese, and a few Spanish refugees, were 
 routed, and with the loss of thirteen thousand men were driven 
 from the kingdom. Joseph, however, who stood in great 
 dread of so terrible an enemy as Charles XII., succeeded in 
 purchasing his neutrality, and this fiery warrior marched off 
 with his battalions, forty-three thousand strong, to drive Pe- 
 ter I. from the throne of Russia. 
 
 Joseph I., with exhausted resources, and embarrassed by 
 the claims of so wide-spread a war, was able to do but little 
 for the subjugation of Hungary. As the campaign of 1708 
 opened, two immense armies, each about eighty thousand 
 strong, were maneuvering near Brussels. After a long series 
 of marches and combinations a general engagement ensued, in 
 which the Austrian party, under Marlborough and Eugene, 
 were décisively triumphant. The French were routed with 
 the loss of fifteen thousand in killed, wounded and prisoners, 
 During the whole summer the war raged throughout the Low 
 Countries with unabated violence. In Spain, Austria was not 
 able to make any progress against Philip and his forces. 
 
 Another winter came, and again the wearied combatants, 
 all of whom had received about as many blows as they had 
 given, sought repose. The winter was passed in fruitless 
 negotiations, and as soon as the buds of another spring be- 
 gan to swell, the thunders of war were again pealing over 
 
LEOPOLD I. AND THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 84] 
 
 nearly all the hills and valleys of Europe. The Austrian party 
 had resolved, by a gigantic effort, to send an army of one hun- 
 dred thousand men to the gates of Paris, there to dictate 
 terms to the French monarch. On the 11th of September, 
 1709, the Austrian force, eighty thousand strong, with eighty 
 pieces of cannon, encountered the French, seventy thousand 
 in number, with eighty pieces of cannon, on the field cf Mal- 
 plaquet. The bloodiest battle of the Spanish succession was 
 then fought. The Austrian party, guided by Marlborough 
 and Eugene, justly claimed the victory, as they held the field. 
 But they lost twenty thousand in killed and wounded, and 
 took neither prisoners nor guns. The loss of the French was 
 but ten thousand. All this slaughter seemed to be accomplish- 
 ing nothing. Philip still stood firm upon the Spanish throne, 
 and Charles could scarcely gain the slightest foothold in the 
 kingdom which he claimed. On the side of the Rhine and of 
 Italy, though blood flowed like water, nothing was accom- 
 plished; the plan of invading France had totally failed, and 
 again the combatants were compelled to retire to winter 
 quarters. 
 
 For nine years this bloody war had now desolated Europe. 
 It is not easy to defend the cause of Austria and her allies in 
 this cruel conflict. The Spaniards undeniably preferred Philip 
 as their king. Louis XIV. had repeatedly expressed his readi- 
 ness to withdraw entirely from the conflict. But the Austrian 
 allies demanded that he should either by force or persuasion 
 remove Philip from Spain, and place the kingdom in the hands 
 of the Austrian prince. But Philip was now an independent 
 sovereign who for ten years had occupied the throne. He 
 was resolved not to abdicate, and his subjects were resolved 
 to support him. Louis XIV. said that he could not wage war- 
 fare against his own grandson. The wretched old monarch, 
 now feeble, childless, and woe crushed, whose soul was already 
 crimsoned with the blood of countless thousands, was so dis. 
 pirited by defeat, and so wearv of the war, that though he 
 
843 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 still refused to send his armies against his grandson, he even 
 offered to pay a monthly subsidy of two hundred thousand 
 dollars (one million livres) to the allied Austrian party, to be 
 employed in the expulsion of Philip, if they would cease te 
 make war upon him. Even to these terms, after blood had 
 been flowing in torrents for ten years, Austria, England and 
 Holland would not accede. “If I must fight either Austria 
 and her allies,” said Louis XIV., “or the Spaniards, led by 
 their king, my own grandson, I prefer to fight the Austrians.” 
 
 The returning sun of the summer of 1710, found the hos- - 
 tile armies again in the field. The allies of Austria, early in 
 April, hoping to surprise the French, assembled, ninety thou- 
 sand in number, on the Flemish frontiers of France, trusting 
 that by an unexpected attack they might break down the for- 
 tresses which had hitherto impeded their way. But the French 
 were on the alert to resist them, and the whole summer was 
 again expended in fruitless battles. These fierce conflicts so 
 concentrated the energies of war in the Netherlands, that but 
 little was attempted in the way of invading Spain. The Span- 
 ish nobles rallied around Philip, melted their plate to replen- 
 ish his treasury, and led their vassals to fight his battles. The 
 ecclesiastics, as a body, supported his cause. Philip was a 
 zealous Catholic, and the priests considered him as the de- 
 fender of the Church, while they had no confidence in Charles 
 of Austria, whose cause was advocated by heretical Englan@ 
 and Holland. 
 
 Charles TIT. was now in Catalonia, on the Mediterranean 
 ‘coast of Spain. He had landed at Barcelona, with a strong force 
 of English and Germans. He wasa man of but little character, 
 and his military operations were conducted entirely by the 
 English genera] Stanhope and the German general Staremberg, 
 The English general was haughty and domineering; the Ger. 
 man proud and stubborn. They were in a continued quarrel 
 contesting the preéminence. The two rival monarchs, with 
 forces about equal, met in Catalonia a few miles from Sara 
 
LEOPOLD I. AND THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 843 
 
 gossa, on the 24th of July, 1710. Though the inefficient 
 Charles was very reluctant to hazard a battle, the generals in 
 sisted upon it. The Spaniards were speedily and totally routed. 
 Philip fled with a small body-guard to Lerida, His army was 
 thoroughly dispersed. The conquerors pressed on toward 
 Madrid, crossed the Ebro at Saragossa, where they again en- 
 countered, but a short distance from the city, an army strong: 
 ly posted upon some heights. Philip was already there. The 
 conflict was short but bloody, and the generals of Charles were 
 again victorious. Philip, with a disheartened remnant of his 
 troops, retreated to Madrid. The generals dragged the timid 
 and reluctant Charles on to Madrid, where they arrived on the 
 28th of September. There was no force at the capital to op- 
 pose them. They were received, however, by the citizens of 
 the metropolis as foreign conquerors. Charles rode through 
 the deserted streets, meeting only with sullen silence. <A few 
 who were hired to shout, were pelted, by the populace, with 
 mud, as traitors to their lawful king. None flocked to his 
 standard. Nobles, clergy, populace, all alike stood aloof from 
 him. Charles and his generals were embarrassed and perplexed. 
 They could not compel the nation to receive the Austrian 
 king. ~ 
 
 Philip, in the meantime, who had much energy and popu- 
 larity of character, was rapidly retrieving his losses, and troops 
 were flocking to his camp from all parts of Spain. He estab- 
 lished his court at Valladolid, about one hundred and fifty 
 miles north-east from Madrid. His troops, dispersed by the 
 two disastrous battles, were reassembled at Lerida. ‘The peas. 
 ants rose in large numbers and joined them, and cut off all 
 gommunication between Charles at Madrid and his ships at 
 Barcelona. The Spanish grandees sent urgent messages to 
 France for succors. General Vendome, at the head of three 
 thousand horse, swept through the defiles of the Pyrenees, 
 and, with exultant music and waving banners, joined Philip at 
 Valladolid. Universal enthusiasm was excited. Soon thirty 
 
844 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 thousand infantry entered the camp, and then took positions 
 on the Tagus, where they could cut off any reinforcements 
 which might attempt to march from Portugal to aid the in- 
 vaders. 
 
 Charles was apparently in a desperate situation. Famine 
 and consequent sickness were in his camp. His army was 
 daily dwindling away. He was emphatically in an enemy’s 
 country. Not a-soldier could stray from the ranks without 
 danger of assassination. He had taken Madrid, and Madrid 
 was his prison. | 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 JOSEPH I. AND CHARLES VI. 
 From 1710 To 171%. 
 
 PeRPLexirixs In Maprim.—F LIGHT oF CHARLES.—RETREAT OF THE AUSTRIAN ABMY,.<— 
 STANHOPE’S DIVISION CUT OFF.—CAPTURE OF STANHOPE.—STAREMBERG ASSAILED.—= 
 RETREAT TO BAROELONA.—ATTEMPT TO PACIFY HUNGARY.—TuHE HUNGARIAN DIE®, 
 —BARONIAL OROWNING OF RAGOTSKY.—RENEWAL OF THE HUNGARIAN WAR.—EN- 
 TERPRISE OF HERBEVILLE.—THE HUNGARIANS ORUSHED.—LENITY OF JOSEPH.— 
 DEATH OF JOSEPH.—ACOESSION OF CHARLES VI.—His CAREER IN SPAIN.—CAPTURE 
 oF Barortona.—TuHe Simen.—THE Resour.—CHARAOTER OF CHARLES.—CLOISTERS 
 or MONTSERRAT.—INOREASED ErFrorts FoR THE SPANISH CROWN.—CHARLES OROWNED 
 EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY.—BOHEMIA.—DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF LOUIS 
 XIV. . 
 
 ENERALS Stanhope and Staremberg, who managed the 
 affairs of Charles, with but little respect for his judgment, 
 
 and none for his administrative qualities, were in great per- 
 plexity respecting the course to be pursued. Some recom- 
 mended the transference of the court from Madrid to Sara- 
 gossa, where they would be nearer to their supplies. Others 
 urged removal to Barcelona, where they would be under the 
 protection of the British fleet. It was necessary to watch 
 over Charles with the utmost care, as he was in constant dan 
 ger of assassination. While in this state of uncertainty, tid. 
 ings reached Madrid that the Duke of Noailles was on the 
 march, with fifteen thousand men, to cut off the retreat of the 
 Austrians, and at the same time Philip was advancing with a 
 powerful army from Valladolid. This intelligence rendered 
 instant action necessary. The Austrian party precipitately 
 evacuated Madrid, followed by the execrations of the people. 
 As soon as the last battalions had left the city, the ringing of 
 * bells, the firing of artillery, and the shouts of the people, an: 
 
346 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 nounced the popular exultation in view of the departure of 
 Charles, and the cordial greeting they were giving to his rival 
 Philip. The complications of politics are very curious, The 
 British government was here, through years of war and blood, 
 endeavoring to drive from his throne the acknowledged King 
 of Spain. In less than a hundred years we find this same 
 government again deluging Europe in blood, to reseat upon © 
 the throne the miserable Ferdinand, the lineal descendant of 
 this Bourbon prince. 
 
 Charles put spurs to his horse, and accompanied by a glit- 
 tering cavalcade of two thousand cavaliers, galloped over the 
 mountains to Barcelona, His army, under the leadership of 
 his efficient English general, followed rapidly but cautiously 
 on, hoping to press through the defiles of the mountains which 
 separated them from Arragon before their passage could be 
 obstructed by the foe. The troops were chagrined and dis- 
 pirited ; the generals in that state of ill humor which want of 
 success generally engenders. The roads were bad, provisions 
 scarce, the inhabitants of the country bitterly hostile. It was 
 the middle of November, and cold blasts swept through the 
 mountains. Staremberg led the van, and Stanhope, with four 
 thousand English troops, occupied the post of peril in a retreat, 
 the rear. As the people of the country would furnish them 
 with no supplies, the pillage of towns and villages became a 
 necessity ; but it none the less added to the exasperation of 
 the Spaniards. 
 
 A hurried march of about eighty miles brought the troops 
 to the banks of the Tagus. As General Staremberg, at the 
 head <* the advance guard, pressed eagerly on, he left Stan- 
 hope at quite a distance behind. They encamped for a night, 
 the advance at Cifuentes, the rear at Brihuega. The hostility © 
 of the natives was such that almost all communication was 
 cut off between the two sections of the army. In the con- 
 fusion of the hasty retreat, and as no enemy was apprehended 
 in that portion of the way, the importance of hourly commu ; 
 
JOSEPH I. AND OHARLES Vi. $49 
 
 aication was forgotten. In the morning, as Stanhope put his 
 troops again in motion, he was surprised and alarmed in see 
 mg upon the hills before him the banners of an opposing host, 
 far outnumbering his own, and strongly intrenched. The 
 Earl of Stanhope at once appreciated the nearly utter hope- 
 lessness of his position. He was cut off from the rest of the 
 army, had no artillery, but little ammunition, and was almost 
 entirely destitute of provision. Still he scorned to surrender. 
 He threw his troops behind a stone wall, and vigorously com- 
 menced fortifying his position, hoping to be able to hold out 
 until Staremberg, hearing of his situation, should come to his 
 release. 
 
 During the whole day he beat back the assaults of the 
 Spanish army. In the meantime Staremberg was pressing on 
 to Barcelona. In the evening of that day he heard of the 
 peril of his rear guard. His troops were exhausted; the 
 night of pitchy blackness, and the miry roads, cut to pieces 
 by the heavy artillery and baggage wagons, were horrible. 
 Through the night he made preparations to turn back to aid 
 his beleaguered friends. It was, however, midday before 
 he could collect his scattered troops, from their straggling 
 march, and commence retracing his steps. In a few houra 
 the low sun of a November day sunk below the hills. ‘The 
 troops, overtaken by darkness, stumbling through the gloom, 
 and apprehensive of a midnight attack, rested upon their 
 arms, waiting, through the weary hours, for the dawn of the 
 morning. The second day came, and the weary troops toiled 
 through the mire, while Stanhope, from behind his slight 
 parapet, bafiled all the efforts of his foes. 
 
 Tks third morning dawned. Staremberg was within some 
 fifteen miles of Briehuga. Stanhope had now exhausted all his 
 ammunition. The inhabitants of the town rose against him 
 and attacked him in the rear, while the foe pressed him in 
 front. A large number of his troops had already fallen, and 
 no longer resistance was possible. Stanhope and the remnant 
 
848 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA 
 
 of his band were taken captive and conducted into the town 
 of Briehuga. Staremberg, unaware of the surrender, pushed 
 on until he came within a league of Briehuga. Anxiously he 
 threw up signals, but could obtain no response. His fears of 
 the worst were soon confirmed by seeing the Spanish army, in 
 brilliant battle array, approaching to assail him. Philip him- 
 self was there to animate them by his presence; and the he- 
 roic French general, the Duke of Vendome, a descendant of 
 Henry IV., led the charging columns. 
 
 Though the troops of Staremberg were inferior in number 
 to those of the Spanish monarch, and greatly fatigued by their 
 forced marches, a retreat at that moment, in the face of so act- 
 ive an enemy, was not to be thought of. The battle imme- 
 diately commenced, with its rushing squadrons and its thunder 
 peals. The Spaniards, sanguine of success, and inspired with 
 the intensest hatred of their heretical foes, charged with irre- 
 sistible fury. The left wing of Staremberg was speedily cut 
 to pieces, and the baggage taken. The center and the right 
 maintained their ground until night came to their protection. 
 Staremberg’s army was now reduced to nine thousand. His 
 horses were either slain or worn out by fatigue. He was con- 
 sequently compelled to abandon all his artillery and most of 
 his baggage, as he again commenced a rapid retreat towards 
 Barcelona. The enemy pressed him every step of the way. 
 But with great heroism and military skill he baffled their en- 
 deavors to destroy him, and after one of the most arduous 
 marches on record, reached Barcelona with a feeble remnant 
 of but seven thousand men, ragged, emaciated and bleeding. 
 Behind the walls of this fortified city, and protected by the 
 fleet of England, they found repose. 
 
 We must now turn back a few years, to trace the progress 
 of events in Hungary and Austria. Joseph, the emperor, had 
 suffixent intelligence to understand that the rebellious and an- 
 archical state of Hungary was owing to the cruelty and in- 
 tolerance of his father. He saw, also, that there could be no 
 
JOSEPH 1. AND CHABLES Vi. 830 
 
 hope of permanent tranquillity but in paying some respect to 
 the aspirations for civil and religious liberty. The troublesin 
 Hungary distracted his attention, exhausted the energies of 
 his troops, and deprived him of a large portion of his pclitical 
 and military power. He now resolved to try the effect of con- 
 sessions. The opportunity was propitious, as he could throw 
 upon his father the blame of all past decrees. He accordingly 
 sent a messenger to the Hungarian nobles with the declaration 
 that during his father’s lifetime he had never interfered in the 
 government, and that consequently he was in no respect re- 
 sponsible for the persecution of which they complained. And 
 he promised, on the honor of a king, that instead of attempt- 
 ing the enforcement of those rigorous decrees, he would faith- 
 fully fulfill all the articles he had sworn to observe at his coro- 
 nation ; and that he accordingly summoned a diet for the re- 
 dress of their grievances and the confirmation of all their 
 ancient privileges. As proof of his sincerity, he dismissed those 
 ministers who had advised the intolerant decrees enacted by 
 Leopold, and appointed in their place men of more mild and 
 lenient character. 
 
 But the Hungarians, deeming themselves now in a position 
 to enforce their elaims by the energies of their army, feared 
 to trust to the promises of a court so often perjured. Without 
 openly renouncing allegiance to Austria, and declaring inde- 
 pendence, they, through Ragotsky, summoned a diet to meet 
 at Stetzim, where their session would be protected by the Hun- 
 garian army. There was a large gathering of all the first no- 
 bility of the realm. A spacious tent was spread for the im- 
 posing assembly, and the army:encircled it as with a sheltering 
 embrace. The session was opened with prayer and the ad- 
 ministration of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Will the 
 time ever come when the members of the United States Con- 
 gress will meet as Christian brethren, at the table of cur Sa 
 viour, as they commence their annual deliberations for the wel- 
 fare of this republic? The nobles formed a confederacy for 
 
856 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 the government of the country. The legislative power was 
 committed to a senate of twenty-four nobles. Ragotsky was 
 chosen military chief, with the title of Dux, or leader. Four 
 of the most illustrious nobles raised Ragotsky upon a buckler 
 on their shoulders, when he took the oath of fidelity to the 
 government thus provisionally established, and then adminis- 
 tered the oath to his confederates. They all bound themselves 
 solemnly not to conclude any peace with the emperor, until 
 their ancient rights, both civil and religious, were fully re- 
 stored. 
 
 In reply to the advances made by the emperor, they re- 
 turned the very reasonable and moderate demands that their 
 chief, Ragotsky, should be reinstated in his ancestral realms otf 
 Transylvania, that the claim of hereditary sovereignty should 
 be relinquished, and that there should be the restoration of 
 those ancient civil and religious immunities of which Leopold 
 had defrauded them. Upon these conditions they pronssed 
 to recognize Joseph as their sovereign during his lifetime; 
 claiming at his death their time-honored right of choosing his 
 successor. Joseph would not listen for one moment to these 
 terms, and the war was renewed with fury. 
 
 The Hungarian patriots had seventy-five thousand men 
 under arms. The spirit of the whole nation was with them, 
 and the Austrian troops were driven from almost every for- 
 tress in the kingdom. The affairs of Joseph seemed to be 
 almost desperate, his armies struggling against overpowering 
 foes all over Europe, from the remotest borders of Transylva- 
 nia to the frontiers of Portugal. The vicissitudes of war are 
 proverbial. An energetic, sagacious general, Herbeville, with 
 great military sagacity, and aided by a peculiar series of for- 
 tunate events, marched down the valley of the Danube to 
 Buda ; crossed the stream to Pesth ; pushed boldly on through 
 the heart of Hungary to Great Waradin, forced the defiles of 
 the mountains, and entered Transylvania. Through a series 
 of brilliant victories he took fortress after fortress, until he 
 
2vOSEPH I. AND CHARBLES VI, 351 
 
 subjugated the whole of Transylvania, and brought it again 
 into subjection to the Austrian crown. This was in Novem- 
 ber, 1705. 
 
 But the Hungarians, instead of being intimidated by the 
 success of the imperial arms, summoned another diet. It was 
 neld in the open field in accordance with ancient custom, and 
 was thronged by thousands from all parts of the kingdom. 
 With great enthusiasm and public acclaim the resolution was 
 passed that Joseph was a tyrant and a usurper, animated by 
 the hereditary despotism of the Austrian family. This truth- 
 ful utterance roused anew the ire of the emperor. He re- 
 solved upon a desperate effort to bring Hungary into subjec- 
 tion. Leaving his English and Dutch allies to meet the brunt 
 of the battle on the Rhine and in the Netherlands, he recalled 
 his best troops, and made forced levies in Austria until he had 
 created an army sufficiently strong, as he thought, to sweep 
 down all opposition. These troops he placed under the most 
 experienced generals, and sent them into Hungary in the sum- 
 mer of 1708. France, weakened by repeated defeats, could 
 send the Hungarians no aid, and the imperial troops, through 
 bloody battles, victoriously traversed the kingdom, Every- 
 where the Hungarians were routed and dispersed, until no 
 semblance of an army was left to oppose the victors. It seems 
 that life in those days, to the masses of the people, swept m- 
 cessantly by these fiery surges of war, could only have been a 
 scene, from the cradle to the grave, of blood and agony. For 
 two years this dismal storm of battle howled over all the Hun- 
 garian plains, and then the kingdom, like a victim exhausted, 
 prostrate and bleeding, was taken captive and firmly bound. 
 
 Ragotsky, denounced with the penalty of high treason, es- 
 caped to Poland. The emperor, anxious no longer to exasper- 
 ate, proposed measures of unusual moderation. He assembled 
 a convention; promised a general amnesty for all political 
 offenses, the restitution of confiscated property, the liberation 
 of prisoners, and the confirmation of all the rights which he 
 
852 PHE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 had promised at his coronation. Some important points were 
 not touched upon; others were passed over in vague and gen- 
 eral terms. The Hungarians, helpless as a babe, had nothing 
 to do but to submit, whatever the terms might be. They were 
 surprised at the unprecedented lenity of the conqueror, and 
 the treaty of peace and subjection was signed in January, 
 1711. 
 
 In three months after the signing of this treaty, Joseph I. 
 died of the small-pox, in his palace of Vienna. He was but 
 thirty-three years of age. For a sovereign educated from the 
 cradle to despotic rule, and instructed by one of the most big- 
 oted of fathers, he was an unusually good man, and must be 
 regarded as one of the best sovereigns who have swayed the 
 scepter of Austrian despotism. | 
 
 The law of hereditary descent is frequently involved in 
 great embarrassment. Leopold, to obviate disputes which he 
 foresaw were likely to arise, had assigned Hungary, Bohemia, 
 and his other hereditary estates, to Joseph. To Charles he 
 had assigned the vast Spanish inheritance. In case Joseph 
 should die without male issue he had decreed that the crown 
 of the Austrian dominions should also pass to Charles, in 
 case Charles should also die without issue male, the crown 
 should then revert to the daughters of Joseph in preference to 
 those of Charles. Joseph left no son. He had two daugh- 
 ters, the eldest of whom was but twelve years of age. Charles, 
 who was now in Barcelona, claiming the crown of Spain as 
 Charles III., had no Spanish blood in his veins. He was the 
 son of Leopold, and of his third wife, the devout and lovely 
 Eleonora, daughter of the Elector Palatine. He was now but 
 twenty-eight years of age. For ten years he had been strug- 
 gling for the crown which his father Leopold had claimed, as 
 succeeding to the rights of his first wife Margaret, daughter 
 of Philip IV. 
 
 Charles was a genteel, accomplished young man of eighteen 
 when he left his father’s palace at Vienna, for England, where 
 
JOSEPH I. AND CHARLES VI. 353 
 
 a British fleet was to convey him to Portugal, and, by the en- 
 ergy of its fleet and army, place him upon the throne of Spain. 
 He was received at Portsmouth in England, when he landed 
 from Holland, with much parade, and was conducted by the 
 Dukes of Marlborough and Somerset to Windsor castle, where 
 he had an interview with Queen Anne. His appearance at that 
 time is thus described by his partial chroniclers : 
 
 “The court was very splendid and much thronged. The 
 queen’s behavior toward him was very noble and obliging. 
 The young king charmed all who were present. He hada 
 gravity beyond his age, tempered with much modesty. His 
 behavior in all points was so exact, that there was not a cir- 
 cumstance in his whole deportment which was liable to cen- 
 sure. He paid an extraordinary respect to the queen, and yet 
 maintained a due greatness in it. He had the art of seeming 
 well pleased with every thing, without so much as smiling 
 once all the while he was at court, which was only three days, 
 He spoke but little, and all he said was judicious and oblig- 
 ing.” 
 
 Young Charles was engaged to the daughter of the King 
 of Portugal; but the young lady died just before his arrival 
 at Lisbon. As he had-never seen the infanta, his grief could 
 not have been very deep, however great his disappointment 
 might have been. He made several attempts to penetrate 
 Spain by the Portuguese frontier, but being repelled in every 
 effort, by the troops of Philip, he again embarked, and with 
 twelve thousand troops in an English fleet, sailed around the 
 Peninsula, entered the Mediterranean and landed on the shores 
 . of Catalonia, where he had been led to believe that the inhabi- 
 tants in a body would rally around him. But he-was bitterly 
 disappointed. 'The Earl of Peterborough, who was intrusted 
 with the command of this expedition, in a letter home gave 
 free utterance to his disappointment and chagrin. 
 
 “Instead of ten thousand men, and in arms,” he wrote, 
 to cover our landing and strengthen our camp, we found 
 
354 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 only so many higglers and sutlers flocking into it. Instead 
 of finding Barcelona in a weak condition, and ready to surren- 
 der upon the first appearance of our troops, we found a strong 
 garrison to oppose us, and a hostile army almost equal to our 
 own.” 
 
 In this dilemma a council of war was held, and though 
 many were in favor of abandoning the enterprise and returning 
 to Portugal, it was at last determined, through the urgency of 
 Charles, to remain and lay siege to the city. Barcelona, the 
 capital of Catalonia, was then the principal sea-port of the 
 Spanish peninsula on the Mediterranean. It contained a pop- 
 ulation of about one hundred and forty thousand. It was 
 strongly fortified. West of the city there was a mountain 
 called Montjoy, upon which there was a strong fort which 
 commanded the harbor and the town. After a short siege this 
 fort was taken by storm, and the city was then forced to sur- 
 render, 
 
 Philip soon advanced with an army of French and Span- 
 iards to retake the city. The English fleet had retired. 
 Twenty-eight French ships of war blockaded the harbor, 
 which they could not enter, as it was commanded by the 
 guns of Montjoy. The siege was very desperate both in the 
 assault and the defense. The young king, Charles, was in the 
 most imminent danger of falling into the hands of his foes, 
 There was no possibility of escape, and it seemed inevitable 
 that the city must either surrender, or be taken by storm. 
 The French and Spanish army numbered twenty thousand 
 men. ‘They first attempted to storm Montjoy, but were 
 repulsed with great slaughter. They then besieged it, and 
 by regular approaches compelled its capitulation in three 
 weeks, 
 
 This noble resistance enabled the troops in the city great- 
 ly to multiply and increase their defenses. They thus sue 
 ceeded in protracting the siege of the town five weeks longer, 
 Every day the beleagured troops from the crumbling ram. 
 
JOSEPH I. AND CHARLES VI. 355 
 
 parts watched the blue expanse of the Mediterranean, hoping 
 to see the sails of an English fleet coming to their rescue. 
 Two breaches were already effected in the walls. The gar- 
 rison, reduced to two thousand, and exhausted by superhuman 
 exertions by day and by night, were almost in the last stages 
 of despair, when, in the distant horizon, the long looked-for 
 fleet appeared. The French ships, by no means able to cope 
 with such a force, spread their sails, and sought safety in 
 flight. 7 
 
 The English fleet, amounting to fifty sail of the line, and 
 transporting a large number of land troops, triumphantly 
 entered the harbor on the 3rd of May, 1706. The fresh 
 soldiers were speedily landed, and marched to the ramparts 
 and the breaches. This strong reinforcement annihilated the 
 hopes of the besiegers. Apprehensive of an immediate sally, 
 they retreated with such precipitation that they left behind 
 them in the hospitals their sick and wounded; they also 
 abandoned their heavy artillery, and an immense quantity of 
 military stores. 
 
 Whatever energy Charles might have shown during the 
 siege, all seemed now to evaporate. When the shot of the foe 
 were crumbling the walls of Barcelona, he was in danger of 
 the terrible doom of being taken a captive, which would have 
 been the annihilation of all his hopes. Despair nerved him to 
 effort. But now his person was no longer in danger; and 
 his natural inefficiency and dilatoriness returned. Notwith- 
 standing the urgent intreaties of the Earl of Peterborough 
 to pursue the foe, he insisted upon first making a pilgrimage 
 to the shrine of the holy Virgin at Montserrat, twenty-four 
 wniles from Barcelona. 
 
 This curious monastery consists of but a succession of 
 cloisters or hermitages hewn out of the solid rock. They are 
 only accessible by steps as steep as a ladder, which are also 
 hewn upon the face of the almost precipitous mountain. ‘The 
 highest of these cells, and which are occupied by the youngest 
 
358 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 monks, are at an elevation of three or four thousand feet above 
 the level of the Mediterranean. Soon after Charles’s pilgrim- 
 age to Montserrat, he made a triumphal maich to Madrid, 
 entered the city, and caused himself to be proclaimed king 
 under the title of Charles III. But Philip soon came upon him 
 With such force that he was compelled to retreat back to 
 Barcelona, Again, in 1710, he succeeded in reaching Madrid, 
 and, as we have described, he was driven back, with accumu. 
 lated disaster, to Catalonia. 
 
 Three months after this defeat, when his affairs in Spais 
 were assuming the gloomiest aspect, a courier arrived at Bar 
 celona, and informed him that his brother Joseph was dead; 
 that he had already been proclaimed King of Hungary and Bo- 
 hemia, and Archduke of Austria; and that it was a matter of 
 the most urgent necessity that he should immediately return 
 to Germany. Charles immediately embarked at Barcelona, 
 and landed near Genoa on the 27th of September. Rapidly 
 pressing on through the Italian States, he entered Milan on 
 the 16th of October, where he was greeted with the joyful 
 intelligence that a diet had been convened under the influence 
 of Prince Eugene, and that by its unanimous vote he was in- 
 vested with the imperial throne. He immediately proceeded 
 through the Tyrol to Frankfort, where he was crowned on 
 the 22d of December. He was now more than ever deter- 
 mined that the diadem of Spain should be added to the other 
 crowns which had been placed upon his brow. 
 
 In the incessant wars which for centuries had been waged 
 between the princes and States of Germany and the emperor, 
 the States had acquired virtually a constitution, which they 
 called a capitulation. When Charles was crowned as Charles 
 VI., he was obliged to promise that he would never assemble 
 a diet or council without convening all the princes and States 
 of the empire ; that he would never wage war, or conclude 
 peace, or enter into alliance with any nation without the con- 
 sent of the States; that he would not, of his own authority, 
 
JOSEPH I. AND CHARLES VI. 357 
 
 put any prince under the ban of the empire; that confiscated 
 territory should never be conferred upon any members of his 
 own family, and that no successor to the imperial crown should 
 be chosen during his lifetime, unless absence from Germany 
 or the infirmities of age rendered him incapable of administer- 
 ing the affairs of the empire. 
 
 The emperor, invested with the imperial crown, hastened 
 to Vienna, and, with unexpected energy, entered upon the 
 administration of the complicated interests of his wide-spread 
 realms, After passing a few weeks in Vienna, he repaired to 
 Prague, where, in May, he was, with much pomp, crowned 
 King of Hungary. He then returned to Vienna, and pre- 
 pared to press with new vigor the war of the Spanish suc- 
 cession. 
 
 Louis XIV. was now suffering the earthly retribution for 
 his ill-spent life. The finances of the realm were in a state of 
 hopeless embarrassment; famine was filling the kingdom with 
 misery ; his armies were everywhere defeated ; the impreca- 
 tions of a beggared people, were rising around his throne; 
 his palace was the scene of incessant feuds and intrigues, His 
 children were dead; he was old, infirm, sick, the victim of in- 
 supportable melancholy-—utterly weary of life, and yet awfully 
 afraid to die. France, in the person of Louis XIV., who 
 could justly say, ‘“‘I am the State,” was humbled. 
 
 The accession of Charles to the throne of the empire, and 
 to that of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia, while at the same 
 time he claimed sovereignty over the vast realms of the Span- 
 ish kingdom, invested him with such enormous power, that 
 England, which had combined Europe against the colossal 
 growth of France, having humbled that power, was disposed 
 to form a combination against Austria. There was in conse- 
 quence an immediate relaxation of hostilities just at the time 
 when the French batteries on the frontiers were battered down, 
 and when the allied army had apparently an unobstructed way 
 opened to the gates of Paris, In this state of affairs the Brit 
 
858 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 ish ministry pressed negotiations for peace. The prelimina- 
 ries were settled in London on the 8th of October, 1711. By 
 this treaty Louis XIV. agreed to make such a change in the 
 law of hereditary descent, as to render it impossible for any 
 king to wear at the same time the crowns of France and of 
 Spain, and made various other important concessions. 
 
 Charles, whose ambition was roused by his sudden and un 
 expected elevation, exerted all his energies to thwart the prog 
 ress of negotiations, and bitterly complained that the allies 
 were dishonorably deserting the cause which they had es- 
 poused. The emperor dispatched circular letters to all the 
 courts of Europe, and sent Prince Eugene as a special ambas- 
 sador to London, to influence Queen Anne, if possible, to per- 
 severe in the grand alliance. But he was entirely unsuccessful, 
 The Duke of Marlborough was disgraced, and dismissed from 
 office. The peace party rendered Eugene so unpopular that 
 he was insulted in the streets of London. The Austrian party 
 in England was utterly defeated, and a congress was appointed 
 to meet at Utrecht to settle the terms of peace. But Charles 
 was now so powerful that he resolved to prosecute the war 
 even though abandoned by England. He accordingly sent an 
 ambassador to Utrecht to embarrass the proceedings as much 
 as possible, and, in case the grand alliance should be broken 
 up, to secure as many powers as possible in fidelity to Aus- 
 tria. 
 
 The States of the Netherlands were still warmly with Aus- 
 tria, as they dreaded so formidable a power as France direct- 
 ly upon their frontier. The other minor powers of the alliance 
 were also rather inclined to remain with Austria. The war 
 continued while the terms of peace were under discussion. 
 England, however, entered into a private understanding with 
 France, and the Duke of Ormond, who had succeeded Marl- 
 borough, received secret orders not to take part in any battle 
 or siege. The developments, upon fields of battle, of this dis. 
 honorable arrangement, caused great indignation on the part 
 
JOSEPH I. AND CHARLES VI. 359 
 
 of the allies. The British forces withdrew, and the French 
 armies, taking advantage of the great embarrassments thus 
 caused, were again gaining the ascendency. Portugal soon 
 followed the example of England and abandoned the alliance. 
 The Duke of Savoy was the next to leave. The alliance 
 was evidently crumbling to pieces, and on the 11th of April, 
 1713, all the belligerents, excepting the emperor, signed the 
 treaty of peace. Philip of Spain also acceded to the same 
 articles. | 
 
 Charles was very indignant in being thus abandoned; and 
 unduly estimating his strength, resolved alone, with the re- 
 sources which the empire afforded him, to prosecute the war 
 against France and Spain. Having nothing to fear from a 
 Spanish invasion, he for a time relinquished his attempts upon 
 Spain, and concentrating his armies upon the Rhine, prepared 
 for a desperate onset upon France. For two years the war 
 raged between Austria and Fyance with war’s usual vicissi- 
 tudes of defeat and victory on either side. It was soon evi- 
 dent that the combatants were too equally matched for either 
 party to hope to gain any decisive advantage over the other. 
 On the 7th of September, 1714, France and Austria agreed to 
 sheathe the sword. The war had raged for fourteen years, 
 with an expenditure of blood and treasure, and an accumula- 
 tion of misery which never can be guaged. Every party had 
 lost fourfold more than it had gained. ‘A war,” says Mar- 
 shal Villers, “which had desolated the greater part of Europe, 
 was concluded almost on the very terms which might have 
 been procured at the commencement of hostilities.” 
 
 By this treaty of peace, which was signed at Baden, in 
 Switzerland, the States of the Netherlands were left in the 
 hands of Austria; and also the Italian States of Naples, Milan, 
 Mantua and Sardinia. The thunders of artillery had hardly 
 ceased to reverberate over the marshes of Holland and along 
 the banks of the Rhine, ere the “ blast of war’s loud organ” 
 
 and the tramp of charging squadrons were heard rising anew 
 P 
 
360 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 from the distant mountains of Sclavonia. The Turks, in vio- 
 lation of their treaty of peace, were again on the march, as- 
 cending the Danube along its southern banks, through the 
 defiles of the Sclavonian mountains. In a motley mass of one 
 hundred and fifty thousand men they had passed Belgrade, 
 crossed the Save, and were approaching Peterwarden. 
 
 Eugene was instantly dispatched with an efficient, compact 
 army, disciplined by twelve years of warfare, to resist the Mos- 
 lem invaders. The hostile battalions met at Karlowitz, but a 
 few miles from Peterwarden, on the 5th of August, 1716. The 
 tempest blazed with terrific fury for a few hours, when the 
 Turkish host turned and fled. Thirty thousand of their num- 
 ber, including the grand vizier who led the host, were left dead 
 upon the field. In their utter discomfiture they abandoned 
 two hundred and fifty pieces of heavy artillery, and baggage, 
 tents and military stores to an immense amount. Fifty Turk- 
 ish banners embellished the camp of the victors. 
 
 And now Eugene led his triumphant troops, sixty thousand 
 in number, down the river to lay siege to Belgrade. This for- 
 tress, which the labor of ages had strengthened, was garrisoned 
 by thirty thousand troops, and was deemed almost impregna- 
 ble. Eugene invested the place and commenced the slow and 
 tedious operations of a siege. The sultan immediately dis- 
 patched an army of two hundred thousand men to the relief 
 of his beleaguered fortress. The Turks, arriving at the scene 
 of action, did not venture an assault upon their intrenched 
 foes, but intrenched themselves on heights, outside of the be- 
 sieging camp, in a semicircle extending from the Danube to 
 the Save. They thus shut up the besiegers in the miasmatic 
 marshes which surrounded the city, cut off their supplies of 
 provisions, and from their advancing batteries threw shot into 
 the Austrian camp. ‘A man,” said Napoleon, “is not a sol- 
 dier.” The Turks had two hundred thousand men in their camp, 
 raw recruits. Eugene had sixty thousand veteran soldiers. 
 He decided to drive off the Turks who annoyed him. It was 
 
 ‘ 
 
JOSEPH I. AND CHARBLES VE. 362 
 
 necessary for him to detach twenty thousand to hold in check 
 the garrison of Belgrade, who might sally to the relief of their 
 companions. This left him but forty thousand troops with 
 whom to assail two hundred thousand strongly intrenched. 
 He did not hesitate in the undertaking, 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 CHARLES Vi. 
 
 Frou 1716 to 1727. 
 
 E:rnor0 Deorsion oF EvGEnt.—BATTLE OF BELGRADE.—UTTER Rout oF THs TURKS.-< 
 PossEssions OF CHARLES VI.—THB ELECTOR OF HANOVER SUCOEEDS TO THE ENGLISH 
 THRONE.—PREPARATIONS FOR WAE.—STATE OF ITALY.—PHILIP V. OF SPAIN.—DIP- 
 LOMATIO AGITATIONS.—PALAOE OF St. ILDEFONSO.—ORDER OF THE GOLDEN F'LEEOE. 
 —RxJEOTION oF Maria ANNE.—CONTEST FOR THE ROOK OF GIBRALTAR.—DISMISSAL 
 OF RIPpPERDA.—TEBATY OF VIBNNA.—PEAOE CONOLUDED. 
 
 Abs enterprise upon which Eugene had resolved was bold 
 
 in the extreme. It could only be accomplished by con 
 summate bravery aided by equal military skill. The foe they 
 were to attack were five to one, and were protected by well- 
 constructed redoubts, armed with the most formidable bat- 
 teries. ‘They were also abundantly supplied with cavalry, and 
 the Turkish cavalry were esteemed the finest horsemen in the 
 world. There was but one circumstance in favor of Eugene. 
 The Turks did not dream that he would have the audacity to 
 march from the protection of his intrenchments and assail them 
 behind their own strong ramparts. There was consequently 
 but little difficulty in effecting a surprise. 
 
 All the arrangements were made with the utmost precision 
 and secrecy for a midnight attack. The favorable hour came, 
 The sun went down in clouds, and a night of Egyptian dark. 
 ness enveloped the armies. The glimmer of innumerable 
 camp-fires only pointed out the position of the foe, without 
 throwing any illumination upon the field. Eugene visited all 
 the posts of the army, ordered abundant refreshment to be 
 distributed tc the troops, addressed them in encouraging 
 
CHARLES VI. 863 
 
 words, to impress upon them the importance of the enterprise, 
 and minutely assigned to each battalion, regiment, brigade 
 and division its duty, that there might be no confusion. The 
 whole plan was carefully arranged in all its details and in all 
 its grand combination. As the bells of Belgrade tolled the 
 hour of twelve at midnight, three bombs, simultaneously dis- 
 charged, put the whole Austrian army in rapid and noiseless 
 motion. 
 
 A dense fog had now descended, through which they could 
 with difficulty discern the twinkling lights of the Turkish 
 camp. Rapidly they traversed the intervening space, and in 
 dense, solid columns, rushed over the ramparts of the foe. 
 Bombs, cannon, musketry, bayonets, cavalry, all were em- 
 ployed, amidst the thunderings and the lightnings of that mid- 
 night storm of war, in the work of destruction. The Turks, 
 roused from their slumber, amazed, bewildered, fought for a 
 short time with maniacal fury, often pouring volleys of bullets 
 into the bosoms of their friends, and with bloody cimeters 
 smiting indiscriminately on the right hand and the left, till, in 
 the midst of a scene of confusion and horror which no imagi- 
 nation can conceive, they broke and fled. Two hundred thou- 
 sand men, lighted only by the flash of guns which mowed their 
 ranks, with thousands of panic-stricken cavalry trampling over 
 them, while the crash of musketry, the explosions of artillery, 
 the shouts of the assailants and the fugitives, and the shrieks 
 of the dying, blended in a roar more appalling than heaven’s 
 heaviest thunders, presented a scene which has few parallels 
 even in the horrid annals of war. 
 
 The morning dawned upon a field of blood and death. The 
 victory of the Austrians was most decisive. The flower of the 
 Turkish army was cut to pieces, and the remnant was utterly 
 dispersed. The Turkish camp, with all its abundant booty of 
 tents, provisions, ammunition and artillery, fell into the hands 
 of the conqueror. So signal was the victory, that the dis- 
 heartened Turks made no attempt to retrieve their loss. Bek 
 
864 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 grade was surrendered to the Austrians, and the sultan im- 
 plored peace. The articles were signed in Passarovitz, a small] 
 town of Servia, in July, 1718. By this treaty the emperor 
 added Belgrade to his dominions, and also a large part of 
 Wallachia and Servia. | 
 
 Austria and Spain were still in heart at war, as the em- 
 peror claimed the crown of Spain, and was only delaying act- 
 fve hostilities until he could dispose of his more immediate foes, 
 Charles, soon after the death of his cousin, the Portuguese 
 princess, with whom he had formed a matrimonial engagement, 
 married Elizabeth Christina, a princess of Brunswick. The 
 imperial family now consisted of three daughters, Maria The- 
 resa, Maria Anne and Maria Amelia. It will be remembered 
 that by the family compact established by Leopold, the suc- 
 cession was entailed upon Charles in preference to the daugh- 
 ters of Joseph, in case Joseph should die without male issue. 
 But should Charles die without male issue, the crown was to 
 revert to the daughters of Joseph in preference to those of 
 Charles. The emperor, having three daughters and no sons, 
 with natural parental partiality, bat unjustly, and with great 
 want of magnanimity, was anxious to deprive the daughters of 
 Joseph of their rights, that he might secure the crown for his own 
 daughters, He accordingly issued a decree reversing this con- 
 tract, and settling the right of succession first upon his daugh- 
 ters, should he die without sons, then upon the daughters of 
 Joseph, one of whom had married the Elector of Saxony and 
 the other the Elector of Bavaria. After them he declared his 
 sister, who had married the King of Portugal, and then his 
 other sisters, the daughters of Leopold, to be in the line of 
 succession. ‘This new law of succession Charles issued under 
 the name of the Pragmatic Sanction. He compelled his nieces, 
 the daughters of Joseph, to give their assent to this Sanction, 
 and then, for the remainder of his reign, made the greatest ef- 
 forts to induce all the powers of Europe to acknowledge its 
 validity. 
 
CHARLES YI. S65 
 
 Charles VI. was now, as to the extent of territory over 
 which he reigned and the population subject to his sway, de- 
 cidedly the most powerful monarch in Christendom. Three 
 hundred princes of the German empire acknowledged him ag 
 their elected sovereign. By hereditary right he claimed do. 
 minion over Bohemia, Hungary, Transylvania, Wallachia, Ser- 
 via, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, the Tyrol, and all the rich and 
 populous States of the Netherlands. Naples, Sicily, Mantua 
 and Milan in Italy, also recognized his sovereignty. ‘To en- 
 lightened reason nothing can seem more absurd than that one 
 man, of very moderate capacities, luxuriating in his palace at 
 _ Vienna, should pretend to hold dominion over so many mil- 
 lions so widely dispersed. But the progress of the world to- 
 wards intelligent liberty has been very slow. When we con- 
 trast the constitution of the United States with such a political 
 condition, all our evils and difficulties dwindle to utter insig- 
 nificance. 
 
 Still the power of the emperor was in many respects ap- 
 parent rather than real. Each of these States had its own 
 customs and laws. The nobles were tumultuary, and ever 
 ready, if their privileges were infringed, to rise in insur- 
 rection. Military force alone could hold these turbulent 
 realms in awe; and the old feudal servitude which crushed 
 the millions, was but another name for anarchy. The peace 
 establishment of the emperor amounted to one hundred thon- 
 sand men, and every one of these was necessary simply to gar- 
 rison his fortresses. ‘The enormous expense of the support of 
 such an army, with all the outlays for the materiel of war, the 
 cavalry, and the structure of vast fortresses, exhausted the 
 revenues of a kingdom in which the masses of the people 
 were so miserably poor that they were scarcely elevated 
 above the beasts of the field, and where the finances had long 
 been in almost irreparable disorder. The years of peace, how: 
 ever, were very few. War, a maelstrom which ingulfs un. 
 counted millions, seems to have been the normal state of Ger 
 
366 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA 
 
 many. But the treasury of Charles was so constantly drained 
 that he could never, even in his greatest straits, raise more 
 than one hundred and sixty thousand men; and he was often 
 compelled to call upon the aid of a foreign purse to meet the 
 expense which that number involved. Within a hundred 
 years the nations have made vast strides in wealth, and in the 
 consequent ability to throw away millions in war. 
 
 Charles VI. commenced his reign with intense devotion to 
 business. He resolved to be an illustrious emperor, vigor. 
 ously superintending all the interests of the empire, legislative, 
 judicial and executive. For a few weeks he was busy night 
 and day, buried in a hopeless mass of diplomatic papers. But 
 he soon became weary of this, and leaving all the ordinary 
 affairs of the State in the hands of agents, amused himself 
 with his violin and in chasing rabbits. As more serious 
 employment, he gave pompous receptions, and enveloped 
 himself in imperial ceremony and the most approved courtly 
 etiquette. He still, however, insisted upon giving his ap- 
 proval to all measures adopted by his ministers, before they 
 were carried into execution. But as he was too busy with 
 his entertainments, his music and the chase, to devote much 
 time to the dry details of government, papers were accumu- 
 lating in a mountainous heap in his cabinet, and the most 
 important business was neglected. 
 
 Charles XII. was now King of Sweden; Peter the Great, 
 Emperor of Russia; George L, King of England; and the 
 shameful regency had succeeded, in France, the reign of 
 Louis XJV. For eighteen years a bloody war had been 
 sweeping the plains of Poland, Russia and Sweden. Thou- 
 sands had been torn to pieces by the enginery of war, and 
 trampled beneath iron hoofs, Millions of women and children 
 had been impoverished, beggared, and turned out houseless 
 into the fields to moan and starve and die. The claims of 
 humanity must ever yield to the requisitions of war. This 
 fierce battle of eighteen years was fought to decide which of 
 
CHARLES VI. 86? 
 
 three men, Peter of Russia, Charles of Sweden, or Augustus 
 of Poland, should have the right to exact tribute from Lice 
 vonia. ‘This province was a vast pasture on the Baltic, con- 
 taining about seventeen thousand square miles, and inhabited 
 by about five hundred thousand poor herdsmen and tillers of 
 the soil. 
 
 Peter the Great was in the end victorious in this long con- 
 flict; and having attached large portions of Sweden to his 
 territory, with a navy upon the Baltic, and a disciplined 
 army, began to be regarded as a European power, and was 
 quite disposed to make his voice heard in the diplomacy of 
 Europe. Queen Anne having died, leaving no children, the 
 law of hereditary descent carried the crown of England to 
 Germany, and placed it upon the brow of the Elector of 
 Hanover, who, as grandson of James I., was the nearest heir, 
 but who could not speak a word of English, who knew noth- 
 ing of constitutional law, and who was about as well qualified 
 to govern England as a Patagonian or Esquimaux would have 
 been. But obedience to this law of hereditary descent was 
 a political necessity. There were thousands of able men in 
 _ England who could have administered the government with 
 honor to themselves and to the country. But it is said in re- 
 ply that the people of England, as a body, were not then, and 
 probably are not even now, sufficiently enlightened to be in- 
 trusted with the choice of their own rulers. Respect for the 
 pallot-box is one of the last and highest attainments of civiliza- 
 tion. Recent developments in our own land have led many 
 to fear that barbarism is gaining upon the people. If the 
 ballot-box be overturned, the cartridge-box must take its 
 place. The great battle we have to fight is the battle against 
 popular ignorance. The great army we are to support is the 
 army of teachers in the schools and in the pulpit, elevating 
 the mind to the highest possible intelligence, and guiding the 
 heait by the pure spirit of the gospel. 
 
 The emperor was so crowded with affairs of immediate 
 
868 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 urgency, and it was so evident that he could not drive Philip 
 from the throne, now that he was recognized by all Europe, 
 that he postponed the attempt for a season, while he still 
 adopted the title of King of Spain. His troops had hardly 
 returned from the brilliant campaign of Belgrade, ere the em- 
 peror saw a cloud gathering in the north, which excited his 
 most serious apprehension. Russia and Sweden, irritated by 
 some of the acts of the emperor, formed an alliance for the 
 invasion of the German empire. The fierce warriors of the 
 north, led by such captains as Charles XII. and Peter the 
 Great, were foes not to be despised. This threatened invasion 
 not only alarmed the emperor, but alarmed George I. of 
 England, as his electorate of Hanover was imperiled; and. 
 also excited the fears of Augustus, the Elector of Saxony, who 
 had regained the throne of Poland. England and Poland 
 consequently united with thc 2smperor, and formidable prep- 
 arations were in progress for a terrible war, when one single 
 chance bullet, upon the field of Pultowa, struck Charles XIL, 
 as he was looking over the parapet, and dispersed this cloud 
 which threatened the desolation of all Europe. 
 
 Austria was now the preponderating power in degenerate 
 Italy. Even those States which were not in subjection to the 
 emperor, were overawed by his imperious spirit. Genoa was 
 nominally independent. The Genoese arrested one of the 
 imperial officers for some violation of the laws of the republic. 
 The emperor sent an army to the gates of the city, threaten- 
 mg it with bombardment and utter destruction. They were 
 thus compelled immediately to liberate the officer, to pay 2 
 fine of three hundred thousand dollars, and to send a senator 
 to Vienna with humble expressions of contrition, and to im 
 plore pardon. 
 
 The kingdom of Sardinia was at this time the most powers 
 ful State in Italy, if we except those united Italian States 
 which now composed an integral part of the Austrian empire 
 Victor Asmedeus, the energetic king, had a small but vigo» 
 
CHARLES V2 869 
 
 ous army, and held himself ready, with this army, for a suit 
 able remuneration, to engage in the service of any sovereign 
 without asking any troublesome questions as to the righteous- 
 ness of the expedition in which he was to serve. The Sar- 
 dinian king was growing rich, and consequently ambitious. 
 He wished to rise from the rank of a secondary to that of a 
 primary power in Europe. There was but one direction in 
 which he could hope to extend his territories, and that was by 
 pressing into Lombardy. He had made the remark, which 
 was repeated to the emperor, “I must acquire Lombardy 
 piece by piece, as I eat an artichoke.” Charles, consequently, 
 watched Victor with a suspicious eye. 
 
 The four great powers of middle and southern Europe 
 were Austria, England, France, and Spain. All the other 
 minor States, innumerable in name as well as number, were 
 compelled to take refuge, openly or secretly, beneath one or 
 another of these great monarchies, 
 
 In France, the Duke of Orleans, the regent during the mi- 
 nority of Louis XV., whose court, in the enormous expendi- 
 tures of vice, exhausted the yearly earnings of a population of 
 twenty millions, was anxious to unite the Bourbon branches of 
 France and Spain in more intimate alliance. He accordingly 
 affianced the young sovereign of France to Mary Anne, daugh- 
 ter of Philip V. of Spain. At the same time he married his 
 own daughter to the king’s oldest son, the Prince of Asturias, 
 who was heir to the throne. Mary Anne, to whom the young 
 king was affianced, was only four years of age. 
 
 The personal history of the monarchs of Europe is, almost 
 without exception, a melancholy history. By their ambition 
 and their wars they whelmed the cottages in misery, and by a 
 righteous retribution misery also inundated the palace. Philip 
 V. became the victim of the most insupportable melancholy, 
 Earth had no joy which could lift the cloud of gloom from his 
 soul. For months he was never known to smile. Imprisoning 
 himself in his palace he refused to see any company, and left 
 
370 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA 
 
 all the cares of government in the hands of his wife, Elizabeth 
 Warnese. 
 
 Germany was still agitated by the great religious contest 
 between the Catholics and the Protestants, which divided the 
 empire into two nearly equal parties, bitterly hostile to each 
 other. Various fruitless attempts had been made to bring the 
 parties together, into unity of saith, by compromise. Neither 
 party were reconciled to cordial ¢éoleration, free and full, in 
 which alone harmony can be obtained. In all the States of 
 the empire the Catholics and the Protestants were coming con- 
 tinually into collision. Charles, though a very decided Catho- 
 lic, was not disposed to persecute the Protestants, as most of 
 his predecessors had done, for he feared to rouse them to 
 despair. 
 
 England, France, Austria and Spain, were now involved in 
 an inextricable maze of diplomacy. Congresses were assem- 
 bled and dissolved ; treaties made and violated; alliances 
 formed and broken. Weary of the conflict of arms, they were 
 engaged in the more harmless squabbles of intrigue, each seek- 
 ing its own aggrandizement. Philip V., who had fought so 
 many bloody battles to acquire the crown of Spain, now, die 
 gusted with the cares which that crown involved, overwhelmed 
 with melancholy, and trembling in view of the final judgment 
 of God, suddenly abdicated the throne in favor of his som 
 Louis, and took a solemn oath that he would never resume it 
 again. This event, which surprised Europe, took place on the 
 20th of February, 1724. Philip retired to St. Iidefonso. 
 
 The celebrated palace of St. Iidefonso, which became the 
 retreat of the monarch, was about forty miles north of Ma 
 drid, in an elevated ravine among the mountains of Gaudar- 
 ruma, It was an enormous pile, nearly four thousand feet 
 above the level of the sea, and reared by the Spanish mon- 
 archs at an expense exceeding thirty millions of dollars. The 
 palace, two stories high, and occupying three sides of a square, 
 presents a front five hundred and thirty feet in length. In 
 
OHARLES VI. $71 
 
 this front alone there are, upon each story, twelve gorgeous 
 apartments in a suite. The interior is decorated in the richest 
 style of art, with frescoed ceilings, and splendid mirrors, and 
 tesselated floors of variegated marble. The furniture was em- 
 bellished with gorgeous carvings, and enriched with marble, 
 jasper and verd-antique. The galleries were filled with the 
 most costly productions of the chisel and the pencil. The 
 spacious garden, spread out before the palace, was cultivated 
 with the utmost care, and ornamented with fountains surpass- 
 ing even those of Versailles. 
 
 To this magnificent retreat Philip V. retired with his ia» 
 perious, ambitious wife. She was the step-mother of his son 
 who had succeeded to the throne. For a long time, by the 
 vigor of her mind, she had dominated over her husband, and 
 had in reality been the sovereign of Spain. In the magnificent 
 palace of St. Ildefonso, she was by no means inclined to relin. 
 quish her power. Gathering a brilliant court around her, she 
 still issued her decrees, and exerted a powerful influence over 
 the kingdom, The young Louis, who was but a boy, was not 
 disposed to engage in a quarrel with his mother, and fora 
 time submitted to this interference; but gradually he was 
 roused by his adherents, to emancipate himself from these 
 shackles, and to assume the authority of a soveregn. This 
 led to very serious trouble. The abdicated king, in his mop 
 ing melancholy, was entirely in subjection to his wife. There 
 were now two rival courts. Parties were organizing. Some 
 were for deposing the son; others for imprisoning the father. 
 The kingdom was on the eve of a civil war, when death kindly 
 came to settle the difficulty. 
 
 The young King Louis, but eighteen years of age, after a 
 nominal reign of but eight months, was seized with that awful 
 scourge the small-pox, and, after a few days of suffering and 
 delirium, was consigned to the tomb. Philip, notwithstand- 
 ing his vow, was constrained by his wife to resume the crown, 
 she probably provuising to relieve him of all care. Such are 
 
$72 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 the vicissitudes cf a hereditary government. Elizabeth, with 
 woman’s spirit, now commanded the emperor to renounce the 
 title of King of Spain, which he still claimed. Charles, with 
 the spirit of an emperor, declared that he would do no such 
 thing. 
 
 There was another serious source of difficulty between the 
 two monavchs, which has descended, generation after genera- 
 tion, to our own time, and to this day is only settled by each 
 party quietly persisting in his own claim. 
 
 In the year 1430 Philip II1., Duke of Burgundy, instituted 
 a new order of knighthood for the protection of the Catholie 
 church, to be called the order of the Golden Fleece. But 
 twenty-four members were to be admitted, and Philip himself 
 was the grand master. Annual meetings were held to fill va- 
 cancies. Charles V., as grand master, increased the number 
 of knights to fifty-one. After his death, as the Burgundian 
 provinces and the Netherlands passed under the dominion of 
 Spain, the Spanish monarchs exercised the office of grand mas- 
 ter, and conferred the dignity, which was now regarded the 
 highest order of knighthood in Europe, according to their 
 pleasure. But Charles VI., now in admitted possession of the 
 Netherlands, by virtue of that possession claimed the office 
 of grand master of the Golden Fleece. Philip also claimed it 
 as the inheritance of the kings of Spain. The dispute has 
 never been settled. Both parties still claim it, and the order 
 §s still conferred both at Vienna and Madrid. 
 
 Other powers interfered, in the endeavor to promote rece 
 onciliation between the hostile courts, but, as usual, only in- 
 creased the acrimony of the two parties. The young Spanish 
 princess Mary Anne, who was affianced to the Dauphin of 
 France, was sent to Paris for her education, and that she 
 might become familiar with the etiquette of a court over which 
 she was to preside as queen. For a time she was treated with 
 great attention, and child as she was, received all the homage 
 which the courtiers were accustomed to pay to the Queen of 
 
CHARLES Vi. $72 
 
 France. But amidst the intrigues of the times a change 
 arose, and it was deemed a matter of state policy to marry 
 the boy-king to another princess. The French court conse- 
 quently rejected Maria Anne and sent her back to Spain, and 
 married Louis, then but fifteen years of age, to Maria Lebrin- 
 sky, daughter of the King of Poland. The rejected child was 
 too young fully to appreciate the mortification. Her parents, 
 however, felt the insult most keenly. The whole Spanish court 
 was roused to resent it as a national outrage. The queen was 
 so indignant that she tore from her arm a bracelet which she 
 wore, containing a portrait of Louis XV., and dashing it upon 
 the floor, trampled it beneath her feet. Even the. king was 
 roused from his gloom by the humiliation of his child, and 
 declared that no amount of blood could atone for such an im 
 dignity. 
 
 Under the influence of this exasperation, the queen re 
 solved to seek reconciliation with Austria, that all friendly 
 relations might be abandoned with France, and that Spain and 
 Austria might be brought into intimate alliance to operate 
 against their common foe. A renowned Spanish diplomatist, 
 the Baron of Ripperda, had been for some time a secret agent 
 of the queen at the court of Vienna, watching the progress of 
 events there. He resided in the suburbs under a fictitious 
 name, and eluding the vigilance of the ministry, had held by 
 night several secret interviews with the emperor, proposing to 
 him, inthe name of the queen, plans of reconciliation. Let: 
 ters were immediately dispatched to Ripperda urging him to 
 come to an accommodation with the emperor upon almost any 
 terms, 
 
 A treaty was soon concluded, early in the spring of 1728. 
 The emperor renounced all claim to the Spanish crown, en- 
 éered into an alliance, both offensive and defensive, with Philip, 
 and promised to aid, both with men and money, to help re- 
 cover Gibraltar from the English, which fortress they had held 
 since they seized upon it in the war of the Spanish succession, 
 
874 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 In consideration of these great concessions Philip agreed to 
 recognize the right of the emperor to the Netherlands and to 
 his acquisitions in Italy. He opened all the ports of Spain to 
 the subjects of the emperor, and pledged himself to support 
 the Pragmatic Sanction, which wrested the crown of Austria 
 from the daughters of Joseph, and transmitted it to the daugh- 
 ters of Charles. It was this last clause which influenced the 
 emperor, for his whole heart was set upon the accomplishment 
 of this important result, and he was willing to make almost 
 any sacrifice to attain it. There were also some secret articles 
 attached which have never been divulged. 
 
 The immediate demand of Spain for the surrender of the 
 rock of Gibraltar was the signal for all Europe to marshal it- 
 self for war—a war which threatened the destruction of hun 
 dreds of thousands of lives, millions of property, and which 
 was sure to spread far and wide over populous cities and ex: 
 tended provinces, carnage, conflagration, and unspeakable 
 woe. The question was, whether England or Spain should 
 have possession of a rock seven miles long and one mile broad, 
 which was supposed, but very erroneously, to command the 
 Mediterranean. To the rest of Europe it was hardly a mat- 
 ter of the slightest moment whether the flag of England or 
 Spain waved over those granite cliffs. It seems incredible 
 that beings endowed with reason could be guilty of such mad- 
 pess. 
 
 England, with great vigor, immediately rallied on her side 
 France, Hanover, Holland, Denmark and Sweden. On the 
 other side were Spain, Austria, Russia, Prussia and a large 
 number of the minor States of Germany. Many months were 
 occupied in consolidating these coalitions, and in raising the 
 armies and gathering the materials for the war. 
 
 In the meantime Ripperda, having so successfully, as he sup- 
 posed, concluded his negotiations at Vienna, in a high state of 
 exultation commenced his journey back to Spain. Passing 
 down through the Tyrol and traversing Italy he embarked at 
 
CHARLES VI 378 
 
 Genoa and landed at Barcelona. Here he boasted londly of 
 what he had accomplished. 
 
 “Spain and the emperor now united,” he said, “ will give 
 the law to Europe. The emperor has one hundred and fifty 
 thousand troops under arms, and in six months can bring ag 
 many more into the field. France shall be pillaged. George L 
 shall be driven both from his German and his British territoe 
 ries,” 
 
 From Barcelona Ripperda traveled rapidly to Madrid, 
 where he was received with almost regal honors by the queen, 
 who was now in reality the sovereign. She immediately ape 
 pointed him Secretary of State, and transferred to him the 
 reins of government which she had taken from the unresisting 
 hands of her moping husband. Thus Ripperda became, in al} 
 but title, the King of Spain. He was a weak man, of just 
 those traits of character which would make him a haughty 
 - woman’s favorite. He was so elated with this success, became 
 so insufferably vain, and assumed such imperious airs as to dis: 
 gust all parties. He made the most extravagant promises of 
 the subsidies the emperor was to furnish, and of the powers 
 which were to combine to trample England and France be 
 neath their feet. It was soon seen that these promises were 
 merely the vain-glorious boasts of his own heated brain. Even 
 the imperial ambassador at Madrid was so repelled by his ar- 
 royance, that he avoided as far as possible all social and even 
 diplomatic intercourse with him. There was a general com- 
 bination of the courtiers to crush the favorite. The queen, 
 who, with all her ambition, had a good share of sagacity, soon 
 saw the mistake she had made, and in four months after Rip- 
 perda’s return to Madrid, he was dismissed in disgrace. 
 
 A general storm of contempt and indignation pursued the 
 discarded minister. His rage was now inflamed as much as hig 
 vanity had been. Fearful of arrest and imprisonment, and 
 burning with that spirit of revenge which is ever strongest im 
 weakest minds, he took refuge in the house of the British am- 
 
S76 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 bassador, Mr. Stanhope. Hostilities had not yet eommenced 
 Indeed there had been no declaration of war, and diplomatie 
 relations still continued undisturbed. Each party was acting 
 secretly, and watching the movements of the other with a 
 jealous eye. : 
 
 Ripperda sought protection beneath the flag of England, 
 and with the characteristic ignominy of deserters and traitors, 
 endeavored to ingratiate himself with his new friends by dis. 
 closing all the secrets of his negotiations at Vienna. Under 
 these circumstances full confidence can not be placed in his 
 declarations, for he had already proved himself to be quite un- 
 scrupulous in regard to truth. The indignant queen sent an 
 armed force, arrested the duke in the house of the British am- 
 bassador, and sent him, in close imprisonment, to the castle of 
 Segovia. He, however, soon escaped from there and fled to 
 England, where he reiterated his declarations respecting the 
 secret articles of the treaty of Vienna. The most important 
 of these declarations was, that Spain and the emperor had 
 agreed to drive George I. from England and to place the 
 Pretender, who had still many adherents, upon the British 
 throne. It was also asserted that marriage contracts were en- 
 tered into which, by uniting the daughters of the emperor with 
 the sons of the Spanish monarch, would eventually place the 
 crowns of Austria and Spain upon the same brow. The thought 
 of such a vast accumulation of power in the hands of any one 
 monarch, alarmed all the rest of Europe. Both Spain and the 
 emperor denied many of the statements made by Ripperda. 
 But as truth has not been esteemed a diplomatic virtue, and 
 as both Ripperda and the sovereigns he had served were equale 
 ly tempted to falsehood, and were equally destitute of any 
 character for truth, it is not easy to decide which party to bee 
 lieve. 
 
 England and France took occasion, through these disclo- 
 gures, to rouse the alarm of Europe. So much apprehension 
 was excited in Prussia, Bavaria, and with other princes of the 
 
CHARLES VI. Bak a» 
 
 empire, who were appalled at the thought of having another 
 Spanish prince upon the imperial throne, that the emperor 
 sent ambassadors to these courts to appease their anxiety, and 
 issued a public declaration denying that any such marriages 
 were in contemplation; while at the same time he was prom 
 ising the Queen of Spain these marriages, to secure her sup- 
 port. England and France accuse the emperor of deliberate, 
 persistent, unblushing falsehood. 
 
 The emperor seems now to have become involved in an 
 inextricable maze of prevarication and duplicity, striving in 
 one court to accomplish purposes which in other courts he was 
 denying that he wished to accomplish. His embarrassment 
 at length became so great, the greater part of Europe being 
 roused and jealous, that he was compelled to abandon Spain, 
 and reluctantly to sign a treaty of amity with France and En- 
 gland. A general armistice was agreed upon for seven years, 
 The King of Spain, thus abandoned by the emperor, was also 
 compelled to smother his indignation and to roll back his artil- 
 lery into the arsenals. Thus this black cloud of war, which 
 threatened all Kurope with desolation, was apparently dispelled. 
 This treaty, which seemed to restore peace to Europe, was 
 signed in June, 1727. It was, however, a hollow peace. The 
 spirit of ambition and aggression animated every court; and 
 each one was ready, in defiance of treaties and in defiance of 
 the misery of the world, again to unsheath the sword as soon 
 as any opportunity should offer for the increase of territory 
 or power, 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 OHARLES VI. AND THE POLISH WAR. 
 
 From 1727 to 1735. 
 
 Gagvinat Frevry.—Tum Emrrror or AUSTRIA URGES THE PracwaTio Sancric#.— 
 HE PROMISES HIS TWO DAUGHTERS TO THE TWO SONS OF THE QUEEN OF SPAIN, 
 Franor, ENGLAND AND SPAIN UNITE AGAINST AUSTRIA.—CHAELES VI. 1ssuxs Om 
 DERS TO PREPARE FOR WaAk.—His PERPLEXITIES.—SHORET OVERTURES TO EN 
 @LAND.—THE Crown OF PoLAND.—MEETING OF THE PoLisH ConerEss.—STANIB- 
 LAUS GOES TO PoLaNp.—Aveustus III. cRowNED.—WaAR.—CHARLES SENDS AW 
 Army TO LomMBarDy.—DiFFiouLTizs oF Prinok Evernt.—Cnaries’s DisPLeas 
 URE WITH ENGLAND.—LetteR TO Count Ktnsky.—HOostILitigs RENEWED. 
 
 HE young King of France, Louis XV., from amidst the 
 orgies of his court which rivaled Babylon in corruption, 
 
 was now seventeen years of age, and was beginning to shake 
 off the trammels of guardianship and to take some ambitious 
 part in government. The infamous regent, the Duke of Or 
 leans, died suddenly of apoplexy in 1723. Gradually the king*s 
 preceptor, Fleury, obtained the entire ascendency over the 
 mind of his pupil, and became the chief director of affairs, 
 He saw the policy of reuniting the Bourbons of France and 
 Spain for the support of each other. The policy was conse- 
 quently adopted of cultivating friendly relations between the 
 two kingdoms. Cardinal Fleury was much disposed to thwart 
 the plans of the emperor. A congress of the leading powers 
 had been assembled at Soissons in June, 1728, to settle some 
 diplomatic questions. The favorite object of the emperor now 
 was, to obtain from the European powers the formal guarantee 
 to support his decree of succession which conveyed the crown 
 of Austria to his daughters, in preference to those of his brother 
 
 Joseph. 
 
GHARLES VI. AND THE POLISH WAR 379 
 
 The emperor urged the Pragmatic Sanction strongly upon 
 the congress, as the basis upon which he would enter into 
 friendly relations with all the powers. Fleury opposed it, and 
 with such influence over the other plenipotentiaries as to se- 
 cure its rejection. The emperor was much irritated, and inti- 
 mated war. France and England retorted defiance. Spain 
 was becoming alienated from the emperor, who had abandoned 
 her cause, and was again entering into alliance with France 
 The emperor had promised his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, 
 to Carlos, son of the Queen of Spain, and a second daughter 
 to the next son, Philip. These were as brilliant matches as an 
 ambitious mother could desire. But while the emperor was 
 making secret and solemn promises to the Queen of Spain, that 
 these marriages should be consummated, which would secure 
 to the son of the queen the Austrian, as well as the Spanish 
 ctown, he was declaring to the courts of Europe that he had 
 no such plans in contemplation. 
 
 The Spanish queen, at length, annoyed, and goaded on by 
 France and England, sent an ambassador to Vienna, and de- 
 manded of the emperor a written promise that Maria Theresa 
 was to be the bride of Carlos. The emperor was now brought 
 to the end of his intrigues. He had been careful heretofore 
 to give only verbal promises, through his ministers. After his 
 reiterated public denials that any such alliance was anticipated, 
 he did not dare commit himself by giving the required docu- 
 ment. An apologetic, equivocal answer was returned which 
 so roused the ire of the queen, that, breaking off from Austria, 
 she at once entered into a treaty of cordial union with En- 
 gland and France. 
 
 It will readily be seen that all these wars and intrigues 
 had but little reference to the welfare of the masses of the 
 people. They were hardly more thought of than the cattle 
 and the poultry. The only purpose they served was, by uninter- 
 mitted toil, to raise the wealth which supported the castle and 
 the palace, and to march to the field to fight battles, in whick 
 
880 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 they had no earthly interest. The written history of Europe 
 is only the history of kings and nobles—their ambitions, im 
 trigues and war. The unwritten history of the dumb, toil 
 ing millions, defrauded of their rights, doomed to poverty and 
 ignorance, is only recorded in the book of God’s remembrances, 
 When that page shall be read, every ear that hears it will 
 tingle. 
 
 The frail connection between Austria and Spain was now ter 
 minated. England, France and Spain entered into an alliance 
 to make vigorous war against Charles VI. if he manifested any 
 hostility to any of the articles of the treaty into which they 
 had entered. The Queen of Spain, in her spite, forbade the 
 subjects of the emperor from trading at all with Spain, and 
 granted to her new allies the exclusive right to the Spanish 
 trade. She went so far in her reconciliation with England as 
 to assure the king that he was quite welcome to retain the 
 rock of Gibraltar which he held with so tenacious a grasp. 
 
 In this treaty, with studied neglect, even the name of the 
 emperor was not mentioned; and yet the allies, as if to pro 
 voke a quarrel, sent Charles VI. a copy, peremptorily dee 
 manding assent to the treaty without his having taken any 
 part whatever in the negotiation. 
 
 This insulting demand fell like a bomb-shell in the palace 
 at Vienna. Emperor, ministers, courtiers, all were aroused te 
 a frenzy of indignation. “So insulting a message,” said Count 
 Zinzendorf, “is unparalleled, even in the annals of savages.* 
 The emperor condescended to make no reply, but very spirit- 
 edly issued orders to all parts of the empire, for his troops 
 hold themselves in readiness for war. 
 
 And yet Charles was overwhelmed with anxiety, and wae 
 almost in despair. It was a terrible humiliation for the em 
 ' peror to be compelled to submit, unavenged, to such an insali, 
 But how could the emperor alone, venture to meet in batéle 
 England, France, Spain and all the other powers whom three 
 such kingdoms could, either by persuasion or compulsion, 
 
COARLES VI. AND THE POLISH WAR. 88) 
 
 bring into their alliance? He plead with his natural allies, 
 Russia had not been insulted, and was unwilling to engage in 
 so distant a war. Prussia had no hope of gaining any thing, 
 and declined the contest. Sardinia sent a polite message to 
 the emperor that it was more for her interest to enter into 
 an alliance with her nearer neighbors, France, Spain and En- 
 gland, and that she had accordingly done so. The treasury of 
 Charles was exhausted ; his States were impoverished by con- 
 stant and desolating wars. And his troops manifested but 
 little zeal to enter the field against so fearful a superiority of 
 force. The emperor, tortured almost beyond endurance by 
 chagrin, was yet compelled to submit. 
 
 The allies were quite willing to provoke a war with the 
 emperor; but as he received their insults so meekly, and 
 made no movement against them, they were rather disposed 
 to march against him. Spain wanted Parma and Tuscany, 
 but France was not willing to have Spain make so great an 
 accession to her Italian power. France wished to extend her 
 area north, through the States of the Netherlands. But 
 England was unwilling to see the French power thus aggran- 
 dized. England had her aspirations, to which both France 
 and Spain were opposed. Thus the allies operated as a check 
 upon each other, 
 
 The emperor found some little consolation in this growing 
 disunion, and did all in his power to foment it. Wishing to 
 humble the Bourbons of France and Spain, he made secret 
 overtures to England. The offers of the emperor were of 
 such a nature, that England eagerly accepted them, returned 
 to friendly relations with the emperor, and, to his extreme joy, 
 pledged herself to support the Pragmatic Sanction. 
 
 It seems to have been the great object of the emperor’s 
 life to secure the crown of Austria for his daughters. It was 
 an exceedingly disgraceful act. There was no single respect- 
 able reason to be brought forward why his daughters should 
 crowd from the throne the daughters of his elder deceaseG 
 
382 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBEIA. 
 
 brother, the Emperor Joseph. Charles was so aware of the 
 gross injustice of the deed, and that the ordinary integrity of 
 humanity would rise against him, that he felt the necessity of 
 exhausting all the arts of diplomacy to secure for his daughters 
 the pledged support of the surrounding thrones. He had 
 now by intrigues of many years obtained the guarantee of the 
 Pragmatic Sanction from Russia, Prussia, Holland, Spain and 
 England. France still refused her pledge, as did also many 
 of the minor States of the empire. The emperor, encouraged 
 by the success he had thus far met with, pushed his efforts 
 with renewed vigor, and in January, 1782, exulted that he 
 had gained the guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction from all 
 the Germanic body, with the exception of Bavaria, Palatine 
 and Saxony. 
 
 And now a new difficulty arose to embroil Europe in trou- 
 ble. When Charles XII, like a thunderbolt of war, bursé 
 upon Poland, he drove Augustus II. from the throne, and 
 placed upon it Stanislaus Leczinski, a Polish noble, whom he 
 had picked up by the way, and whose heroic character se- 
 cured the admiration of this semi-insane monarch. Augus- 
 tus, utterly crushed, was compelled by his eccentric victor to 
 send the crown jewels and the archives, with a letter of con- 
 gratulation, to Stanislaus. This was in the year 1706. Three 
 years after this, in 1709, Charles XII. suffered a memorable 
 defeat at Pultowa. Augustus II., then at the head of an 
 army, regained his kingdom, and Stanislaus fled in disguise. 
 After numerous adventures and fearful afflictions, the court 
 of France offered him a retreat in Wissembourg in Alsace, 
 Here the ex-king remained for six years, when his beautiful 
 daughter Mary was selected to take the place of the rejected 
 Mary of Spain, as the wife of the young dauphin, Louis XV. 
 
 In the year 1733 Augustus II. died. In anticipation of this 
 event Anstria had been very busy, hoping to secure the elect- 
 ive crown of Poland for the son of Augustus who had inher 
 ited his father’s name, and who had promised to suppert the 
 
CHARLES VI. AND THE POLISH WAR. 888 
 
 Pragmatic Sanction. France was equally busy in the endeavor 
 to place the scepter of Poland in the hand of Stanislaus, father 
 of the queen. From the time ofthe marriage of his daughter 
 with Louis XV., Stanislaus received a handsome pension from 
 the French treasury, maintained a court of regal splendor, and 
 received all the honors due to a sovereign. All the energies 
 of the French court were now aroused to secure the crown for 
 Stanislaus, Russia, Prussia and Austria were in natural sym- 
 pathy. They wished to secure the alliance of Poland, and 
 were also both anxious to destroy the republican principle of 
 electing rulers, and to introduce hereditary descent of the crown 
 in all the kingdoms of Europe. But an election by the nobles 
 was now indispensable, and the rival powers were, with all the 
 arts known in courts, pushing the claims of their several can- 
 didates. It was an important question, for upon it depended 
 whether warlike Poland was to be the ally of the Austrian or 
 of the French party. Poland was also becoming quite repub- 
 lican in its tendencies, and had adopted a constitution which 
 greatly limited the power of the crown. Augustus would be 
 but a tool in the hands of Russia, Prussia and Austria, and 
 would coéperate with them in crushing the spirit of liberty in 
 Poland. These three great northern powers became so roused 
 upon the subject, that they put their troops in motion, threate 
 ening to exclude Stanislaus by force. 
 
 This language of menace and display of arms roused France, 
 The king, while inundating Poland with agents, and lavishing 
 the treasure of France in bribes to secure the election of Stan- 
 islaus, assumed an air of virtuous indignation in view of the 
 interference of the Austrian party, and declared that no for 
 ‘eign power should interfere in any way with the freedom of 
 the election. This led the emperor to issue a counter-memo 
 tal inveighing against the intermeddling of Hrance. 
 
 In the midst of these turmoils the congress of Polish nobles 
 met to choose their king. It was immediately apparent that 
 there was s very powerful party organized in favor of Stanis 
 
384 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 laus. The emperor was for marching directly into the king: 
 dom with an army which he had already assembled in Silesia 
 for this purpose, and with the bayonet make up for any de- 
 ficiency which his party might want in votes. Though Prus- 
 sia demurred, he put his troops in motion, and the imperial and 
 Russian ambassadors at Warsaw informed the marshal of the 
 diet that Catharine, who was now Empress of Russia, and 
 Charles, had decided to exclude Stanislaus from Poland by 
 force. 
 
 These threats produced their natural effect upon the bold 
 warrior barons of Poland. Exasperated rather than intimi 
 dated, they assembled, many thousands in number, on the 
 great plain of Wola, but a few miles from Warsaw, and with 
 great unanimity chose Stanislaus their king. This was the 
 12th of September, 1733. Stanislaus, anticipating the result, 
 had left France in disguise, accompanied by a single attend- 
 ant, to undertake the bold enterprise of traversing the heart 
 of Germany, eluding all the vigilance of the emperor, and of 
 entering Poland notwithstanding all the efforts of Austria, 
 Russia and Prussia to keep him away. It was a very hazard- 
 ous adventure, for his arrest would have proved his ruin. 
 Though he encountered innumerable dangers, with marvelous 
 sagacity and heroism he succeeded, and reached Warsaw on 
 the 9th of September, just three days before the election. In 
 regal splendor he rode, as soon as informed of his election, to 
 the tented field where the nobles were convened. He was re- 
 ceived with the clashing of weapons, the explosions of artil- 
 zery, and the acclamations of thousands. 
 
 But the Poles were not sufficiently enlightened fully to 
 comprehend the virtue and the sacredness of the ballot-box. 
 The Russian army was now hastening to the gates of War- 
 saw. ‘The small minority of Polish nobles opposed to the elec 
 tion of Stanislaus seceded from the diet, mounted their horses, 
 crossed the Vistula, and joined the invading army to make war 
 upon the sovereign whom the majority had chosen. The ret- 
 
CHARL#S VI. AND THE POLISH WaRB. 888 
 
 ribution for such folly and wickedness has come. There is no 
 longer any Poland. They who despise the authority of the 
 ballot-box inevitably usher in the bayonets of despotism. Um 
 der the protection of this army the minority held another diet 
 at Kamien (on the 5th of October), a village just outside the 
 suburbs of Warsaw, and chose as the sovereign of Poland Au- 
 gustus, son of the deceased king. The minority, aided by the 
 Russian and imperial armies, were too strong for the majority. 
 They took possession of Warsaw, and crowned their candidate 
 king, with the title of Augustus III. Stanislaus, pressed by an 
 overpowering force, retreated to Dantzic, at the mouth of the 
 Vistula, about two hundred miles from Warsaw. Here he 
 was surrounded by the Russian troops and held in close siege, 
 while Augustus III. took possession of Poland. France could 
 do nothing. A weary march of more than a thousand miles 
 separated Paris from Warsaw, and the French troops would 
 be compelled to fight their way through the very heart of the 
 German empire, and at the end of the journey to meet the 
 united armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Poland under her 
 king, now in possession of all the fortresses, 
 
 Though Louis XV. could make no effectual resistance, it 
 was not in human nature but that he should seek revenge. 
 When shepherds quarrel, they kill each other’s flocks. When 
 kings quarrel, they kill the poor peasants in each other’s terri- 
 tories, and burn their homes. France succeeded in enlisting 
 in her behalf Spain and Sardinia, Austria and Russia were 
 upon the other side. Prussia, jealous of the emperor’s great- 
 ness, declined any active participation. Most of the other 
 powers of Europe also remained neutral. France had now no 
 hope of placing Stanislaus upon the throne; she only sought 
 revenge, determined to humble the house of Austria. The 
 mercerary King of Sardinia, Charles Emanuel, was willing to 
 serve the one who would pay the most. He first offered him 
 self to the emperor, but upon terms too exorbitant to be ae- 
 cepted, France and Spain immediately offered him terms eves 
 
386 THE HOUSE OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 more advantageous than those he had demanded of the empex 
 ror. The contract was settled, and the Sardinian army marched 
 into the allied camp. 
 
 The King of Sardinia, who was as ready to employ ails 
 as force in warfare, so thoroughly deceived the emperor as to 
 .ead him to believe that he had accepted the emperor’s terms, 
 and that Sardinia was to be allied with Austria, even when the 
 whole contract was settled with France and Spain, and the 
 plan of the campaign was matured. So utterly was the em- 
 peror deluded by a fraud so contemptible, in the view of every 
 honorable mind, that he sent great convoys of grain, and a 
 large supply of shot, shells and artillery from the arsenals of 
 Milan into the Sardinian camp. Charles Emanuel, dead to all 
 sense of magnanimity, rubbed his hands with delight in the 
 successful perpetration of such fraud, exclaiming, “An virtus 
 an dolos, quis ab hoste requirat.” 
 
 So cunningly was this stratagem carried on, that the em- 
 peror was not undeceived until his own artillery, which he had 
 - gent to Charles Emanuel, were thundering at the gates of the 
 city of Milan, and the shot and shells which he had so unsus- 
 pectingly furnished were mowing down the imperial troops. 
 So sudden was the attack, so unprepared was Austrian Lom- 
 bardy to meet it, that in twelve weeks the Sardinian troops 
 overran the whole territory, seized every city and magazine, 
 with all their treasures, leaving the fortress of Mantua alone 
 in the possession of the imperial troops. It was the poliey of 
 Louis XV. to attack Austria in the remote portions of her widely- 
 extended dominions, and to cut off province by province. He 
 also made special and successful efforts to detach the interests 
 af the German empire from those of Austria, so that the 
 princes of the empire might claim neutrality. It was against 
 the possessions of Charles VI., not against the independent 
 States of the empire, that Louis XV. urged war. 
 
 The storms of winter were now at hand, and both parties 
 were compelled to abandon the field until spring. But during 
 
CHARLES Vl. AND THE POLISH WA2. 88% 
 
 the winter every nerve was strained by the combatants in 
 preparation for the strife which the returning sun would in: 
 troduce. The emperor established strong defenses along the 
 banks of the Rhine to prevent the passage of the French; he 
 also sent agents to all the princes of the empire to enlist them 
 in his cause, and succeeded, notwithstanding the remonstranves 
 of many who claimed neutrality, in obtaining a vote from a 
 diet which he assembled, for a large sum of money, and for an 
 army of one hundred and twenty thousand men. 
 
 The loss of Lombardy troubled Charles exceedingly, for it 
 threatened the loss of all his Italian possessions. Notwith- 
 standing the severity of the winter he sent to Mantua all the 
 troops he could raise from his hereditary domains; and or- 
 dered every possible effort to be made to be prepared to un- 
 dertake the offensive in the spring, and to drive the Sardinians 
 from Lombardy. In the beginning of May the emperor had 
 assembled within and around Mantua, sixty thousand men, 
 under the command of Count Merci. The hostile forces soon 
 met, and battle after battle thundered over the Italian plains. 
 On the 29th of June the two armies encountered each other 
 in the vicinity of Parma, in such numbers as to give promise 
 of a decisive battle. For ten hours the demoniac storm raged 
 unintermitted. Ten thousand of the dead covered the ground. 
 Neither party had taken a single standard or a single prisoner; 
 an event almost unparalleled in the history of battles. From 
 the utter exhaustion of both parties the strife ceased. The 
 Sardinians and French, mangled and bleeding, retired within 
 the walls of Parma. The Austrians, equally bruised and bloody, 
 having lost their leader, retired to Reggio. Three hundred and 
 forty of the Austrian officers were either killed or wounded. 
 
 The King of Sardinia was absent during this engagement, 
 having gone to Turin to visit his wife, who was sick. The 
 morning after the battle, however, he joined the army, and 
 succeeded in cutting off an Austrian division of twelve hun. 
 dred men, whom he took prisoners. Both parties now waited 
 
888 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 for a time to heal their wounds, repair their shattered weap 
 ons, get rested and receive reinforcements. Ten thousand poor 
 peasants, who had not the slightest interest in the quarrel, had 
 now met with a bloody death, and other thousands were now 
 to be brought forward and offered as victims on this altar of 
 kingly ambition. By the middle of July they were again pre- 
 pared to take the field. Both parties struggled with almost 
 superhuman energies in the work of mutual destruction; vil- 
 lages were burned, cities stormed, fields crimsoned with blood 
 and strewn with the slain, while no decisive advantage was 
 gained, In the desperation of the strife the hostile battalions 
 were hurled against each other until the beginning of January. | 
 They waded morasses, slept in drenching storms, and were 
 swept by freezing blasts. Sickness entered the camp, and was 
 even more fatal than the bullet of the foe. Thousands moaned 
 and died in their misery, upon pallets of straw, where no sis- 
 ter, wife or mother could soothe the dying anguish. Another 
 winter only afforded the combatants opportunity to nurse 
 their strength that they might deal still heavier blows in 
 another campaign. 
 
 While the imperial troops were struggling against Sar- 
 dinia and France on the plains of Lombardy, a Spanish squad- 
 ron landed a strong military force of French and Spaniards 
 upon the peninsula of southern Italy, and meeting with no 
 force sufficiently powerful to oppose them, speedily overran 
 Naples and Sicily. The Spanish troops silenced the forts which 
 defended the city of Naples, and taking the garrison prisoners, 
 entered the metropolis in triumphal array, greeted by the ac- 
 clamations of the populace, who hated the Austrians, After 
 many battles, in which thousands were slain, ‘the Austrians were 
 driven out of all the Neapolitan States, and Carlos, the oldest 
 son of Philip V. of Spain, was crowned King of Naples, with 
 the title of Charles III. The island of Sicily was speedily sub- 
 jugated and also attached to the Neapolitan crown. 
 
 These losses the emperor fet most keenly. Upon the 
 
CHARLES I. AND “HE POLISH WAR. 389 
 
 Rhine he had made great preparations, strengthening fortresses 
 and collecting troops, which he placed under the command of 
 his veteran general, Prince Eugene. He was quite sanguine 
 that here he would be abundantly able to repel the assaults of 
 his foes. But here again he was doomed to bitter disappoint- 
 ment. The emperor found a vast disproportion between prom- 
 ise and performance. The diet had voted him one hundred 
 and twenty thousand troops; they furnished twelve thousand, 
 They voted abundant supplies; they furnished ali:nost none 
 at all. 
 
 The campaign opened the 9th of April, 1734, the French 
 crossing the Rhine near Truerbuch, in three strong columns, 
 notwithstanding all the efforts of the Austrians to resist them. 
 Prince Eugene, by birth a Frenchman, reluctantly assumed 
 the command. He had remonstrated with the emperor against 
 any forcible interference in the Polish election, assuring him 
 that he would thus expose himself, almost without allies, to all 
 the power of France. Eugene did not hesitate openly to ex- 
 press his disapprobation of the war. ‘I can take no interest 
 in this war,” he said; “the question at issue is not important 
 enough to authorize the death of a chicken,” 
 
 Eugene, upon his arrival from Vienna, at the Austrian 
 camp, found but twenty-five thousand men, They were com- 
 posed of a motley assemblage from different States, undisci- 
 plined, unaccustomed to act together and with no confidence 
 in each other. The commanders of the various corps were 
 quarreling for the precedence in rank, and there was no unity 
 or subordination in the army. They were retreating before 
 the French, who, in numbers, in discipline, and in the materie! 
 of war, were vastly in the superiority. Eugene saw at once 
 that it would be folly to risk a battle, and that all he could 
 hope to accomplish was to throw such embarrassments as he 
 might in the path of the victors. 
 
 The young officers, ignorant, impetuous and reckless, were 
 for giving battle, which would inevitably have resulted in the 
 
$90 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 destruction of the army. They were so vexed by the wise cau 
 tion of Eugene, which they regarded as pusillanimity, that they 
 complained to the emperor that the veteran general was in his 
 dotage, that he was broken both in body and mind, and quite 
 unfit to command the army. These representations induced 
 the emperor to send a spy to watch the conduct of Eugene. 
 Though deeply wounded by these suspicions, the experienced 
 general could not be provoked to hazard an engagement. He 
 retreated from post to post, merely checking the progress of 
 the enemy, till the campaign was over, and the ice and snow of 
 a German winter drove all to winter quarters. 
 
 While recruiting for the campaign of 17385, Prince Eugene 
 wrote a series of most earnest letters to his confidential agent 
 in London, which letters were laid before George IL, urging 
 England to come to the help of the emperor in his great ex- 
 tremity. Though George was eager to put the fleet and army 
 of England in motion, the British cabinet wisely refused to 
 plunge the nation into war for such a cause, and the emperor 
 was left to reap the bitter fruit of his despotism and folly. 
 The emperor endeavored to frighten England by saying that 
 he was reduced to such an extremity that if the British cabi- 
 net did not give him aid, he should be compelled to seek peace 
 by giving his daughter, with Austria in her hand as her dow- 
 ry, to Carlos, now King of Naples and heir apparent to the 
 crown of Spain. He well knew that to prevent such an acqui- 
 sition of power on the part of the Spanish monarch, who was 
 also in intimate alliance with France, England would be ready 
 to expend any amount of blood and treasure. 
 
 Charles VI. waited with great impatience to see the result 
 of this menace, hardly doubting that it would bring England 
 immediately to terms. Bitter was his disappointment and his 
 despair when he received from the court of St. James the calm 
 reply, that England could not possibly take a part in this war, 
 and that in view of the great embarrassments in which the 
 emperor was involved, England would take no offense in case 
 
CHARLES VI. AND THE POLISH WAR. 391 
 
 of the marriage of the emperor’s second daughter to Carlos, 
 England then advised the emperor to make peace by surren- 
 dering the Netherlands. 
 
 The emperor was now greatly enraged, and inveighed bit- 
 terly against England as guilty of the grossest perfidy. He 
 declared that England had been as deeply interested as he was 
 in excluding Stanislaus from the throne of Poland; that it was 
 more important for England than for Austria to curb the ex- 
 horbitant power of France; that in every step he had taken 
 against Stanislaus, he had consulted England, and had acted 
 in accordance with her counsel; that England was reaping the 
 benefit of having the father-in-law of the French king expelled 
 from the Polish throne; that England had solemnly promised 
 to support him in these measures, and now having derived 
 all the advantage, basely abandoned him. There were bitter 
 _ charges, and it has never been denied that they were mainly 
 true. The emperor, in his indignation, threatened to tell the 
 whole story to the people of England. It is strange that the 
 emperor had found out that there were people in England. In 
 no other part of Europe was there any thing but nobles and 
 peasants. 
 
 In this extraordinary letter, addressed to Count Kinsky, 
 the imperial ambassador in London, the emperor wrote : 
 
 “On the death of Augustus II., King of Poland, my first 
 care was to communicate to the King of England the princi- 
 ples on which I acted. I followed, in every instance, his ad. 
 vice. * * * England has never failed to give me promises, 
 both before and since the commencement of the war, but in- 
 stead of fulfilling those promises, she has even favored my 
 enemies. * * * Let the king know that I never will consent 
 to the plan of pacification now in agitation; that I had rather 
 suffer the worst of extremities than accede to such disadvan. 
 tageous proposals, and that even if I should not be able te 
 prevent them, I will justify my honor and my dignity, by pub- 
 lishing a circumstantial account of all the transaction, together 
 
392 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 with all the documents which I have now in possession. * * * 
 If these representations fail, means must be taken to publish 
 and circulate throughout England our answer to the proposal 
 of good offices which was not made till after the expiration 
 of nine months. Should the court of London proceed so far 
 as to make such propositions of peace as are supposed to be in 
 agitation, you will not delay a moment to circulate throughout 
 England a memorial, containing a recapitulation of all negoti- 
 ations which have taken place since 1710, together with the 
 authentic documents, detailing my just complaints, and re- 
 claiming, in the most solemn manner, the execution of the 
 guaranties.” 
 
 One more effort the emperor made, and it was indeed a 
 desperate one. He dispatched a secret agent, an English Ro- 
 man Catholic, by the name of Strickland, to London, to en- 
 deavor to overthrow the ministry and bring in a cabinet in 
 favor of him. In this, of course, he failed entirely. Nothing 
 now remained for him but to submit, with the best grace he 
 could, to the terms exacted by his foes. In the general pacifi- 
 cation great interests were at stake, and all the leading pow- 
 ers of Europe demanded a voice in the proceedings. For 
 many months the negotiations were protracted. England and 
 France became involved in an angry dispute. Each power 
 was endeavoring to grasp all it could, while at the same time 
 it was striving to check the rapacity of every other power. 
 There was a general armistice while these negotiations were 
 pending. It was, however, found exceedingly difficult to rec- 
 oncile all conflicting interests. New parties were formed ; 
 new combinations entered into, and all parties began to aim 
 for a renewal of the strife. England, exasperated against 
 France, i menace made an imposing display of her fleet and 
 navy, The emperor was delighted, and, trusting to gain new 
 allies, exerted his skill of diplomacy to involve the contract- 
 ing parties in confusion and discord. 
 
 Thus encouraged, the emperor refused to accede to the 
 
CHARLES VI. AND THE POLISH WAR. 3938 
 
 terms demanded. He was required to give up the Nether- 
 lands, and all his foreign possessions, and to retire to his hered.- 
 itary dominions. ‘“ What a severe sentence,” exclaimed Count 
 Zinzendorf, the emperor’s ambassador, “have you passed on 
 the emperor. No malefactor was ever carried with so hard a 
 doom to the gibbet.” 
 
 The armies again took the field. Eugene, again, though 
 with great reluctance, assumed the command of the imperial 
 forces, France had assembled one hundred thousand men 
 upon the Rhine. Eugene had but thirty thousand men to 
 meet them. He assured the emperor that with such a force 
 he could not successfully carry on the war. Jealous of his 
 reputation, he said, sadly, “‘to find myself in the same condi- 
 tion as last year, will be only exposing myself to the censure 
 of the world, which judges by appearancs, as if I were less 
 capable, in my old age, to support the reputation of my former 
 successes.” With consummate generalship, this small force 
 held the whole French army in check. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 ~ 
 
 CHARLES VI. AND THE TURKISH WAR RENEWED. 
 From 1785 to 1789. 
 
 ANXIETY OF AUSTRIAN OFFIOE-HOLDEES.—Maria THERESA.—THE DUKE OF LOEEAINE— 
 DISTRACTION OF THE EMPEROR.—TUSOANY ASSIGNED TO THE DuKE OF LOREAINE.— 
 Dratu or EveGene.—Risine GREATNESS OF Russ1aA.—NEwW WAR WITH THE TURKS. 
 —CONDITION OF THE ARMY.—COMMENOEMENT OF HOSTILITIES.—CAPTURE OF NIssa. 
 —INEFFICIENT CAMPAIGN.—DISGRAOE OF SEOKENDORF.—THE DvxKE or LORRAINE 
 PLACED IN COMMAND.—SIEGE OF OrsoOVA.—BELGRADE BESIEGED BY THE TUREKS.— 
 Tur THIRD CAMPAIGN.—BATTLE OF CROTZKA.—DEFEAT OF THE AUSTRIANS,—CON- 
 STERNATION IN VIENNA.--BARBARISM OF THE TURKS.—THE SURRENDER OF BEL 
 GRADE. 
 
 HE emperor being quite unable, either on the Rhine or in 
 
 Italy, successfully to compete with his foes, received blow 
 after blow, which exceedingly disheartened him. His affairs 
 were in a desperate condition, and, to add to his grief, dis- 
 sensions filled his cabinet ; his counsellors mutually accusing 
 each other of being the cause of the impending ruin. The 
 Italian possessions of the emperor had been thronged with 
 Austrian nobles, filling all the posts of office and of honor, and 
 receiving rich salaries. A change of administration, in the 
 transference of these States to the dominion of Spain and 
 Sardinia, ‘‘ reformed” all these Austrian office-holders out of 
 their places, and conferred these posts upon Spaniards and 
 Sardinians. The ejected Austrian nobles crowded the court 
 of the emperor, with the most passionate importunities that 
 he would enter into a separate accommodation with Spain, 
 and secure the restoration of the Italian provinces by giving 
 his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, to the Spanish prince, 
 Carlos. This would seem to be a very simple arrangement, 
 
CHARLES VI. 395 
 
 especially siice the Queen of Spain so earnestly desired this 
 match, that she was willing to make almost any sacrifice for 
 its accomplishment. But there was an inseparable obstacle in 
 the way of any such arrangement. 
 
 Maria Theresa had just attained her eighteenth year. She 
 was a young lady of extraordinary force of character, and 
 of an imperial spirit; and she had not the slightest idea of 
 having her person disposed of as a mere make-weight in the 
 diplomacy of Europe. She knew that the crown of Austria 
 was soon to be hers; she understood the weakness of her 
 father, and was well aware that she was far more capable of 
 wearing that crown than he had ever been; and she was al- 
 ready far more disposed to take the reins of government from 
 her father’s hand, than she was to submit herself to his con- 
 trol. With such a character, and such anticipations, she had 
 become passionately attached to the young Duke of Lorraine, 
 who was eight years her senior, and who had for some years 
 been one of the most brilliant ornaments of her father’s court, 
 
 The duchy of Lorraine was one of the most extensive and 
 »pulent of the minor States of the German empire. Admira- 
 bly situated upon the Rhine and the Meuse, and extending to 
 the sea, it embraced over ten thousand square miles, and 
 contained a population of over a million and a half. The 
 duke, Francis Stephen, was the heir of an illustrious line, 
 whose lineage could be traced for many centuries. Germany, 
 France and Spain, united, had not sufficient power to induce 
 Maria Theresa to reject Francis Stephen, the grandson of her 
 father’s sister, the playmate of her childhood, and now her 
 devoted lover, heroic and fascinating, for the Spanish Carlos, of 
 whom she knew little, and for whom she cared less. Ambition 
 also powerfully operated on the very peculiar mind of Maria 
 Theresa. She had much of the exacting spirit of Elizabeth, 
 England’s maiden queen, and was emulous of supremacy which 
 no one would share. She, in her own right, was to inherit 
 the crown of Austria, and Francis Stephen, high-born and 
 
896 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 noble as he was, and her recognized husband, would still be 
 her subject. She could confer upon him dignity and power, 
 retaining a supremacy which even he could never reach. 
 
 The emperor was fully aware of the attachment of his 
 daughter to Francis, of her inflexible character; and even 
 when pretending to negotiate for her marriage with Carlos, 
 he was conscious that it was all a mere pretense, and that the 
 union could never be effected. The British minister at Vienna 
 saw very clearly the true state of affairs, and when the emperor 
 was endeavoring to intimidate England by the menace that he 
 would unite the crowns of Spain and Austria by uniting Maria 
 and Carlos, the minister wrote to his home government as 
 follows : 
 
 ‘Maria Theresa is a princess of the highest spirit; her 
 father’s losses are her own. She reasons already; she enters 
 into affairs; she admires his virtues, but condemns his mis- 
 management; and is of a temper so formed for rule and am- 
 bition, as to look upon him as little more than her adminis- 
 trator. Notwithstanding this lofty humor by day, she sighs 
 and pines all night for her Duke of Lorraine. If she sleeps, 
 it is only to dream of him; if she wakes, it is but to talk of 
 him to the lady in waiting; so that there is no more prob. 
 ability of her forgetting the very individual government, and 
 the very individual husband which she thinks herself born to, 
 than of her forgiving the authors of her losing either.” 
 
 The empress was cordially codéperating with her daughter, 
 The emperor was in a state of utter distraction. His affairs 
 were fast going to ruin; he was harassed by counter intreat- 
 ies ; he knew not which way to turn, or what to do. Insup- 
 portable gloom oppressed his spirit. Pale and haggard, he 
 wandered through the rooms of his palace, the image of woe. 
 At night he tossed sleepless upon his bed, moaning in anguish 
 which he then did not attempt to conceal, and giving free 
 utterance to all the mental tortures which were goading him 
 to madness. ‘The queen became seriously alarmed lest his 
 
CHARLES VI. $07 
 
 reason should break down beneath such a weight of woe. I¢ 
 was clear that neither reason nor life could long withstand 
 such a struggle. 
 
 Thus in despair, the emperor made proposals for a secret and 
 separate accommodation with France. Louis XV. promptly 
 listened, and offered terms, appallingly definite, and crue} 
 enough to extort the last drop of blood from the emperor’s 
 sinking heart. ‘Give me,” said the French king, “ the duchy 
 of Lorraine, and I will withdraw my armies, and leave Austria 
 to make the best terms she can with Spain.” 
 
 How could the emperor wrest from his prospective son-in- 
 law his magnificent ancestral inheritance? The duke could 
 not hold his realms for an hour against the armies of France, 
 should the emperor consent to their surrender ; and conscious 
 of the desperation to which the emperor was driven, and of 
 his helplessness, he was himself plunged into the deepest 
 dismay and anguish, He held an interview with the British 
 minister to see if it were not possible that England might in- 
 terpose her aid in his behalf. In frantic grief he lost his self 
 control, and, throwing himself into a chair, pressed his brow 
 convulsively, and exclaimed, “Great God! will not England 
 help me? Has not his majesty with his own lips, over and 
 over again, promised to stand by me ?” 
 
 The French armies were advancing; shot and shell were 
 falling upon village and city; fortress after fortress was sur- 
 rendering. ‘Give me Lorraine,” repeated Louis XV., per- 
 sistently, “ or I will take all Austria.” There was no alterna 
 tive but for the emperor to drink to the dregs the bitter cup 
 which his own hand had mingled. He surrendered Lorraine 
 to France. He, however, succeeded in obtaining some slight 
 compensation for the defrauded duke. The French court al- 
 towed him a pension of ninety thousand dollars a year, until 
 the death of the aged Duke of Tuscany, who was the last of 
 the Medici line, promising that then Tuscany, one of the most 
 important duchies of central Italy, should pass into the hands 
 
398 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 of Francis. Should Sardinia offer any opposition, the King 
 of France promised to unite with the emperor in maintaining 
 Francis in his possession by force of arms. Peace was thus 
 obtained with France. Peace was then made with Spain and 
 Sardinia, by surrendering to Spain Naples and Sicily, and to 
 Sardinia most of the other Austrian provinces in Italy. Thug 
 scourged and despoiled, the emperor, a humbled, woe-stricken 
 man, retreated to the seclusion of his palace. 
 
 While these affairs were in progress, Francis Stephen de- 
 rived very considerable solace by his marriage with Maria 
 Theresa. Their nuptials took place at Vienna on the 12th of 
 February, 1736. ‘The emperor made the consent of the duke 
 to the cession of Lorraine to France, a condition of the mar- 
 riage. As the duke struggled against the surrender of his pa- 
 ternal domains, Cartenstein, the emperor’s confidential rainis- 
 ter, insultingly said to him, ‘“ Monseigneur, point de cession, 
 point d’archiduchesse.” My lord, no cession, no archduchess. 
 Fortunately for Francis, in about a year after his marriage 
 the Duke of Tuscany died, and Francis, with his bride, has- 
 tened to his new home in the palaces of Leghorn. Though the 
 duke mourned bitterly over the loss of his ancestral domains, 
 Tuscany was no mean inheritance. The duke was absolute 
 monarch of the duchy, which contained about eight thousand 
 square miles and a population of a million. The revenues of 
 the archduchy were some four millions of dollars. The army 
 consisted of six thousand troops. 
 
 Two months after the marriage of Maria Theresa, Prince 
 Kugene died quietly in his bed at the age of seventy-three. 
 He had passed his whole lifetime riding over fields of battle 
 swept by bullets and plowed by shot. He had always ex- 
 posed his own person with utter recklessness, leading the 
 charge, and being the first to enter the breach or climb the 
 rampart. Though often wounded, he escaped all these perils, 
 and breathed his last in peace upon his pillow in Vienna. 
 
 His funeral was attended with regal honors. For three 
 
CHARLES Vi. 399 
 
 days the corpse lay in state, with the coat of mail, the helmet 
 and the gauntlets which the warrior had worn in so many 
 fierce battles, suspended over his lifeless remains. His heart 
 was sent in an urn to be deposited in the royal tomb where 
 his ancestors slumbered. His embalmed body was interred in 
 the metropolitan church in Vienna. The emperor and all the 
 court attended the funeral, and his remains were borne to the 
 grave with honors rarely conferred upon any but crowned 
 heads. | 
 
 The Ottoman power had now passed its culminating point, 
 and was evidently on the wane. The Russian empire was be- 
 ginning to arrest the attention of Europe, and was ambitious 
 of making its voice heard in the diplomacy of the European 
 monarchies. Being destitute of any sea coast, it was excluded 
 from all commercial intercourse with foreign nations, and in 
 its cold, northern realm, “leaning,” as Napoleon once said, 
 “ against the North Pole,” seemed to be shut up to barbarism. 
 It had been a leading object of the ambition of Peter the Great 
 to secure a maritime port for his kingdom. He at first at- 
 tempted a naval depot on his extreme southern border, at the 
 mouth of the Don, on the sea of Azof. This would open to 
 him the commerce of the Mediterranean through the Azof, the 
 Euxine and the Marmora. But the assailing Turks drove him — 
 from these shores, and he was compelled to surrender the for- 
 tresses he had commenced to their arms. He then turned to 
 his western frontier, and, with an incredible expenditure of 
 money and sacrifice of life, reared upon the marshes of the 
 Baltic the imperial city of St. Petersburg. Peter I. died in 
 1725, leaving the crown to his wife Catharine. She, however, 
 survived him but two years, when she died, in 1727, leaving 
 two daughters. The crown then passed to the grandson of 
 Peter L., a boy of thirteen. In three years he died of the 
 small-pox. Anna, the daughter of the oldest brother of Pe 
 ter I., now ascended the throne, and reigned, through hes 
 favorites, with relentless rigor. 
 
400 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 It was one of the first objects of Anna’s ambition to secure 
 a harbor for maritime commerce in the more sunny climes of 
 southern Europe. St. Petersburg, far away upon the frozen 
 shores of the Baltic, where the harbor was shut up with ice 
 for five months in the year, presented but a cheerless prospect 
 for the formation of a merchant marine. She accordingly re- 
 vived the original project of Peter the Great, and waged war 
 with the Turks to recover the lost province on the shores of 
 the Euxine. Russia had been mainly instrumental in placing 
 Augustus IT. on the throne of Poland ; Anna was consequently 
 sure of his sympathy and coéperation. She also sent to Aus- 
 tria to secure the alliance of the emperor. Charles VI., though 
 his army was in a state of decay and his treasury empty, ea- 
 gerly embarked in the enterprise. He was in a continued state 
 of apprehension from the threatened invasion of the Turks. 
 He hoped also, aided by the powerful arm of Russia, to be 
 able to gain territories in the east which would afford some 
 compensation for his enormous losses in the south and in the 
 west. 
 
 While negotiations were pending, the Russian armies were 
 already on the march. They took Azof after a siege of but a 
 fortnight, and then overran and took possession of the whole 
 Crimea, driving the Turks before them. Charles VI. was a 
 very scrupulous Roman Catholic, and was animated to the 
 strife by the declaration of his confessor that it was his duty, 
 as a Christian prince, to aid in extirpating the enemies of the 
 Church of Christ. The Turks were greatly alarmed by these 
 successes of the Russians, and by the formidable preparations 
 of the other powers allied against them. 
 
 The emperor hoped that fortune, so long adverse, was now 
 turning in his favor. He collected a large force on the fron. 
 tiers of Turkey, and intrusted the command to General Seck- 
 endorf. The general hastened into Hungary to the rendezvous 
 of the troops. He found the army in a deplorable condition. 
 The treasury being exhausted, they were but poorly supplied 
 
THE TURKISH WAR RENEWED. 401 
 
 with the necessaries of war, and the generals and contractors 
 nad contrived to appropriate to themselves most of the funds 
 which had been furnished. The general wrote to the emperor, 
 presenting a lamentable picture of the destitution of the army. 
 “*T can not,” he said, “‘ consistently with my duty to God 
 and the emperor, conceal the miserable condition of the bar. 
 racks and the hospitals. The troops, crowded together with- 
 out sufficient bedding to cover them, are a prey to innumerable 
 disorders, and are exposed tc the rain, and other inclemencies 
 of the weather, from the dilapidated state of the caserns, the 
 roofs of which are in perpetual danger of being overthrown by 
 the wind. All the frontier fortresses, and even Belgrade, are 
 incapable of the smallest resistance, as well from the dilapidated 
 state of the fortifications as from a total want of artillery, am- 
 munition and other requisites. The naval armament is in a 
 state of irreparable disorder. Some companies of my regiment 
 of Belgrade are thrust into holes where a man would not put 
 even his favorite hounds; and [ can not see the situation of 
 these miserable and half-starved wretches without tears, These 
 melancholy circumstances portend the loss of these fine king- 
 doms with the same rapidity as that of the States of Italy.” 
 The bold commander-in-chief also declared that many of 
 the generals were so utterly incapable of discharging their du- 
 ties, that nothing could be anticipated, under their guidance, 
 but defeat and ruin. He complained that the governors of 
 those distant provinces, quite neglecting the responsibilities of 
 their offices, were spending their time in hunting and other 
 trivial amusements. These remonstrances roused the emperor, 
 and decisive reforms were undertaken. ‘The main plan of the 
 campaign was for the Russians, who were already on the shores 
 of the Black sea, to press on to the mouth of the Danube, and 
 then to march up the stream. The Austrians were to follow 
 down the Danube to the Turkish province of Wallachia, and 
 then, marching through the heart of that province, either 
 effect a junction with the Russians, or inclose the Turks be: 
 
402 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA. 
 
 tween the two armies. At the same time a large Austrian 
 force, marching through Bosnia and Servia, and driving the 
 Turks out, were to take military possession of those countries 
 and join the main army in its union on the lower Danube. 
 
 Matters being thus arranged, General Seckendorf took the 
 command of the Austrian troops, with the assurance that he 
 should be furnished with one hundred and twenty-six thou- 
 sand men, provided with all the implements of war, and that 
 he should receive a monthly remittance of one million two 
 hundred thousand dollars for the pay of the troops. The em- 
 peror, however, found it much easier to make promises than 
 to fulfill them. The month of August had already arrived 
 and Seckendorf, notwithstanding his most strenuous exertions, 
 had assembled at Belgrade but thirty thousand infantry and fit 
 teen thousand cavalry. The Turks, with extraordinary energy, 
 had raised a much more formidable and a better equipped army. 
 Just as Seckendorf was commencing his march, having mi 
 nutely arranged all the stages of the campaign, to his surprise 
 and indignation he received orders to leave the valley of the 
 Danube and march directly south about one hundred and fifty 
 miles into the heart of Servia, and lay siege to the fortress of 
 Nissa. ‘The whole plan of the campaign was thus frustrated. 
 Magazines, at great expense, had been established, and arrange- 
 ments made for floating the heavy baggage down the stream, 
 Now the troops were to march through morasses and over 
 mountains, without suitable baggage wagons, and with no 
 means of supplying themselves with provisions in so hostile 
 and inhospitable a country. 
 
 But the command of the emperor was not to be disobeyed. 
 For twenty-eight days they toiled along, encountering innu- 
 merable impediments, many perishing by the way, until they 
 arrived, in a state of extreme exhaustion and destitution, be- 
 fore the walls of Nissa. Fortunately the city was entirely une 
 prepared for an attack, which had not been at all anticipated, 
 and the garrison speedily surrendered. Here Seckendorf, hay- 
 
THE TURKISO WAR RENEWED. 403 
 
 mg dispatched parties to seize the neighboring fortress, and 
 the passes of the mountains, waited for further orders from 
 Vienna, The army were so dissatisfied with their position and 
 their hardships, that they at last almost rose in mutiny, and 
 Seckendorf, having accomplished nothing of any moment, was 
 compelled to retrace his steps to the banks of the Danube, 
 where he arrived on the 16th of October. Thus the campaign 
 was a total failure. 
 
 Bitter complaints were uttered both by the army and the 
 nation. The emperor, with the characteristic injustice of an 
 ignoble mind, attributed the unfortunate campaign to the inca- 
 pacity of Seckendorf, whose judicious plans he had so ruth- 
 lessly thwarted. The heroic general was immediately dis- 
 graced and recalled, and the command of the army given to 
 General Philippi. The friends of General Seckendorf, aware 
 of his peril, urged him to seek safety in flight. But he, em- 
 boldened by conscious innocence, obeyed the imperial com- 
 mands and repaired to Vienna. Seckendorf was a Protestant. 
 His appointment to the supreme command gave great offense 
 to the Catholics, and the priests, from their pulpits, inveighed 
 loudly against him asa heretic, whom God could not bless, 
 They arraigned his appointment as impious, and declared that, 
 in consequence, nothing was to be expected but divine indigna- 
 tion. Immediately upon his arrival in Vienna the emperor 
 ordered his arrest. A strong guard was placed over him, in 
 his own house, and articles of impeachment were drawn up 
 against him. His doom was sealed. Every misadventure was 
 attributed to negligence, cupidity or treachery. He could 
 offer no defense which would be of any avail, for he was not 
 permitted to exhibit the orders he had received from the em- 
 peror, lest the emperor himself should be proved guilty of 
 those disasters which he was thus dishonorably endeavoring 
 to throw upon another. The unhappy Seckendorf, thus made 
 the victim of the faults of others, was condemned to the dun- 
 geon. He was sent to imprisonment in the castle of Glatz, 
 
404 . THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 where he lingered in captivity for many years until the death 
 of the emperor. 
 
 Charles now, in accordance with the clamor of the priests, 
 removed all Protestants from command in the army and sup- 
 plied their places with Catholics, The Duke of Lorraine, who 
 had recently married Maria Theresa, was appointed generalis 
 simo. But as the duke was young, inexperienced in war, and, 
 as yet, had displayed none of that peculiar talent requisite for 
 the guidance of armies, the emperor placed next to him, as 
 the acting commander, Marshal Konigsegg. The emperor 
 also gave orders that every important movement should be 
 directed by a council of war, and that in case of a tie the cast- 
 ing vote should be given, not by the Duke of Lorraine, but by 
 the veteran commander Konigsegg. The duke was an exceed- 
 ingly amiable man, of very courtly manners and winning ad- 
 dress. He was scholarly in his tastes, and not at all fond of 
 the hardships of war, with its exposure, fatigue and butchery. 
 Though a man of perhaps more than ordinary intellectual 
 power, he was easily depressed by adversity, and not calcu- 
 lated to brave the fierce storms of disaster. 
 
 Early in March the Turks opened the campaign by send- 
 ing an army of twenty thousand men to besiege Orsova, an 
 important fortress on an island of the Danube, about one hun- 
 dred miles below Belgrade. They planted their batteries upon 
 both the northern and the southern banks of the Danube, and 
 opened a storm of shot and shell upon the fortress. The Duke 
 of Lorraine hastened to the relief of the important post, which ° 
 quite commanded that portion of the stream. The imperial 
 troops pressed on until they arrived within a few miles of the 
 fortress. ‘The Turks marched to meet them, and plunged into 
 their camp with great fierceness. After a short but desperate 
 conflict, the Turks were repulsed, and retreating in a panic, 
 they broke up their camp before the walls of Orsova and 
 retired, 
 
 This slight success, after so many disasters, caused im 
 
THE TURKISH WAR RENEWED. 408 
 
 mense exultation. The Duke of Lorraine was lauded as one 
 of the greatest generals of the age. The pulpits rang with 
 his praises, and it was announced that now, that the troops 
 were placed under a true child of the Church, Providence 
 might be expected to smile. Soon, however, the imperial 
 army, while incautiously passing through a defile, was as- 
 sailed by a strong force of the Turks, and compelled to re- 
 treat, having lost three thousand men. The Turks resumed 
 the siege of Orsova; and the Duke of Lorraine, quite dis- 
 heartened, returned to Vienna, leaving the command of the 
 army to Konigsegg. The Turks soon captured the fortress, 
 and then, ascending the river, drove the imperial troops before 
 them to Belgrade. The Turks invested the city, and the 
 beleaguered troops were rapidly swept away by famine and 
 pestilence. The imperial cavalry, crossing the Save, rapidly 
 continued their retreat. Konigsegg was now recalled in dis- 
 grace, as incapable of conducting the war, and the command 
 was given to General Kevenhuller. He was equally unsuc- 
 cessful in resisting the foe; and, after a series of indecisive 
 battles, the storms of November drove both parties to winter 
 quarters, and another campaign was finished. The Russians 
 had also fought some fierce battles; but their campaign was 
 as ineffective as that of the Austrians. 
 
 The court of Vienna was now in a state of utter confusion. 
 There was no leading mind to assume any authority, and there 
 was irremediable discordance of counsel. The Duke of Lor. 
 raine was in hopeless disgrace; even the emperor assenting to 
 the universal cry against him. In a state almost of distrac- 
 tion the emperor exclaimed, “Is the fortune of my empire 
 departed with Eugene ?” The disgraceful retreat to Belgrade 
 seemed to haunt him day and night; and he repeated again 
 and again to himself, as he paced the floor of his apartment, 
 “that unfortunate, that fatal retreat.” Disasters had been so 
 rapidly accumulating upon him, that he fearea for every thing. 
 He expressed the greatest anxiety lest his daughter, Maria 
 
406 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 Theresa, who was to succeed him upon the throne, might be 
 intercepted, in the case of his sudden death, from returning 
 to Austria, and excluded from the throne, The emperor was 
 in a state of mind nearly bordering upon insanity. 
 
 At length the sun of another spring returned, the spring 
 of 1739, and the recruited armies were prepared again to take 
 the field. The emperor placed a new commander, Marshal 
 Wallis, in command of the Austrian troops. He was a man 
 of ability, but overbearing and morose, being described by a 
 contemporary as one who hated everybody, and who was 
 hated by everybody in return. Fifty miles north of Bel- 
 grade, on the south bank of the Danube, is the fortified town 
 of Peterwardein, so called as the rendezvous where Peter the 
 Hermit marshaled the soldiers of the first crusade. This for- 
 tress had long been esteemed one of the strongest of the 
 Austrian empire. It was appointed as the rendezvous of the 
 imperial troops, and all the energies of the now exhausted 
 empire were expended in gathering there as large a force as 
 possible. But, notwithstanding the utmost efforts, in May 
 but thirty thousand men were assembled, and these but very 
 poorly provided with the costly necessaries of war. Another 
 auxiliary force of ten thousand men was collected at Temes- 
 war, a strong fortress twenty-five miles north of Peterwardein., 
 With these forces Wallis was making preparations to attempt 
 to recover Orsova from the Turks, when he received positive 
 orders to engage the enemy with his whole force on the first 
 opportunity. 
 
 The army marched down the banks of the river, convey- 
 ing its baggage and heavy artillery in a flotilla to Belgrade, 
 where it arrived on the 11th of June. Here they were in 
 formed that the Turkish army was about twenty miles below 
 on the river at Crotzka. The imperial army was immediately 
 pressed forward, in accordance with the emperor’s orders, to 
 attack the foe. The Turks were strongly posted, and far 
 exceeded the Austrians in number. At five o’clock on the 
 
THE TURKISH WAB RENEWED. 40? 
 
 morning of the 21st of July the battle commenced, and blazed 
 fiercely through all the hours of the day until the sun went 
 down. Seven thousand Austrians were then dead upon the 
 plain. The Turks were preparing to renew the conflict in the 
 morning, when Wallis ordered a retreat, which was securely 
 effected during the darkness of the night. On the ensuing 
 day the Turks pursued them to the walls of Belgrade, and, 
 driving them across the river, opened the fire of their bat- 
 teries upon the city. The Turks commenced the siege in 
 form, and were so powerful, that Wallis could do nothing to 
 retard their operations. A breach was ere long made in one 
 of the bastions; an assault was hourly expected which the 
 garrison was in no condition to repel. Wallis sent word to 
 the emperor that the surrender of Belgrade was inevitable ; 
 that it was necessary immediately to retreat to Peterwardein, 
 and that the Turks, flushed with victory, might soon be at 
 the gates of Vienna. 
 
 Great was the consternation which pervaded the court and 
 the capital upon the reception of these tidings. The ministers 
 all began to criminate each other. The general voice clamored 
 for peace upon almost any terms. The emperor alone re- 
 mained firm. He dispatched another officer, General Schmet- 
 tan, to hasten with all expedition to the imperial camp, and 
 prevent, if possible, the impending disaster. He earnestly 
 pressed the hand of the general as he took his leave, and said— 
 
 “Use the utmost diligence to arrive before the retreat of 
 the army ; assume the defense of Belgrade, and save it, if not 
 too late, from falling into the hands of the enemy.” 
 
 The energy of Schmettan arrested the retreat of Wallis, 
 and revived the desponding hopes of the garrison of Belgrade. 
 Bastion after bastion was recovered, The Turks were driven 
 back from the advance posts they had occupied. A new spirit 
 animated the whole Austrian army, and from the depths of 
 despair they were rising to sanguine hopes of victory, when 
 the stunning news arrived that the emperor had sent an envoy 
 
 R 
 
408 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 to the Turkish camp, and had obtained peace by the surrender 
 of Belgrade. Count Neuperg having received full powers 
 from the emperor to treat, very imprudently entered the 
 vamp of the barbaric Turk, without requiring any hostages for 
 his safety. The barbarians, regardless of the flag of truce, and 
 of all the rules of civilized warfare, arrested Count Neuperg, 
 aud put him under guard. He was then conducted into the 
 presence of the grand vizier, who was arrayed in state, sur- 
 rounded by his bashaws. The grand vizier haughtily de- 
 manded the terms Neuperg was authorized to offer. 
 
 “The emperor, my master,” said Neuperg, “‘ has intrusted 
 me with full powers to negotiate a peace, and is willing, for 
 the sake of peace, to cede the province of Wallachia to Tur. 
 key provided the fortress of Orsova be dismantled.” 
 
 The grand vizier rose, came forward, and deliberately spit 
 in che face of the Count Neuperg, and exclaimed, 
 
 “Infidel dog! thou provest thyself a spy, with all thy 
 powers. Since thou hast brought no letter from the Vizier 
 Wallis, and hast concealed his offer to surrender Belgrade, 
 thou shalt be sent to Constantinople to receive the punishment 
 thou deservest.” 
 
 Count Neuperg, after this insult, was conducted into close 
 confinement. The French ambassador, Villeneuve, now ar- 
 rived. He had adopted the precaution of obtaining hostages 
 before intrusting himself in the hands of the Turks. The 
 grand vizier would not listen to any terms of accommodation 
 but upon the basis of the surrender of Belgrade. The Turks 
 carried their point in every thing. The emperor surrendered 
 Belgrade, relinquished to them Orsova, agreed to demolish all 
 the fortresses of his own province of Media, and ceded to Tur- 
 key Servia and various other contiguous districts. It was a 
 humiliating treaty for Austria. Already despoiled in Italy and 
 on the Rhine, the emperor was now compelled to abandon to 
 the Turks extensive territories and important fortresses upon 
 the lower Danube. 
 
THE TURKISH WAR RENEWED, 409 
 
 General Schmettan, totally unconscious of these proceed- 
 ings, was conducting the defense of Belgrade with great vigor 
 and with great success, when he was astounded by the arrival 
 of a courier in his camp, presenting to him the following laconic 
 note from Count Neuperg: 
 
 “Peace was signed this morning between the emperor, 
 our master, and the Porte. Let hostilities cease, therefore, on 
 the receipt of this. In half an hour I shall follow, and an- 
 nounce the particulars myself.” 
 
 General Schmettan could hardly repress his indignation, 
 and, when Count Neuperg arrived, intreated that the surren- 
 der of Belgrade might be postponed until the terms had been 
 sent to the emperor for his ratification. But Neuperg would 
 listen to no such suggestions, and, indignant that any obstacle 
 should be thrown in the way of the fulfillment of the treaty, 
 menacingly said, 
 
 ** If you choose to disobey the orders of the emperor, and 
 to delay the execution of the article relative to Belgrade, f 
 will instantly dispatch a courier to Vienna, and eharge you 
 with all the misfortunes which may result. I had great diffi- 
 culty in diverting the grand vizier from the demand of Sirmia, 
 Sclavonia and the bannat of Temeswar; and when I have dis- 
 patched a courier, I will return into the Turkish camp and 
 protest against this violation of the treaty.” 
 
 General Schmettan was compelled to yield. Eight hun- 
 dred janissaries took possession of one of the gates of the 
 city; and the Turkish officers rode triumphantly into the 
 streets, waving before them in defiance the banners they had 
 taken at Crotzka. The new fortifications were blown up, and 
 the imperial army, in grief and shame, retired up the river to 
 Peterwardein. They had hardly evacuated the city ere Count 
 Neuperg, to his inexpressible mortification, received a letter 
 from the emperor stating that nothing could reconcile him tc 
 the idea of surrendering Belgrade but the conviction that its 
 defense was utterly hope.ess; but that learning that this was 
 
410 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 by no means the case, he intreated him on no account to think 
 of the surrender of the city. ‘Io add to the chagrin of the 
 count, he also ascertained, at the same time, that the Turks 
 were in such a deplorable condition that they were just on the 
 point of retreating, and would gladly have purchased peace at 
 almost any sacrifice. A little more diplomatic skill might have 
 wrested from the Turks even a larger extent of territory than 
 the emperor had so foolishly surrendered to them. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 MARIA THERESA. 
 
 From 1739 To 1741. 
 
 ANGUISH OF THE KivG.—LETTeR TO THE QUEEN oF Russia.—THE IMPERIAL CIROULAR. 
 —DEPLORABLE OONDITION OF AUSTRIA.—DEATH or CHARLES VI.—AOCORSSION OF 
 Maria THERRSsA.—VIGOROUS MEASURES OF THE QUEEN.—CLAIM OF THE DUKE OP 
 BAVARIA.—RESPONSES FROM THE CoURTS.—COLDNESS OF THE FRENOH CouRT.—FRED- 
 ERIO OF Prussra.—His INVASION OF SILESIA.—MAROH OF THE AUSTRIANS.—BATTLE 
 oF Motnitz.—FirmMngss oF Marra THeREsA.—PrRopPosepD Division or PLUNDER.— 
 VILLAINY oF Frspreri0.—INTERVIEW WITH THE KInG.—CHABRAOTER OF F'REDEBEIO.— 
 OCOMMENORMENT OF THE GENERAL INVASION. 
 
 {ipa intelligent man in Austria felt degraded by the 
 
 peace which had been made with the Turks. The tid- 
 ings were received throughout the ranks of the army with a 
 general outburst of grief and indignation. The troops intreated 
 their officers to lead them against the foe, declaring that they 
 would speedily drive the Turks from Belgrade, which had 
 been so ignominiously surrendered. The populace of Vienna 
 rose in insurrection, and would have torn down the houses of 
 the ministers who had recommended the peace but for the in- 
 terposition of the military. The emperor was almost beside 
 himself with anguish. He could not appease the clamors of 
 the nation. He was also in alliance with Russia, and knew not 
 how to meet the reproaches of the court of St. Petersburg for 
 having so needlessly surrendered the most important fortress 
 on the Turkish frontier. In an interview which he held with 
 the Russian ambassador his embarrassment was painful to wit- 
 ness. To the Queen of Russia he wrote in terms expressive 
 of the extreme agony of his mind, and, with characteristic 
 want of magnanimity cast the blame of the very measures he 
 
412 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 had ordered upon the agents who had merely executed his 
 will. 
 
 “ While I am writing this letter,” he said, “to your im- 
 perial majesty, my heart is filled with the most excessive grief. 
 I was much less touched with the advantages gained by the 
 enemy and the news of the siege of Belgrade, than with the 
 advice I have received concerning the shameful preliminary 
 articles concluded by Count Neuperg. 
 
 “The history of past ages exhibits no vestiges of such an 
 event. I was on the point of preventing the fatal and too 
 hasty execution of these preliminaries, when I heard that they 
 were already partly executed, even before the design had been 
 communicated to me. Thus I see my hands tied by those who 
 ought to glory in obeying me. All who have approached me 
 since that fatal day, are so many witnesses of the excess of 
 my grief. Although I have many times experienced adver- 
 sity, I never was so much afflicted as by this event. Your 
 majesty has a right to complain of some who ought to have 
 obeyed my orders; but I had no part in what they have done. 
 Though all the forces of the Ottoman empire were turned 
 against me I was not disheartened, but still did all in my power 
 for the common cause. I shall not, however, fail to perform 
 in due time what avenging justice requires. In this dismal 
 series of misfortunes I have still one comfort left, which is that 
 the fault can not be thrown upon me. It lies entirely on such 
 of my officers as ratified the disgraceful preliminaries without 
 my knowledge, against my consent, and even contrary to my 
 express orders.” 
 
 This apologetic letter was followed by a circular to all the 
 ‘mperial ambassadors in the various courts of Europe, which 
 circular was filled with the bitterest denunciation of Couns 
 Neuperg and Marshal Wallis. It declared that the emperor 
 was not in any way implicated in the shameful surrender of 
 Belgrade. The marshal and the count, thus assailed and ield 
 up to the scorn and execration of Europe, ventured to reply 
 
MARIA THERESA, 41% 
 
 that they had strictly conformed to their instructions. The 
 common sense of the community taught them that, in so rigor- 
 ous and punctilious a court as that of Vienna, no agent of the 
 emperor would dare to act contrary to his received instruc- 
 tions. Thus the infamous attempts of Charles to brand his 
 officers with ignominy did but rebound upon himself. The 
 almost universal voice condemned the emperor and acquitted 
 the plenipotentiaries. 
 
 While the emperor was thus filling all the courts of Europe 
 with his clamor against Count Neuperg, declaring that he had 
 exceeded his powers and that he deserved to be hung, he at 
 the same time, with almost idiotic fatuity, sent the same Count 
 Neuperg back to the Turkish camp to settle some items which 
 yet required adjustment. This proved, to every mind, the in- 
 sincerity of Charles. The Russians, thus forsaken by Austria, 
 also made peace with the Turks, They consented to demolish 
 their fortress of Azof, to relinquish all pretensions to the right 
 of navigating the Black sea, and to allow a vast extent of ter- 
 ritory upon its northern shores to remain an uninhabited des- 
 ert, as a barrier between Russia and Turkey. The treaty 
 being definitively settled, both Marshal Wallis and Count 
 Neuperg were arrested and sent to prison, where they were 
 detained until the death of Charles VI. | 
 
 Care and sorrow were now hurrying the emperor to the 
 grave. Wan and haggard he moved about his palace, mourn- 
 ing his doom, and complaining that it was his destiny to be 
 disappointed in every cherished plan of his life. All his affairs 
 were in inextricable confusion, and his empire seemed crumb- 
 ling to decay. A cotemporary writer thus describes the situa- 
 tion of the court and the nation ; 
 
 “Every thing in this court is running into the last confu- 
 sion and ruin; where there are as visible signs of folly and 
 madness, as ever were inflicted upon a people whom Heaven 
 is determined to destroy, no less by domestic divisions, than by 
 the more public calamities of repeated defeats, defenselessness, 
 poverty and plagnes.” 
 
414 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 Early in October, 1740, the emperor, restless, and feveriag 
 in body and mind, repaired to one of his country palaces a fow 
 miles distant from Vienna, The season was prematurely cold 
 and gloomy, with frost and storms of sleet. In consequenes 
 of a chill the enfeebled monarch was seized with an attack of 
 the gout, which was followed by a very severe fit of the colis, 
 The night of the 10th of October he writhed in pain upon hia 
 bed, while repeated vomitings weakened his already exhausted 
 frame. The next day he was conveyed to Vienna, but in such 
 extreme debility that he fainted several times in his carriage 
 by the way. Almost in a state of insensibility he was carried 
 to the retired palace of La Favourite in the vicinity of Vienna, 
 and placed in his bed. It was soon evident that his stormy 
 life was now drawing near to its close. Patiently he bore his 
 severe sufferings, and as his physicians were unable te agres 
 respecting the nature of his disease, he said to them, calmly, 
 
 “Cease your disputes, I shall soon be dead. You can 
 then open my body and ascertain the cause of my death.” 
 
 Priests were admitted to his chamber who performed the 
 last offices of the Church for the dying. With perfect com> 
 posure, he made all the arrangements relative to the succession 
 to the throne. One after another the members of his family 
 were introduced, and he affectionately bade them adieu, giv- 
 ing to each appropriate words of counsel. To his daughter, 
 Maria Theresa, who was not present, and who was to succeed 
 him, be sent his earnest blessing. With the Duke of Lorraine, 
 her husband, he had a private interview ef two houra Qn 
 the 20th of October, 1740, at two o’clock in the morning, he 
 died, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and the thirtieth of hig 
 reign. Weary of the world, he willingly retired to the antic, 
 pated repose of the grave. 
 
 “To die,—to sleep == 
 To sleep! perchance to dream ;—ay, there’s the rubs 
 For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, 
 When we have shuffled of this mortal coil, 
 Must give us pause.” 
 
MARIA THERESA, 415 
 
 By the death of Charles VI. the male line of the house of 
 Hapsburg became extinct, after having continued in uninter 
 rupted succession for over four hundred years. His eldest 
 daughter, Maria Theresa, who now succeeded to the crown of 
 Austria, was twenty-four years of age. Her figure was tall, 
 graceful and commanding. Her features were beautiful, and 
 her smile sweet and winning. She was born to command, 
 combining in her character woman’s power of fascination with 
 man’s energy. Though so far advanced in pregnancy that she 
 was not permitted to see her dying father, the very day after 
 his death she so rallied her energies as to give an audience to 
 the minister of state, and to assume the government with that 
 marvelous vigor which characterized her whole reign. 
 
 Seldom has a kingdom been in a more deplorable condition 
 than was Austria on the morning when the scepter passed into 
 the hands of Maria Theresa, There were not forty thousand 
 dollars in the treasury; the state was enormously in debt; the 
 whole army did not amount to more than thirty thousand men, 
 widely dispersed, clamoring for want of pay, and almost en- 
 tirely destitute of the materials for war. The vintage had 
 been cut off by the frost, producing great distress in the coun- 
 try. There was a famine in Vienna, and many were starving 
 for want of food. The peasants, in the neighborhood of the 
 metropolis, were rising in insurrection, ravaging the fields in 
 search of game; while rumors were industriously circulated 
 that the government was dissolved, that the succession was 
 disputed, and that the Duke of Bavaria was on the march, 
 With an army, to claim the crown, The distant provinces w.. 
 anxious to shake off the Austrian yoke. Bohemia was agi- 
 tated; and the restless baions of Hungary were upon the 
 point of grasping their arms, and, under the protection of Tur- 
 key, of claiming their ancestral hereditary rights. Notwith- 
 standing the untiring endeavors of the emperor to obtain the 
 assent of Europe to the Pragmatic Sanction, many influential 
 courts refused to recognize the right of Maria Theresa to the 
 
416 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA 
 
 crown, The ministers were desponding, irresolute and mca 
 pable. Maria Theresa was young, quite inexperienced and in 
 delicate health, being upon the eve of her confinement. The 
 English ambassador, describing the state of affairs in Vienna 
 as they appeared to him at this time, wrote: 
 
 “To the ministers, the Turks seem to be already in Hun- 
 gary ; the Hungarians in insurrection; the Bohemians in open 
 revolt; the Duke of Bavaria, with his army, at the gates of 
 Vienna; and France the soul of all these movements. The 
 ministers were not only in despair, but that despair even was 
 not capable of rousing them to any desperate exertions.” 
 
 Maria Theresa immediately dispatched couriers to inform 
 the northern powers of her accession to the crown, and troops 
 were forwarded to the frontiers to prevent any hostile invasion 
 from Bavaria. The Duke of Bavaria claimed the Austrian 
 crown in virtue of the will of Ferdinand I, which, he affirmed, 
 devised the crown to his daughters and their descendants in 
 case of the failure of the male line. As the male line was now 
 extinct, by this decree the scepter would pass to the Duke of 
 Bavaria. Charles VI. had foreseen this claim, and endeavored 
 to set it aside by the declaration that the clause referred to 
 in the will of Ferdinand IL. had reference to legitimate heirs, 
 not male merely, and that, consequently, it did not set aside 
 female descendants. In proof of this, Maria Theresa had the 
 will exhibited to all the leading officers of state, and to the 
 foreign ambassadors. It appeared that legitimate heirs was 
 the phrase. And now the question hinged upon the point, 
 whether females were legitimate heirs. In some kingdoms 
 of Europe they were; in others they were not. In Austria 
 the custom had been variable. Here was a nicely-balanced 
 question, sufficiently momentous to divide Europe, and which 
 might put all the armies of the continent in motion. There 
 were also other claimants for the crown, but none who could 
 present so plausible a plea as that of the Duke of Bavaria. 
 
 Maria Theresa now waited with great anxiety for the reply 
 
MARIA THEREBA. 4li 
 
 she should receive from the foreign powers whom she had 
 notified of her accession. The Duke of Bavaria was equally 
 active and solicitous, and it was quite uncertain whose claim 
 would be supported by the surrounding courts. The first 
 response came from Prussia, The king sent his congratu- 
 lations, and acknowledged the title of Maria Theresa, This 
 was followed by a letter from Augustus of Poland, containing 
 the same friendly recognition. Russia then sent in assurances 
 of cordial support. The King of England returned a friendly 
 answer, promising coéperation. All this was cheering. But 
 France was then the great power on the continent, and 
 could carry with her one half of Europe in almost any cause. 
 The response was looked for from France with great anxiety. 
 Day after day, week after week passed, and no response came. 
 At length the French Secretary of State gave a cautious and 
 merely verbal declaration of the friendly disposition of the - 
 French court, Cardinal Fleury, the illustrious French Secre- 
 tary of State, was cold, formal and excessively polite. Maria 
 Theresa at once inferred that France withheld her acknowl- 
 edgment, merely waiting for a favorable opportunity to recog- 
 nize the claims of the Duke of Bavaria. 
 
 While matters were in this state, to the surprise of all, 
 Frederic, King of Prussia, drew his sword, and demanded 
 large and indefinite portions of Austria to be annexed to his 
 territories. Disdaining all appeal to any documentary evidence, 
 and scorning to reply to any questionings as to his right, he 
 demanded vast’ provinces, as 2 highwayman demands one’s 
 purse, with the pistol at his breast. This fiery young prince, 
 mheriting the most magnificent army in Europe, considering 
 its discipline and equipments, was determined to display his 
 gallantry as a fighter, with Europe for the arena. As he was 
 looking about to find some suitable foe against which he could 
 hurl his seventy-five thousand men, the defenseless yet large 
 and opulent duchy of Silesia presented itself as a glittering 
 prize worth the claiming by a royal highwayman. 
 
418 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 The Austrian province of Silesia bordered a portion of 
 Prussia While treacherously professing friendship with the 
 court of Vienna, with great secrecy and sagacity Frederic as 
 sembled a large force of his best troops in the vicinity of Ber- 
 lin, and in mid-winter, when the snow lay deep upon the plains, 
 made a sudden rush into Silesia, and, crushing at a blow all 
 opposition, took possession of the whole duchy. Having ac- 
 complished this feat, he still pretended great friendship for 
 Maria Theresa, and sent an ambassador to inform her that he 
 was afraid that some of the foreign powers, now conspiring 
 against her, might seize the duchy, and thus wrest it from 
 her; that he had accordingly taken it to hold it in safety; 
 and that since it was so very important, for the tranquillity of 
 nis kingdom, that Silesia should not fall into the hands of an 
 enemy, he hoped that Maria Theresa would allow him to re- 
 tain the duchy as an indemnity for the expense he had been 
 at in taking it.” 
 
 This most extraordinary and impertinent message was 
 accompanied by a threat. The ambassador of the Prussian 
 king, 2 man haughty and semi-barbaric in his deme&nor, gave 
 his message in a private interview with the queen’s husband, 
 Francis, the Duke of Lorraine. In conclusion, the ambassador 
 added, “No one is more firm in his resolutions than the King 
 of Prussia. He must and will take Silesia. If not secured by 
 the immediate cession of that province, his troops and money 
 will be offered to the Duke of Bavaria.” 
 
 “Go tell your master,” the Duke of Lorraine replied with 
 dignity, “that while he has a single soldier in Silesia, we will 
 yather perish than enter into any discussion. Ifhe will evac- 
 uate the duchy, we will treat with him at Berlin. For my 
 part, not for the imperial crown, nor even for the whole 
 world, will I sacrifice one inch of the queen’s lawful posses. 
 sions.” 
 
 While these negotiations were pending, the king himselt 
 made an ostentatious entry into Silesia. The majority of the 
 
MARIA THERESA. 419 
 
 Silesians were Protestants. The King of Prussia, who had 
 discarded religion of all kinds, had of course discarded thag 
 of Rome, and was thus nominally a Protestant. The Prot 
 estants, who had suffered so much from the persecutions of 
 the Catholic church, had less to fear from the infidelity of 
 Berlin than from the fanaticism of Rome. Frederic was con. 
 sequently generally received with rejoicings, The duchy of 
 Silesia was indeed a desirable prize. Spreading over a region 
 of more than fifteen thousand square miles, and containing 3 
 population of more than a million and a half, it presented to 
 its feudal lord an ample revenue and the means of raising 
 a large army. Breslau, the capital of the duchy, upon the 
 Oder, contained 2 population of over eighty thousand. Built 
 upon several islands of that beautiful stream, its situation was 
 attractive, while in its palaces and its ornamental squares, it 
 vied with the finest capitals of Europe. 
 
 Frederic entered the city in triumph in January, 1741. 
 The small Austrian garrison, consisting of but three thousand 
 men, retired before him into Moravia. The Prussian monarch 
 took possession of the revenues of the duchy, organized the 
 government under his own officers, garrisoned the fortresses 
 and returned to Berlin. Maria Theresa appealed to friendly 
 courts for aid. Most of them were lavish in promises, but she 
 waited in vain for any fulfillment. Neither money, arms nor 
 men were sent to her. Maria Theresa, thus abandoned and 
 thrown upon her own unaided energies, collected a small army 
 in Moravia, on the confines of Silesia, and intrusted the com- 
 mand to Count Neuperg, whom she liberated from the prison 
 to which her father had so unjustly consigned him. But it 
 was mid-winter. The roads were almost impassable. The 
 treasury of the Austrian court was so empty that but meager 
 supplies could be provided for the troops. <A ridge of moun- 
 tains, whose defiles were blocked up with snow, spread be- 
 tween Silesia and Moravia. 
 
 It was not until the close of March that Marshal Neuperg 
 
420 "HE HOUSE OF AUSYRIA, 
 
 was able to force his way through these defiles and enter Si- 
 lesia. The Prussians, not aware of their danger, were reposing 
 in their cantonments. Neuperg hoped to take them by sur- 
 prise and cut them off in detail. Indeed Frederic, who, by 
 chance, was at Jagerndorf inspecting a fortress, was nearly 
 gurrounded by a party of Austrian hussars, and very narrowly 
 escaped capture. The ground was still covered with snow as 
 the Austrian troops toiled painfully through the mountains to 
 penetrate the Silesian plains. Frederic rapidly concentrated 
 his scattered troops to meet the foe. The warlike character 
 of the Prussian king was as yet undeveloped, and Neuperg, 
 unconscious of the tremendous energies he was to encounter, 
 and supposing that the Prussian garrisons would fly in dismay 
 before him, was giving his troops, after their exhausting march, 
 a few days of repose in the vicinity of Molnitz. 
 
 On the 8th of April there was a thick fall of snow, filling 
 tne air and covering the fields. Frederic availed himself of 
 the storm, which curtained him from all observation, to urge 
 forward his troops, that he might overwhelm the Austrians by 
 a fierce surprise. While Neuperg was thus resting, all uncon- 
 scious of danger, twenty-seven battalions, consisting of sixteen 
 thousand men, and twenty-nine squadrons of horse, amounting 
 to six thousand, were, in the smothering snow, taking their 
 positions for battle. On the morning of the 10th the snow 
 ceased to fall, the clouds broke, and the sun came out clear 
 and bright, when Neuperg saw that another and a far more 
 fearful storm had gathered, and that its thunderbolts were 
 about to be hurled into the midst of his camp. 
 
 The Prussian batteries opened their fire, spreading death 
 through the ranks of the Austrians, even while they were has- 
 tily forming in line of battle. Still the Austrian veterans, ac- 
 customed to all the vicissitudes of war, undismayed, rapidly 
 threw themselves into columns and rushed upon the foe 
 Fiercely the battle raged hour after hour until the middle of 
 the afternoon, when the field was covered with the dead and 
 
MARIA THERESA. 421 
 
 srimsoned with blood. The Austrians, having lost three thou 
 sand in slain and two thousand in prisoners, retired in confu 
 sion, surrendering the field, with several guns and banners, te 
 the victors, This memorable battle gave Silesia to Prussia, 
 and opened the war of the Austrian succession. 
 
 The Duke of Lorraine was greatly alarmed by the threat 
 ening attitude which affairs now assumed. It was evident that 
 France, Prussia, Bavaria and many other powers wera corte 
 bining against Austria, to rob her of her provinces, and per 
 haps to dismember the kingdom entirely. Not a single couzé 
 as yet had manifested any disposition to assist Maria Theresa, 
 England urged the Austrian court to buy the peace of Prussia 
 at almost any price. Francis, Duke of Lorraine, was earnestiy 
 for yielding, and intreated his wife to surrender a part for 
 the sake of retaining the rest. ‘We had better,” he said, 
 “surrender Silesia to Prussia, and thus purchase peace with 
 Frederic, than meet the chances of so general a war as now 
 threatens Austria.” 
 
 But Maria Theresa was as imperial in character and as in- 
 domitable in spirit as Frederic of Prussia. With indignation 
 she rejected all such counsel, declaring that she would never 
 cede one inch of her territories to any claimant, and that, even 
 if her allies all abandoned her, she would throw herself upon 
 her subjects and upon her armies, and perish, if need be, in 
 defense of the integrity of Austria. 
 
 Frederic now established his court and cabinet at the camp 
 of Molnitz, Couriers were ever coming and going. Envoys 
 from France and Bavaria were in constant secret conference 
 with him. France, jealous of the power of Austria, was plot- 
 ting its dismemberment, even while protesting friendship, 
 Bavaria was willing to unite with Prussia in seizing the em- 
 pire and in dividing the spoil. These courts seemed to lay no 
 claim to any higher morality than that of ordinary highway- 
 men. The doom of Maria Theresa was apparently sealed. 
 Austria was to be plundered. Other parties now began te 
 
422 HE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 rush in with their claims, that they might share in the booty. 
 Philip V. of Spain put in his claim for the Austrian crown as 
 the lineal descendant of the Emperor Charles V. Augustus, 
 King of Poland, urged the right of his wife Maria, eldest 
 daughter of Joseph. And even Charles Emanuel, King of 
 Sardinia, hunted up an obsolete claim, through the line of the 
 second daughter of Philip I. 
 
 At the camp of Molnitz the plan was matured of giving 
 Bohemia and Upper Austria to the Duke of Bavaria, Fred- 
 eric of Prussia was to receive Upper Silesia and Glatz. Au- 
 gustus of Poland was to annex to his kingdom Moravia and 
 Upper Silesia. Lombardy was assigned to Spain. Sardinia 
 was to receive some compensation not yet fully decided upon. 
 The whole transaction was a piece of as unmitigated villainy 
 as ever transpired. One can not but feel a little sympathy for 
 Austria which had thus fallen among thieves, and was stripped 
 and bleeding. Our sympathies are, however, somewhat alle- 
 viated by the reflection that Austria was just as eager as any 
 of the other powers for any such piratic expedition, and that, 
 soon after, she united with Russia and Prussia in plundering 
 Poland. And when Poland was dismembered by a trio of re- 
 gal robbers, she only incurred the same doom which she was 
 now eager to inflict upon Austria. When pirates and robbers 
 plunder each other, the victims are not entitled to much sym- 
 pathy. To the masses of the people it made but little differ. 
 ence whether their life’s blood was wrung from them by Rus- 
 sian, Prussian or Austrian despots. Under whatever rule they 
 lived, they were alike doomed to toil as beasts of burden in 
 the field, or to perish amidst the hardships and the carnage of 
 the camp. 
 
 These plans were all revealed to Maria Theresa, and with 
 such a combination of foes so powerful, it seemed as if no 
 earthly wisdom could avert her doom. But her lofty spirit 
 remained unyielding, and she refused all offers of accommoda- 
 tion based upon the surrender of any portion of her territo- 
 
MARIA THERESA. 423 
 
 ries, England endeavored to mduce Frederic to consent te 
 take the duchy of Glogau alone, suggesting that thus his Prus 
 sian majesty had it in his power to conclude an honorable 
 peace, and to show his magnanimity by restoring tranquillity 
 to Europe. 
 
 ** At the beginning of the war,” Frederic replied, “I might 
 perhaps have been contented with this proposal. At present 
 I must have four duchies. But do not,” he exclaimed, impa 
 tiently, “talk to me of magnanimity. A prince must con- 
 sult his own interests. I am not averse to peace; but I want 
 four duchies, and I will have them.” 
 
 Frederic of Prussia was no hypocrite. He was a highway 
 robber and did not profess te be any thing else. His power 
 was such that instead of demanding of the helpless traveler hig 
 watch, he could demand of powerful nations their revenues, 
 if they did not yield to his demands he shot them down with- 
 out compunction, and left them in their blood. The British 
 minister ventured to ask what four duchies Frederic intended 
 to take. No reply could be obtained to this question, By 
 the four duchies he simply meant that he intended to extend 
 the area of Prussia over every inch of territory he could pos 
 sibly acquire, either by fair means or by foul. 
 
 England, alarmed by these combinations, which it was evie 
 dent that France was sagaciously forming and guiding, and 
 from the successful prosecution of which plans it was certain 
 that France would secure some immense accession of power, 
 granted to Austria a subsidy of one million five hundred thou- 
 sand dollars, to aid her in repelling her foes. Still the danger 
 from the grand confederacy became so imminent, that the 
 Duke of Lorraine and all the Austrian ministry united with the 
 British ambassador, in entreating Maria Theresa to try to 
 break up the confederacy and purchase peace with Prussia by 
 offering Frederic the duchy of Glogau. With extreme reluct- 
 ance the queen at length yielded to these importunities, and 
 sonsented that an envoy should take the proposal to the Prus 
 
424 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 sian camp at Molnitz. As the envoy was about to leave he 
 expressed some apprehension that the Prussian king might 
 reject the proffer. 
 
 “‘T wish he may reject it,” exclaimed the queen, passionate. 
 ly. “It would be a relief to my conscience. God only knows 
 how I can answer to my subjects for the cession of the duchy, 
 having sworn to them never to alienate any part of our coun- ~ 
 try. 
 
 Mr. Robinson, the British ambassador, as mediator, took 
 these terms to the Prussian camp. In the endeavor to make 
 as good a bargain as possible, he was first to offer Austrian 
 Guelderland. If that failed he was then to offer Limburg, a 
 province of the Netherlands, containing sixteen hundred square 
 miles, and if this was not accepted, he was authorized, as the 
 ultimatum, to consent to the cession of the duchy of Glogau. 
 The Prussian king received the ambassadors, on the 5th of 
 August, in a large tent, in his camp at Molanitz. The king 
 was a blunt, uncourtly man, and the interview was attended 
 with none of the amenities of polished life. After a few de- 
 sultory remarks, the British ambassador opened the business 
 by saying that he was authorized by the Queen of Austria to 
 offer, as the basis of peace, the cession to Prussia of Austrian 
 Guelderland. 
 
 “ What a beggarly offer,” exclaimed the king. “ This is 
 extremely impertinent. ‘“ What! nothing but a paltry town 
 for all my just pretensions in Silesia !” 
 
 In this tirade of passion, either affected or real, he contin- 
 ued for some time. Mr. Robinson waited patiently until this 
 outburst was exhausted, and then hesitatingly remarked that 
 the queen was so anxious to secure the peace of Europe, that 
 if tranquillity could not be restored on other terms she was 
 even willing to cede to Prussia, in addition, the province of 
 Limburg. 
 
 “Indeed !” said the ill-bred, clownish king, contemptuous- 
 ly. “And how can the queen think of violating her solemn 
 
MARIA THERESA, 425 
 
 oath which renders every inch of the Low Couttries inalienable. 
 I have no desire to obtain distant territory which will be use- 
 less to me; much less do I wish to expend money in new for- 
 tification. Neither the French nor the Dutch have offended 
 me; and I do not wish to offend them, by acquiring territo- 
 ry in the vicinity of their realms. IfI should accept Limburg, 
 what security could I have that I should be permitted to re- 
 tain it ?” 
 
 The ambassador replied, “ England, Russia and Saxony, 
 will give their guaranty.” 
 
 “ Guaranties,” rejoined the king, sneeringly. ‘* Who, in 
 these times, pays any regard to pledges? Have not both En- 
 gland and France pledged themselves to support the Prag- 
 matic Sanction? Why do they not keep their promises? 
 The conduct of these powers is ridiculous, They only do what 
 is for their own interests. As for me, I am at the head of an 
 invincible army. I want Silesia, I have taken it, and I intend 
 to keep it. What kind of a reputation should I have if I 
 should abandon the first enterprise of my reign? No! I will 
 sooner be crushed with my whole army, than renounce my 
 rights in Silesia. Let those who want peace grant me my de. 
 mands. If they prefer to fight again, they can do so, and 
 again be beaten.” 
 
 Mr. Robinson ventured to offer a few soothing words to 
 calm the ferocious brute, and then proposed to give to him 
 Glogau, ® small but rich duchy of about six hundred square 
 miles, near the frontiers of Prussia. : 
 
 Frederic rose in a rage, and with loud voice and threaten. 
 ing gestures, exclaimed, 
 
 “If the queen does not, within six weeks, yield to my 
 demands, I will double them. Return with this answer te 
 Vienna. They who want peace with me, will not oppose my 
 wishes. I am sick of ultimatums; I will hear no more of them. 
 I demand Silesia. This is my final answer. I will give ne 
 other.” 
 
426 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Then turning upon his heel, with an air of towering m- 
 dignation, he retired behind the inner curtain of his tent, 
 Such was the man to whom Providence, in its inscrutable 
 wisdom, had assigned a throne, and a highly disciplined army 
 of seventy-five thousand men. To northern Europe he 
 proved an awful scourge, inflicting woes, which no tongue 
 can adequately tell. 
 
 And now the storm of war seemed to commence in ear- 
 nest. The Duke of Bavaria issued a manifesto, declaring his 
 right to the whole Austrian inheritance, and pronouncing 
 Maria Theresa a usurper. He immediately marched an army 
 into one of the provinces of Austria. At the same time, two 
 French armies were preparing to cross the Rhine to coéperate 
 with the Bavarian troops. The King of Prussia was also on 
 the march, extending his conquests. Still Maria Theresa re- 
 mained inflexible, refusing to purchase peace with Prussia by 
 the surrender of Silesia. 
 
 “The resolution of the queen is taken,” she said. “If 
 the House of Austria must perish, it is indifferent whether 
 it perishes by an Elector of Bavaria, or by an Elector of 
 Brandenburg.” 
 
 While these all important matters were under discussion, 
 the queen, on the 13th of March, gave birth to a son, the 
 Archduke Joseph. This event strengthened the queen’s res 
 olution, to preserve, not only for herself, but for her son and 
 heir, the Austrian empire in its integrity. From her infan- 
 ey she had imbibed the most exalted ideas of the dignity 
 and grandeur of the house of Hapsburg. She had also been 
 taught that her inheritance was a solemn trust which she was 
 religiously bound to preserve. ‘Thus religious principle, fam- 
 ily pride and maternal love all now combined to increase the 
 tnflexibility of a will which by nature was indomitable. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 MARIA THERESA. 
 
 From 1741 To 1743. 
 
 JBARACTER oF FRanors, Duke or Lorraint.—Po.iioy or Evropgan Courts.—PLax 
 OF THE ALLIES.—SIEGE OF PRAGUE.—DESPERATE CONDITION OF THE QUEEN.—HER 
 CoRONATION IN HuNGARY.—ENTHUSIASM OF THE Barons.—SpPEEcoH or MARIA 
 THERESA.—PEAOE WITH FREDERIO OF Prussta.—His DupLiorry.—MiILitary Move- 
 MENT OF THE DUKE OF LORRAINE.—BATTLE OF CHAZLEAU.—SEOOND TREATY 
 WITH FREDERIO.—DESPONDENOY OF THE DUKE OF BAVARIA.—MAROH OF MALLE- 
 BOIS.—EXTRAORDINARY RETREAT OF BELLEISLE.—RECOVERY OF PRAGUE BY THB 
 QUEEN. 
 
 ARIA Theresa, as imperial in spirit as in position, was 
 unwilling to share the crown, even with her husband. 
 Francis officiated as her chief minister, giving audience to 
 foreign ambassadors, and attending to many of the details of 
 government, yet he had but little influence in the direction 
 of affairs. Though a very handsome man, of polished ad- 
 dress, and well cultivated understanding, he was not a man 
 of either brilliant or commanding intellect. Maria Theresa, 
 as a woman, could not aspire to the imperial throne; but all 
 the energies of her ambitious nature were roused to secure 
 that dignity for her husband. Francis was very anxious to 
 secure for himself the electoral vote of Prussia, and he, con- 
 sequently, was accused of being willing to cede Austrian ter- 
 ritory to Frederic to purchase his support. This deprived 
 him of all influence whenever he avowed sentiments contrary 
 vo those of the queen. 
 England, jealous of the vast continental power of France, 
 Was anxious to strengthen Austria, as a means of holding 
 
€28 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 France in check. Seldom, in any of these courts, was the 
 guestion of right or wrong considered, in any transaction. 
 Each court sought only its own aggrandizement and the hu- 
 miliation of its foes. The British cabinet, now, with very 
 considerable zeal, espoused the cause of Maria ‘Theresa, 
 Pamphlets were circulated to rouse the enthusiasm of the 
 nation, by depicting the wrongs of a young and beautiful 
 queen, so unchivalrously assailed by bearded monarchs in 
 overwhelming combination. The national ardor was thus 
 easily kindled. On the 8th of August the King of England, 
 in an animated speech from the throne, urged Parliament to 
 support Maria Theresa, thus to maintain the balance of power 
 in Europe. One million five hundred thousand dollars were 
 immediately voted, with strong resolutions in favor of the 
 queen. The Austrian ambassador, in transmitting this money 
 and these resolutions to the queen, urged that no sacrifice 
 should be made to purchase peace with Prussia; affirming 
 that the king, the Parliament, and the people of England 
 were all roused to enthusiasm in behalf of Austria; and that 
 England would spend its last penny, and shed its last drop of 
 blood, in defense of the cause of Maria Theresa. This en- 
 couraged the queen exceedingly, for she was sanguine that 
 Holland, the natural ally of England, would follow the 
 example of that nation. She also cherished strong hopes that 
 Russia might come to her aid. 
 
 It was the plan of France to rob Maria Theresa of ali 
 her possessions excepting Hungary, to which distant king- 
 dom she was to be driven, and where she was to be left ume 
 disturbed to defend herself as she best could against the 
 Turks. Thus the confederates would have, to divide among 
 themselves, the States of the Netherlands, the kingdom of 
 Bohemia, the Tyrol, the duchies of Austria, Silesia, Moravia, 
 Carinthia, Servia and various other duchies opulent and popu- 
 lous, over which the vast empire of Austria had extended its 
 sway. 
 
MARBIA THEREBA,. 429 
 
 The French armies crossed the Rhine and united with the 
 Bavarian troops. The combined battalions marched, sweep. 
 ing all opposition before them, to Lintz, the capital of upper 
 Austria. This city, containing about thirty thousand inhabi- 
 tants, is within a hundred miles of Vienna, and is one of the 
 most beautiful in Germany. Here, with much military and 
 civic pomp, the Duke of Bavaria was inaugurated Archduke 
 of the Austrian duchies. A detachment of the army was then 
 dispatched down the river to Polten, within twenty-four miles 
 of Vienna; from whence a summons was sent to the capital 
 to surrender. At the same time a powerful army turned its 
 steps north, and pressing on a hundred and fifty miles, over 
 the mountains and through the plains of Bohemia, laid siege 
 to Prague, which was filled with magazines, and weakly gar- 
 risoned. Frederic, now in possession of all Silesia, was leading 
 his troops to coéperate with those of France and Bavaria. 
 
 The cause of Maria Theresa was now, to human vision, 
 desperate. Immense armies were invading her realms. 
 Prague was invested; Vienna threatened with immediate 
 siege; her treasury was empty; her little army defeated and 
 scattered ; she was abandoned by her allies, and nothing 
 seemed to remain for her but to submit to her conquerors. 
 Hungary still clung firmly to the queen, and she had been 
 crowned at Presburg with boundless enthusiasm. An eye- 
 witness has thus described this scene :— 
 
 “The coronation was magnificent. The queen was all 
 charm. She rode gallantly up the Royal Mount, a hillock in 
 the vicinity of Presburg, which the new sovereign ascends 
 on horseback, and waving a drawn sword, defied the four 
 corners of the world, in a manner to show that she had no 
 occasion for that weapon to conquer all who saw her. The 
 antiquated crown received new graces from her head; and 
 the old tattered robe of St. Stephen became her as well as 
 her own rich habit, if diamonds, pearls and all sorts of pre- 
 cious stones can be called clothes.” 
 
430 THE HUUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 She had but recently risen from the bed of confinement 
 and the delicacy of her appearance added to her attractions. 
 A table was spread for a public entertainment, around which 
 all the dignitaries of the realm were assembled—dukes who 
 could lead thousands of troops into the field, bold barons, 
 with their bronzed followers, whose iron sinews had been 
 toughened in innumerable wars. It was a warm summer day, 
 and the cheek of the youthful queen glowed with the warmth 
 and with the excitement of the hour. Her beautiful hair fell 
 in ringlets upon her shoulders and over her full bosom. She 
 sat at the head of the table all queenly in loveliness, and impe- 
 rial in character. The bold, high-spirited nobles, who sur- 
 rounded her, could appreciate her position, assailed by half 
 the monarchies of Europe, and left alone to combat them all, 
 Their chivalrous enthusiasm was thus aroused. 
 
 The statesmen of Vienna had endeavored to dissuade the 
 queen from making any appeal to the Hungarians. When 
 Charles VI. made an effort to secure their assent to the Prag. 
 matic Sanction, the war-worn barons replied haughtily, ‘* We 
 are accustomed to be governed by men, not by women.” 
 The ministers at Vienna feared, therefore, that the very sight 
 of the queen, youthful, frail and powerless, would stir these 
 barons to immediate insurrection, and that they would scorn 
 such a sovereign to guide them in the fierce wars which her 
 crown involved. But Maria Theresa better understood human 
 nature. She believed that the same barons, who would resist 
 the demands of the Emperor Charles VI., would rally with 
 enthusiasm around a defenseless woman, appealing to them 
 for aid. The cordiality and ever-increasing glow of ardor 
 with which she was greeted at the coronation and at the din- 
 ner encouraged her hopes. 
 
 She summoned all the nobles to meet her in the great hall 
 of the castle. The hall was crowded with as brilliant an 
 assemblage of rank and power as Hungary could furnish, 
 The queen entered, accompanied by her retinue. She was 
 
MARIA THEBESA. 431 
 
 Gressed in deep mourning, in the Hungarian costume, with 
 the crown of St. Stephen upon her brow, and the regal cimiter 
 at her side. With a majestic step she traversed the apart- 
 ment, and ascended the platform or tribune from whence the 
 Kings of Hungary were accustomed to address their con- 
 gregated lords. All eyes were fixed upon her, and the most 
 solemn silence pervaded the assemblage. 
 
 The Latin language was then, in Hungary, the language of 
 diplomacy and of the court. All the records of the kingdom 
 were preserved in that language, and no one spoke, in the de- 
 liberations of the diet, but in the majestic tongue of ancient 
 Rome. The queen, after a pause of a few moments, during 
 which she carefully scanned the assemblage, addressing them 
 in Latin, said :-— 
 
 “The disastrous situation of our affairs has moved us 
 to lay before our dear and faithful States of Hungary, the 
 recent invasion of Austria, the danger now impending over 
 this kingdom, and a proposal for the consideration of a 
 remedy. The very existence of the kingdom of Hungary, of 
 our own person, of our children and our crown, is now at 
 stake. Forsaken by all, we place our sole resource in the 
 fidelity, arms and long tried valor of the Hungarians; ex- 
  horting you, the states and orders, to deliberate without delay 
 in this extreme danger, on the most effectual measures for 
 the security of our person, of our children and of our crown, 
 and to carry them into immediate execution. In regard to 
 ourself, the faithful states and orders of Hungary shall ex- 
 perience our hearty codperation in all things which may 
 promote the pristine happiness of this ancient kingdom, and 
 the honor of the people.” * 
 
 * Some may feel interested in reading this speech in the original Latin, as 
 it is now found recorded in the archives of Hungary. It is as follows: 
 
 “ Allocutio Regine Hungarize Maris Theresis, anno 1741. Afflictus 
 rerum nostrarum status nos movit, ut fidelibus perchari regni Hungarizo stae 
 tibus de hostili provincie nostrae hereditaris, Austriz invasione, et imminente 
 
 8 
 
482 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 Tke response was instantaneous and emphatic. A thousand 
 warriors drew their sabers half out of their scabbards, and 
 then thrust them back to the hilt, with a clangor like the 
 clash of swords on the field of battle. Then with one voice 
 they shouted, “ Moriamur pro nostra rege, Maria Theresa’?—— 
 We will die for our sovereign, Maria Theresa. 
 
 The queen, until now, had preserved a perfectly calm 
 and composed demeanor. But this outburst of enthusiasm 
 overpowered her, and forgetting the queen, she pressed her 
 bandkerchief to her eyes and burst into a flood of tears. 
 No manly heart could stand this unmoved. Every eye was 
 moistened, every heart throbbed with admiration and devo- 
 tion, and a scene of indescribable enthusiasm ensued. Hun- 
 gary was now effectually roused, and Maria Theresa was 
 queen of all hearts. Every noble was ready to march his 
 vassals and to open his purse at her bidding. All through 
 the wide extended realm, the enthusiasm rolled like an in- 
 undation. The remote tribes on the banks of the Save, the 
 Theiss, the Drave, and the lower Danube flocked to her 
 standards. They came, semi-savage bands, in uncouth garb, 
 and speaking unintelligible tongues—Croats, Pandours, Scla- 
 vonians, Warusdinians and Tolpaches. Germany was as- 
 tounded at the spectacle of these wild, fierce men, apparently 
 as tameless and as fearless as wolves. The enthusiasm spread 
 rapidly all over the States of Austria, The young men, and 
 especially the students in the universities, espoused the cause 
 of the queen with deathless fervor, Vienna was strongly for 
 
 regno huic periculo, adeoque de considerando remedio propositionem scripto 
 faciamus. Agitur de regno Hungaria, de person4 nostra, prolibus nostris, et 
 corona, ab omnibus derelicti, unice ad inclytorum statuum fidelitatem, arma, 
 et Hungarorum priscam virtutem confugimus, impense hortantes, velint status 
 et ordines in hoc maximo periculo de securitate persone nostre, prolium, 
 corone, et regni quanto ocius consulere, et ea in effectum etiam deducere, 
 Quantum ex parte nostra est, queecunque pro pristina regni hujus felicitate, 
 et gentis decore forent, in iis omnibus benignitatem et clementiam nostram 
 regiam fideles status et ordines regni experturi sunt.” 
 
MARIA THERESBA, 433 
 
 tified, all hands engaging in the work. So wonderful was this 
 movement, that the aliies were alarmed, They had already 
 become involved in quarrels about the division of tke antici 
 pated booty. 
 
 Frederic of Prussia was the first to implore peace. The 
 Elector of Bavaria was a rival sovereign, and Frederic pre- 
 ferred seeing Austria in the hands of the queen, rather than 
 in the hands of the elector. He was, therefore, anxious to 
 withdraw from the confederacy, and to oppose the allies, 
 The queen, as anxious as Frederic to come to an accommoda- 
 tion, sent an ambassador to ascertain his terms. In laconic 
 phrase, characteristic of this singular man, he returned the fol- 
 lowing answer :— 
 
 “All lower Silesia; the river Neiss for the boundary. 
 The town of Neiss as well as Glatz. Beyond the Oder the 
 ancient limits to continue between the duchies of Brieg 
 and Oppelon. Breslau for us. The affairs of religion in 
 statu quo. No dependence on Bohemia; a cession forever. 
 In return we will proceed no further. We will besiege Neiss 
 for form, The commandant shall surrender and depart. We 
 will pass quietly into winter quarters, and the Austrian army 
 may go where they will. Let the whole be concluded in 
 twelve days.” 
 
 These terms were assented to. The king promised never 
 to ask any further territory from the queen, and not to act 
 offensively against the queen or any of her allies. Though 
 the queen placed not the slightest confidence in the integrity 
 oz the Prussian monarch, she rejoiced in this treaty, which 
 eaabled her to turn all her attention to her other foes, The 
 allies were now in possession of nearly all of Bohemia and 
 were menacing Prague. 
 
 The Duke of Lorraine hastened with sixty thousand men 
 to the relief of the capital. He had arrived within nine miles 
 of the city, when he learned, to his extreme chagrin, that the 
 preceding night Prague had been taken by surprise. That 
 
 —— 
 
434 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 very day the Elector of Bavaria made a triumphal entry into 
 the town, and was soon crowned King of Bohemia, And 
 now the electoral diet of Germany met, and, to the extreme 
 disappointment of Maria Theresa, chose, as Emperor of Ger- 
 many, instead of her husband, the Elector of Bavaria, whom 
 they also acknowledged King of Bohemia. He received the 
 imperial crown at Frankfort on the 12th of February, 1742, 
 with the title of Charles VII. 
 
 The Duke of Lorraine having been thus thwarted in his 
 plan of relieving Prague, and not being prepared to assail the 
 allied army in possession of the citadel, and behind the 
 ramparts of the city, detached a part of his army to keep the 
 enemy in check, and sent General Kevenhuller, with thirty 
 thousand men, to invade and take possession of Bavaria, now 
 nearly emptied of its troops. By very sagacious movements 
 the general soon became master of all the defiles of the 
 Bavarian mountains. He then pressed forward, overcoming 
 all opposition, and in triumph entered Munich, the capital of 
 Bavaria, the very day Charles was chosen emperor. Thus 
 the elector, as he received the imperial crown, dropped his 
 own hereditary estates from his hand. 
 
 This triumph of the queen’s arms alarmed Frederic of 
 Prussia. He reposed as little confidence in the honesty of 
 the Austrian court as they reposed in him. He was afraid 
 that the queen, thus victorious, would march her triumphant 
 battalions into Silesia and regain the lost duchy. He conse- 
 quently, in total disregard of his treaty, and without troubling 
 himself to make any declaration of war, resumed hostilities, 
 He entered into a treaty with his old rival, the Elector of 
 Bavaria, now King of Bohemia, and Emperor of Germany. 
 Receiving from the emperor large accessions of territory, 
 Frederic devoted his purse and army to the allies. His 
 armies were immediately in motion. They overran Moravia, 
 and were soon in possession of all of its most important 
 fortresses, All the energies of Frederic were consecrated 
 
MARIA THERESA. 435 
 
 $0 any cause in which he enlisted. He was indefatigable in 
 his activity. With no sense of dishonor in violating a solemn 
 treaty, with no sense of shame im conspiring with banded 
 despots against a youthful queen, of whose youth, and feeble- 
 ness and feminine nature they wished to take advantage that 
 they might rob her of her possessions, Frederic rode from - 
 camp to camp, from capital to capital, to infuse new vigor 
 into the alliance. He visited the Elector of Saxony at Dres 
 den, then galloped to Prague, then returned through Moravia, 
 and placed himself at the head of his army. Marching 
 vigorcusly onward, he entered upper Austria. His hussars 
 spreal terror in all directions, even to the gates of Vi- 
 enna. 
 
 The Hungarian troops pressed forward in defense of the 
 queen. Wide leagues of country were desolated by war, as 
 all over Germany the hostile battalions swept to and fro. 
 The Duke of Lorraine hastened from Moravia for the defense 
 of Vienna, while detached portions of the Austrian army were 
 on the rapid march, in ali directions, to join him. On the 
 16th of May, 1742, the Austrian army, under the Duke of 
 Lorraine, and the Prussian army under Frederic, encountered 
 each other, in about equal numbers, at Chazleau. Equal in 
 numbers, equal in skill, equal in bravery, they fought with 
 equal success. After several hours of awful carnage, fourteen 
 thousand corpses strewed the ground. Seven thousand were 
 Austrians, seven thousand Prussians, The Duke of Lorraine 
 retired first, leaving a thousand prisoners, eighteen pieces of 
 artiJery and two standards, with the foe; but he took with 
 him, captured from the Prussians, a thousand prisoners, four- 
 teen cannon, and two standards. As the duke left Frederic 
 in possession of the field, it was considered a Prussian victory. 
 But it was a victory decisive of no results, as each party 
 was alike crippled. Frederic was much disappointed. He 
 had anticipated the annihilation of the Austrian army, and 
 a triumphant march to Vienna, where, in the palaces of 
 
436 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 the Austrian kings, he intended to dictate terms to the pros 
 trate monarchy. 
 
 The queen had effectually checked his progress, new levies 
 were crowding to her aid, and it was in vain for Frederic, 
 with his diminished and exhausted regiments, to undertake 
 an assault upon the ramparts of Vienna. Again he proposed 
 terms of peace. He demanded all of upper as well as lower 
 Silesia, and the county of Glatz, containing nearly seven 
 hundred square miles, and a population of a little over sixty 
 thousand. Maria Theresa, crowded by her other enemies, 
 was exceedingly anxious to detach a foe so powerful and 
 active, and she accordingly assented to the hard terms. This 
 new treaty was signed at Breslau, on the 11th of June, and 
 was soon ratified by both sovereigns. The Elector of Saxony 
 was also included in this treaty and retired from the contest. 
 
 The withdrawal of these forces seemed to turn the tide of 
 battle in favor of the Austrians. The troops from Hungary 
 fought with the most romantic devotion. A band of Croats 
 in the night swam across a river, with their sabers in their 
 mouths, and climbing on each other’s shoulders, scaled the 
 walls of the fortress of Piseck, and made the garrison prison- 
 ers of war. The Austrians, dispersing the allied French and 
 Bavarians in many successful skirmishes, advanced to the 
 walls of Prague. With seventy thousand men, the Duke of 
 Lorraine commenced the siege of this capital, so renowned in 
 the melancholy annals of war. The sympathies of Europe 
 began to turn in favor of Maria Theresa, It became a 
 general impression, that the preservation of the Austrian 
 monarchy was essential to hold France in check, which colos- 
 sal power seemed to threaten the liberties of Europe. The 
 cabinet of England was especially animated by this sentiment, 
 and a change in the ministry being efferted, the court of St. 
 James sent assurances to Vienna of their readiness to support 
 the queen with the whole power of the British empire 
 Large supplies of men and money were immediately voted. 
 
MARIA THERESBA. 437 
 
 Sixteen thousand men were landed in Flanders to codperate 
 with the Austrian troops. Holland, instigated by the example 
 of England, granted Maria Theresa a subsidy of eight hundred 
 and forty thousand florins. The new Queen of Russia, also, 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, adopted measures 
 highly favorable to Austria. 
 
 In Italy affairs took a singular turn in favor of the 
 Austrian queen. The King of Sardinia, ever ready to embark 
 his troops in any enterprise which gave him promise of booty, 
 alarmed by the grasping ambition of France and Spain, who 
 were ever seizing the lion’s share in all plunder, seeing that 
 he could not hope for much advantage in his alliance with 
 them, proposed to the queen that if she would cede to him 
 certain of the Milanese provinces, he would march his troops 
 into her camp. This was a great gain for Maria Theresa. 
 The Sardinian troops guarding the passes of the Alps, shut 
 out the French, during the whole campaign, from entering 
 Italy. At the same time the Sardinian king, with another 
 portion of his army, aided by the Austrian troops, overran 
 the whole duchy of Modena, and drove out the Spaniards, 
 The English fleet in the Mediterranean codperated in this 
 important measure. By the threat of a bombardment they 
 compelled the King of Naples to withdraw from the French 
 and Spanish alliance. Thus Austria again planted her foot in 
 Italy. This extraordinary and unanticipated success created 
 the utmost joy and exultation in Vienna. The despondency 
 of the French court was correspondingly great. <A few 
 months had totally changed the aspect of affairs. The allied 
 troops were rapidly melting away, with none to fill up the 
 dwindling ranks. The proud army which had swept over 
 Germany, defying all opposition, was now cooped up within 
 the walls of Prague, beleaguered by a foe whom victcry had 
 rendered sanguine. The new emperor, claiming the crown 
 of Austria, had lost his own territory of Bavaria; and the 
 capital of Bohemia, where he had so recently been en- 
 
438 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 throned, was hourly in peril of falling into the hands of his 
 foes. 
 
 Under these circumstances the hopes of the Duke of 
 Bavaria sank rapidly into despair. The hour of disaster re- 
 vealed a meanness of spirit which prosperity had not devel- 
 oped. Hesued for peace, writing a dishonorable and cringing 
 letter, in which he protested that he was not to blame for 
 the war, but that the whole guilt rested upon the French 
 court, which had inveigled him to present his claim and com- 
 mence hostilities. Maria Theresa made no other reply to this 
 humiliating epistle than to publish it, and give it a wide cire 
 culation throughout Europe. Cardinal Fleury, the French 
 minister of state, indignant at this breach of confidence, sent 
 to the cabinet of Vienna a remonstrance and a counter state- 
 ment. This paper also the queen gave to the public. 
 
 Marshal Belleisle was in command of the French and 
 Bavarian troops, which were besieged in Prague. The force 
 rapidly gathering around him was such as to render retreat 
 impossible. The city was unprepared for a siege, and famine 
 soon began to stare the citizens and garrison in the face, 
 The marshal, reduced to the last extremity, offered to evacus 
 ate the city and march out of Bohemia, if he could be per- 
 mitted to retire unmolested, with arms, artillery and baggage, 
 The Duke of Lorraine, to avoid a battle which would be 
 rendered sanguinary through despair, was ready and even 
 anxious to assent to these terms. His leading generals were 
 of the same opinion, as they wished to avoid a needless 
 effusion of blood. 
 
 The offered terms of capitulation were sent to Maria 
 Theresa. She rejected them with disdain, She displayed a 
 revengeful spirit, natural, perhaps, under the circumstances, 
 but which reflects but little honor upon her character. 
 
 “TI will not,” she replied, in the presence of the whole 
 court; “I will not grant any capitulation to the French 
 army. I will listen to no terms, to no proposition from Car 
 
MARIA THERESA, 489 
 
 dinal Fleury. I am astonished that he should come to me 
 now with proposals for peace; he who endeavored to excite 
 all the princes of Germany to crush me, I have acted with 
 too much condescension to the court of France. Compelled 
 by the necessities of my situation I debased my royal dignity 
 by writing to the cardinal in terms which would have soft- 
 ened the most obdurate rock. He insolently rejected my 
 entreaties ; and the only answer I obtained was that his most 
 Christian majesty had contracted engagements which he 
 could not violate. I can prove, by documents now in my 
 possession, that the French endeavored to excite sedition 
 even in the heart of my dominions; that they attempted to 
 overturn the fundamental laws of the empire, and to set all 
 Germany in a flame. I will transmit these proofs to posterity 
 as a warning to the empire.” 
 
 The ambition of Maria Theresa was now greatly roused. 
 She resolved to retain the whole of Bavaria which she had 
 taken from the elector. The duchy of Lorraine, which had 
 been wrested from her husband, was immediately to be in- 
 vaded and restored to the empire. The dominions which had 
 been torn from her father in Italy were to be reannexed to 
 the Austrian crown, and Alsace upon the Rhine was to be re- 
 claimed, ‘Thus, far from being now satisfied with the posses- 
 sions she had inherited from her father, her whole soul was 
 roused, in these hours of triumph, to conquer vast accessions 
 for her domains. She dreamed only of conquest, and in her 
 elation parceled out the dominions of France and Bavaria 
 as liberally and as unscrupulously as they had divided among 
 themselves the domain of the house of Austria. 
 
 The French, alarmed, made a great effort to relieve 
 Prague. An army, which on its march was increased to 
 sixty thousand men, was sent six hundred miles to cross 
 rivers, to penetrate defiles of mountains crowded with hostile 
 troops, that they might rescue Prague and its garrison from 
 the besiegers. With consummate skill and energy this criti- 
 
4406 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 cal movement was directed by General Mallebois. The 
 garrison of the city were in a state of great distress. The 
 trenches were open and the siege was pushed with great vigi- 
 lance. All within the walls of the beleaguered city were re 
 duced to extreme suffering. Horse flesh was considered a 
 delicacy which was reserved for the sick. The French made 
 sally after sally to spike the guns which were battering down 
 the walls. As Mallebois, with his powerful reénforcement, 
 drew near, their courage rose. The Duke of Lorraine be- 
 came increasingly anxious to secure the capitulation before 
 the arrival of the army of relief, and proposed a conference 
 to decide upon terms, which should be transmitted for ape 
 proval to the courts of Vienna and of Paris. But the im- 
 perious Austrian queen, as soon as she heard of this move- 
 ment, quite regardless of the feelings of her husband, whom 
 she censured as severely as she would any corporal in the 
 army, issued orders prohibiting, peremptorily, any such con- 
 ference. 
 
 ‘TJ will not suffer,” she said “any council to be held in 
 the army. From Vienna alone are orders to be received. I 
 disavow and forbid all such proceedings, det the blame fall 
 where it may.” 
 
 She knew full well that it was her husband who had pro- 
 posed this plan; and he knew, and all Austria knew, that it 
 was the Duke of Lorraine who was thus severely and pub- 
 licly reprimanded. But the husband of Maria Theresa was 
 often reminded that he was but the subject of the queen. Se 
 peremptory a mandate admitted of no compromise. The 
 Austrians plied their batteries with new vigor, the wan and 
 skeleton soldiers fought perseveringly at their embrasures; 
 and the battalions of Mallebois, by forced marches, pressed 
 on through the mountains of Bohemia, to the eventful arena, 
 A division of the Austrian army was dispatched to the passes 
 of Satz and Caden, which it would be necessary for the 
 French to thread, in approaching Prague. The troops of 
 
 a 
 
MARIA THERESA, 44} 
 
 Mallebois, when they arrived at these defiles, were so ex- 
 hausted by their long and forced marches, that they were in- 
 capable of forcing their way against the opposition they en- 
 countered in the passes of the mountains, After a severe 
 struggle, Mallebois was compelled to relinquish the design of 
 relieving Prague, and storms of snow beginning to incumber 
 his path, he retired across the Danube, and throwing up an 
 intrenched camp, established himself in winter quarters, The 
 Austrian division, thus successful, returned to Prague, and the 
 blockade was resumed. There seemed to be now no hope 
 for the French, and their unconditional surrender was hourly 
 expected, Affairs were in this state, when Europe was 
 astounded by the report that the French general, Belleisle, 
 with a force of eleven thousand foot and three thousand 
 horse, had effected his escape from the battered walls of the 
 city and was in successful retreat. 
 
 It was the depth of winter. The ground was covered with 
 snow, and freezing blasts swept the fields. The besiegers 
 were compelled to retreat to the protection of their huts, 
 Taking advantage of a cold and stormy night, Belleisle formed 
 bis whole force into a single column, and, leaving behind him 
 his sick and wounded, and every unnecessary incumbrance, 
 marched noiselessly but rapidly from one of the gates of the 
 city. He took with him but thirty cannon and provisions for 
 twelve days. It was a heroic but an awful retreat. The 
 army, already exhausted and emaciate by famine, toiled on 
 over morasses, through forests, over mountains, facing frost 
 and wind and snow, and occasionally fighting their way 
 against their foes, until on the twelfth day they reached Egra 
 on the frontiers of Bavaria, about one hundred and twenty 
 miles east from Prague. 
 
 Their sufferings were fearful. They had nothing to eat 
 but frozen bread, and at night they sought repose, tentless, 
 and upon the drifted snow. The whole distance was strewed 
 with the bodies of the dead. Each morning mounds of frozen 
 
442 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 corpses indicated the places of the night’s bivouac, Twelve 
 hundred perished during this dreadful march. Of those who 
 survived, many, at Egra, were obliged to undergo the ampu 
 tation of their frozen limbs. General Belleisle himself, during 
 the whole retreat, was suffering from such a severe attack ot 
 rheumatism, that he was unable either to walk or ride. His 
 mind, however, was full of vigor and his energies unabated. 
 Carried in a sedan chair he reconnoitred the way, pointed out 
 the roads, visited every part of the extended line of march, 
 encouraged the fainting troops, and superintended all the mi- 
 nutest details of the retreat. ‘ Notwithstanding the losses 
 of his army,” it is recorded, “he had the satisfaction of pre- 
 serving the flower of the French forces, of saving every 
 cannon which bore the arms of his master, and of not leaving 
 tie smallest trophy to grace the triamph of the enemy.” 
 
 In the citadel of Prague, Belleisle had left six thousand 
 troops, to prevent the eager pursuit of the Austrians, The 
 Prince Sobcuitz, now in command of the besieging force, 
 mortified and irritated by the escape, sent a summons to the 
 garrison demanding its immediate and unconditional surren- 
 der. Chevert, the gallant commander, replied to the officer 
 who brought the summons,— 
 
 “Tell the prince that if he will not grant me the honors: 
 of war, I will set fire to the four corners of Prague, and bury 
 myself under its ruins.” 
 
 The destruction of Prague, with all its treasures of archi- 
 tecture and art, was too serious a calamity to be hazarded. 
 Chevert was permitted to retire with the honors of war, and 
 with his division he soon rejoined the army at Egra. Maria 
 Theresa was exceedingly chagrined by the escape of the 
 French, and in the seclusion of her palace she gave vent to 
 the bitterness of her anguish, In public, however, she assumed 
 an attitude of triumph and great exultation in view of the 
 recovery of Prague. She celebrated the event by magnificent 
 entertainments. In imitation of the Olympic games, she 
 
MABIA THEBESA, 443 
 
 established chariot races, in which ladies alone were the com- 
 petitors, and even condescended herself, with her sister, to 
 enter the lists, 
 
 All Bohemia, excepting Egra, was now reclaimed. Early 
 in the spring Maria Theresa visited Prague, where, on the 
 12th of May, 1743, with great splendor she was crowned 
 Queen of Bohemia. General Belleisle, leaving a small garrie 
 son at Egra, with the remnant of his force crossed the Rhine 
 and returned to France. He had entered Germany a few 
 months before, a conqueror at the head of forty thousand 
 men. He retired a fugitive with eight thousand men im his 
 train, ragged, emaciate and mutilated. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 MARIA THERESA. 
 
 From 1743 to 1748 
 
 Paosrprgous AsPxor or AUSTRIAN AFFAIRS.—CAPTURE OF Eara.—Vast Exrenr oF 
 AUSTRIA.—DISPUTE WITH SARDINIA.—MARRIAGE OF CHARLES OF LORRAINE WITH 
 THE QuEEN’s SistER.—INVASION OF ALSACE.—FREDEERIO OVEREUNS BonHEMIA.— 
 BoHEMIA RECOVERED BY PRinog CHARLES.— DEATH OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES VII, 
 —VENALITY OF THE OLD MoONARCHIES.—BATTLE OF HOHENFRIEDBERG.—SrIz THOMAS 
 Ropsrnson’s INTERVIEW with Maria THEREsA.—HUNGARIAN ENTHUSIASM.—THE 
 Duke or LORRAINE ELEOTED EMPEROR.—CONTINUATION OF THE W AR.—TREATY OF 
 PEAOE.—INDIGNATION OF Maria THERESA. 
 
 d bi cause of Maria Theresa, at the commencement of the 
 year 1743, was triumphant all over her widely extended 
 domains. Russia was cordial in friendship, Holland, in token 
 of hostility to France, sent the queen an efficient loan of six 
 thousand men, thoroughly equipped for the field. The King 
 of Sardinia, grateful for his share in the plunder of the French 
 and Spanish provinces in Italy, and conscious that he could 
 retain those spoils only by the aid of Austria, sent to the 
 queen, in addition to the coéperation of his armies, a gift of a 
 million of dollars. England, also, still anxious to check the 
 growth of France, continued her subsidy of a million and a 
 half, and also with both fleet and army contributed very effi- 
 cient military aid. The whole force of Austria was now 
 turned against France. The French were speedily driven 
 from Bavaria; and Munich, the capital, fell into the hands ot 
 the Austrians. The emperor, in extreme dejection, unable tc 
 present any front of resistance, sent to the queen entreating a 
 treaty of neutrality, offering to withdraw all claims to the 
 
4 
 
 MARIA THERESA. 448 
 
 Austrian succession, and consenting to leave his Bavarian 
 realm in the hands of Maria Theresa until a general peaoa, 
 The emperor, thus humiliated and stripped of ali his terri 
 tories, retired to Frankfort. 
 
 On the 7th of September Egra was captured, and the 
 queen was placed in possession of all her hereditary domaine, 
 The wonderful firmness and energy which she had displayed, 
 and the consummate wisdom with which she had conceived 
 and executed her measures, excited the admiration of Hurope, 
 ja Vienna, and throughout all the States of Austria, her popu- 
 larity was unbounded. After the battle of Dettingen, in which 
 her troops gained a decisive victory, as the queen was return- 
 ing to Vienna from a water excursion, she found the banks of 
 the Danube, for nine miles, crowded with her rejoicing sub- 
 jects. In triumph she was escorted into the capital, greeted 
 by every demonstration of the most enthusiastic joy. 
 
 Austria and England were now prepared to mature their 
 plans for the dismemberment of France. The commissioners 
 met at Hanau, a small fortified town, a few miles east of 
 Frankfort. They met, however, only to quarrel fiercely. 
 Austrian and English pride clashed in instant coilision, Lord 
 Stair, imperious and irritable, regarded the Austrians as out- 
 side barbarians whom England was feeding, clothing and pro- 
 tecting. The Austrian officers regarded the English as re 
 mote islanders from whom they had hired money and men, 
 The Austrians were amazed at the impudence of the English 
 in assuming the direction of affairs. The British officers were 
 . equally astounded that the Austrians should presume to take 
 vhe lead. No plan of codperation could be agreed upon, and 
 the conference broke up in confusion. 
 
 The queen, whose heart was still fixed upon the elevation 
 of her husband to the throne of the empire, was anxious to 
 depose the emperor. But England was no more willing to 
 eee Austria dominant over Europe than to see France thas 
 powerful. Maria Theresa was now in possession of ail ber 
 
443 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 vast ancestral domains, and England judged that it would 
 endanger the balance of power to place upon the brow ot 
 her husband the imperial crown. The British cabinet com 
 sequently espoused the cause of the Elector of Bavaria, and 
 entered into a private alrangement with him, agreeing to ac- 
 knowledge him as emperor, and to give him an annual pen- 
 sion that he might suitably support the dignity of his station, 
 The wealth of England seems to have been inexhaustible, for 
 half the monarchs of Europe have, at one time or other, been 
 fed and clothed from her treasury. George II. contracted to 
 pay the emperor, within forty days, three hundred thousand 
 dollars, and to do all in his power to constrain the queen 
 of Austria to acknowledge his title. 
 
 Maria Theresa had promised the King of Sardinia large ac- 
 eessions of territory in Italy, as the price for his coéperation. 
 Bat now, having acquired those Italian territories, she was ex- 
 eeedingly reluctant to part with any one of them, and very 
 dishonorably evaded, by every possible pretense, the fulfill- 
 ment of her agreement. The queen considered herself now 
 so strong that she was not anxious to preserve the alliance 
 of Sardinia, She thought her Italian possessions secure, even 
 in case of the defection of the Sardinian king. Sardinia ap- 
 pealed to England, as one of the allies, to interpose for the 
 execution of the treaty. To the remonstrance of England the 
 queen peevishly replied, 
 
 “Tt is the policy of England to lead me from one sacri- 
 fice to another. I am expected to expose my troops for no 
 other end than voluntarily to strip myself of my possessions, 
 Should the cession of the Italian provinces, which the King of 
 Sardinia claims, be extorted from me, what remains in Italy 
 will not be worth defending, and the only alternative left ia 
 that of being stripped either by England or France.” 
 
 While the queen was not willing to give as much as she 
 had agreed to bestow, the greedy King of Sardinia was grasp. 
 ing at more than she had promised. At last the king, ina 
 
MARIA THERESA. 447 
 
 rage threaten ad, that if she did not immediately comply witb 
 his demands, he would unite with France and Spain and the 
 emperor against Austria. This angry menace brought the 
 queen to terms, and articles of agreement satisfactory to Sar- 
 dinia were signed. During the whole of this summer of 1743, 
 though large armies were continually in motion, and there 
 were many sanguinary battles, and all the arts of peace were 
 destroyed, and conflagration, death and woe were sent to ten 
 thousand homes, nothing effectual was accomplished by either 
 party. The strife did not cease until winter drove the weary 
 combatants to their retreats, . 
 
 For the protection of the Austrian possessions against the 
 French and Spanish, the queen agreed to maintain in Italy an 
 army of thirty thousand men, to be placed under the com- 
 mand of the King of Sardinia, who was to add to them an 
 army of forty-five thousand. England, with characteristic 
 prodigality, voted a million of dollars annually, to aid in the 
 payment of these troops. It was the object of England, to 
 prevent France from strengthening herself by Italian posses 
 sions. The cabinet of St. James took such an interest in thig 
 treaty that, to secure its enactment, one million five hundred 
 thousand dollars were paid down, in addition to the annual 
 subsidy. England also agreed to maintain a strong squadron 
 in the Mediterranean to coéperate with Sardinia and Austria, 
 
 Amidst these scenes of war, the usual dramas of domestic 
 life moved on. Prince Charles of Lorraine, had long been 
 ardently attached to Mary Anne, younger sister of Maria 
 Theresa. The young prince had greatly signalized himself on 
 the field of battle. Their nuptials were attended in Vienna 
 with great splendor and rejoicings, It was a union of loving 
 hearts. Charles was appointed to the government of the 
 Austrian Netherlands, One short and happy year passed 
 away, when Mary Anne, in the sorrows of child-birth, breathed 
 ber last. 
 
 The winter was passed by all parties in making the most 
 
(348 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 vigorous preparations for a new campaign. England and 
 France were now thoroughly aroused, and bitterly irritated 
 against each other. Hitherto they had acted as auxiliaries for 
 other parties. Now they summoned all their energies, and 
 became principals in the conflict. France issued a formal dec- 
 laration of war against England and Austria, raised an army 
 of one hundred thousand men, and the debauched king him- 
 self, Louis XV., left his Parc Aux Cerfs and placed himself 
 at the head of the army. Marshal Saxe was the active com- 
 mander. He was provided with a train of artillery superior 
 to any which had ever before appeared on any field. Hnter- 
 ing the Netherlands he swept all opposition before him. 
 
 The French department of Alsace, upon the Ithine, om- 
 braced over forty thousand square miles of territory, and con- 
 tained a population of about a million. While Marshal Saxe 
 was ravaging the Netherlands, an Austrian army, sixty thou- 
 sand strong, crossed the Rhine, like a torrent burst into 
 Alsace, and spread equal ravages through the cities and vil- 
 Jages of France. Bombardment echoed to bombardment; 
 conflagration blazed in response to conflagration; and the 
 shrieks of the widow, and the moans of the orphan which 
 rose from the marshes of Burgundy, were reéchoed in an une 
 dying wail along the valleys of the Rhine. 
 
 The King of France, alarmed by the progress which the 
 Austrians were making in his own territories, ordered thirty 
 thousand troops, from the army in the Netherlands, to be 
 dispatched to the protection of Alsace. Again the tide was 
 turning against Maria Theresa. She had become so arrogant 
 and exacting, that she had excited the displeasure of nearly 
 all the empire. She persistently refused to acknowledge the 
 emperor, who, beyond all dispute, was legally elected; she 
 treated the diet contemptuously ; she did not disguise her de- 
 termination to hold Bavaria by the right of conquest, and to 
 annex it to Austria; she had compelled the Bavarians to take 
 the oath of allegiance to her; she was avowedly meditating 
 
MARIA THERBSA. 449 
 
 gigantic projects in the conquest of France and Italy; and it 
 was very evident that she was maturing her plans for the re- 
 conquest of Silesia. Such inordinate ambition alarmed all 
 
 the neighboring courts. Frederic of Prussia was particularly | 
 alarmed lest he should lose Silesia. With his accustomed 
 energy he again drew his sword against the queen, and became 
 the soul of a new confederacy which combined many of the 
 princes of the empire whom the haughty queen had treated 
 with so much indignity. In this new league, formed by 
 Frederic, the Elector Palatine and the King of Sweden were 
 brought into the field against Maria Theresa. All this was 
 effected with the utmost secrecy, and the queen bad no in- 
 timation of her danger until the troops were in motion. 
 Frederic published a manifesto in which he declared that he 
 took up arms “ to restore to the German empire its liberty, to 
 the emperor his dignity, and to Europe repose.” 
 
 With his strong army he burst into Bohemia, now drained 
 of its troops to meet the war in the Netherlands and on the 
 Rhine. With a lion’s tread, brushing all opposition away, he 
 advanced to Prague. The capital was compelled to surrender, 
 and the garrison of fifteen thousand troops became prisoners 
 of war. Nearly all the fortresses of the kingdom fell into his 
 hands, Kstablishing garrisons at Tabor, Budweiss, Frauen- 
 berg, and other important posts, he then made an irruption 
 into Bavaria, scattered the Austrian troops in all directions, 
 entered Munich in triumph, and reinstated the emperor in the 
 possession of his capital and his duchy. Such are the fortunes 
 of war. The queen heard these tidings of accumulated dis- 
 aster in dismay. In a few weeks of a summer’s campaign, 
 when she supposed that Europe was almost a suppliant at her 
 feet, she found herself deprived of the Netherlands, of the 
 whole kingdom of Bohemia, the brightest jewel in her crown, 
 and of the electorate of Bavaria. 
 
 But the resolution and energy of the queen remained 
 indomitable. Maria Theresa and Frederic were fairly pitted 
 
489 FHE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA. 
 
 against each other. It was Greek meeting Greek. The 
 queen immediately recalled the army from Alsace, and in 
 person repaired to Presburg, where she summoned a diet of 
 the Hungarian nobles. In accordance with an ancient custom, 
 @ blood-red flag waved from all the castles in the kingdom, 
 summoning the people to a levy en masse, or, a8 it was then 
 called, to a general insurrection, An army of nearly eighty 
 thousand men was almost instantly raised. A cotemporary 
 historian, speaking of this event, says: 
 
 “This amazing unanimity of a people so divided amongst 
 themselves as the Hungarians, especially in point of religion, 
 could only be effected by the address of Maria Theresa, who 
 seemed to possess one part of the character of Elizabeth of 
 England, that of making every man about her a hero.” 
 
 Prince Charles re-crossed the Rhine, and, by a vigorous 
 march through Suabia, returned to Bohemia. By surprise, 
 with a vastly superior force, he assailed the fortresses garrisoned 
 by the Prussian troops, gradually took one after another, and 
 ere long drove the Prussians, with vast slaughter, out of the 
 whole kingdom. Though disaster, in this campaign, followed 
 the banners of Maria Theresa in the Netherlands and in Italy, 
 she forgot those reverses in exultation at the discomfiture of 
 her great rival Frederic. She had recovered Bohemia, and 
 was now sanguine that she soon would regain Silesia, the loss 
 of which province ever weighed heavily upon her heart. But 
 in her character woman’s weakness was allied with woman’s 
 determination. She imagined that she could rouse the chiv 
 alry of her allies as easily as that of the Hungarian barons 
 and that foreign courts, forgetful of their own grasping am 
 bition, would place themselves as pliant instruments in he 
 hands. 
 
 In this posture of affairs, the hand of Providence was again 
 interposed, in an event which removed from the path of the 
 queen a serious obstacle, and opened to her aspiring mind 
 new visions of grandeur. The Emperor Charles VIL, am 
 
MARIA THERBSA,. 451 
 
 amiabie man, of moderate abilities, was quite crushed in spirit 
 by the calamities accumulating upon him, Though he had 
 regained his capital, he was in hourly peril of being driven 
 from it again. Anguish so preyed upon his mind, that, pale 
 and wan, he was thrown upon a sick bed. While in this 
 state he was very injudiciously informed of a great defeat 
 which his troops had encountered. It was a death-blow to 
 the emperor. He moaned, turned over in his bed, and died, 
 on the 20th of January, 1745. 
 
 The imperial crown was thus thrown down among the 
 combatants, and a scramble ensued for its possession such as 
 Europe had never witnessed before. Every court was agi- 
 tated, and the combinations of intrigue were as innumerable 
 as were the aspirants for the crown. The spring of 1745 
 opened with clouds of war darkening every quarter of the 
 horizon. England opened the campaign in Italy and the 
 Netherlands, her whole object now being to humble France. 
 Maria Theresa remained uncompromising in her disposition to 
 relinquish nothing and to grasp every thing. The cabinet of 
 England, with far higher views of policy, were anxious to de- 
 tach some of the numerous foes combined against Austria; 
 but it was almost impossible to induce the queen to make the 
 slightest abatement of her desires. She had set her heart 
 upon annexing all of Bavaria to her realms. That immense 
 duchy, now a kingdom, was about the size of the State of 
 South Carolina, containing over thirty thousand square miles, 
 Its population amounted to about four millions. The death 
 of the Emperor Charles VII, who was Elector of Bavaria, 
 transmitted the sovereignty of this realm to his son, Maxi- 
 milian Joseph. | 
 
 Maximilian was anxious to withdraw from the strife. He 
 agreed to renounce all claim to the Austrian succession, to 
 acknowledge the validity of the queen’s title, to dismiss the 
 auxiliary troops, and to give his electoral vote to the Duke of 
 Lorraine for emperor. But so eager was the queen to grasp 
 
452 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA. 
 
 the Bavarian dominions, that it was with the utmost difficulty 
 that England could induce her to accede even to these terms, 
 
 It is humiliating to record the readiness of these old 
 monarchies to sell themselves and their armies to any cause 
 which would pay the price demanded. For seven hundred 
 and fifty thousand dollars England purchased the alliance of 
 Poland, and her army of thirty thousand men. Before the 
 treaty was formally ratified, the Emperor Charles VII. died, 
 and there were indications that Bavaria would withdraw from 
 the French alliance. This alarmed the French ministry, and 
 they immediately offered Poland a larger sum than England 
 had proffered, to send her army to the French camp. The 
 bargain was on the point of being settled, when England and 
 Austria again rushed in, and whispered in the ear of Augustus 
 that they intended to chastise the King of Prussia thoroughly, 
 and that if Poland would help them, Poland should be re 
 warded with generous slices of the Prussian territory. This 
 was a resistless bribe, and the Polish banners were borne in 
 the train of the Austrian alliance. 
 
 The Duke of Lorraine was much annoyed by the imperial 
 assumption of his wife. She was anxious to secure for him 
 the crown of Germany, as adding to her power and grandeur, 
 But Francis was still more anxious to attain that dignity, as 
 his position in the court, as merely the docile subject of his 
 wife, the queen, was exceedingly humiliating. The spring of 
 1745 found all parties prepared for the renewal of the fight, 
 The drama was opened by the terrible battle of Fontenoy 
 in the Netherlands. On the 11th of May eighty thousand 
 French met the Austrian allied army of fifty thousand. After 
 a few hours of terrific slaughter the allies retreated, leaving 
 the French in possession of the field. In Italy, also, the tide 
 of war set against the queen. The French and Spaniards 
 poured an army of seventy thousand men over the Alps inte 
 Italy. The queen, even with the aid of Sardinia, had no foree 
 capable of resisting them. The allies swept the country. 
 
MARIA THERESA, 453 
 
 The King of Sardinia was driven behind the walls of his capi: 
 tal. In this one short campaign Tortona, Placentia, Parma, 
 Pavia, Cazale and Aste were wrested from the Austrians, and 
 the citadels of Alexandria and Milan were blockaded. 
 
 The queen had weakened her armies both in the Nether- 
 lands and Italy that she migh accumulate a force sufficient to 
 recover Silesia, and to crush, if possible, her great antagonist 
 Frederic. Maria Theresa was greatly elated by her success 
 in driving the Prussians from Bavaria, and Frederic was 
 mortified and irritated by this first defeat of his arms. Thus 
 animated, the one by hope, the other by vengeance, Maria and 
 Frederic gathered all their resources for a trial of strength 
 on the plains of Silesia. France, fully occupied in the Nether- 
 lands and in Italy, could render Frederic no assistance. His 
 prospects began to look dark. War had made sad ravages in 
 his army, and he found much difficulty in filling up his wasted 
 battalions, His treasury was exhausted. Still the indomita- 
 ble monarch indulged in no emotions of dejection. 
 
 Each party was fully aware of the vigilance and energy 
 of its antagonist. Their forces were early in the field. The 
 month of April was passed in stratagems and skirmishes, each 
 endeavoring in vain to obtain some advantage over the other 
 in position or combinations. Early in May there was a pretty 
 severe conflict, in which the Prussians gained the advantage. 
 They feigned, however, dejection and alarm, and apparently 
 commenced a retreat. The Austrians, emboldened by this 
 subterfuge, pursued them with indiscreet haste. Prince 
 Charles pressed the retiring hosts, and followed closely after 
 them through the passes of the mountains to Landshut and 
 Friedburg. Frederic fled as if in a panic, throwing no ob- 
 stacle in the path of his pursuers, seeming only anxious to 
 gain the ramparts of Breslau. Suddenly the Prussians 
 turned—the whole army being concentrated in columns of 
 enormous strength. They had chosen their ground and their 
 hour. It was before the break of day on the 3d of June, 
 
454 THE BOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 among the hills of Hohenfriedberg. The Austrians were taker 
 utterly by surprise. For seven hours they repelled the im- 
 petuous onset of their foes. But when four thousand of 
 their number were mangled corpses, seven thousand captives 
 in the hands of the enemy, seventy-six standards and sixty- 
 six pieces of artillery wrested from them, the broken bands 
 of the Austrians turned and fled, pursued and incessantly 
 pelted by Frederic through the defiles of the mountains back 
 to Bohemia. The Austrians found no rest till they had 
 escaped beyond the Riesengeberg, and placed the waves of | 
 the Elbe between themselves and their pursuers. The Prus- 
 sians followed to the opposite bank, and there the two armies 
 remained for three months looking each other in the face. 
 
 Frederic, having gained so signal a victory, again pro- 
 posed peace. England, exceedingly desirous to detach from 
 the allies so energetic a foe, urged the queen, in the strong- 
 est terms, to accede to the overtures. The queen, however, 
 never dismayed by adversity, still adhered to her resolve to 
 reconquer Silesia. The English cabinet, finding Maria The- 
 resa deaf to all their remonstrances and entreaties, endeavored 
 to intimidate her by the threat of withdrawing their subsidies 
 
 The English ambassador, Sir Thomas Robinson, with this 
 object in view, demanded an audience with the queen. The 
 interview, as he has recorded it, is worthy of preservation, 
 
 “ Wngland,” said the ambassador to the queen, “has this 
 year furnished five million, three hundred and ninety-three 
 thousand seven hundred and sixty-five dollars. The nation 
 is not in a condition to maintain a superiority over the allies 
 in the Netherlands, Italy and Silesia. It is, therefore, indis- 
 pensable to diminish the force of the enemy. France can not 
 be detached from the alliance. Prussia can be and must be, 
 This concession England expects from Austria. What is to 
 be done must be done immediately. The King of Prussia can 
 not be driven from Bohemia this campaign. By making peace 
 with him, and thus securing his voluntary withdrawal, your 
 
MARIA THERESBA, 455 
 
 majesty can send troops to the Netherlands, and check the 
 rapid progress of the French, who now threaten the very ex- 
 istence of England and Holland. If they fall, Austria must 
 inevitably fall also. If peace can be made with Prussia 
 France can be checked, and the Duke of Lorraine can be 
 chosen emperor.” 
 
 “I feel exceedingly grateful,” the queen replied, “to the 
 king and the English nation, and am ready to show it in every 
 way in my power. Upon this matter I will consult my minis- 
 ters and acquaint you with my answer. But whatever may 
 be the decision, I can not spare a man from the neighborhood 
 of the King of Prussia. In peace, as well as in war, I need 
 them all for the defense of my person and family.” 
 
 “It is affirmed,” Sir Thomas Robinson replied, ‘ that 
 seventy thousand men are employed against Prussia. From 
 such a force enough might be spared to render efficient aid in 
 Italy and in the Netherlands.” 
 
 ‘“*T can not spare a man,” the queen abruptly replied. 
 
 Sir Thomas was a little touched, and with some spirit re- 
 joined, “If your majesty can not spare her troops for the 
 
 general cause, England will soon find it necessary to with- 
 draw her armies also, to be employed at home.” 
 
 This was a home thrust, and the queen felt it, and replied, 
 “But why may we not as well detach France from the alli- 
 ance, as Prussia?” 
 
 *“‘ Because Prussia,” was the reply, “can be more easily in- 
 duced to accede to peace, by allowing her to retain what she 
 now has, than France can be induced to yield, by surrender- 
 ing, as she must, large portions of her present acquisitions.” 
 
 ‘“‘ T must have an opportunity,” Maria Theresa continued, 
 “to strike Prussia another blow. Prince Charles has still 
 enough men to give battle.” 
 
 “But should he be the victor in the battle,” Sir Thomas 
 replied, “ Silesia is not conquered. And if the battle be lost, 
 
 _ your majesty is well nigh pane 
 
456 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 “Tf I had determined,” said the queen, “to make peace 
 with Frederic to-morrow, I would give him battle to-night. 
 But why in such a hurry? Why this interruption of opera- 
 tions which are by no means to be despaired of? Give me 
 only to October, and then you may do as you please.” 
 
 “* October will close this campaign,” was the answer. “ Our 
 affairs are going so disastrously, that unless we can detach 
 Prussia, by that time France and Prussia will be able to dic 
 tate terms to which we shall be compelled to accede.” 
 
 “That might be true,” the queen replied, tartly, “if I were 
 to waste my time, as you are urging me to do, in marching 
 my troops from Bohemia to the Rhine, and from the Rhine 
 to the Netherlands. But as for my troops, I have not a single 
 general who would condescend to command such merely ma- 
 chinery armies. As for the Duke of Lorraine, and my broth- 
 er, Prince Charles, they shall not thus degrade themselves. 
 The great duke is not so ambitious of an empty honor, much 
 less to enjoy it under the patronage of Prussia. You speak 
 of the imperial dignity! Is it compatible with the loss of Si- 
 lesia? Great God! give me only till October. I shall then 
 at least be able to secure better conditions.” 
 
 The English ambassador now ventured, in guarded phrase, 
 but very decisively, to inform the queen that unless she could 
 accede to these views, England would be constrained to with- 
 draw her assistance, and, making the best terms she could for 
 herself with the enemy, leave Austria to fight her own bat- 
 tles; and that England requested an immediate and a specific 
 answer. Even this serious menace did not move the inflexible 
 will of the queen. She, with mue} calmness, replied, 
 
 “Tt is that I might, with the utmost promptness, attend to 
 this business, that I have given you so expeditious an audience, 
 and that I have summoned my council to meet so early. I 
 see, however, very clearly, that whatever may be my decisions, 
 they will have but little influence upon measures which are to 
 be adopted elsewhere.” 
 
MARIA THERESA. 457 
 
 The queen convened her council, and then informed En- 
 gland, in most courteous phrase, that she could not accede to 
 the proposition. The British cabinet immediately entered into 
 & private arrangement with Prussia, guaranteeing to Frederia 
 uhe possession of Silesia, in consideration of Prussia’s agree 
 ment not to molest England’s Hanoverian possessions. 
 
 Maria Theresa was exceedingly indignant when she be 
 came acquainted with this treaty. She sent peremptory orders 
 to Prince Charles to prosecute hostilities with the utmost vigor, 
 and with great energy dispatched reénforcements to his camp. 
 The Hungarians, with their accustomed enthusiasm, flocked to 
 the aid of the queen; and Frederic, pressed by superior num- 
 bers, retreated from Bohemia back to Silesia, pursued and 
 pelted in his turn by the artillery of Prince Charles. But 
 Frederic soon turned upon. his foes, who almost surrounded 
 him with double his own number of men. His army was 
 compact and in the highest state of discipline. A scene of 
 terrible carnage ensued, in which the Austrians, having lost 
 four thousand in killed and two thousand taken prisoners, 
 were utterly routed and scattered. The proud victor, gath- 
 ering up his weakened battalions, one fourth of whom had 
 been either killed or wounded in this short, fierce storm of 
 war, continued his retreat unmolested. 
 
 While Maria Theresa, with such almost superhuman in- 
 flexibility, was pressing her own plans, the electoral diet of 
 Germany was assembled at Frankfort, and Francis, Duke of 
 Lorraine, was chosen emperor, with the title of Francis I, 
 The yueen was at Frankfort when the diet had assembled, and 
 was plying all her energies in favor of her husband, while 
 awaiting, with intense solicitude, the result of the election, 
 When the choice was announced to her, she stepped out upon 
 the balcony of the palace, and was the first to shout, “ Long 
 live the emperor, Francis I’ The immense concourse assem 
 bled in the streets caught and reéchoed the cry. This result 
 was exceedingly gratifying to the queen; she regarded it as 2 
 
458 THE HOUSB OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 noble triumph, adding to the power and the luster of her 
 house. 
 
 The duke, now the emperor, was at Heidelberg, with an 
 army of sixty thousand men. ‘The queen hastened to him 
 with her congratulations, The emperor, no longer a submis- 
 sive subject, received his queenly spouse with great dignity at 
 the head of his army. The whole host was drawn up in two 
 lines, and the queen rode between, bowing to the regiments 
 on the right hand and the left, with majesty and grace which 
 all admired. 
 
 Though the queen’s treasury was so exhausted that she had 
 been compelled to melt the church plate to pay her troops, she 
 was now so elated that, regardless of the storms of winter, 
 she resolved to send an army to Berlin, to chastise Frederic 
 in his own capital, and there recover long lost Silesia. But. 
 Frederic was not thus to be caught napping. Informed of 
 the plan, he succeeded in surprising the Austrian army, and 
 dispersed them after the slaughter of five thousand men, The 
 queen’s troops, who had entered Silesia, were thus driven pell- 
 mell back to Bohemia. The Prussian king then invaded Sax- 
 ony, driving all before him. He took possession of the whole 
 electorate, and entered Dresden, its capital, in triumph. This 
 was a terrible defeat for the queen. Though she had often 
 said that she would part with her last garment before she 
 would consent to the surrender of Silesia, she felt now com- 
 pelled to yield. Accepting the proffered mediation of England, 
 on the 25th of December, 1745, she signed the treaty of Dres- 
 den, by which she left Silesia in the hands of Frederic. He 
 agreed to withdraw his troops from Saxony, and to acknowl- 
 edge the imperial title of Francis I. 
 
 England, in consequence of rebellion at home, had been 
 compelled to withdraw her troops from the Netherlands; and 
 France, advancing with great vigor, took fortress after for- 
 tress, until nearly all of the Low Countries had fallen into her 
 hands. In Italy, however, the Austrians were successful, and 
 
MARIA THERESA. 458 
 
 Maria Theresa, having dispatched thirty thousand troops to 
 their aid, cherished sanguine hopes that she might recover 
 Milan and Naples. All the belligerent powers, excepting 
 Maria Theresa, weary of the long war, were anxious for peace. 
 She, however, still clung, with deathless tenacity, to her de- 
 termination to recover Silesia, and to win provinces in Italy. 
 England and France were equally desirous to sheathe the 
 sword. France could only attack England in the Netherlands; 
 England could only assail France in her marine. They were 
 both successful. France drove England from the continent ; 
 England drove France from the ocean. 
 
 Notwithstanding the most earnest endeavors of the allies, 
 Maria Theresa refused to listen to any terms of peace, and 
 succeeded in preventing the other powers from coming to any 
 accommodation. All parties, consequently, prepared for an- 
 other campaign. Prussia entered into an alliance with Aus- 
 tria, by which she agreed to furnish her with thirty thousand 
 troops. The queen made gigantic efforts to drive the French 
 from the Netherlands, England and Holland voted an army 
 of forty thousand each. The queen furnished sixty thousand ; 
 making an army of one hundred and forty thousand to oper- 
 ate in the Netherlands. At the same time the queen sent 
 sixty thousand men to Italy, to be joined by forty-five thou- 
 sand Sardinians. All the energies of the English fleet were 
 also combined with these formidable preparations. Though 
 never before during the war had such forces been brought inte 
 the field, the campaign was quite disastrous to Austria and 
 her allies. Many bloody battles were fought, and many thou- 
 sands perished in agony; but nothing of any importance was 
 gained by either party. When winter separated the combai- 
 ants, they retired exhausted and bleeding. 
 
 Again France made overtures for a general pacification, 
 on terms which were eminently honorable. England was dis- 
 posed to listen to those terms. But the queen had not yet 
 accomplished her purposes, and she succeeded in securing the 
 
460 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 rejection of the proposals. Again the belligerents gathered 
 their resources, with still increasing vigor, for another cam- 
 paign. The British cabinet seemed now to be out of all 
 patience with Maria Theresa, They accused her of not sup- 
 plying the contingents she had promised, they threatened to 
 withhold their subsidies, many bitter recriminations passed, 
 but still the queen, undismayed by the contentions, urged for- 
 ward her preparations for the new campaign, till she was 
 thunderstruck with the tidings that the preliminaries of peace 
 were already signed by England, France and Holland. 
 
 Maria Theresa received the first formal notification of the 
 terms agreed to by the three contracting powers, from the 
 English minister, Sir Thomas Robinson, who urged her con- 
 currence in the treaty. The indignant queen could not refrain 
 from giving free vent to her displeasure. Listening for a mo- 
 ment impatiently to his words, she overwhelmed him with a 
 torrent of reproaches. 
 
 * You, sir,” she exclaimed, ‘ who had such a share in the 
 aacrifice of Silesia; you, who contributed more than any one 
 in procuring the cessions to Sardinia, do you still think to per- 
 suade me? No! I am neither a child nor a fool! If you 
 will have an instant peace, make it. I can negotiate for myself. 
 Why am I always to be excluded from transacting my own 
 business? My enemies will give me better conditions than my 
 friends. Place me where I was in Italy before the war; but 
 your King of Sardinia must have all, without one thought 
 for me. This treaty was not made for me, but for him, for 
 him singly. Great God, how have I been used by that court ! 
 There is your King of Prussia! Indeed these circumstances 
 tear open too many old wounds and create too many new ones, 
 Agree to such a treaty as this!” she exclaimed indignantly. 
 “* No, no, I will rather lose my head ” 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 MARIA THERESA. 
 
 From 1748 To 1759. 
 
 Panaty or Peace.—DIssaTIsrAcTION OF Marra THERESA.—PREPARATIO“ “or WAR 
 RUPTURE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AUSTRIA.—MARIA THERESA.—ALLIANOE WITB 
 Franoz.—INFLUENOB OF Marcuiongss oF PomPpapouR.—BITTER REPROAOCHES BE 
 TWEEN AUSTEIA AND Bons wD.—COMMENOEMENT OF THE SEVEN YEARS’ WARn.—En- 
 ERGY OF F'REDERIG CF PRussta.—SANGUINARY BATTLES.—VIOCISSITUDES OF WAR.~— 
 Desprrate Srroacion or Feeprri0.—E.ation or Maria THERESA.—HER AMBI- 
 vious PLANS,—AWwruL DEFEAT OF THE PRUSSIANS AT BEBLIN. 
 
 OTWITHSTANDING the bitter opposition of Maria 
 Theresa to peace, the definitive treaty was signed at Aix- 
 la-Chapelle on the 18th of October, 1748, by France, England 
 and Holland. Spain and Sardinia soon also gave in their ad- 
 hesion. The queen, finding it impossible to resist the deter- 
 mination of the other powers, at length reluctantly yielded, 
 and accepted the terms, which they were ready unitedly to 
 enforce should she refuse to accede to them. By this treaty 
 all the contracting powers gave their assent to the Pragmatic 
 Sanction. The queen was required to surrender her con- 
 quests in Italy, and to confirm her cessions of Silesia to Prus- 
 sia. Thus terminated this long and cruel war. Though at 
 the commencement the queen was threatened with utter de- 
 struction, and she had come out from the contests with signal 
 honor, retaining all her vast possessions, excepting Silesia and 
 the Italian provinces, still she could not repress her chagrin. 
 Her complaints were loud and reiterated. When the British 
 minister requested an audience to congratulate her upon the 
 return of peace, she snappishly replied, 
 
462 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA. 
 
 A visit of condolence would be more proper, under these 
 circumstances, than one of congratulation. The British min. 
 ister will oblige me by making nv allusion whatever to so dis- 
 agreeable a topic.”’ 
 
 The queen was not only well aware that this peace could 
 not long continue, but was fully resolved that it should not be 
 permanent. Her great rival, Frederic, had wrested from her 
 Silesia, and she was determined that there should be no stable 
 peace until she had regained it. With wonderful energy she 
 availed herself of this short respite in replenishing her treasury 
 and in recruiting her armies, Frederic himself has recorded 
 the masculine vigor with which she prepared herself for the 
 renewal of war. 
 
 ** Maria Theresa,” he says, “in the secrecy of her cabinet, 
 arranged those great projects which she afterwards carried 
 into execution. She introduced an order and economy into 
 the finances unknown to her ancestors; and her revenues far 
 exceeded those of her father, even when he was master of 
 Naples, Parma, Silesia and Servia. Having learned the ne 
 cessity of introducing into her army a better discipline, she 
 annually formed camps in the provinces, which she visited 
 herself that she might animate the troops by her presence and 
 bounty. She established a military academy at Vienna, and 
 collected the most skillful professors of all the sciences and 
 exercises which tend to elucidate or improve the art of war. 
 By these institutions the army acquired, under Maria The. 
 resa, such a degree of perfection as it had never attained 
 under any of her predecessors; and a woman accomplished 
 designs worthy of a great man.” 
 
 The queen immediately organized a standing army of one 
 hundred and eight thousand men, who were brought under 
 the highest state of discipline, and were encamped in such 
 positions that they could, at any day, be concentrated ready 
 for combined action. Tke one great object which now seemed 
 to engross her mind was the recovery of Silesia. It was, of 
 
MARIA THERESA, 463 
 
 eourse, a subject not to be spoken of openly; but in secret 
 conference with her ministers she unfolded her plans and 
 sought counsel. Her intense devotion to political affairs, 
 united to a mind of great activity and native strength, soon 
 placed her above her ministers in intelligence and sagacity ; 
 and conscious of superior powers, she leaned less upon them, 
 and relied upon her own resources. With a judgment thus 
 matured she became convinced of the incapacity of her cabi- 
 net, and with great skill in the discernment of character, chose 
 Count Kaunitz, who was then her ambassador at Paris, prime 
 minister. Kaunitz, son of the governor of Moravia, had given 
 signal proof of his diplomatic abilities, in Rome and in Paris. 
 For nearly forty years he remained at the head of foreign 
 affairs, and, in conjunction with the queen, administered the 
 government of Austria. 
 
 Policy had for some time allied Austria and England, but 
 there had never been any real friendship between the two 
 cabinets. The high tone of superiority ever assumed by the 
 court of St. James;its offensive declaration that the arm of 
 England alone had saved the house of Austria from utter ruin, 
 and the imperious demand for corresponding gratitude, an- 
 noyed and exasperated the proud court of Vienna. The 
 British cabinet were frequently remonstrated with against 
 the assumption of such airs, and the employment of language 
 so haughty in their diplomatic intercourse. But the British 
 government has never been celebrated for courtesy in its 
 intercourse with weaker powers. The chancellor Kaunitz 
 entreated them, in their communications, to respect the sez 
 and temper of the queen, and not to irritate her by de 
 Meanor so overbearing. ‘The emperor himself entered 
 remonstrance against the discourtesy which characterized 
 their intercourse. Even the queen, unwilling to break off 
 friendly relations with her unpolished allies, complained te 
 the British ambassador of the arrogant style of the English 
 documents. 
 
464 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 “They do not,” said the queen, “disturb me, but they 
 give great offense to others, and endanger the amity existing 
 between the two nations. 1 would wish that more courtesy 
 might mark our intercourse.” 
 
 But the amenities of polished life, the rude islanders de- 
 spised. The British ambassador at Vienna, Sir Robert Keith, 
 a gentlemanly man, was often mortified at the messages he 
 was compelled to communicate to the queen. Occasionally 
 the messages were couched in terms so peremptory and offen- 
 sive that he could not summon resolution to deliver them, and 
 thus he more than once incurred the censure of the king and 
 cabinet, for his sense of propriety and delicacy. ‘These re- 
 monstrances were all unavailing, and at length the Austrian 
 cabinet began to reply with equal rancor. 
 
 This state of things led the Austrian cabinet to turn to 
 France, and seek the establishment of friendly relations with 
 that court. Louis XV., the most miserable of debauchees, 
 was nominaliy king. His mistress, Jeanette Poisson, who was 
 as thoroughly polluted as her regal paramour, governed the 
 monarch, and through him France. The king had ennobled 
 her with the title of Marchioness of Pompadour, Her power 
 was so boundless and indisputable that the most illustrious 
 ladies of the French court were happy to serve as her waiting 
 women. Whenever she walked out, one of the highest nobles 
 of the realm accompanied her as her attendant, obsequiously 
 bearing her shaw] upon his arm, to spread it over her shoulders 
 in case it should be needed. Ambassadors and ministers she 
 summoned before her, assuming that air of royalty which she 
 had purchased with her merchantable charms, Voltaire, 
 Diderot, Montesquieu, waited in her ante-chambers, and im- 
 plored her patronage. The haughty mistress became even 
 weary of their adulation. 
 
 “Not only,” said she one day, to the Abbé de Bernis, 
 “have I all the nobility at my feet, but even my lap-dog is 
 weary of their fawnirg.” 
 
MARIA THERESA, 465 
 
 With many apologies for requiring of the high-minded 
 Maria Theresa a sacrifice, Kaunitz suggested to her the ex- 
 pediency of cultivating the friendship of Pompadour. Silesia 
 was engraved upon the heart of the queen, and she was pre- 
 pared to do any thing which could aid her in the reconquest 
 of that duchy. She stooped so low as to write a letter with 
 her own hand to the marchioness, addressing her as “ our 
 dear friend and cousin.” 
 
 This was a new triumph for Pompadour, and it delighted 
 her beyond measure. To have the most illustrious sovereign ot 
 Kurope, combining in her person the titles of Queen of Austria 
 and Empress of Germany, solicit her friendship and her good 
 offices, so excited the vanity of the mistress, that she became 
 immediately the warm friend of Maria Theresa, and her all 
 powerful advocate in the court of Versailles. England was 
 now becoming embroiled with France in reference to the pos- 
 sessions upon the St. Lawrence and Ohio in North America. 
 In case of war, France would immediately make an attack 
 upon Hanover. England was anxious to secure the Austrian 
 alliance, that the armies of the queen might aid in the pro- 
 tection of Hanover. But Austria, being now in secret con- 
 ference with France, was very reserved. England coaxed and 
 threatened, but could get no definite or satisfactory answer. 
 Quite enraged, the British cabinet sent a final declaration that, 
 “ should the empress decline fulfilling the conditions required, 
 the king can not take any measures in codperation with Aus- 
 tria, and the present system of EKuropean policy must be dis- 
 solved.” 
 
 The reply of the empress queen develops the feelings ot 
 irritation and bitterness which at that time existed between 
 the two cabinets of Austria and England. 
 
 “The queen,” Maria Theresa replied, “ has never had the 
 satisfaction of seeing England do justice to her principles. It 
 the army of Austria were merely the hired soldiers of En- 
 gland, the British cabinet could not more decisively assume 
 
468 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 the control of their movements than it now does, by requiring 
 their removal from the center of Austria, for the defense of 
 England and Hanover. We are reproached with the great 
 efforts England has made in behalf of the house of Austria, 
 But to these efforts England owes its present greatness. If 
 Austria has derived useful succors from England, she has pur- 
 chased those succors with the blood and ruin of her subjects; 
 while England has been opening to herself new sources of 
 wealth and power. We regret the necessity of uttering these 
 truths in reply to unjust and unceasing reproaches. Could 
 any consideration diminish our gratitude towards England, it 
 would be thus diminished by her constant endeavor to repre- 
 sent the aid she has furnished us as entirely gratuitous, when 
 this aid has always been and always will be dictated by her 
 own interests.” 
 
 Such goading as this brought back a roar. The British 
 envoy was ordered to demand an explicit and categorical 
 reply to the following questions : 
 
 1. If the French attack Hanover, will the queen render 
 England assistance ? 
 
 2. What number of troops will she send; and how soon 
 will they be in motion to join the British and Hanoverian 
 troops ? 
 
 The Austrian minister, Kaunitz, evaded a reply, coldly an- 
 swering, “Our ultimatum has been given. The queen deems 
 those declarations as ample as can be expected in the pres- 
 ent posture of affairs; nor can she give any further reply 
 vill England shall have more fully explained her inten- 
 tions.” 
 
 Thus repulsed, England turned to Prussia, and sought 
 alliance with the most inveterate enemy of Austria, Fred. 
 eric, fearing an assault from united Russia and Austria. 
 eagerly entered into friendly relations with England, and on 
 the 16th of January, 1756, entered into a treaty with the cabi- 
 net of Great Britain for the defense of Hanover. 
 
MARIA THERESA. 489 
 
 Maria Theresa was quite delighted with this arrangement, 
 for affairs were moving much to her satisfaction at Versailles, 
 Her “ dear friend and cousin” Jeanette Poisson, had dismissed 
 all the ministers who were unfriendly to Austria, and had 
 replaced them with her own creatures who were in favor 
 of the Austrian alliance. A double motive influenced the 
 Marchioness of Pompadour. Her vanity was gratified by the 
 advances of Maria Theresa, and revenge roused her soul 
 against Frederic of Prussia, who had indulged in a ieee 
 Witticism upon her position and character. . 
 
 The marchioness, with one of her favorites, Cardinal Bernis, 
 met the Austrian ambassador in one of the private apartments 
 of the palace of the Luxembourg, and arranged the plan of 
 the alliance between France and Austria. Maria Theresa, 
 without the knowledge of her ministers, or even of her husband 
 the emperor, privately conducted these negotiations with the 
 Marchioness du Pompadour. M. Kaunitz was the agent eme 
 ployed by the queen in this transaction. Louis XV., sunk in 
 the lowest depths of debauchery, consented to any arrange- 
 ments his mistress might propose. But when the treaty was 
 all matured it became necessary to present it to the Counch 
 of State. The queen, knewing how astounded her husband 
 would be to learn what she had been doing, and aware of the 
 shock it would give the ministry to think of an alliance with 
 France, pretended to entire ignorance of the measures she 
 had been so energetically prosecuting. 
 
 In very guarded and apologetic phrase, Kaunitz intro- 
 duced the delicate subject. The announcement of the unex- 
 pected alliance with France struck all with astonishment and 
 indignation. Francis, vehemently moved, rose, and smiting 
 the table with his hand, exclaimed, ‘‘Such an alliance is un- 
 natural and impracticable—it never shall take place.” The em» 
 press, by nods and winks, encouraged her minister, and he went 
 on detailing the great advantages to result from the French 
 alliance. Maria Theresa listened with great attention to his 
 
468 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA. 
 
 arguments, and was apparently convinced by them. She then 
 gave her approbation so decisively.as to silence all debate, 
 She said that such a treaty was so manifestly for the interest 
 of Austria, that she was fearful that France would not accede 
 to it. Since she knew that the matter was already arranged 
 and settled with the French court, this was a downright lie, 
 though the queen probably regarded it as a venial fib, or as 
 diplomacy. 
 
 Thus curiously England and Austria had changed their 
 allies. George II. and Frederic II., from being rancorous foes 
 became friends, and Maria Theresa and Louis XV. unfurled 
 their flags together. England was indignant with Austria for 
 the French alliance, Austria was indignant with England for 
 the Prussian alliance. Each accused the other of being the 
 first to abandon the ancient treaty. As the British ambas- 
 sador reproached the queen with this abandonment, she re- 
 plied, 
 
 “T have not abandoned the old system, but Great Britain 
 bas abandoned me and that system, by concluding the Prus- 
 sian treat)’, the first intelligence of which struck me like a fit 
 of apoplexy. I and the King of Prussia are incompatible. 
 No consideration on earth shall induce me to enter into any 
 engagement to which he is a party. Why should you be sur- 
 prised if, following your example in concluding a treaty with 
 Prussia, I should enter into an engagement with France ?” 
 
 “T have but two enemies,” Maria Theresa said again, 
 * whom I have to dread—the King of Prussia and the Turks, 
 And while I and the Empress of Russia continue on the same 
 good terms as now subsist between us, we shall, I trust, be 
 able to convince Europe that we are in a condition to defend 
 ourselves against those adversaries, however formidable.” 
 
 The queen still kept her eye anxiously fixed upon Silesia, 
 and in secret combination with the Empress of Russia made 
 preparation for a sudden invasion. With as much secrecy as 
 was possible, large armies were congregated in the vicinity of 
 
MARIA THBREBA, 492 
 
 Prague, while Russia was cautiously concentrating her troops 
 upon the frontiers of Livonia. But Frederic was on the alert, 
 and immediately demanded of the empress queen the signifi. 
 cance of these military movements, 
 
 “In the present crisis,” the queen replied, “I deem it 
 necessary to take measures for the security of myself and my 
 allies, which tend to the prejudice of no one.” 
 
 So vague an answer was of course unsatisfactory, and ths 
 haughty Prussian king reiterated his demand in very imperé 
 ous tones. 
 
 “T wish,” said he, “for an immediate and categorical 
 answer, not delivered in an oracular style, ambiguous and 
 inconclusive, respecting the armaments in Bonemia, and [ 
 demand a positive assurance that the queen will not attack 
 me either during this or the following year.” 
 
 The answer returned by the queen to this demand was 
 equally unsatisfactory with the first, and the energetic Prus- 
 sian monarch, wasting no more words, instantly invaded 
 Saxony with a powerful army, overran the duchy, and took 
 possession of Dresden, its capital, Then wheeling his troops, 
 with twenty-four thousand men he marched boldly into Bo- 
 hemia. The queen dispatched an army of forty thousand to 
 meet him, The fierce encounter took place at Lowositg, near 
 the banks of the Elbe. The military genius of Frederic pre 
 vailed, and the Austrians were repulsed, though the slaughtes 
 was about equal on each side, six thousand men, three thou 
 sand upon each side, being left in their blood. Frederic took 
 possession of Saxony as a conquered province. Seventeen 
 thousand soldiers, whom he made prisoners, he forced into his 
 own service. Kighty pieces of cannon were added to his 
 artillery train, and the revenues of Saxony replenished hig 
 purse. ; 
 
 The anger of Maria Theresa, at this humiliation of her ally 
 was roused to the highest pitch, and she spent the winter & 
 the most vigorous preparations for the campaign of the spring 
 
470 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA. 
 
 She took advantage of religious fanaticism, and represented, 
 through all the Catholic courts of Europe, that there was a 
 league of the two heretical powers, England and Prussia, 
 against the faithful children of the Church. Jeanette Poisson, 
 Marchioness of Pompadour, who now controlled the destinies 
 of France, raised, for the service of Maria Theresa, an army 
 of one hundred and five thousand men, paid_all the expenses 
 of ten thousand Bavarian troops, and promised the queen an 
 annual subsidy of twelve millions of imperial florins. The 
 emperor, regarding the invasion of Saxony as an insult to the 
 empire, roused the States of Germany to codperate with the 
 queen. Europe was again ablaze with war. 
 
 It was indeed a fearful combination now prepared to make 
 a rush upon the King of Prussia. France had assembled 
 eighty thousand men on the Rhine. The Swedes were rally- 
 ing in great numbers on the frontiers of Pomerania, The 
 Russians had concentrated an army sixty thousand strong on 
 the borders of Livonia. And the Queen of Austria had one 
 hundred and fifty thousand men on the march, through Hun- 
 gary and Bohemia, to the frontiers of Silesia. Frederic, with 
 an eagle eye, was watching all these movements, and was em- 
 ploying all his amazing energies to meet the crisis. He re- 
 solved to have the advantage of striking the first blow, and 
 adopted the bold measure of marching directly into the heart 
 of the Austrian States. To deceive the allies he pretended 
 to be very much frightened, and by breaking down bridges 
 and establishing fortresses seemed intent upon merely pre- 
 senting a desperate defense behind his ramparts. 
 
 Suddenly, in three strong, dense columns, Frederic burst 
 into Bohemia and advanced, with rapid and resistless strides, 
 towards Prague. The unprepared Austrian bands were 
 driven before these impetuous assailants as chaff is dispersed 
 py the whirlwind. With great precipitation the Austrian 
 troops, from all quarters, fied to the city of Prague and rallied 
 beneath its walls, Seventy thousand men were soon collected 
 
MARIA THERESA. i 47} 
 
 strongly intrenched behind ramparts, thrown up outside of 
 the city, from which ramparts, in case of disaster, they coul¢ 
 retire behind the walls and into the citadel. 
 
 The king, with his army, came rushing on like the sweep 
 of the tornado, and plunged, as a thunderbolt of war, into the 
 camp of the Austrians, For a few hours the battle blazed as 
 if it were a strife of demons—hell in high carnival. Eighteer. 
 thousand Prussians were mowed down by the Austrian bat 
 teries, before the fierce assailants could scale the ramparts 
 Then, with cimeter and bayonet, they took a bloody revenge 
 Eight thousand Austrians were speedily weltering in bloo€. 
 The shriek of the battle penetrated all the dwellings in 
 Prague, appalling every ear, like a wail from the world of 
 woe, The routed Austrians, leaving nine thousand prisoners 
 in the hands of Frederic, rushed through the gates into the 
 city, while a storm of shot from the batteries on the walls 
 drove back the pursuing Prussians. 
 
 Prague, with the broken army thus driven within its walls, 
 now contained one hundred thousand inhabitants. The city 
 was totally unprepared for a siege. All supplies of food being 
 cut off, the inhabitants were soon reduced to extreme suffer- 
 ing. The queen was exceedingly anxious that the city should 
 hold out until she could hasten to its relief. She succeeded 
 m sending a message to the besieged army, by a captain of 
 grenadiers, who contrived to evade the vigilance of the be 
 siegers and to gain entrance to the city. 
 
 **] am concerned,” said the empress, “that so many gen- 
 erals, with so considerable a force, must remain besieged in 
 Prague, but I augur favorably for the event. I can not too 
 strongly impress upon your minds that the troops will incur 
 everlasting disgrace should they not effect what the French 
 in the last war performed with far inferior numbers. The 
 honor of the whole nation, as well as that of the imperial 
 arms, is interested in their present behavior. The security of 
 Bohemia, of my other hereditary dominions, and of the Ger 
 
472 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 man empire itse.f, depends on a gallant defense and the pres- 
 ervation of Prague. 
 
 “The army under the command of Marshal Daun is daily 
 strengthening, and will soon be in a condition to raise the 
 siege. The French are approaching with all diligence. The 
 Swedes are marching to my assistance. In a short space of 
 time affairs will, under divine Providence, wear a better 
 aspect.” 
 
 The scene in Prague was awful. Famine strode through 
 all the streets, covering the pavements with the emaciate 
 corpses of the dead. An incessant bombardment was kept 
 up from the Prussian batteries, and shot and shell were fall- 
 ing incessantly, by day and by night, in every portion of the 
 city. Conflagrations were continually blazing ; there was no 
 possible place of safety ; shells exploded in parlors, in cham- 
 bers, in cellars, tearing limb from limb, and burying the muti- 
 lated dead beneath the ruins of their dwellings. The boom- 
 ing of the cannon, from the distant batteries, was answered by 
 the thunder of the guns from the citadel and the walls, and 
 blended with all this uproar rose the uninterrupted shrieks of 
 the wounded and the dying. The cannonade from the Prus. 
 sian batteries was so destructive, that in a few days one quar- 
 ter of the entire city was demolished. 
 
 Count Daun, with sixty thousand men, was soon advancing 
 rapidly towards Prague. Frederic, leaving a small force to 
 continue the blockade of the city, marched with the remain- 
 der of his troops to assail the Austrian general. They soon 
 met, and fought for some hours as fiercely as mortals can 
 fight. The slaughter on both sides was awful. At length the 
 fortune of war turned in favor of the Austrians, though they 
 laid down nine thousand husbands, fathers, sons, in bloody 
 death, as the price of the victory. Frederic was almost 
 frantic with grief and rage as he saw his proud battalions 
 melting away before the batteries of the foe. Six times hia 
 cavalry charged with the utmost impetuosity, and six times 
 
MARIA THERESA, 478 
 
 they were as fiercely repulsed. Frederic was finally ccmpelled 
 to withdraw, leaving fourteen thousand of his troops either 
 slain or prisoners. ‘Twenty-two Prussian standards and forty- 
 three pieces of artillery were taken by the Austrians, 
 
 The tidings of this victory elated Maria Theresa almost to 
 delirium. Feasts were given, medals struck, presents given, 
 and the whole empire blazed with illuminations, and rang with 
 all the voices of joy. The queen even condescended to call 
 in person upon the Countess Daun to congratulate her upon 
 the great victory attained by her husband. She instituted, on 
 the occasion, a new military order of merit, called the order 
 of Maria Theresa. Count Daun and his most illustrious offi- 
 cers were honored with the first positions in this new order of 
 knighthood. 
 
 The Prussians were compelled to raise the siege of Prague, 
 and to retreat with precipitation. Bohemia was speedily 
 evacuated by the Prussian troops. The queen was now deter- 
 mined to crush Frederic entirely, so that he might never rise 
 again. His kingdom was to be taken from him, carved up, 
 and apportioned out between Austria, Sweden, Poland and 
 Russia. 
 
 The Prussians retreated, in a broken band of but twenty- 
 five thousand men, into the heart of Silesia, to Breslau, its 
 beautiful and strongly fortified capital. This city, situated upon 
 the Oder, at its junction with the Ohlau, contained a popula- 
 tion of nearly eighty thousand. The fugitive troops sought 
 refuge behind its walls, protected as they were by batteries 
 of the heaviest artillery. The Austrians, strengthened by the 
 French, with an army now amounting to ninety thousand, fol- 
 lowed closely on, and with their siege artillery commenced the 
 cannonade of the city. An awful scene of carnage ensued, in 
 which the Austrians lost eight thousand men and the Prus- 
 sians five thousand, when the remnant of the Prussian garrison, 
 retreating by night through a remote gate, left the city in the 
 hands of the Austrians, 
 
474 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA 
 
 It was now mid-winter. But the iron-nerved Frederic, 
 undismayed by these terrible reverses, collected the scattered 
 fragments of his army, and, finding himself at the head of 
 thirty thousand men, advanced to Breslau in the desperate 
 attempt to regain his capital. His force was so inconsidera: 
 ble as to excite the ridicule of the Austrians. Upon the ap- 
 proach of Frederic, Prince Charles, disdaining to hide behind 
 the ramparts of the city on the defensive, against a foe thus 
 insulting him with inferior numbers, marched to meet the 
 Prussians, The interview between Prince Charles and Fred- 
 eric was short but very decisive, lasting only from the hour of 
 dinner to the going down of a December’s sun. The twilight 
 of the wintry day had not yet come when seven thousand 
 Austrians were lying mangled in death on the blood-stained 
 snow. ‘Twenty thousand were made prisoners. All the bag- 
 gage of the Austrian army, the military chest, one hundred 
 and thirty-four pieces of cannon, and fifty-nine standards 
 fell into the hands of the victors. For this victory Fred- 
 eric paid the price of five thousand lives; but Ufe to the 
 poor Prussian soldier must have been a joyless scene, and 
 death must have been a relief. 
 
 Frederic now, with triumphant banners, approached the 
 city. It immediately capitulated, surrendering nearly eighteen 
 thousand soldiers, six hundred and eighty-six officers and thir- 
 teen generals as prisoners of war. In this one storm of battle, 
 protracted through but a few days, Maria Theresa lost fifty 
 thousand men. Frederic then turned upon the Russians, and 
 drove them out of Silesia. The same doom awaited the 
 Swedes, and they fied precipitately to winter quarters behind 
 the cannon of Stralsund. Thus terminated the memorable 
 campaign of 1757, the most memorable of the Seven Years? 
 War. The Austrian army was almost annihilated; but the 
 spirit of the strife was not subdued in any breast. 
 
 The returning sun of spring was but the harbinger of new 
 woes for war-stricken Kurope. England, being essentially a 
 
MARIA THERESA. 475 
 
 maritime power, could render Frederic but little assistance 
 in troops; but the cabinet of St. James was lavish in voting 
 money Encouraged by the vigor Frederic had shown, the 
 British cabinet, with enthusiasm, voted him an annual subsidy 
 of three million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 
 
 Austria was so exhausted in means and in men, that not: 
 withstanding the most herculean efforts of the queen, it was 
 not until April of the year 1758 that she was able to concen- 
 trate fifty thousand men in the field, with the expensive equip- 
 ments which war demands. Frederic, aided by the gold of 
 England, was early on the move, and had already opened the 
 campaign by the invasion of Moravia, and by besieging Ol- 
 mutz. 
 
 The summer was passed in a series of incessant battles, 
 sweeping all over Germany, with the usual vicissitudes of war. 
 In the great battle of Hockkirchen Frederic encountered a 
 woful defeat. The battle took place on the 14th of October, 
 and lasted five hours. Eight thousand Austrians and nine 
 thousand Prussians were stretched lifeless upon the plain. 
 Frederic was at last compelled to retreat, abandoning his 
 tents, his baggage, one hundred and one cannon, and thirty 
 standards. Nearly every Prussian general was wounded. 
 The king himself was grazed by a ball; his horse was shot 
 from under him, and two pages were killed at his side. 
 
 Again Vienna blazed with illuminations and rang with re- 
 joicing, and the queen liberally dispensed her gifts and her 
 congratulations. Still nothing effectual was accomplished by 
 all this enormous expenditure of treasure, this carnage and 
 woe; and again the exhausted combatants retired to seek 
 shelter from the storms of winter. Thus terminated the third 
 year of this cruel and wasting war. 
 
 The spring of 1759 opened brightly for Maria Theresa, 
 Her army, flushed by the victory of the last autumn, was in 
 high health and spirits, All the allies of Austria redoubled 
 their exertions; and the Catholic States of Germany with re 
 
476 THE HOUSE OF AUSTBIA, 
 
 ligious zeal rallied against the two heretical kingdoms of 
 Prussia and England. The armies of France, Austria, Swe 
 den and Russia were now marching upon Prussia, and it 
 seemed impossible that the king could withstand such advere 
 saries. More fiercely than ever the storm of war raged. 
 Frederic, at the head of forty thousand men, early in June 
 met eighty thousand Russians and Austrians upon the banks 
 of the Oder, near Frankfort. For seven hours the action 
 lasted, and the allies were routed with enormous slaughter ; 
 but the king, pursuing his victory too far with his exhausted 
 troops, was turned upon by the foe, and was routed himself 
 in turn, with the slaughter of one half of his whole army. 
 Twenty-four thousand of the allies and twenty thousand Prus- 
 sians perished on that bloody day. 
 
 Frederic exposed his person with the utmost recklessness. 
 Two horses were shot beneath him; several musket balls 
 pierced his clothes ; he was slightly wounded, and was rescued 
 from the foe only by the almost superhuman exertions of his 
 hussars. In the darkness of the night the Prussians secured 
 their retreat. 
 
 We have mentioned that at first Frederic seemed to have 
 gained the victory. So sanguine was he then of success that 
 he dispatched a courier from the field, with the following bil- 
 let to the queen at Berlin :-— 
 
 ‘“* We have driven the enemy from their intrenchments 3 
 in two hours expect to hear of a glorious victory.” 
 
 Hardly two hours had elapsed ere another courier was sent 
 to the queen with the following appalling message :— 
 
 “ Remove from Berlin with the royal family. Let the 
 archives be carried to Potsdam, and the capital make condi- 
 tions with the enemy.” 
 
 In this terrible battle the enemy lost so fearfully that no 
 effort was made to pursue Frederic. Disaster never disheart- 
 ened the Prussian king. It seemed but to rouse anew his 
 energies. With amazing vigor he rallied his scattered forces, 
 
MARIA THEBESBA.,. 479 
 
 and called in reénforcements. The gold of England was at 
 his disposal; he dismantled distant fortresses and brought 
 their cannon into the field, and in a few days was at the head 
 of twenty-eight thousand men, beneath the walls of his capital, 
 ready again to face the foe. 
 
 The thunderings of battle continued week after week, in 
 unintermitted roar throughout nearly all of Germany. Winter 
 again came. Frederic had suffered awfully during the cam- 
 paign, but was still unsubdued. The warfare was protracted 
 even into the middle of the winter. The soldiers, in the fields, 
 wading through snow a foot deep, suffered more from fam- 
 ine, frost and sickness than from the bullet of the foe. In the 
 Austrian army four thousand died, in sixteen days of Decem- 
 ber, from the inclemency of the weather. Thns terminated 
 the campaign of 1759. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 MARIA THERESA. 
 
 From 1759 to 1780. 
 
 DEsoLatio“s oF War.—Disasters OF Pruss1A.—DESPONDENOY OF FREDERIO.—DEATH 
 OF THE Empress ELIZABETH.—ACOESSION OF PautL II].—ASSASSINATION OF PAUL 
 III—Aoozssion OF CATHARINE.—DISOOMFITURE OF THE AUSTRIANS.—TREATY OF 
 PEAOCE.—ELEOCTION OF JOSEPH TO THE THRONE OF THE EMPIRE.—DEATH OF FRANOM 
 —CHARACTER OF FRANOCIS.—ANECDOTES.—ENERGY OF MARIA THERESA.—PONIATOW- 
 8KI.—PARTITION OF PoLAND.—MARIA THERESA AS A MotTHER.—WAR WITH BAVA=- 
 RIA.—PEACE.—DEATH OF Marra THERESA.—FAMILY OF THE EMPRESS.—AOOESSSION 
 oF JosEPH II.—His CHARAOTER. 
 
 HE spring of 1760 found all parties eager for the renewal 
 of the strife, but none more so than Maria Theresa. The 
 King ot Prussia was, however, in a deplorable condition. 
 The veteran army, in which he had taken so much pride, was 
 now annihilated. With despotic power he had assembled a 
 new army; but it was composed of peasants, raw recruits, but 
 poorly prepared to encounter the horrors of war. The allies 
 were marching against him with two hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand men. Frederic, with his utmost efforts, could muster 
 but seventy-five thousand, who, to use his own language, 
 “‘ were half peasants, half deserters from the enemy, soldiers 
 no longer fit for service, but only for show.” 
 
 Month after month passed away, during which the whole of 
 Prussia presented the aspect of one wide field of battle. Fred- 
 eric fought with the energies of desperation. Villages were 
 everywhere blazing, squadrons charging, and the thunders of 
 an incessant cannonade deafened the ear by night and by day, 
 On the whole the campaign terminated in favor of Frederic 
 the allies being thwarted in all their endeavors to crush him. 
 In one battle Maria Theresa lost twenty thousand men. 
 
MARIA THERESA, 479 
 
 During the ensuing winter all the continental powers were 
 again preparing for the resumption of hostilities in the spring, 
 when the British people, weary of the enormous expenditures 
 of the war, began to be clamorous for peace. The French 
 treasury was also utterly exhausted. France made overtures 
 to England for a cessation of hostilities; and these two pow- 
 ers, with peaceful overtures, addressed Maria Theresa. The 
 queen, though fully resolved to prosecute the war until she 
 should attain her object, thought it not prudent to reject 
 outright such proposals, but consented to the assembling of a 
 congress at Augsburg. Hostilities were not suspended during 
 the meeting of the congress, and the Austrian queen was san- 
 guine in the hope of being speedily able to crush her Prussian 
 rival. Every general in the field had experienced such terri- 
 ble disasters, and the fortune of war seemed so fickle, now 
 lighting upon one banner and now upon another, that all 
 parties were wary, practicing the extreme of caution, and 
 disposed rather to act upon the defensive. Though not a 
 single pitched battle was fought, the allies, outnumbering the 
 Prussians, three to one, continually gained fortresses, in- 
 trenchments and positions, until the spirit even of Frederic 
 was broken by calamities, and he yielded to despair. He no 
 longer hoped to be able to preserve his empire, but proudly 
 resolved to bury himself beneath its ruins, His despondency 
 could not be concealed from his army, and his bravest troops 
 declared that they could fight no longer. 
 
 Maria Theresa was elated beyond measure. England was 
 withdrawing from Prussia. Frederic was utterly exhausted 
 both as to money and men; one campaign more would finish 
 the work, and Prussia would lie helpless at the feet of Maria 
 Theresa, and her most sanguine anticipations would be re- 
 alized. But the deepest laid plans of man are often thwarted 
 by apparently the most trivial events. One single individual 
 chanced to be taken sick and die. That individual was Eliza 
 beth, the Empress of naa. On the 5th of January, 1762, 
 
480 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 she was lying upon her bed an emaciate suffering woman, 
 gasping in death. The departure of her last breath changed 
 the fate of Europe. 
 
 Paul III., her nephew, who succeeded the empress, de. 
 tested Maria Theresa, and often inveighed bitterly against her 
 haughtiness and her ambition. On the contrary, he admired 
 the King of Prussia. He had visited the court of Berlin, 
 where he had been received with marked attention; and 
 Frederic was his model of a hero. He had watched with en- 
 thusiastic admiration the fortitude and military prowess of the 
 Prussian king, and had even sent to him many messages of 
 sympathy, and had communicated to him secrets of the cabi- 
 net and their plans of operation. Now, enthroned as Emperor 
 of Russia, without reserve he avowed his attachment to Fred- 
 eric, and ordered his troops to abstain from hostilities, and 
 to quit the Austrian army. At the same time he sent a min- 
 ister to Berlin to conclude an alliance with the hero he so 
 greatly admired. He even asked for himself a position in the 
 Prussian army as lieutenant under Frederic. 
 
 The Swedish court was so intimately allied with that of 
 St. Petersburg, that the cabinet of Stockholm also withdrew 
 from the Austrian alliance, and thus Maria Theresa, at a blow, 
 lost two of her most efficient allies. The King of Prussia 
 rose immediately from his despondency, and the whole king- 
 dom shared in his exultation and his joy. The Prussian 
 troops, in conjunction with the Russians, were now superior 
 to the Austrians, and were prepared to assume the offensive. 
 But again Providence interposed. A conspiracy was formed 
 against the Russian emperor, headed by his wife whom he 
 had treated with great brutality, and Paul III. lost both his 
 crown and his life, in July 1762, after a reign of less than six 
 months. 
 
 Catharine IT., wife of Paul III., with a bloody hand took 
 the crown from the brow of her murdered husband and 
 placed it upon her own head. She immediately dissolved the 
 

 
 ELIZABETH BRIDGE 
 
 Austrta. 
 

 
MARIA THERESA, 48] 
 
 Prussian alliance, declared Frederic an enemy to the Prussian 
 name, and ordered her troops, in coéperation with those of 
 Austria, to resume hostilities against Frederic, It was an in- 
 stantaneous change, confounding all the projects of man. The 
 energetic Prussian king, before the Russian troops had time 
 so to change their positions as to codperate with the Aus- 
 trians, assailed the troops of Maria Theresa with such im- 
 petuosity as to drive them out of Silesia. Pursuing his ad- 
 vantage Frederic overran Saxony, and then turning into 
 Bohemia, drove the Austrians before him to the walls of 
 Prague. Influenced by these disasters and other considera- 
 tions, Catharine decided to retire from the contest. At the 
 same time the Turks, excited by Frederic, commenced anew 
 their invasion of Hungary, Maria Theresa was in dismay 
 Her money was gone. Her allies were dropping from her. 
 The Turks were advancing triumphantly up the Danube, and 
 Frederic was enriching himself with the spoils of Saxony and 
 Bohemia. Influenced by these considerations she made over- 
 tures for peace, consenting to renounce Silesia, for the re- 
 covery of which province she had in vain caused Europe to be 
 desolated with blood for so many years. <A treaty of peace 
 was soon signed, Frederic agreeing to evacuate Saxony ; and 
 thus terminated the bloody Seven Years’ War. 
 
 Maria Theresa’s eldest son Joseph was now twenty-three 
 gears of age. Her influence and that of the Emperor Francia 
 was such, that they secured his election to succeed to the 
 throne of the empire upon the death of his father. The 
 emperor elect received the title of King of the Romans, The 
 important election took place at Frankfort, on the 27th of 
 May, 1764. The health of the Emperor Francis I., had for 
 some time been precarious, he being threatened with apoplexy. 
 Three months after the election of his son to succeed him upon 
 the imperial throne, Francis was at Inspruck in the Tyrol, to 
 attend the nuptials of his second son Leopold, with Maria 
 Louisa, infanta of Spain He was feeble and dejected, and 
 
482 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 longed to return to his home in Vienna, He imagined that 
 the bracing air of the Tyrol did not agree with his health, and 
 looking out upon the summits which tower around Ixspruck 
 exclaimed, 
 
 “Oh! if I could but once quit these mountains of the 
 Tyrol.” 
 
 On the morning of the 18th of August, his symptoms as- 
 sumed so threatening a form, that his friends urged him to be 
 bled. The emperor declined, saying, 
 
 “T am engaged this evening to sup with Joseph, and I 
 will not disappoint him; but I will be blooded to-morrow.” 
 
 The evening came, and as he was preparing to go and sup 
 with his son, he dropped instantly dead upon the floor. Fifty- 
 eight years was his allotted pilgrimage—a pilgimage of care 
 and toil and sorrow. Even when elevated to the imperial 
 throne, his position was humiliating, being ever overshadowed 
 by the grandeur of his wife. At times he felt this most 
 keenly, and could not refrain from giving imprudent utterance 
 to his mortification. Being at one time present at a levee, 
 which the empress was giving to her subjects, he retired, in 
 chagrin, from the imperial circle into a corner of the saloon, 
 and took his seat near two ladies of the court, They im- 
 mediately, in accordance with regal etiquette, rose. 
 
 “Do not regard me,” said the emperor bitterly, and yet 
 with an attempt at playfulness, “for I shall remain here until 
 the court has retired, and shall then amuse myself in contem- 
 plating the crowd.” 
 
 One of the ladies replied, “ As long as your imperial ma- 
 jesty is present the court will be here.” 
 
 “You are mistaken,” rejoined the emperor, with a forced 
 smile; “‘the empress and my children are the court. I am 
 here only as a private individual.” 
 
 Francis I., though an impotent emperor, would have made 
 @ very good exchange broker. He seemed to be fond of 
 mercantile life, establishing manufactories, and letting out 
 
MARIA THEREBA, 4838 
 
 money on bond and mortgage. When the queen was greatiy 
 pressed for funds he would sometimes accept her paper, 
 always taking care to obtain the most unexceptionable security, 
 He engaged in a partnership with two very efficient men for 
 farming the revenues of Saxony. He even entered into a con- 
 tract to supply the Prussian army with forage, when that 
 army was expending all its energies, during the Seven Years? 
 War, against the troops of Maria Theresa. He judged that 
 his wife was capable of taking care of herself. And she was, 
 Notwithstanding these traits of character, he was an exceed- 
 ingly amiable and charitable man, distributing annually five 
 hundred thousand dollars for the relief of distress. Many 
 anecdotes are related illustrative of the emperor’s utter fear- 
 lessness of danger, and of the kindness of his heart, There 
 was a terrible confiagration in Vienna. A saltpeter magazine 
 was in flames, and the operatives exposed to great danger. 
 An explosion was momentarily expected, and the firemen, in 
 dismay, ventured but little aid. The emperor, regardless of 
 peril, approached near the fire to give directions. His attend- 
 ants urged him not thus to expose his person. 
 
 “Do not be alarmed for me,” said the emperor, “ think only 
 of those poor creatures who are in such danger of perishing.” 
 
 At another time a fearful inundation swept the valley of 
 the Danube. Many houses were submerged in isolated poe 
 sitions, all but their roofs, In several cases the families had 
 taken refuge on the tops of the houses, and had remained 
 three days and three nights without food. Immense blocks of 
 ice, swept down by the flood, seemed to render it impossible 
 to convey relief to the sufferers. ‘The most intrepid boatmen 
 of the Danube dared not venture into the boiling surge. The 
 emperor threw himself into a boat, seized the oars, and saying, 
 “* My example may at least influence others,” pushed out into 
 the flood and successfully rowed to one of the houses. The 
 boatmen were shamed into heroism, and the imperiled people 
 were saved. | 
 
484 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Maria Theresa does not appear to aave been very deeply 
 afflicted by the death of her husband; or we should, perhaps, 
 rather say that her grief assumed the character which one 
 would anticipate from a person of her peculiar frame of mind. 
 The emperor had not been faithful to his kingly spouse, and 
 she was well acquainted with his numerous infidelities. Still 
 she seems affectionately to have cherished the memory of his 
 gentle virtues. With her own hands she prepared his shroud, 
 and she never after laid aside her weeds of mourning. She 
 often descended into the vault where his remains were depos- 
 ited, and passed hours in prayer by. the side of his coffin 
 
 Joseph, of course, having been preélected, immediately 
 assumed the imperial crown. Maria Theresa had but little 
 time to devote to grief. She had lost Silesia, and that was a 
 calamity apparently far heavier than the death of her husband. 
 Millions of treasure, and countless thousands of lives had been 
 expended, and all in vain, for the recovery of that province, 
 She now began to look around for territory she could grasp 
 in compensation for her loss. Poland was surrounded by 
 Austria, Russia and Prussia. The population consisted of 
 two classes—the nobles who possessed all the power, and the 
 people who were in a state of the most abject feudal vassalage. 
 By the laws of Poland every person was a noble who was not 
 engaged in any industrial occupation and who owned any land, 
 or who had descended from those who ever had held any land, 
 The government was what may perhaps be called an aristo- 
 cratic republic. The masses were mere slaves. The nobles 
 were in a state of political equality. They chose a chieftain 
 whom they called king, but whose power was a mere shadow. 
 At this time Poland was in a state of anarchy. Civil war 
 desolated the kingdom, the nobles being divided into nume- 
 rous factions, and fighting fiercely against each other. Catha- 
 rine, the Empress of Russia, espoused the cause of her favor 
 ite, Count Poniatowski, who was one of the candidates for 
 the crown of Poland, and by the influence of her money 
 
MARIA THERESA 485 
 
 and hcr armies placed him upon the throne and maintained 
 him there. Poland thus, under the influence of the Russian 
 queen, became, as it were, a mere province of the Russian 
 empire. 
 
 Poniatowski, a proud man, soon felt galled by the chains 
 which Catharine threw around him, Frederic of Prussia 
 united with Catharine in the endeavor to make Poniatowski 
 subservient to their wishes. Maria Theresa eagerly put in 
 her claim for influence in Poland. Thus the whole realm 
 became a confused scene of bloodshed and devastation. 
 Frederic of Prussia, the great regal highwayman, now pro- 
 posed to Austria and Russia that they should settle all the 
 difficulty by just dividing Poland between them. To their 
 united armies Poland could present no resistance. Maria 
 Theresa sent her dutiful son Joseph, the emperor, to Silesia, 
 to confer with Frederic upon this subject. The interview 
 took place at Neiss, on the 25th of August, 1769. The two 
 sovereigns vied with each other in the interchange of courte- 
 sies, and parted most exceilent friends. Soon after, they held 
 another interview at Neustadt, in Moravia, when the long 
 rivalry between the houses of Hapsburg and Brandenburg 
 seemed to melt down into most cordial union. The map of 
 Poland was placed before the two sovereigns, and they 
 marked out the portion of booty to be assigned to each of the 
 three imperial highwaymen. The troops of Russia, Austria 
 and Prussia were already in Poland. The matter being thus 
 settled between Prussia and Austria, the Prussian king im- 
 mediately conferred with Catharine at St. Petersburg. This 
 ambitious and unprincipled woman snatched at the bait pre- 
 sented, and the infamous partition was agreed to. Maria 
 Theresa was very greedy, and demanded nearly half of Poland 
 as her share. This exorbitant claim, which she with much 
 pertinacity adhered to, so offended the two other sovereigns 
 that they came near fighting about the division of the spoil, 
 The queen was at length compelled to lower her pretensions, 
 
486 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The final treaty was signed between the three powers on the 
 5th of August, 1772. 
 
 The three armies were immediately put in motion, and 
 each took possession of that portion of the Polish territory 
 which was assigned to its sovereign. In a few days the deed 
 was dene. By this act Austria received an accession of 
 twenty-seven thousand square miles of the richest of the 
 Polish territory, containing a population of two million five 
 hundred thousand souls, Russia received a more inhospitable 
 region, embracing forty-two thousand square miles, and a 
 population of one million five hundred thousand. The share 
 of Frederic amounted to thirteen thousand three hundred and 
 seventy-five square miles, and eight hundred and sixty thou- 
 sand souls. 
 
 Notwithstanding this cruel dismemberment, there was 
 still a feeble Poland left, upon which the three powers were 
 continually gnawing, each watching the others, and snarling 
 at them lest they should get more than their share. After 
 twenty years of jealous watchings the three powers decided 
 to finish their infamous work, and Poland was blotted from 
 the map of Europe. In the two divisions Austria received 
 forty-five thousand square miles and five million of inhabit- 
 ants. Maria Theresa was now upon the highest pinnacle of 
 her glory and her power. She had a highly disciplined army 
 of two hundred thousand men; her treasury was replenished, 
 and her wide-spread realms were in the enjoyment of peace. 
 Life had been to her, thus far, but a stormy sea, and weary 
 of toil and care, she now hoped to close her days in tranquil- 
 fity. 
 
 The queen was a stern and stately mother. While pressed 
 by all these cares of state, sufficient to have crushed any ordi 
 nary mind, she had given birth to sixteen children, But as 
 each child was born it was placed in the hands of careful 
 nurses, and received but little of parental caressings. It wag 
 seldom that she saw her children more than once a week, 
 
MARIA THEREBA. 487 
 
 Absorbed by high political interests, she contented herselt 
 with receiving a daily report from the nursery. Every morn- 
 ing her physician, Van Swieter, visited the young imperial 
 family, and then presented a formal statement of their con- 
 dition to the strong-minded mother. Yet the empress was 
 very desirous of having it understood that she was the most 
 faithful of parents. Whenever any foreign ambassador ar- 
 rived at Vienna, the empress would contrive to have an inter- 
 view, as it were by accident, when she had collected around 
 her her interesting family. As the illustrious stranger retired 
 the children also retired to their nursery. 
 
 One of the daughters, Josepha, was betrothed to the King 
 of Naples. A few days before she was to leave Vienna the 
 queen required her, in obedience to long established etiquette, 
 to descend into the tomb of her ancestors and offer up a 
 prayer. The sister-in-law, the Emperor Joseph’s wife, had 
 just died of the small-pox, and her remains, disfigured by that 
 awful disease, had but recently been deposited in the tomb. 
 The timid maiden was horror-stricken at the requirement, 
 and regarded it as her death doom. But an order from 
 Maria Theresa no one was to disobey. With tears filling her 
 eyes, she took her younger sister, Maria Antoinette, upon her 
 knee, and said, 
 
 **T am about to leave you, Maria, not for Naples, but to 
 die. I must visit the tomb of our ancestors, and I am sure 
 that I shall take the small-pox, and shall soon be buried 
 there.” Her fears were verified. The disease, in its most 
 virulent form, seized her, and in a few days her remains were 
 also consigned to the tomb. 
 
 In May, 1770, Maria Antoinette, then but fifteen years of 
 age, and marvelously beautiful, was married to the young 
 dauphin of France, subsequently the unhappy Louis XVI. 
 As she left Vienna, for that throne from which she was to de 
 scend to the guillotine, her mother sent by her hand the fol. 
 lowing letter to her husband : 
 
88 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 “Your bride, dear dauphin, is separated from ne. As she 
 has ever been my delight so will she be your happiness, For 
 this purpose have I educated her; for I have long been aware 
 that she was to be the companion of your life. I have en- 
 joined upon her, as among her highest duties, the most tender 
 attachment to your person, the greatest attention to every 
 thing that can please or make you happy. Above all, I have 
 recommended to her humility towards God, because I am con- 
 vinced that it is impossible for us to contribute to the happi- 
 ness of the subjects confided to us, without love to Him who 
 breaks the scepters and crushes the thrones of kings accord- 
 ing to His own will.” , 
 
 In December, 1777, the Duke of Bavaria died without 
 male issue. Many claimants instantly rose, ambitious of so 
 princely an inheritance. Maria Theresa could not resist the 
 temptation to put in herclaim. With her accustomed prompt- 
 ness, she immediately ordered her troops in motion, and, de- 
 scending from Bohemia, entered the electorate. Maria The- 
 resa had no one to fear but Frederic of Prussia, who vehe- 
 mently remonstrated against such an accession of power to 
 the empire of Austria. After an earnest correspondence the 
 queen proposed that Bavaria should be divided between them 
 as they had partitioned Poland. Still they could not agree, 
 and the question was submitted to the cruel arbitrament of 
 battle, The young Emperor Joseph was much pleased with 
 this issue, for he was thirsting for military fame, and was 
 proud to contend with so renowned an antagonist. The 
 death of hundreds of thousands of men in the game of war, 
 was of little more moment to him than the loss of a few 
 pieces in a game of chess. 
 
 The Emperor Joseph was soon at the head of one hundred 
 thousand men. The King of Prussia, with nearly an equal 
 force, marched to meet him. Both commanders were exceed- 
 ingly wary, and the whole campaign was passed in maneu- 
 vers and marchings, with a few unimportant battles. The 
 
MABIA THERESA. 489 
 
 queen was weary of war, and often spoke, with tears in her 
 éyes, of the commencement of hostilities, Without the 
 knowledge of her son, who rejoiced in the opening strife, she 
 entered into a private correspondence with Frederic, in which 
 she wrote, by her secret messenger, M. Thugut : 
 
 “T regret exceedingly that the King of Prussia and my- 
 self, in our advanced years, are about to tear the gray hairs 
 from each other’s heads. My age, and my earnest desire to 
 maintain peace are well known. My maternal heart is alarmed 
 for the safety of my sons who are in the army. I take this 
 step without the knowledge of my son the emperor, and I en- 
 treat that you will not divulge it. I conjure you to unite 
 your efforts with mine to reéstablish harmony.” 
 
 The reply of Frederic was courteous and beautiful. 
 “ Baron Thugut,” he wrote, “has delivered me your ma- 
 jesty’s letter, and no one is, or shall be acquainted with his 
 arrival, It was worthy of your majesty to give such proofs 
 of moderation, after having so heroically maintained the in- 
 heritance of your ancestors. The tender attachment you dis- 
 play for your son the emperor, and the princes of your blood, 
 deserves the applause of every heart, and augments, if possi- 
 ble, the high consideration I entertain for your majesty. I 
 have added some articles to the propositions of M. Thugut, 
 most of which have been allowed, and others which, I hope, 
 will meet with little difficulty. He will immediately depart 
 for Vienna, and will be able to return in five or six days, dur- 
 ing which time I will act with such caution that your im- 
 perial majesty may have no cause of apprehension for the 
 safety of any part of your family, and particularly of the em- 
 peror, whom I love and esteem, although our opinions differ 
 in regard to the affairs of Germany.” 
 
 But the Emperor Joseph was bitterly opposed to peace, 
 and thwarted his mother’s benevolent intentions in every pos- 
 sible way. Still the empress succeeded, and the articles were 
 signed at Teschen, the 13th day of May, 1779. The queen 
 
&9C THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 was overjoyed at the result, and was often heard to say that 
 no act of her administration had given her such heartfelt joy. 
 When she received the news she exclaimed, 
 
 ‘“‘ My happiness is fuil, Iam not partial to Frederic, but 
 I must do him the justice to confess that he has acted nobly 
 and honorably. He promised me to make peace on reason- 
 able terms, and he has kept his word. I am inexpreésibly 
 happy to spare the effusion of so much blood.” 
 
 The hour was now approaching when Maria Theresa was 
 to die. She had for some time been failing from a disease of 
 the lungs, and she was now rapidly declining. Her sufferings, 
 as she took her chamber and her bed, became very severe; 
 but the stoicism of her character remained unshaken. In one 
 of her seasons of acute agony she exclaimed, 
 
 ““God grant that these sufferings may soon terminate, for, 
 otherwise, I know not if I can much longer endure them.” 
 
 Her son Maximilian stood by her bed-side. She raised her 
 eyes to him and said, 
 
 “JT have been enabled thus far to bear these pangs with 
 firmness and constancy. Pray to God, my son, that I may 
 preserve my tranquillity to the last.” 
 
 The dying hour, long sighed for, came. She partook of 
 the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and then, assembling her 
 family around her, addressed to them her last words. 
 
 ‘“‘T have received the sacraments,” said she, ‘and feel that 
 I am now to die.” Then addressing the emperor, she con- 
 tinued, “‘ My son, all my possessions after my death revert to 
 you. To your care I commend my children. Be to thema 
 father. I shall die contented, you giving me that promise.” 
 Then looking to the other children she added, “ Regard the 
 emperor as your sovereign. Obey him, respect him, confide 
 in him, and follow his advice in all things, and you will secure 
 his friendship and protection.” 
 
 Her mind continued active and intensely occupied with the 
 affairs of her family and of her kingdom, until the very last 
 
MARIA THERESA, 491 
 
 moment. During the night succeeding her final interview 
 with her children, though suffering frcm repeated fits of suffo- 
 cation, she held a long interview with the emperor upon affairs 
 of state. Her son, distressed by her evident exhaustion, en- 
 treated her to take some repose; but she replied, 
 
 ‘“‘In a few hours I shall appear before the judgment-seat 
 of God ; and would you have me lose my time in sleep ?” 
 
 Expressing solicitude in behalf of the numerous persons 
 dependent upon her, who, after her death, might be left friend. 
 less, she remarked, 
 
 “TY could wish for immortality on earth, for no other 
 reason than for the power of relieving the distressed.” 
 
 She died on the 29th of November, 1780, in the sixty- 
 fourth year of her age and the forty-first of her reign. 
 
 This illustrious woman had given birth to six sons and 
 ten daughters. Nine of these children survived her. Joseph 
 already emperor, succeeded her upon the throne of Austria. 
 and dying childless, surrendered the crown to his next brother 
 Leopold. Ferdinand, the third son, became governor of Aus- 
 trian Lombardy. Upon Maximilian was conferred the elee 
 torate of Cologne. Mary Anne became abbess of a nunnery. 
 Christina married the Duke of Saxony. Elizabeth entered a 
 convent and became abbess. Caroline married the King of 
 Naples, and was an infamous woman. Her sister Joanna, was 
 first betrothed to the king, but she died of small-pox; 
 Josepha was then destined to supply her place; but she also 
 fell a victim to that terrible disease. Thus the situation was 
 vacant for Caroline. Maria Antoinette married Louis the 
 dauphin, and the story of her woes has filled the world. 
 
 The Emperor Joseph II., who now inherited the crown of 
 Austria, was forty years of age, a man of strong mind, edu- 
 cated by observation and travel, rather than by books. He 
 was anxious to elevate and educate his subjects, declaring that 
 it was his great ambition to rule over freemen. He had many 
 noble traits of character, and innumerable anecdotes are re 
 
492 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 lated illustrative of his energy and humanity. In war he was 
 ambitious of taking his full share of hardship, sleeping on the 
 bare ground and partaking of the soldiers’ homely fare. He 
 was exceedingly popular at the time of his accession to the 
 throne, and great anticipations were cherished of a golden age 
 about to dawn upon Austria. ‘“ His toilet,” writes one of 
 his eulogists, ‘is that of a common soldier, his wardrobe that 
 of a sergeant, business his recreation, and his life perpetual 
 motion.” 
 
 The Austrian monarchy now embraced one hundred and 
 eighty thousand square miles, containing twenty-four millions 
 of inhabitants. It was indeed a heterogeneous realm, com- 
 posed of avast number of distinct nations and provinces, 
 differing in language, religion, government, laws, customs and 
 civilization. In most of these countries the feudal system ex- 
 isted in all its direful oppression. Many of the provinces of 
 the Austrian empire, like the Netherlands, Lombardy and 
 Suabia, were separated by many leagues from the great cen- 
 tral empire. The Roman Catholic religion was dominant in 
 nearly all the States, and the clergy possessed enormous 
 wealth and power. The masses of the people were sunk in 
 the lowest depths of povei*y and ignorance. The aristocratic 
 few rejoiced in luxury and splendor. 
 
CHAPTER XXXf,. 
 JOSEPH II. AND LEOPOLD, Il. 
 
 From 1780 To £792. 
 
 A@OESSION OF JosEPH If.—His PLans or Rerorm.—Pivus Vi.—EMANOIPATION OF FEB 
 SrEFs.—JOsEPH’s VISIT To HIS SistER, Marta ANTOINETTH.—AwmBitTious Drsicna 
 —TaE IMPERIAL SieigH Ript.—BarGes ON THE DNEISTER.—§EXOURSION TO THS 
 CzaIMEA.—-WaAR WITH TURKEY.—DEFEAT OF THE AUSTRIANS.—GREAT SUCCESSES.<= 
 DEATH OF JOSEPH.—His CHARAOTER.—AOCOESSION OF LropoLp [i.—His Errorts 
 TO OONFIRM Derspotism.—THE FrRENOoH REVOLUTION.—EUROPEAN COALITION.—= 
 Deata or LroroLp.—His Proriigacy.—Aooxzssion or Franois Ii.—Present Hxe 
 TENT AND Powers or Austeia.—I1s ARMY.—POLIOY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 HEN Joseph ascended the throne there were ten lan- 
 guages, besides several dialects, spoken in Austria—the 
 German, Hungarian, Sclavonian, Latin, Wallachian, Turkish, 
 modern Greek, Italian, Flemish and French. The new king 
 formed the desperate resolve to fuse the discordant kingdom 
 into one homogeneous mass, obliterating all distinctions of 
 laws, religion, language and manners. It wasa benevolent de- 
 sign, but one which far surpassed the power of man to exe 
 cute. He first attempted to obliterate all the old national land- 
 marks, and divided the kingdom into thirteen States, in each 
 of which he instituted the same code of laws. He ordered 
 the German language alone to be used in public documents 
 and offices ; declared the Roman Catholic religion to be domi- 
 nant. There were two thousand convents in Austria. He 
 reduced them to seven hundred, and cut down the number 
 of thirty-two thousand idle monks to twenty-seven hundred; 
 and nobly issued an edict of toleration, granting to all men 
 
404 FHE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 bers of Protestant churches the free exercise of their religion 
 Al! Christians, of every denomination, were declared to be 
 equally eligible to any offices in the State. 
 
 These enlightened innovations roused the terror and rage 
 of bigoted Rome. Pope Pius VI. was so much alarmed that 
 he took a journey to Vienna, that he might personally remon- 
 strate with the emperor. But Joseph was inflexible, and the 
 Pope returned to Rome chagrined and humiliated that he had 
 acted the part of a suppliant in vain. 
 
 The serfs were all emancipated from feudal vassalage, and 
 thus, in an hour, the slavery under which the peasants had 
 groaned for ages was abolished. He established universities, 
 academies and public schools; encouraged literature and 
 science in every way, and took from the priests their office 
 of censorship of the press, an office which they had long held. 
 To encourage domestic manufactures he imposed a very heavy 
 duty upon all articles of foreign manufacture. New roads 
 were constructed at what was called enormous expense, and 
 yet at expense which was as nothing compared with the cost 
 of a single battle. 
 
 Joseph, soon after his coronation, made a visit to his sister 
 Maria Antoinette in France, where he was received with the 
 most profuse hospitality, and the bonds of friendship between 
 the two courts were much strengthened. The ambition for 
 territorial aggrandizement seems to have been an hereditary 
 disease of the Austrian monarchs. Joseph was very anxious 
 to attach Bavaria to his realms. Proceeding with great cau- 
 tion he first secured, by diplomatic skill, the non-intervention 
 of France and Russia. England was too much engaged in 
 the war of the American Revolution to interfere. He raised 
 an army of eighty thousand men to crush any opposition, and 
 then informed the Duke of Bavaria that he must exchange 
 his dominions for the Austrian Netherlands. He requested 
 the duke to give him an answer in eight days, but declared 
 peremptorily that in case he manifested any reluctance, the 
 
JOSBPH If. 493 
 
 emperor would be under the painful necessity of compelling 
 him to make the exchange. 
 
 The duke appealed to Russia, France and Prussia for aid, 
 The emperor had bought over Russia and France. Frederic 
 of Prussia, though seventy-four years of age, encouraged the 
 duke to reject the proposal, and promised his support. The 
 King of Prussia issued a remonstrance against this despotic 
 act of Austria, which remonstrance was sent to all the courts 
 of Europe. Joseph, on encountering this unexpected ob- 
 stacle, and finding Europe combining against him, renounced 
 his plan and published a declaration that he had never in- 
 tended to effect the exchange by force, This disavowal, how- 
 ever, deceived no one. <A confederacy was soon formed, 
 ander the auspices of Frederic of Prussia, to check the en- 
 croachments of the house of Austria, This Germanic League 
 was almost the last act of Frederic. He died August 17, 
 1786, after a reign of forty-seven years, in the seventy-fifth 
 year of his age. 
 
 The ambitious Empress of Russia, having already obtained 
 the Crimea, was intent upon the subversion of the Ottoman 
 empire, that she might acquire Constantinople as her mari- 
 time metropolis in the sunny south. Joseph was willing to 
 _allow her to proceed unobstructed in the dismemberment of 
 Turkey, if she would not interfere with his plans of reform 
 and aggrandizement in Germany. 
 
 In January, 1787, the Empress of Russia set out on a plea- 
 sure excursion of two thousand miles to the Crimea; perhaps 
 the most magnificent pleasure excursion that was ever at- 
 tempted. She was accompanied by all the court, by the 
 French, English and Austrian ministers, and by a very gor- 
 geous retinue. It was mid-winter, when the imperial party, 
 wrapped in furs, and in large sledges richly decorated, and 
 prepared expressly for the journey, commenced their sleigh 
 ride of a thousand miles. Music greeted them all along the 
 way; bonfires tlazed on every hill; palaces, brilliant with 
 
496 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA 
 
 illuminations and profusely supplied with every luxury, wel. 
 comed them at each stage where they stopped for refresh 
 ment or repose. The roads were put in perfect order; and 
 relays of fresh horses every few miles being harnessed to the 
 sledges, they swept like the wind over the hills and through 
 the valleys. 
 
 The drive of a few weeks, with many loiterings for plea- 
 sure in the cities on the way, took them to Kief on the Dnie- 
 per. This ancient city, the residence of the grand dukes of 
 Russia, contained a population of about twenty-six thousand. 
 Here the imperial court established itself in the ducal palaces, 
 and with music, songs and dances beguiled the days until, 
 with the returning spring, the river opened. In the mean- 
 time an immense flotilla of imperial barges had been prepared 
 to drift down the stream, a thousand miles, to its mouth at 
 Kherson, where the river flows into the Black sea. These 
 barges were of magnificent dimensions, floating palaces, con- 
 taining gorgeous saloons and spacious sleeping apartments, 
 As they were constructed merely to float upon the rapid cur- 
 rent of the stream, impelled by sails when the breeze should 
 favor, they could easily be provided with all the appliances of 
 luxury. It is difficult to conceive of a jaunt which would 
 present more of the attractions of pleasure, than thus to glide 
 in saloons of elegance, with imperial resources and surrounded 
 by youth, beauty, genius and rank, for a thousand miles down 
 the current of one of the wildest and most romantic streams 
 of Europe. 
 
 It was a beautiful sunny morning of May, when the regal 
 party, accompanied by the music of military bands, and with 
 floating banners, entered the barges. The river, broad and 
 deep, rolls on with majestic flow, now through dense forests, 
 black and gloomy, where the barking of the bear is heard and 
 wolves hold their nightly carousals; now it winds through 
 vast prairies hundreds of miles in extent; again it bursts 
 through mountain barriers where cliffs and crags rise sub: 
 
JOSEPH II. 497 
 
 limely thousands of feet in the air; here with precipitous sides 
 of granite, bleak and scathed by the storms of centuries, and 
 there with gloomy firs and pines rising to the clouds, where 
 eagles soar and scream and rear their young. Flocks and 
 herds now graze upon the banks; here lies the scattered 
 village, and its whole population, half civilized men, and 
 matrons and maidens in antique, grotesque attire, crowd the 
 shores. Now the pinnacles and the battlements of a great 
 city rise to view. Armies were gathered at several points to 
 entertain the imperial pleasure-party with all the pomp and 
 pageantry of war. At Pultowa they witnessed the maneuver- 
 ings of a battle, with its thunderings and uproar and apparent 
 carnage—the exact representation of the celebrated battle of 
 Pultowa, which Peter the Great gained on the spot over 
 Charles XII. of Sweden. 
 
 The Emperor Joseph had been invited to join this party, 
 and, with his court and retinue, was to meet them at Kherson, 
 near the mouth of the Dneister, and accompany the empress 
 to the Crimea. But, perhaps attracted by the splendor of the 
 water excursion, he struck across the country in a north-east 
 direction, by the way of Lemberg, some six hundred miles, to 
 intercept the flotilla and join the party on the river. But the 
 water of the river suddenly fell, and some hundred miles 
 above Kherson, the flotilla ran upon a sand bar and could not 
 be forced over. The empress, who was apprised of the ap- 
 proach of the emperor, too proud to be found in such a 
 situation, hastily abandoned the flotilla, and taking the car- 
 riages which they had with them, drove to meet Joseph. 
 The two imperial suites were soon united, and they swept on, 
 a glittering cavalcade, to Kherson. Joseph and Catharine 
 rode in a carriage together, where they had ample opportu- 
 nity of talking over all their plans of mutual aggrandizement. 
 As no one was permitted to listen to their conversations, their 
 decisions can only be guessed at. 
 
 They entered the city of Kherson, then containing about 
 
488 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 sixty thousand inhabitants, surrounded by all the magnificence 
 which Russian and Austrian opulence could exhibit. - A trie 
 umphal arch spanned the gate, upon which was inscribed in 
 letters of gold, “The road to Byzantium.” Four days were 
 passed here in revelry. The party then entered the Crimea, 
 and continued their journey as far as Sevastopol, where the 
 empress was delighted to find, within its capacious harbor, 
 many Russian frigates at anchor. Immense sums were ex- 
 pended in furnishing entertainments by the way. At Batche- 
 seria, where the two sovereigns occupied the ancient palace 
 of the khans, they looked out upon a mountain in a blaze of 
 illumination, and apparently pouring lava floods from its 
 artificial volcanic crater. 
 
 Joseph returned to Vienna, and immediately there was 
 war—Austria and Russia against Turkey. Joseph was anxious 
 to secure the provinces of Bosnia, Servia, Moldavia and Wal- 
 lachia, and to extend his empire to the Dneister. With great 
 vigor he made his preparations, and an army of two hundred 
 thousand men, with two thousand pieces of artillery, were 
 speedily on the march down the Danube. Catharine was 
 equally energetic in her preparations, and all the north of 
 Europe seemed to be on the march for the overthrow of the 
 Ottoman empire. 
 
 Praverbially fickle are the fortunes of war. Joseph com- 
 menced the siege of Belgrade with high hopes. He was 
 ignominiously defeated, and his troops were driven, utterly 
 routed, into Hungary, pursued by the Turks, who spread 
 ruin and devastation widely around them. Disaster followed 
 disaster. Disease entered the Austrian ranks, and the proud 
 army melted away. The emperor himself, with about forty 
 thousand men, was nearly surrounded by the enemy. He 
 attempted a retreat by night. A false alarm threw the troops 
 into confusion and terror. The soldiers, in their bewilder 
 ment fired upon each other, and an awful scene of tumult 
 ensued. The emperor, on horseback, endeavored to rally the 
 
JOSEPH II. 499 
 
 fugitives, but he was swept away by the crowd, and in the 
 midnight darkness was separated from his suite. Four thou- 
 sand men perished in this defeat, and much of the baggage 
 and several guns were lost. The emperor reproached his aides- 
 de-camp with having deserted him. One of them sarcasti- 
 cally replied, 
 
 “We used our utmost endeavors to keep up with your 
 imperial majesty, but our horses were not so fleet as yours.” 
 
 Seventy thousand Austrians perished in this one campaign. 
 The next year, 1789, was, however, as prosperous as this had 
 been adverse. The Turks at Rimnik were routed with enor- 
 mous slaughter, and their whole camp, with all its treasures, 
 fell into the hands of the victors. Belgrade was fiercely 
 assailed and was soon compelled to capitulate. But Joseph 
 was now upon his dying bed. The tidings of these successes 
 revived him for a few hours, and leaving his sick chamber he 
 was conveyed to the church of St. Stephen, where thanks- 
 givings were offered to God. A festival of three days in 
 Vienna gave expression to the public rejoicing. 
 
 England was now alarmed in view of the rapid strides 
 of Austria and Russia, and the cabinet of St. James formed 
 a coalition with Holland and Prussia to assist the Turks, 
 France, now in the midst of her revolutionary struggle, could 
 take no part in these foreign questions, These successes 
 were, however, but a momentary gleam of sunshine which 
 penetrated the chamber of the dying monarch. Griefs innu- 
 merable clustered around him. The inhabitants of the 
 Netherlands rose in successful rebellion and threw off the 
 Austrian yoke. Prussia was making immense preparations 
 for the invasion of Austria. The Hungarians were rising 
 and demanding emancipation from the court of Vienna. 
 These calamities crushed the emperor. He moaned, and 
 wept and died. In his last hours he found much solace in 
 religious observances, devoutly receiving the sacrament of the 
 Lord’s Supper, aad passing much of his time in prayer. He 
 
600 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 died on the 20th of February, 1790, in the forty-ninth year o 
 his age, and the tenth of his reign. 
 
 Joseph had been sincerely desirous of promoting the best 
 interests of his realms; but had been bitterly disappointed ip 
 the result of most of his efforts at reform. Just before he died, 
 he said, “I would have engraven on my tomb, ‘ Here lies the 
 sovereign who, with the best intentions, never carried a single 
 project into execution.’ ” He was married twice, but both of 
 his wives, in the prime of youth, fell victims to the small-pox, 
 that awful disease which seems to have been a special scourge 
 in the Austrian royal family. As Joseph II. died without 
 children, the crown passed to his next brother, Leopold, who 
 was then Grand Duke of Tuscany. | 
 
 Leopold II., at his accession to the throne, was forty-three 
 years of age. He hastened to Vienna, and assumed the gov- 
 ernment. By prudent acts of conciliation he succeeded in 
 appeasing discontents, and soon accomplished the great object 
 of his desire in securing the election to the imperial throne, 
 He was crowned at Frankfort, October 9, 1790. With frank- 
 ness very unusual in the diplomacy of kings, he sought friendly 
 relations with all the neighboring powers. To Frederic Wiles 
 liam, who was now King of Prussia, he wrote: 
 
 “In future, I solemnly protest, no views of aggrandize- 
 ment will ever enter into my political system. I shall doubt 
 less employ all the means in my possession to defend my 
 country, should I unfortunately be driven to such measures3 
 but I will endeavor to give no umbrage. To your majesty im 
 particular, I will act as you act towards me, and will spare no 
 efforts to preserve perfect harmony.” 
 
 To these friendly overtures, Frederic William responded 
 in a similar spirit ; but still there were unsettled points of dis. 
 pute between the two kingdoms which threatened war, and 
 large armies were gathered on their respective frontiers in 
 preparation for the commencement of hostilities. In 1790, 
 after muck correspondence, they came to terms, and articles 
 
LEOPOLD Il. 501 
 
 of peace were signed. At the same time an armistice was 
 concluded with the Turks. 
 
 The spirit of liberty which had emancipated the colonies 
 of North America from the aristocratic sway of England, 
 shivering the scepter of feudal tyranny in France, had pene- 
 trated Hungary. Leopold was endeavoring to rivet anew the 
 shackies of despotism, when he received a manly remonstrance 
 from an assembly of Hungarians which had been convened as 
 Pest. In the following noble terms they addressed the king, 
 
 “The fame, august sovereign, which has preceded you, 
 has declared you a just and gracious prince. It says that you 
 forget not that you are a man; that you are sensible that the 
 king was made for the people, not the people for the king. 
 From the rights of nations and of man, and from that social 
 compact whence states arose, it is incontestable that the sov- 
 ereignty originates from the people. This axiom, our parent 
 Nature has impressed on the hearts of all. It is one of those 
 which a just prince (and such we trust your majesty ever will 
 be) can not dispute. It is one of those inalienable imprescrip- 
 tible rights which the people can not forfeit by neglect or dis- 
 use. Our constitution places the sovereignty jointly in the 
 king and people, in such a manner that the remedies ne- 
 cessary to be applied according to the ends of social life, for 
 the security of persons and property, are in the power of the 
 people. 
 
 “We are sure, therefore, that at the meeting of the ensu- 
 ing diet, your majesty will not confine yourself to the objects 
 mentioned in your rescript, but will also restore our freedom 
 to us, in like manner as to the Belgians, who have conquered 
 theirs with the sword, It would be an example big with dan- 
 ger, to teach the world that a people can only protect or re- 
 gain their liberties by the sword and not by obedience.” 
 
 But Leopold, trembling at the progress which freedom was 
 making in France, determined to crush this spirit with an iron 
 heel. Their petition was rejected with scorn and menace 
 
803 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 With great splendor Leopold entered Presburg, and was 
 crowned King of Hungary on the 10th of November, 1790, 
 Having thus silenced the murmurs in Hungary, and estab- 
 lished his authority there, he next turned his attention to the 
 recovery of the Netherlands. The people-there, breathing 
 the spirit of French liberty, had, by a simultaneous rising, 
 thrown off the detestable Austrian yoke. Forty-five thousand 
 men were sent to effect their subjugation. On the 20th of 
 November, the army appeared before Brussels. In less than 
 one year all the provinces were again brought under subjection 
 to the Austrian power. 
 
 Leopold, thus successful, now turned his attention to 
 France. Maria Antoinette was his sister. He had another 
 sister in the infamous Queen Caroline of Naples, The com- 
 plaints which came incessantly from Versailles and the Tuil- 
 leries filled his ear, touched his affections, and roused his in- 
 dignation. Twenty-five millions of people had ventured to 
 assert their rights against the intolerable arrogance of the 
 French court. Leopold now gathered his armies to trample 
 those people down, and to replace the scepter of unlimited 
 despotism in the hands of the Bourbons. With sleepless zeal 
 Leopold coéperated with nearly all the monarchs in Europe, 
 in combining a resistless force to crush out from the conti- 
 nent of Europe the spirit of popular liberty. An army of 
 ninety thousand men was raised to codéperate with the French 
 emigrants and all the royalists in France. The king was to 
 escape from Paris, place himself at the head of the emigrants, 
 amounting to more than twenty thousand, rally around his 
 banners all the advocates of the old regime, and then, sup- 
 ported by all the powers of combined Europe, was to march 
 upon Paris, and take a bloody vengeance upon a people who 
 dared to wish to be free. The arrest of Louis XVI. at 
 Varennes deranged this plan. Leopold, alarmed not only by 
 the impending fate of his sister, but lest the principles of 
 
 — 
 
LEOPOLD I. 503 
 
 popular liberty, extending from France, should undermine hig 
 own throne, wrote as follows to the King of England: 
 
 “Tam persuaded that your majesty is not unacquainted 
 with the unheard of outrage committed by the arrest of the 
 King of France, the queen my sister and the royal family, 
 and that your sentiments accord with mine on an event which, 
 threatening more atrocious consequences, and fixing the seal 
 of illegality on the preceding excesses, concerns the honor 
 and safety of all governments. Resolved to fulfill what I 
 owe to these considerations, and to my duty as chief of the 
 German empire, and sovereign of the Austrian dominions, I 
 propose to your majesty, in the same manner as [ have pro- 
 posed to the Kings of Spain, Prussia and Naples, as well as 
 to the Empress of Russia, to unite with them, in a concert of 
 measures for obtaining the liberty of the king and his family, 
 and setting bounds to the dangerous excesses of the French 
 Revolution.” | 
 
 The British people nobly sympathized with the French 
 m their efforts at emancipation, and the British government 
 dared not then shock the public conscience by assailing the 
 patriots in France. Leopold consequently turned to Frederic 
 William of Prussia, and held a private conference with him 
 at Pilnitz, near Dresden, in Saxony, on the 27th of August, 
 1791. The Count d’Artois, brother of Louis XVI., and who 
 subsequently ascended the French throne as Charles X., 
 ioined them in this conference. In the midst of these agita- 
 tions and schemes Leopold II. was seized with a malignant 
 dysentery, which was aggravated by a life of shameless de- 
 bauchery, and died on the 1st of March, 1792, in the forty- 
 fifth year of his age, and after a reign of but two years. 
 
 Leopold has the reputation of having been, on the whole, 
 a kind-hearted man, but his court was a harem of unblushing 
 profligacy. His broken-hearted wife was compelled to sub- 
 mit to the degradation of daily intimacy with the mistress of 
 
 her husband. Upon one only of these mistresses the king 
 ays 
 
504 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 lavished two hundred thousand dollars in drafts on the bank 
 of Vienna. The sums thus infamously squandered were 
 wrested from the labormg poor. His son, Francis II., who 
 succeeded him upon the throne, was twenty-two years of age. 
 In most affecting terms the widowed queen entreated her son 
 to avoid those vices of his father which had disgraced the 
 monarchy and embittered her whole life. 
 
OHAPTER XXXII. 
 AUSTRIA AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONS, 
 
 From 1792 To 1860. 
 
 @eonssron OF Francis II.—CAaMPAIGNS AGAINST NAPOLEON.— THE [TaLsaN REPUBLICS, 
 «- THE Kinqpom or ITALY.-— HOSTILITY OF ENGLAND TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 —THE DOWNFALL OF NAPOLEON, AND CONSEQUENT DOWNFALL OF FREE ENSTITU- 
 TIONS THROUGHOUT EUROPE.--THE CONGEESS OF VIENNA.-—EXPULSION OF THE 
 BOUEBONS FROM FRANCE. — RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE UNDER LOUIS NAPOLEON, 
 — REVOLUTIONS THROUGHOUT EVROPE.— HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION. — RUSSIAN INTRR- 
 VENTION. FALL OF HUNGABY.-~ LIBERATION OF ITALY.—=PRESENT PROSPEOTS. 
 
 NE of the first measures of the young monarch, Francis 
 IL., was to make the insolent demand of regenerated 
 France, that the old Bourbon monarchy should be restored 
 with all its execrable domination of despotism. This insult 
 to thirty millions of freemen, ordering them to bow the neck 
 again to the yoke of slavery, and to hold out their free hands 
 and free feet that the manacles and the gyves might again be 
 riveted, roused intense indignation. France repelled the inso- 
 lence with scorn. To enforce this mandate, the Austrian 
 - monarch accumulated vast armies, and entered into negotia- 
 tions with Louis XVI, with the French emigrants, and with 
 the surrounding despotisms, The spirit of the French nation 
 was so roused by these atrocities, that Louis XVI. himself, 
 pallid and woe-stricken, was compelled to declare war against 
 those his friends, with whom he was secretly conferring, that 
 he might by their aid remount his ancient throne of abso- 
 jatiem. 
 An allied army of Austrians, a hundred and fifty thousand 
 
 strong, together with twenty thousand French emigrants, 
 505 
 
§06 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 was soon on the march to overthrow the constitutional 
 monarchy of France, and to restore again to the king the 
 sceptre of despotism. The British Government, restrained 
 by popular opinion in England, did not venture openly 
 to join the allies, but supplied them abundantly with money. 
 The Duke of Brunswick, who was appointed commanders 
 in-chief of the allied army, issued a manifesto, dated Cob- 
 lentz, July 15, 1792, in which the French nation were com- 
 manded to restore the Bourbons immediately to their former 
 absolute power, and to punish all who had taken any part 
 in the movement for constitutional liberty. At the same 
 time the duke threatened to hang every Frenchman who 
 should resist the invaders, and to burn every city or village 
 which should present any opposition to his march. 
 
 Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England were in heart united 
 to enforce this proclamation. France, in unspeakable peril, 
 was stung to desperation. The king, who was known to be 
 in co-operation with the invaders, was dethroned and impris- 
 oned, and finally executed. The aristocrats, who were waiting 
 to join the enemy, were massacred. England now openly 
 joined the allies, placed herself at their head, and declared 
 war against France. The exultant battalions of the foe 
 crossed the French frontiers, and, sweeping resistlessly on 
 with sword and flame, arrived within a few days’ march of 
 Paris. The consternation in the capital was terrible. The 
 whole French people rose en masse, and rushed, like wolves at 
 bay, upon the enemy; and they were driven, broken, bleeding, 
 and breathless, from the kingdom. 
 
 At the same time in which these scenes were transpiring, 
 Austria, dominant in Italy, had gathered large armies in 
 Venetia, Lombardy, and Piedmont, and, in alliance with 
 Naples and Switzerland, was preparing to invade France on 
 her Alpine frontier. 
 
 All the States of Northern Italy were completely over- 
 awed by the imperial court at Vienna, and were compelled 
 to put their troops on the march at the summons of the 
 Austrian bugles. All despotic Europe was now combined 
 
AUSTRIA AND FPRENCH REVOLUTIONS. 507 
 
 against republican France. Month after month the terrible 
 conflict raged, crimsoning the waves of the Rhine with blood, 
 and waking the clangor of war amidst the solitudes of the 
 Alps. The strife was prosecuted with unparalleled ferocity ; 
 for the most deadly passions of the human heart were called 
 mito action. 
 
 At length the young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, was in- 
 trusted with the defence of France on the Alpine frontier. 
 His movement was like the sweep of the mountain whirlwind. 
 The storm of war gathered blackness for a moment among 
 the cliffs of the Alps, and then burst with flash and peal upon 
 the plains of Piedmont. The Austrians were scattered like 
 autumnal leaves; and the victor, master of Piedmont, un- 
 furled his banners over the battlements of Turin. Not a 
 moment was allowed for repose. The broken bands of the 
 Austrians rallied with recruited strength on the plains of Lom- 
 bardy. ‘Terrific and awfully sanguinary was the strife. But 
 again the imperial legions of despotism were trampled down by 
 the heroic patriots struggling for liberty. The Austrians, in 
 dismay, fled into Venetia. Napoleon pursued them. In terror 
 they crossed the Tagliamento, and retreated from Italy. Still 
 Napoleon, with fearlessness which amazed Europe, followed 
 on, chasing the multitudinous foe through defiles and forests, 
 over rivers and plains and mountain-ranges, pelting them with 
 artillery, charging them with cavalry, and scattering bullets 
 like hailstones through their panting ranks. The Archduke 
 Charles, brother of the Emperor of Austria, was in command 
 of the retreating army. Napoleon, who was fighting only for 
 peace, anxious to arrest the flow of blood in this hour of tri- 
 umph, ventured to take the initiative in imploring a cessation 
 of hostilities. He addressed the following letter to the arch- 
 ~ duke: —~ 
 
 ‘“‘ GENERAL-IN-Cu1EF, — Have we not slain enough of our 
 fellow-men? Have we not inflicted a sufficiency of woes 
 upon humanity? Europe, which took up arms against the 
 French Republic, has laid them aside. Your nation alone te- 
 mains hostile; and blood is about to flow more copiously than 
 
508 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 ever. Whatever may be the result of this campaign, many 
 thousand men must perish; and, after all, we must come to 
 an accommodation. If the overture which I have the honor 
 to make shall be the means of saving a single life, I shall be 
 more proud of the civic crown, which I shall be conscious of 
 having deserved, than of all the melancholy glory which mili- 
 tary success can confer.” 
 
 The Austrian archduke replied, “In the duty assigned to 
 me, there is no power either to scrutinize the causes, or to ter- 
 minate the duration, of the war. I am not invested with — 
 any authority in that respect, and therefore cannot enter into 
 eny negotiation for peace.” 
 
 The war, that for a space did fail, 
 Now trebly thundering swelled the gale.” 
 
 The pursuers and the pursued rushed on with hot haste 
 amidst all the uproar, confusion, and carnage of war, until 
 Napoleon, from the heights around Leoben, with his glass, 
 could discern the towers of Vienna. All was consternation 
 in the Austrian capital. The emperor and his court fled, like 
 deer, to the wilds of Hungary, at the same time despatching 
 ambassadors to Napoleon imploring peace. It was all France 
 wanted. The preliminaries were soon settled. By the treaty 
 of Campo Formio, which ensued, France extended her frontier 
 to the Rhine as a safeguard against future attacks; and Austria 
 recognized the Cisalpine republic which Napoleon had estab- 
 lished in Italy, consisting of Lombardy, Modena, and several 
 smaller States. Napoleon was anxious to liberate Venice from 
 Austria; but he could not accomplish this without perpetuat- 
 ing a cruel war for an object in which France had no especial 
 interest, and during which he might lose all that he had thus 
 far gained. 
 
 England, the undisputed mistress of the sea, still continued 
 the conflict against republican France. The expedition to 
 Egypt was organized; and Napoleon was placed at the head 
 of it to attack Hngland in India, the only vulnerable point 
 then presented. Napoleon had hardly left France ere England 
 
AUSTRIA AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS. 609 
 
 succeeded in forming a new coalition against the infant repub- 
 lic. Austria joined it eagerly, sent vast armies into Italy, 
 and soon recovered the provinces which Napoleon had liber- 
 ated. Again the combined armies of Austria and of the re- 
 enslaved States of Italy were climbing the Alps to pour down 
 upon the plains of France, while the veteran battalions of all 
 Northern Europe were crowding to the Rhine. England was 
 energetic with both fleet and army in co-operating in this 
 most iniquitous crusade which was ever waged. 
 
 “The English fleet,” says the British “ Westminster Re- 
 view,” “was ordered to Genoa to support the enemies of 
 France; but it was in defiance of English public opinion. 
 There is no fact in our history more easy of proof than that 
 the voice of universal England was raised in protest against 
 being dragged into war with France. The lord mayor and 
 corporation of London petitioned against the war. At Isling- 
 ton fifty thousand persons met to demand neutrality. Thus, 
 while the British fleet was covering Austrian movements 
 against Bonaparte on the shores of Genoa, the English people 
 at home were praying and petitioning in vain against the war 
 with the French Republic.” 
 
 Napoleon, having suddenly returned from Egypt and as- 
 sumed the consular command, sent the flower of the French 
 army, under General Moreau, to beat off the foes of France 
 upon the Rhine. With amazing ecelerity and secrecy he as- 
 sembled another army of sixty thousand raw recruits at Dijon, 
 near the foot of the Alps. Before putting his armies in motion 
 he wrote to both the King of England and the Emperor of Aus- 
 tria, imploring peace. A contemptuous and insulting refusal 
 was the only reply. 
 
 Napoleon crossed the Alps, fell upon the Austrians at Ma- 
 rengo; and they bit the dust. On the gory field, surrounded 
 by the dead and the dying and all the melancholy wrecks of 
 war, the victor thus again addressed the Emperor of Austria, — 
 
 “ SrrE, — It is on the field of battle, amid the sufferings of 
 @ multitude of wounded, and surrounded by fifteen thousand 
 corpses, that I beseech your Majesty to listen to the voice of 
 
§10 PHE HOUSE OF AUSTRIEA. 
 
 humanity, and not to suffer two brave nations to eut cach 
 other’s throats for interests not their own. It is my part te 
 press this upon your Majesty, being upon the very theatre 
 of war. Your Majesty’s heart cannot feel it so keenly as does 
 mine.” 
 
 The Austrian army, utterly routed, was at the mercy of the 
 conqueror. Generously Napoleon permitted them to return 
 unmolested to their homes, upon the sole condition that they 
 would quietly withdraw from Italy. Austria now desired 
 peace; but she was so entangled with her alliance with Eng- 
 land, that she could not enter into a treaty with France with- 
 out the consent of the court of St. James. That consent 
 could not be obtained; and the Austrian troops, in obedience 
 to the coalition which England had organized, accumulated 
 her troops in powerful array upon the Rhine. On the 3d of 
 December, 1800, in a dark and stormy night, General Moreaa, 
 with sixty thousand Frenchmen, encountered the Archduke 
 John, at the head of seventy thousand Austrians, in the 
 forest of Hohenlinden. A terrible battle ensued. 
 
 When the morning dawned, twenty thousand mutilated 
 bodies were left upon the field, with gory locks frozen to the 
 snow. The Austrians, utterly routed, fied down the valley of 
 the Danube towards Vienna. Moreau followed them like an 
 avenging spirit, sweeping them down with war’s fierce blasts. 
 He had arrived within thirty miles of the panic-stricken capi- 
 tal, when-the emperor, trembling for his crown, sent commis= 
 sioners imploring peace. “It is for that alone,” Morean 
 replied, “that we are fighting.” 
 
 Austria was thus compelled to sheathe the sword without 
 consulting England. Joseph Bonaparte as the ambassador of 
 Napoleon, and Count Cobentzel as the plenipotentiary of 
 Austria, met at Lunéville. It was in February, 1801. Again 
 Austria acknowledged the Rhine as the boundary of France, 
 and recognized the independence of the Batavian, Helvetic, 
 Cisalpine, and Ligurian Republics, consenting that they should 
 be permitted to choose whatever form of government they 
 might prefer These free governments had been si 
 established during the progress of the war. 
 
AUSTRIA AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS. Obll 
 
 But Enyland, sweeping all seas with her invincible fleet, 
 etill continued the strife. Nota fishing-boat could in safety 
 Jeave a French cove. Every port in France was liable to 
 bombardment. At length the clamor of the English people 
 compelled the government to the peace of Amiens. But the 
 ministry were eager to renew the war, and in eighteen months 
 did so without any proclamation of hostilities, seizing two 
 hundred French ships, containing fifteen millions of dollars, 
 which were floating, unsuspicious of danger, in English ports. 
 War was resumed with redoubled ferocity. Napoleon now 
 resolved to transport his army to London, that in the British 
 eapital he might compel his inflexible foes to grant peace to 
 Europe. 
 
 The British Government, alarmed in view of ‘the prepara- 
 tions Napoleon was making at Boulogne, through the influence 
 of enormous bribes organized a new coalition. Austria, Russia, 
 and Sweden were thus induced to raise an army of five hun- 
 dred thousand men to embarrass Napoleon by suddenly attack- 
 ing him in the rear. England agreed to pay annually six million 
 of dollars for every hundred thousand men the allies raised. 
 Austria, without any declaration of war, leading an immense 
 army, followed by the solid battalions of Russia and Sweden, 
 for the third time commenced her march upon Paris, hoping 
 stealthily to plunge the dagger into Napoleon’s back. But Napo- 
 leon was not caught sleeping. Twenty thousand carriages were 
 instantly in motion, transporting his army from the shores of 
 the channel to the banks of the Rhine. In a brief address to 
 the senate, as Napoleon left Paris, he said, — 
 
 “ Senators, I am about to leave Paris to place myself at the 
 head of the army. The wishes of the eternal enemies of the 
 continent are accomplished. MHostilities have commenced in 
 the midst of Germany. Austria and Russia have united with 
 England, and our generation is involved anew in the calami- 
 ties of war. A few days ago I cherished the hope that peace 
 would not be disturbed. But the Austrian army has passed 
 the Inn. All my hopes of peace are vanished.” 
 
 The world-renowned campaign of Ulm and Austerlits 
 
622 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 ensued. In twenty days the Austrian army was annihilated. 
 As thirty-six thousand Austrian troops at Ulm laid down 
 their arms before the conqueror, Napoleon said to the dejected 
 officers, — 
 
 “Gentlemen, your master wages against me an unjust war. 
 I say it candidly, I know not for what I am fighting: I know 
 not what he requires of me.” 
 
 Without allowing his foes one hour to recover from their 
 panic, Napoleon pressed on to Vienna. Like a torrent he 
 swept the valley of the Danube; and in forty days from the 
 time he ieft Boulogne, his army was encamped in the squares 
 of the Austrian capital, and Napoleon was occupying the 
 palaces of the emperor. Francis, with the fragments of his 
 army, had fiéd to join the Russians, who were hurrying to his 
 relief. The situation of Napoleon was now perilous in the 
 extreme. He was nearly a thousand miles from Paris. Four 
 hundred and fifty thousand men, from the various points of 
 the compass, were on the march to crush him. The Emperor 
 of Russia was at the distance of but a few days’ march in the 
 north, at the head of one hundred thousand men, hurrying to 
 join other vast bodies of men in their advance upon Vienna. 
 The blasts of winter were already sweeping the whitened hills. 
 
 Napoleon, urging his troops to forced marches, to prevent 
 the junction of the foe, met the Russians and the broken 
 bands of the Austrians, with the two emperors, Alexander and 
 Francis, at their head, upon the field of Austerlitz. It was 
 the 1st of December, 1805. In one short terrific tempest of 
 war, the allied army was destroyed. Alexander, with the 
 bleeding, shattered remnants of his bands, commenced @ pre 
 cipitate retreat toward Russia. The Emperor Francis was 
 hopelessly ruined, and had nowhere to retreat to, unless he 
 abandoned his realms. Thus humiliated, he sought an inter 
 view with Napoleon, and met him, at the firé of his bivouac, 
 on the side of a bieak hill. Conscious of guilt, and deeply 
 dejected, he attempted an ignoble apology for his crime by 
 saying, — 
 
 “The English are a nation of merchants. In order to 
 
AUSTBIA AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS. 613 
 
 secure for themselves the commerce of the world, they are 
 willing to set the continent in flames.” 
 
 Napoleon, anxious for peace, was exceedingly moderate in 
 his terms. He allowed the Emperor of Russia to retire un- 
 molested, simply exacting from him the promise no longer to 
 prosecute hostile movements against France. From Austria, 
 also, he took for himself not one foot of territory. Francis 
 paid the expenses of the war, and consented that the electors 
 of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, who were friends and allies of 
 Napoleon, should be elevated to the rank of kings. The re- 
 publican kingdom of Italy was also enlarged, and rendered 
 more powerful by the annexation of Venice, Austria receiving 
 in exchange the electorate of Salzburg. 
 
 Napoleon thus rewarded his friends, and strengthened the 
 barriers which were to protect France from those great northern 
 despotisms, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, which were instinc- 
 tively hostile to the establishment of any free institutions on 
 the soil of Europe. 
 
 The Emperor of France had hardly returned to Paris from 
 this campaign, when England formed another coalition against 
 him, uniting Russia and Prussia in the alliance. This coali- 
 tion led to the campaigns of Jena and Eylau. Notwithstand- 
 ing the solemn treaties into which Austria had entered, Fran- 
 cis was eager to join the foes of France, when he thought 
 Napoleon was crippled beyond redemption on the distant banks 
 of the Vistula. Elated with the hope that Napoleon was so 
 crowded by his foes, that he could not resent the outrage, 
 Austria began to arm, preparing to cut off the retreat of the 
 French. To meet this peril, Napoleon immediately ordered 
 another army of a hundred thousand men to be raised in 
 France, and thoroughly equipped for war. He then sent, 
 through his minister, the following wonderfully frank com- 
 munication to the Emperor Francis, — . 
 
 “France understands perfectly the intentions of Austria. 
 To save Austria from calamity, I explain myself with frank- 
 ness. France is abundantly prepared to meet any force 
 Austria can raise against her. If the emperor wishes to send 
 
$14 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 officers to ascertain our strength, we engage to show them the 
 depots, the camps of reserve, and the divisions on the march. 
 They shall see, that, independently of the hundred thousand 
 French already in Germany, a second army of one hundred 
 thousand is preparing to cross the Rhine to check any hostile 
 movement on the part of Vienna.” 
 
 This unexpected revelation of the ability of France to pun- 
 ish the contemplated perfidy caused Austria to drop her arms, 
 The peace of Tilsit detached Russia and Prussia from the 
 coalition with England, and the British cabinet was again left 
 to struggle alone in the attempt to restore the Bourbons to 
 their despotic throne. Still Austria, chagrined by reiterated 
 defeats, and humiliated by the loss of Italy, was eager for some 
 favorable opportunity to renew the strife with France, hoping 
 to regain lost honor and lost territory. The wished-for oppor 
 tunity soon occurred. Napoleon was embroiled in the Spanish 
 war, when Austria again listened to England, and again 
 entered into a coalition against France. Napoleon was drive 
 ing the army of Sir John Moore out of the Spanish peninsula, 
 when he received the tidings that Austria was preparing for 
 another assault. 
 
 “Tt seems,” said he, “that the waters of oblivion flow past 
 Vienna. They have forgotten the lessons of experience. 
 They want new ones: they shall have them; and this time 
 they shall be terrible. I do not desire war. I have no interes 
 est in it.” : 
 
 “‘ Napoleon,” says Thiers, “ was sincere, and spoke the truth, 
 jm asserting that he did not desire war, but that he would 
 wage it tremendously if forced into it,” 
 
 With an army of two hundred thousand men, Austria come 
 menced the conflict by crossing the Inn, and invading the ter- 
 ritory of Napoleon’s ally, the King of Bavaria. As usual, the 
 Austrian emperor conducted with the utmost perfidy, commen: 
 cing hostilities without any declaration of war. Napoleon was 
 not taken by surprise. At midnight, in Paris, he received in- 
 telligence of the movements of the foe. He immediately took 
 carriage to place himself at the head of his army, saying te 
 his friends as he bade them adieu, — 
 
AUSTRIA AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS. 616 
 
 “Very well. Behold us once more at Vienna. Since they 
 force me to it, they shall have war to their hearts’ content.” 
 
 The Austrians had five hundred thousand troops in the field, 
 two hundred thousand of whom had crossed the Inn. Napo- 
 leon met the foe at Echmul, and scattered them in dismay be- 
 fore his impetuous charges. As they fled, Napoleon pursued 
 them, and, overtaking them at Ratisbon, chastised them again 
 with a dripping sword. He then chased them down the 
 Danube to Vienna. For ten hours he bombarded the doomed 
 city, throwing into it three thousand shells, until it capitu- 
 lated. The Austrian emperor and his army fled across the 
 Danube. Napoleon pursued them closely, and, after the san- 
 guinary conflicts of Essling and Aspern, again brought Aus- 
 tria upon her knees on the field of Wagram. At the close of 
 this decisive battle, when the Austrian empire was again at 
 the mercy of Napoleon, all the French marshals were assem- 
 bled in his tent to consider the proposal Austria had presented 
 for an armistice. The question was earnestly discussed. 
 
 “ Austria,” said one party, “is the irreconcilable enemy of 
 the popular government in France. Unless deprived of the 
 power of again injuring us, she will never cease to violate 
 the most solemn treaties, whenever there is a prospect of ad- 
 vantage. It is indispensable to put an end to these coalitions 
 perpetually springing up against us, by dividing Austria, 
 which is the centre of them all.” 
 
 “Should the Austrian emperor,” replied the other party, 
 “retreat to the Bohemian mountains, Russia and Prussia will 
 probably join the coalition. A great and final conflict is 
 evidently approaching between the North and the South. I¢ 
 is of the utmost importance to conciliate Austria, that she 
 may be detached from the coalition.” 
 
 Napoleon listened thoughtfully, and then said, “Gentlemen, 
 enough blood has been shed. I accept the armistice.” 
 
 Francis resorted to every species of trickery to prolong the 
 negotiations, hoping for aid from the English, who had landed 
 in great strength at the mouth of the Scheldt; but at length 
 the treaty was signed on the 14th of October, 1809. It was 
 
516 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 the fourth treaty Austria had made with France within sixteen 
 years. In this treaty of Vienna, which Napoleon negotiated 
 while occupying the palaces of the Austrian emperor, the 
 frontiers of Bavaria were strengthened and extended, so that 
 this ally of France might not be again so defencelessly exposed 
 to Austrian invasion. Saxony received an additional popula- 
 tion, amounting to a million five hundred thousand. The 
 kingdom of Italy also received important accessions of terri- 
 tory, that it might present a more impregnable front to its 
 despotic and gigantic neighbor. France strengthened her 
 allies, but added not a rood of ground to her own domain. , 
 
 ‘‘When compared,” says Lockhart, “with the signal tri- 
 umphs of the campaign of Wagram, the terms on which 
 Napoleon signed the peace were universally looked upon as 
 remarkable for moderation.” 
 
 Soon after this, Austria became intimately allied with France 
 by the marriage of Maria Louisa, the daughter of the em- 
 peror, with Napoleon. It was supposed that this measure of 
 State policy would secure the peace of Europe by preventing 
 any further acts of hostility on the part of Austria. The 
 divorce of Josephine was the great mistake, and, in the sight 
 of God, the great sin, of Napoleon’s life. Savary, the Duke 
 of Rovego, who was familiar with all the details, thus describes 
 the motives which led to this sublime tragedy : — 
 
 “ Nothing can be more true,” says he, “ than that the sacri- 
 fice of the object of his affections was the most painful that 
 Napoleon experienced throughout his life. A feeling of per- 
 sonal ambition was supposed to be the mainspring of all his 
 actions. This was a very mistaken impression, With great 
 reluctance he had altered the form of government; and, if he 
 had not been apprehensive that the State would again fall a 
 prey to those dissensions which are inseparable from an elec- 
 tive form of government, he would not have changed an order 
 of things which permanently secured those principles. He 
 desired to hand his work down to posterity. He could not be 
 blind to the fact that the perpetual warfare into which a jeal- 
 ousy of his strength had plunged him had in reality no other 
 
AUSTRIA AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS. 617 
 
 object than his own downfall, because with him must neces- 
 sarily crumble that gigantic power which was no longer up- 
 held by the revolutionary energy he had himself repressed. 
 
 “The emperor had no children. He dismissed the idea of 
 appointing. Eugene his heir, because he had nearer relations; 
 and it would have given rise to dissensions which it was his 
 principal object to avoid. He also considered the necessity in 
 which he was placed of forming an alliance sufficiently power. 
 ful, in order that, in the event of his system being at any 
 time threatened, that alliance might be a resting-point, and 
 save it from total ruin. He likewise hoped that it would be 
 the means of putting an end to that series of wars, of which 
 he was desirous, above all things, of avoiding a recurrence, 
 These were the motives which determined him to break a 
 union so long contracted. He wished it less for himself than 
 for the purpose of interesting a powerful State in the mainte- 
 nance of an order of things established in France,” 
 
 The marriage-ceremony of Napoleon and Maria Louisa was 
 celebrated in Vienna on the 11th of May, 1810. The Arch- 
 duke Charles, brother of the Emperor Francis, stood as proxy 
 for Napoleon. A little more than two years from this time 
 occurred the dreadful disaster of the campaign of Russia. A 
 French army of nearly half a million was buried beneath the 
 snows of the North. Europe again sprang to arms to crush, 
 in the person of Napoleon, free institutions. With almost 
 supernatural energy the French emperor raised another army, 
 and, with fearful odds against him, was holding at bay the 
 armies of England, Russia, and Prussia upon the plains of 
 Dresden. Austria seized upon this occasion again to join the 
 allies, that she might recover what she had lost. Francis 
 _ raised an army of two hundred thousand men; and with the 
 ringing of bells, the explosion of artillery, and the flight of 
 rockets, on the 12th of August, 1813, this proud army joined 
 the ranks of Napoleon’s already outnumbering foes. Napoleon 
 was on the banks of the Elbe with but two hundred and sixty 
 thousand troops. The allies surrounded him five hundred 
 thousand strong. The battles of Dresden and Leipsic em 
 
818 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 sued. Napoleon fought with heroism which amazed the world 
 but finally, overwhelmed with numbers, fell. 
 
 The allies marched to Paris, leading the Bourbons behind 
 their guns, and replaced them upon the throne of France. 
 Napoleon was sent to Elba; and Maria Louisa, with her son, 
 taken captive by her own father, was conveyed by a guard of 
 soldiers to Vienna. The sublime drama of “The Hundred 
 Days” soon ensued, followed by the disaster of Waterloo. 
 Napoleon was entombed in the glooms of St. Helena; and 
 despotism was re-established all over Europe. 
 
 The victorious despots met in congress at Vienna in Sep- 
 tember, 1814, to divide the spoil. There were present at this 
 congress the Emperors of Austria and Russia, the Kings of 
 Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg, and also a large 
 number of princes and dukes. The Pope was represented by 
 Cardinal Consalvi. England sent as her representatives Lord 
 Castlereagh, the Duke of Wellington, Lords Cathcart, Clan- 
 carty, and Stuart. The Bourbons of France were represented 
 by Prince Talleyrand, and several others of the most illustri- 
 ous of the ancienne noblesse. Ambassadors from Spain, Por- 
 tugal, and Sweden, were also admitted to the deliberations. 
 Prince Metternich, who has been justly styled, “ The incarna- 
 tion of Austrian despotism,” presided. The result of the long 
 deliberations was summed up in one hundred and twenty-one 
 articles, which were signed on the 9th of June, 1815. By 
 these treaties the Austrian despotism received vast accessions 
 of strength. The constitutional kingdoms of Italy were an- 
 nihilated; and the woe-stricken Italians, bound hand and foot, 
 were surrendered again to their former masters. Austria re- 
 ceived Venetia, Lombardy, Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and 
 various other minor States. Naples was restored, re-enslaved, 
 to the infamous Ferdinand. Austria constructed Venetia and 
 Lombardy into a kingdom, over which she placed one of her 
 archdukes as viceroy. The remaining States she parcelled out 
 among her dukes and princes. Again the repose of the slave- 
 plantation was spread over Europe. In reference to the acts 
 of this congress of the allies, “The British Quarterly” says, — 
 
AUSTRIA AND FRENOH REVOLUTIONS. 519 
 
 “The treaties of Vienna, though the most desperate efforts 
 have been made by the English diplomatists to embalm them 
 as monuments of political wisdom, are fast becoming as dead 
 as those of Westphalia. In fact, they should be got under 
 ground with all possible despatch ; for no compacts, so worth- 
 less, so wicked, so utterly subversive of the rights of humanity, 
 are to be found in the annals of nations.” 
 
 After the perpetration of this great crime, Austria remained 
 comparatively quiet, with occasional outbreaks but no great 
 change, until the year 1836. On the 8th of March of this 
 year, the Emperor Francis died. Regarding his throne as the 
 great bulwark of absolutism, he ever manifested the most re- 
 lentless hostility to constitutional freedom. It is reported, 
 that when his physician, Baron Stifft, in a congratulatory ad- 
 dress upon his health, remarked, — 
 
 “There is nothing, sire, like a good physical constitution,” 
 the emperor nervously interrupted him, exclaiming, — 
 
 “What do you say? Let me never hear that word again! 
 Say my robust health, strong bodily system, but never say my 
 constitution. Ihave no constitution; and I never will have 
 one.” 
 
 The death of Francis produced no change in the national 
 policy. He died at the age of sixty-seven, having outlived 
 three of his four wives, and having manifested, it is said, at 
 the death of each, about as much concern as “old Bluebeard 
 himself.” Ferdinand I. succeeded Francis, and governed his 
 vast and discordant estates with ordinary ability until the 
 revolution in Paris of 1848, which overthrew Louis Philippe, 
 and introduced to France first the republic, and then the em- 
 pire under Louis Napoleon. 
 
 This immense revolution, overthrowing a despotism wielded 
 for the benefit of the aristocracy, and introducing in its stead 
 a despotism which maintained the cause of the people, shook 
 all the realms of Austria like an earthquake. The significayce 
 of this revoluticx in France has not generally been understood 
 in the United States. It has been generally regarded merely 
 as a change of masters, France exchanging the despotie 
 
520 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Bourbons for the equal despotism of Louis Napoleon. Instead 
 of this, it was a radical change of administration, overthrowing 
 the reign of aristocratic privilege, and introducing the reign 
 of republican equality. In the present state of France, it is 
 said that no government can stand which is not upheld by the 
 energies of despotism. The people have, then, only to choose 
 between a despotism upholding the assumptions of the aristoc- 
 racy, and a despotism maintaining popular rights. Of course, 
 they choose the latter. 
 
 Thus the empire in France was re-established by the masses 
 of the people. They drove aristocratic absolutism from the 
 throne, and placed Louis Napoleon, the representative of de~ 
 mocracy, upon it; and they cheerfully gave into his hands 
 enough of despotic power to enable him to maintain their 
 rights against the immense pressure of all the nobles of France, 
 combined with the sympathies of all the monarchies of Europe. 
 With skill and fidelity never surpassed, Louis Napoleon has 
 proved himself equal to the trust. Had his government been 
 less decisive and energetic, long ago popular rights would have 
 been trampled in the mire. Under his sway, France has risen 
 to be at the head of all the European monarchies. 
 
 A few years ago Louis Napoleon needed money. He ap- 
 pealed to the people for a loan of one hundred and fifty mil- 
 lions of dollars. In crowds they rushed to his treasury, bring- 
 ing with them the almost incredible sum of nearly eight hun- 
 dred millions of dollars, — five times as much as he asked for, 
 or could consent to receive. This one fact sufficiently illus- 
 trates how differently the people regard the dictatorial power 
 they have placed, for their own defence, in the hands of Na- 
 poleon, from the despotic power swayed by the Bourbons. 
 
 A revolution of so marked a character taking place in 
 France, of ‘course, agitated Hurope to its centre. The Aus- 
 trian provinces in Italy immediately arose to strike for freedom. 
 By the treaty of Vienna, Sardinia had been constituted nomi- 
 nally an independent kingdom, embracing the Island of Sar- 
 dinia, and the continental provinces of Piedmont, Savoy, and 
 Nice. This feeble kingdom was not allowed to retain the free 
 
AUSTRIA AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS. 521 
 
 institutions which it had enjoyed as a part of the kingdom of 
 Italy under the protection of Napoleon; but it was watched 
 with an eagle eye, and was overawed by Austrian despotism 
 on the one side, and by the re-established Bourbon despotism 
 on the other. As the Italian provinces of Lombardy and 
 Venetia rose to break from their Austrian masters, the Pied- 
 montese, sympathizing with them, and also wishing to escape 
 from the despotism ever brooding over their realm, marched to 
 the aid of their brethren. 
 
 The Austrians were driven out of Lombardy, and across 
 the Mincio. Venetia threw off the hated yoke, and declared 
 for independence. Hungary rose, almost as one man, demand- 
 ing the restoration of their ancient constitutional rights. The 
 doom of the hoary despotism seemed to be sealed ; but the sym- 
 pathies of all the courts of Europe, excepting that of France, 
 and even including England, were hostile to these peoples 
 struggling for constitutional rights. In the pages of Sir 
 Archibald Alison, the court historian, we meet with the most 
 painful demonstration of this fact. 
 
 “Tt is,” says “The Edinburgh Review,” “ utterly repugnant 
 to the first principles of our own policy and to every page in 
 our own history, to lend encouragement to the separation of 
 nationalities from other empires, which we fiercely resist when 
 it threatens to dismember our own.” 
 
 Thus frowned upon by all Europe, and swept by the disci- 
 plined armies which Austria poured down through all the 
 passes of the Tyrolese Alps, Italy was again subdued. Radetz- 
 ky, in command of these forces, with tiger-like ferocity deso- 
 lated ihe land with fire and sword. Sardinia was compelled 
 to make a humiliating peace. The unhappy Italians were 
 punished as slaves are punished who attempt an insurrection 
 with partial success, but with final defeat. 
 
 The conflict in Hungary, and around the very throne of the 
 Austrian emperor, demands a more particular notice. The in- 
 telligence of the revolution in Paris reached Vienna on the ist 
 of March, 1848. The whole population of the city was thrown 
 into a state of the most intense excitement. The professors 
 
522 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 of the University of Vienna, with the students, two thousand 
 in number, accompanied by an immerse concourse of the 
 people, crowded the imperial palace, presenting a petition to 
 the emperor, respectfully but firmly demanding that the gov- 
 ernment should “introduce measures of reform tempered by 
 wisdom.” ‘They implored a constitution which should confer 
 religious liberty, freedom of the press, and a national legisla- 
 ture, in which the people should be represented. 
 
 Prince Metternich, who had ever been the great thi] aaa of 
 despotism, was the especial object of popular hatred. In terror 
 he fied from his palace, scarcely venturing to lay aside his dis- 
 guise, or to look behind him, until he found refuge in London. 
 Ferdinand, paralyzed and overpowered by the popular feeling, 
 which in such resistless billows was dashing against his 
 throne, granted all the patriots asked. The ministry was 
 changed, a national guard organized, and despotic Austria 
 seemed on the eve of regeneration. The people, demanding 
 only a constitutional instead of an absolute monarchy, had no 
 disposition to dethrone the emperor, and least of all did they 
 desire to run the risk of attempting to exchange the monarchy 
 for a republic. Gratified at the compliance of the emperor 
 with their reasonable requests, they rallied around him with 
 enthusiasm, greeting him with applause whenever he appeared. 
 This event, so animatitg to every lover of human freedom, Sir 
 Archibald Alison describes : — 
 
 “ As a convulsion which brought Austria to the brink of 
 ruin, all but swept it from the book of nations, and reduced it 
 to the humiliation of invoking the perilous intervention of a 
 foreign power.” 
 
 The intelligence of the revolution in Paris reached Presburg, 
 the capital of Hungary, when the diet of that kingdom was in 
 session. Kossuth and the leading advocates of reform imme- 
 diately sent an address to the Emperor Ferdinand, petition- 
 ing for a redress of grievances in Hungary. The Hungarian 
 patriots were willing that Hungary should remain under the 
 executive of the Austrian emperor: they only demanded that 
 they should have a legislature or parliament of their own, 
 
AUSTRIA AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS. 523 
 
 with freedom of the press and of religious worship. Such a 
 request was reasonable and moderate in the extreme. 
 
 Kossuth, accompanied by one hundred and fifty Hungarian 
 gentlemen, repaired to Vienna, and presented this petition to 
 the emperor. Immense crowds in Vienna greeted this delega- 
 tion with shouts of “ Long live Kossuth!” The emperor, con- 
 scious of his powerlessness, promised to grant their iust de- 
 mands. A constitution was adopted in Hungary, abolishing 
 all aristocratic privileges, and making both prince and peasant 
 equal in the eye of the law. ‘The peasants in Hungary had 
 long been feudal slaves, attached to the soil, and transferred 
 with the estates, and deprived of all political rights. Kossuth 
 and his friends carried in the Hungarian diet a decree of 
 absolute and universal emancipation. 
 
 “This sudden transition,” it is recorded, “of the peasantry 
 from servitude to civil and political liberty, was nowhere 
 stained in Hungary by riots or disorder, as was feared, or per- 
 haps hoped, by the court party: on the contrary, on most of 
 the estates the peasantry contributed, by their own free will, 
 to the work of the landlords during the time of mowing and 
 harvesting, that the crops might not be damaged through any 
 difficulty in securing hired laborers for those agricultural ope- 
 rations.” 
 
 This beneficent revolution introduced the sclavonic races to 
 all the constitutional rights and privileges which had been so 
 long withheld from them. The Magyars were consistent; and, 
 in acquiring liberty for themselves, they conferred the same 
 inestimable boon upon the enslaved races. 
 
 But Ferdinand, while making these forced concessions, and 
 assuming content, was perfidiously preparing for resistance. 
 An army was raised and sent into Hungary, and it endeavored 
 to take possession of Prague. The Hungarians resisted. The 
 Austrians planted their batteries on some neighboring heights, 
 and for forty-eight hours bombarded the wretched city, until 
 it presented the most awful aspect of smouldering ruins and 
 blood. The patriots for a time were crushed; but the cry of 
 indignation was so loud and fierce, not only throughout Hun 
 
B24 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 gary, but through all the streets of Vienna, that Ferdinand, 
 in terror and disguise, escaped from his capital, and fled te 
 Innspruck, a strong fortress in the Tyrl, three hundred miles 
 south-west from Vienna. 
 
 The flight of the emperor created throughout Austria @ 
 yensation hardly exceeded by that excited in France by the 
 flight of Louis XVI. It was a declaration of war against the 
 people, and against all popular reform. The standing army 
 of Austria, ever the pliant tool of despotism, was now called 
 into requisition. The imperial troops commenced, in Hun- 
 gary, a war of devastation such as earth has not often wit- 
 nessed. ‘The sky through the wide horizon was illumined by 
 night with the fires of burning villages, and was obscured by 
 day by the smoke of these vast conflagrations. 
 
 As we have before mentioned, there were two principal races 
 in Hungary, — the Sclaves and the Magyars, descendants of 
 ancient Gothic tribes. The Magyar race had been decidedly 
 in the ascendency, the superior race, in the possession of all 
 the political power; while the Sclaves, greatly depressed, oc- 
 cupied the position of a servile peasantry. Nearly all the 
 imperial troops drafted from Hungary were taken from the 
 Selaves, who composed about one-third of the Hungarian pop- 
 ulation. With the most atrocious perfidy, Austrian gold was 
 lavished to incite the Sclaves to rise against the Magyars, 
 though there was no shadow of a plea for such action, the 
 Sclavonic races having. been reinstated in all the rights and 
 privileges of manhood. Many of the Sclaves, ignorant and 
 debased, were induced to enlist in the army of the emperor. 
 
 The emperor now returned to Vienna, and, with his troops 
 ravaging Hungary, he issued an edict demanding the expul- 
 _ sion of Kossuth, the leader of the patriots, from the Hungarian 
 ministry. Kossuth was thus compelled to resign, and his post 
 was assigned to a partisan of the emperor. But the people 
 rallied around Kossuth, who had been gacrificed for his love for 
 them; and the cabinet at Vienna resolved with all the horrors 
 of war to bring Hungary again into abject submission to ite 
 sway. 
 
AUSTRIA AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS. 525 
 
 On the 11th of September, 1848, an army of thirty thousand 
 men, under the Austrian general Jellachich, crossed the Drave, 
 the frontier river of Hungary, and marched upon Pesth. With 
 singular unanimity, nearly all Hungary sprang to arms in 
 self-defence. ‘The troops were placed under the command of 
 Georgey, a Hungarian noble, who had espoused the popular 
 cause. But Kossuth was the intellectual head of the nation, 
 and the soul of the war which now ensued. His genius in- 
 spired every movement; and the Hungarians rallied at his call 
 with enthusiasm which perhaps has never been equalled. 
 One hundred thousand men were speedily enrolled, and on the 
 march to repel the invaders, 
 
 The heads of the two armies came together in many bloody 
 conflicts; and the Austrians, routed again and again, were 
 compelled to sue for an armistice. The popular party in 
 Vienna were in strong sympathy with the Hungarians; and it 
 was with manifest reluctance that the Austrian troops could 
 be brought to fight against those who asked only for constitu- 
 tional liberty. Under these circumstances, a new revolution 
 swept the streets of Vienna; and in one day of frenzied up- 
 roar and carnage the monarchy was again laid prostrate at 
 the feet of the people. But though the populace, in their 
 just and wild wrath, could destroy an execrable despotism, 
 they had not sufficient intelligence and virtue to construct a 
 stable government upon its ruins. 
 
 A “committee of public safety’ was appointed, at whose 
 demand the emperor was compelled to dismiss his aristocratic 
 ministry, and appoint a popular one in its stead. The emperor 
 also recalled his proclamation against Hungary, removed the 
 detested Jellachich from the command of the army, and grant- 
 ed a general amnesty for all political offences. Again the 
 emperor sought refuge in flight. All the troops who could be 
 relied upon were speedily assembled around the emperor, 
 from their wide dispersion throughout the empire, and were 
 ordered to march upon Vienna. From the steeples of the city 
 the dismayed inhabitants soon beheld an army of sixty thou- 
 sand men — infantry, artillery, and cavalry — approaching te 
 
£26 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 wreak upon them merciless vengeance. In a state of indescritk — 
 
 able consternation the whole city sprang to arms. On the 
 morning of the 20th of October, 1848, the bombardment 
 commenced. The roar of artiHery, the shouts of battle, the 
 bursting of shells, the shrieks of the terrified, the ery of the 
 wounded, the frenzy of women and children, ruin, conflagra- 
 tion, blood, all presented a spectacle which the most vivid 
 imagination cannot conceive. | 
 
 Ali the day and all the night the horrible storm continued. 
 The city was now on fire in twenty places. The streets were 
 clogged with the mangled bodies of the dead. The flames, 
 spreading rapidly, and flashing to the skies, threatened to con- 
 sume the whole city and all its inmates. Shells, like hail- 
 stones, were falling everywhere, and there was no place of 
 safety. The city could no longer be defended, and was com- 
 pelled to capitulate. The imperial army, composed mostly of 
 mercenary troops, marched in ferociously, and took military 
 possession of the city. All hopes of popular reform were now 
 at an end; and the old despotism was reconstructed, and 
 cemented in the blood of the people. 
 
 But Ferdinand I. was now weary of his crown, which to 
 him had proved truly a crown of thorns. He resolved to ab- 
 dicate; and as he had no children, and as his brother Charles 
 refused the perilous gift of sovereignty, the sceptre was trans- 
 ferred to Francis Joseph, the son of Charles, a young man 
 eighteen years of age. It was the 2d of December, 1848. 
 The young emperor, hoping to quiet the restlessness of his 
 re-enslaved people, promised to confer upon them a liberal con- 
 stitution, —a promise which it became subsequently manifest 
 that he had no intention of performing. The inhabitants 
 of Vienna, exhausted by war, in submission, accepted the 
 promise. | 
 
 But the inhabitants of Hungary, while willing to acknowl- 
 edge the sovereignty of the emperor, still demanded a parlia- 
 ment of their own. The kingdom of Hungary contained 
 one hundred and thirty-three thousand square miles, being one- 
 tenth larger than England and Ireland united, and numbered 
 
AUSTEIA AND FRENOH REVOLUTIONS. 527 
 
 a population of about thirteen million. They firmly claimed, 
 that, while they cordially accepted the executive authority of 
 the Emperor of Austria, they should enjoy a Hungarian legis- 
 lature. But the young emperor, Francis Joseph, flushed with 
 the subjugation of his subjects in Austria proper, treated the 
 demand as insolence. He abolished the Hungarian constitu- 
 tion, dissolved the legislative bodies, and threw into prison the 
 Hungarian commissioners sent to confer with him. At the 
 same time the imperial army, which by a bombardment had 
 so successfully chastised Vienna into subjection, was sent into 
 Hungary to inflict the same doom upon Pesth, then the Hun- 
 garian capital. 
 
 All the horrors of civil war now desolated Hungary. Jella- 
 chich, the Austrian commander-in-chief, issued a proclamation, 
 in which he threatened to shoot every Hungarian taken with 
 arms in his hands, and to demolish every town which should 
 present the least resistance. As the imperial army with its 
 veteran soldiers approached the capital, the Hungarian Govern- 
 ment, with Kossuth at its head, retired to Debreczin, about 
 two hundred miles east of Pesth. It was on the 5th of Janu- 
 ary, 1849, when this retreat commenced; and the Hungarian 
 army, encumbered with thousands of citizens, women and chil- 
 dren, suffered all that mortals can endure, multitudes perishing 
 of cold, starvation, and misery. The Austrians took possession 
 of Pesth; but, with the mercury only five degrees above zero, 
 they did not venture to pursue the retiring Hungarians. 
 
 In this dark hour a speech from Kossuth seemed to electrify 
 all Hungary; and the nation, as one man, sprang to arms. 
 Month after month the war raged all over the kingdom with 
 varied success. But gradually the Hungarians were gaining 
 ground, In battle after battle they were driving back their 
 invaders; and Austria found that her mercenary troops were 
 not able to crush a heroic nation roused to despair. Francis 
 Joseph then appealed to Russia for help. The great northern 
 autocrat listened eagerly to the appeal; for Nicholas feared, 
 that, should the Hungarians secure constitutional liberty, the 
 Polanders might demand the same boon. There was not a 
 
 w 
 
528 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 single nation in Europe in sympathy with the Hungarians, 
 excepting France; and France was then menaced with a coalis 
 tion of all Europe to restore that aristocratic régime which 
 for a fourth time she had rejected. Even the British Govern- 
 ment, through Lord Palmerston, sanctioned the intervention 
 of Russia in this cruel war against Hungary, assuming that 
 the Hungarians were subjects in revolt against their lawful 
 sovereign. 
 
 The serried battalions of Russia were instantly on the 
 march, a hundred and sixty-two thousand strong, to join the 
 vast armies which Austria had raised, the two most powerful 
 despotisms on the globe combining against a heroic people, 
 demanding only a constitutional monarchy. Still Hungary 
 bore up bravely, without one thought of yielding even to 
 Russia and Austria in coalition. By a stupendous effort an 
 army was raised of one hundred and forty thousand men. 
 Renowned battles ensued, and victories were won, which 
 struck the allies with dismay, and which caused every Hun- 
 garian heart to throb with rapture. There were many deeds 
 of valor and magnanimity performed by the Hungarians which 
 meritimmortal renown. But, unfortunately, there now arose a 
 serious division among the Hungarian chiefs. Kossuth, the 
 intellectual guide and head of the Hungarian struggle, wag 
 for declaring independence. Georgey, who was commander- 
 in-chief of the army, was in favor of still remaining under the 
 Austrian monarchy, seeking only the reform of abuses. The 
 counsels of Kossuth triumphed; and on tye 14th of April, 
 1849, Hungary issued her declaration of independence, and 
 Kossuth was by acclamation elected governor. There was 
 extraordinary unanimity throughout the nation in these meas- 
 ures; but Georgey, whose counsels had been rejected, was 
 exceedingly chagrined and indignant. 
 
 Austria and Russia now roused themselves to redoubled 
 efforts. They raised a united army of two hundred and forty 
 thousand men, and with this enormous force again marched 
 upon Hungary. But there was no longer confidence between 
 the governor of the republic and the commander-in-chief 
 
AUSTRIA AND FBENOH REVOLUTIONS. 523) 
 
 of the army. Georgey openly proclaimed his disapproval of 
 the declaration of independence, and Kossuth watched him 
 with an anxious eye. A series of unfortunate battles ensued, 
 in which the Hungarians, though they fought with bravery 
 never surpassed, were generally worsted. Treason was bit- 
 terly suspected as the Hungarians were again and again over- 
 powered. At last it became evident that Hungary must fall. 
 These reverses, seeming to confirm the judgment of Georgey, 
 strengthened his influence, and roused his party to more 
 decisive action. 
 
 Under these circumstances Kossuth resigned his office of 
 governor, and Georgey was invested with dictatorial power. 
 The other leading generals of the army, with Kossuth, felt 
 that they had been betrayed. General Bem, in an interview 
 with Georgey, was so impressed with the conviction of his 
 treachery, that he refused to accept, in parting, his proffered 
 hand. Mounting his horse, he galloped to meet at an appointed 
 rendezvous, in the ancient forest of Lugos, several hundred of 
 his fellow-soldiers, chiefly officers. 
 
 “ Hungary,” said he, “has fallen, betrayed rather than 
 conquered. To-morrow it will be proclaimed that ‘order 
 reigns in Pesth,’ — the order of the executioner. I have no 
 wish to influence others; but so long as I have an inch of steel 
 in my hand, or a brave man at my side, I will defend the cause 
 to which I have devoted my body, my soul, my blood, and my 
 life.”’ , 
 
 Nearly the whole band received these words with acclama- 
 tion, and, conscious of their inability any longer to maintain 
 the struggle, retreated to the mountains of Transylvania. 
 Georgey made an unconditional surrender of his whole army 
 of nearly thirty thousand men, with one hundred and forty 
 guns, to the Russians. The scene of surrender was made by 
 the proud victor one of great military pomp and triumph, and 
 to the vanquished it was as melancholy and humiliating as 
 can well be imagined. This event took place at two o’clock in 
 the afternoon of the 14th of August, 1849, at Szollos, which 
 spot has thus been rendered forever memorable. 
 
530 THE HOUSE OF AUSTIRIA. 
 
 4 
 
 At the same time, by the order of Georgey, all the fortresses 
 in his possession, and the dispersed corps of the army, were 
 surrendered to the allies, and Hungary was again a shackled 
 slave at the feet of her conquerors. Confiscations, imprison- 
 ments, and executions ensued, which extorted a wail of anguish 
 so loud and prolonged, that it thrilled upon the ears of all 
 Christendom. Georgey was pardoned; but fourteen of his 
 highest officers, men whose virtues and heroism had secured 
 the admiration of Europe, perished upon the scaffold. Kos- 
 suth, accompanied by about five thousand Hungarians, escaped 
 into the Turkish territory, and took refuge in Orsova, where 
 they were nobly protected by the Sultan from their foes, clam- 
 orous for their blood. From Turkey they finally secured a 
 passage to England, and thence to America, and were scattered 
 all over the world, the martyrs of liberty. 
 
 Kossuth, after pleading in America the cause of his country 
 in strains of eloquence never surpassed in Ancient Greece or 
 Rome, returned to England, where he has since remained, 
 almost the idol of every generous heart, despairingly awaiting 
 the dawn of a brighter day. The infamous Haynau, who by 
 his atrocities in sending the most illustrious men to the secaf- 
 fold, and in causing ladies of the highest rank to be scourged, 
 has acquired the nickname of the “Hangman” and the 
 “ Hyena,” was appointed the Austrian governor of Hungary; 
 and he ruled the subjugated realm with a rod of iron. The 
 constitution was annulled, trial by jury abolished, the censor- 
 ship of the press established, and freedom of religious worship 
 prohibited. The Jesuits were again restored to power. 
 
 Austria, having been thus effectually aided by Russia, could 
 not join England, France, and Turkey against the Czar in 
 the campaign of Sevastopol. Francis Joseph assumed neutra- 
 lity. But Nicholas was highly indignant that the Emperor 
 of Austria did not fly to his aid. Consequently, at the close of 
 thé war, the Emperor of Russia, rejecting friendly intercourse 
 with Austria, sought friendship and alliance with France. 
 Still it was manifest that the interests of Russia and Austria 
 were so identical, as the two leading aristocratic despotisms 
 
AUSTBIA AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS. 631 
 
 of Europe, that, to resist the people struggling for liberty, they 
 would be compelled to unite. 
 
 The rapid advance which Sardinia has recently been making 
 in the path of constitutional liberty was exciting the Austrian 
 dominions in Italy to strike for the same progress. Austria, 
 alarmed, sent an army of two hundred thousand men into 
 Sardinia. France immediately sent an army, which the em- 
 peror led in person, to aid the Sardinians to repel the invaders. 
 In every battle the Austrians were routed. They were driven 
 out of Piedmont and of Lombardy; and, after the dreadful 
 carnage of Magenta and Solferino, the French and Sardinians 
 were about to drive the Austrians from Venetia, and thus 
 entirely from Italy, when Russia, Prussia, and England inter- 
 posed their remonstrances. Their threat to unite with Aus- 
 tria against France, Sardinia, and all Italy, then rising in 
 arms, which would have introduced, probably, the most desolat- 
 ing war earth has ever known, compelled France and Sardinia 
 to assent to the treaty of peace called the Treaty of Villafranca. 
 
 By this treaty Lombardy was wrested from Austria, and, 
 to the inexpressible joy of its inhabitants, united with the 
 Italian kingdom of Sardinia. The Duchies of Tuscany, Par- 
 ma, and Modena also drove off their Austrian masters, and, 
 protected by France against Austrian invasion, joined also 
 the Sardinian kingdom. The Venetians, from the highest 
 elations of hope, were again plunged into unutterable despair, 
 as they were left helpless in the hands of their detested mas- 
 ters. Hungary, also, was on the eve of a new struggle for 
 liberty, elated by the fact that the Austrian army was fully 
 engrossed by the struggle with France and Sardinia. New 
 gleams of joy began to penetrate the despairing mind of Kos- 
 suth. He repaired to Italy, issued a proclamation to his 
 countrymen, and in a few weeks would have been at the head 
 of all Hungary in arms, when the peace of Villafranca blight- 
 ed all their prospects, liberating a veteran army of two hun- 
 dred thousand Austrian troops to crush the slightest movement 
 of the Hungarian people. 
 
 But again Venetia and Hungary are grasping their arms, 
 
532 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 preparing to strike simultaneously and desperately for free- 
 dom. The wonderful success of Garibaldi, in emancipating 
 Sicily and Naples from intolerable despotism, and annexing 
 them to the Sardinian kingdom, thus forming a kingdom of 
 Italy consisting of nearly twenty million of inhabitants, proba- 
 bly secures the emancipation of the Papal States, also, from the 
 detested sway of the Pope. ‘This will unite all Italy, except- 
 ing Venetia, in the Kingdom of Italy. This will certainly be 
 followed by a rising of the Venetians to break the Austrian 
 yoke, and unite with their Italian brethren. Austria will 
 pour her armies into Venetia; aud Hungary will instantly 
 rise. Russia, it is said, is even now preparing to march to the 
 help of Austria. France, it is said, is prepared to march to 
 the help of Italy. What will the British Government do? 
 
 The last arrivals from Europe announce the following as 
 the substance of an important telegram recently received from 
 Vienna: — 
 
 “The Emperor Alexander and his government desire sin- 
 cerely a perfect reconciliation with Austria. The good under- 
 standing between Austria and Russia ought never to have 
 been interrupted. The necessary arrangement for a meeting 
 between the two emperors will be made without delay; and 
 measures will be taken to put an end to the present state of 
 things, which is no longer tolerable.” 
 
 Such is the attitude of Austria, and of these great questions 
 of reform, as the autumnal leaves of 1860 are falling to the 
 ground. 
 
 This powerful empire, as at present constituted, embraces : — 
 
 1. The hereditary States of Austria, containing 76,199 square miles, 9,843,490 inhabitants. 
 6 
 
 2. The duchy of Styria ...........s06 ee 8,454 § Z: 780,100 be 
 B Tyrol vocsscsneceseceswacceveteccece $6 11,569 “ De 738,000 “ 
 4) Bohemia%c.cccescsvccscs Dececn cee ee 20,17 a eet s6 8,880,000 Me 
 6.? MOravid :.5caslenccncecsces sever ob oe C 10,192 “ 1,805,500 # 
 6. The duchy of Auschnitz in Galicia C2 143. Cts $6 835,190 oe 
 PALI VTIO ccctevaertccretecescsetrelcees Le 9:12 ee _ 897,000 = 
 DRT GNGAIY «505 coc cn ccindosacvercient “ 195105 « & 10,698,500 
 DP UIBIMNALIA yc cctseutevesssectees eases e oS 5,827 * ses 320,000 be 
 WO, Venetia seas vsetecae00s spa cceeeseo ae 8,270 * s¢ 2,000,000 < 
 Lis Galicinvcvccctecceteaccascsescecee a 82,272“ “% 4,075,000 « 
 
 Thus the whole Austrian monarchy contains 256,399 square 
 
AUSTRIA AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS. 533 
 
 miles, and a population which now probably exceeds forty mil- 
 hons. The standing army of this immense monarchy in time 
 of peace consists of 271,400 men, which includes 39,000 horse 
 and 17,790 artillery. In time of war this force can be in- 
 creased to almost any conceivable amount. 
 
 Thus slumbers this vast despotism, in the heart of central 
 Europe, the China of the Christian world. The utmost vigi- 
 lance is practised by the government to seclude its subjects, 
 as far as possible, from all intercourse with more free and en- 
 lightened nations, The government is in continual dread lest 
 the kingdom should be invaded by those liberal opinions 
 which are circulating in other parts of Europe. The young 
 men are prohibited, by an imperial decree, from leaving Aus- 
 tria to prosecute their studies in foreign universities, ‘Be 
 careful,” said Francis II. to the professors in the university at 
 Labach, “not to teach too much. I do not want learned men 
 in my kingdom: I want good subjects, who will do as I bid 
 them.” Some of the wealthy families, anxious to give their 
 children an elevated education, and prohibited from sending 
 them abroad, engaged private tutors from France and England. 
 The government took the alarm, and forbade the employment 
 of any but native teachers. The Bible, the great chart of 
 human liberty, all despots fear and hate. In 1822 a decree 
 was issued by the emperor, prohibiting the distribution of the 
 Bible in any part of the Austrian dominions. 
 
 The censorship of the press is rigorous in the extreme. No 
 printer in Austria would dare to issue the sheet we now write; 
 and no traveller would be permitted to take this book across the 
 frontier. ‘Twelve public censors are established at Vienna, to 
 whom every book published within the empire, whether origi- 
 nal or reprinted, must be referred. No newspaper or maga 
 zine is tolerated which does not advocate despotism. Only 
 those items of foreign intelligence are admitted into those 
 papers which the emperor is willing his subjects should know. 
 The freedom of republican America is carefully excluded. 
 The slavery which disgraces our land is ostentatiously ex- 
 hibited in harrowing descriptions and appalling engravings as 
 
§34 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 @ specimen of the degradation to which republican institu 
 tions doom the laboring class. 
 
 A few years ago an English gentleman dined with Prince 
 Metternich, the illustrious prime minister of Austria, in his 
 beautiful castle upon the Rhine. As they stood, after dinner, 
 at one of the windows of the palace, looking out upon the 
 peasants laboring in the vineyards, Metternich, in the follow- 
 ing words, developed his theory of social order : — 
 
 “Our policy is to extend all possible material happiness to 
 the whole population; to administer the laws patriarchally ; 
 to prevent their tranquillity from being disturbed. Is it not 
 delightful to see those people looking so contented, so much in 
 the possession of what makes them comfortable, so well fed, 
 so well clad, so quiet, and so religiously observant of order? 
 If they are injured in persons or property, they have immedi- 
 ate and unexpensive redress before our tribunals ; and, in that 
 respect, neither I nor any nobleman in the land has the 
 amallest advantage over a peasant.” 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE NEW CONSTITUTION, AND SEPARATION FROM 
 GERMANY. 
 
 Tae REICHSRATH TRANSFORMED INTO A NATIONAL LEGISLATURE. — THE ‘‘ PATH 
 OF CONSTITUTIONALISM.” —JEALOUSY BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA. — 
 WAR WITH DENMARK.—QUARREL BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA ABOUT 
 ScHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.— ALLIANCE BETWEEN PRUSSIA AND ITALY. —'PHE 
 S1x WEEKS’ WaR AND SADOWA.—ITALY GAINS VENETIA. — AUSTRIA LOSES 
 HER PLACE IN GERMANY.— THE PATH OF CONSTITUTIONALISM ONCE MORE. 
 — RECONCILIATION OF HUNGARY.— BOSNIA AND HERZEQOVINIA. 
 
 HERE is an old proverb which says, ‘‘It is always dark- 
 
 est just before daylight.’’ This seems often to be the 
 case, not only in the lives of individual men, but also in the 
 history of the great advances in reform and freedom which 
 have been made among nations. The history of Austria is 
 a good illustration. As was said in the last chapter, the 
 year 1860 found Austria sunk in the darkest night of despot- 
 ism. The heroic struggle of the Hungarians for freedom 
 had failed. Their chains seemed to be more firmly riveted 
 than ever. The constitution, which had been wrung from 
 the emperor by the agitation which the Hungarian uprising 
 had produced, after a languid existence of a few years, was 
 withdrawn. Except Venetia, the Italian provinces had in- 
 deed gained their independence; but poor Venetia seemed 
 to be held in a grasp as cruel and hopeless as ever. 
 
 The tranquillity of repression and despair reigned, but 
 already the sun of a more hopeful day was rising. The year 
 1860 saw the beginning of a new era for Austria. Her wis- 
 
5386 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 est statesmen saw that she could no longer stem the rapidly 
 rising tide of liberal influences, and keep her place among 
 the nations. 
 
 Without warning, — apparently by a sudden impulse, — 
 really, doubtless, because he had the wisdom to see that he 
 could no longer do otherwise safely, the Emperor Francis 
 Joseph entered ‘‘ on the path of constitutionalism.”’ 
 
 The numbers and the power of the Reichsrath, or council 
 of the empire, were enlarged by a patent issued in March; 
 and on the 21st of October a new constitution was promul- 
 gated,_in which the emperor expressly renounced the despotic 
 powers which he and his predecessors had so long and so 
 earnestly cherished, and declared that hereafter the right 
 to issue, alter, and abolish laws was to be exercised by him 
 and his successors only with the co-operation of the lawfully 
 assembled diets and of the Reichsrath. 
 
 This was followed by propositions in regard to similar 
 changes in Hungary; and on the 27th of February, 1861, 
 a decree was issued, that Hungary, Croatia, Sclavonia, and 
 Transylvania should have the constitutions restored which 
 formerly belonged to them respectively. 
 
 At the same time a ‘*‘ fundamental law ’’ was established, 
 which detreed representative institutions for the empire. 
 By this law the Reichsrath was converted into a constitu- 
 tional legislature composed of two bodies; viz., peers and 
 deputies. That is, an upper and a lower house, similar to 
 the Lords and Commons of England, or the Senate and Rep- 
 resentatives of our own country. And this fundamental law 
 declared the constitution and duties of each body. On the 
 Ist of May the new Reichsrath was formally opened by the 
 emperor at Vienna. He then declared his conviction, that 
 ‘¢ liberal institutions, with the conscientious introduction and 
 maintenance of the principles of equal rights of all the na- 
 tionalities of his empire; of the equality of all his subjects 
 in the eye of the law; of the participation of the represent- 
 
THE NEW CONSTITUTION, ETO. 537 
 
 atives of the people in the legislature, — would lead to the 
 salutary transformation of the whole monarchy.’’ 
 
 Hungary, Croatia, Sclavonia, and Transylvania declined 
 to send representatives to this Reichsrath. They claimed 
 that they had constitutions of their own, and rights distinct 
 from those of the empire at large. 
 
 But although all the details of the reform could not be 
 carried out at once, although all the conflicting claims of 
 the many and varied nationalities which compose the Aus- 
 trian empire could not be satisfied and adjusted in a moment, 
 the ‘‘path of constitutionalism,’’ which had seemed so 
 dreadful heretofore to the Emperors of Austria, was now 
 fairly entered upon; and, with a few exceptions, up to the 
 present time it has not been departed from. Indeed, Austria 
 has gone so far and so long in this path now, that it would 
 be difficult if not impossible for her to turn aside from it 
 into the old ways of autocratic repression. ‘The spirit of 
 the age has fairly lifted this old despotism off its feet, and 
 set it on a higher plane of freedom; and this has been done 
 by an apparently bloodless revolution. But not really so; 
 for the revolts of 1848, and the apparently disastrous strug- 
 gle of the Hungarians for freedom, have borne late fruit in 
 the reformation of Austrian government. Not only that, 
 but the events which we are now about to describe have 
 helped on the cause of constitutionalism by changing en- 
 tirely the position of Austria in Germany. 
 
 Austria had for centuries held the leading place in the 
 German Confederation ; but, since the days of Frederick the 
 Great, Prussia had been rising in power and influence. The 
 smaller States of Germany grouped themselves about these 
 two great powers. Between them there had naturally arisen 
 a great and growing jealousy. The North of Germany, 
 represented by Prussia, was commercial in its interests. 
 The South, represented by Austria, was agricultural. In 
 the North, there was industry, progress, education. In the 
 
§38 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 South, there had been more repression and conservatism. 
 The North was Protestant, and had experienced all the awak- 
 ening tendencies which Protestantism has always carried 
 with it. The South had remained under the blighting influ- 
 ence of popery. Since the days of the Reformation, North 
 and South Germany, Prussia, and Austria had more than 
 once been at war with each other; and these conflicts were 
 not forgotten. Now a new tide of popular impulse was ris- 
 ing, which was destined to renew the conflict. Since the 
 days of the wars of Napoleon, a great desire had arisen for 
 the union of the German people under one government. 
 German patrioty felt that it was a great loss and damage 
 to this great people — one ‘in language and in interests — to 
 go on longer weakened by petty political divisions, split 
 up in a crowd of discordant kingdoms and principalities, 
 only loosely held together in a confederation when they 
 might be one great nation. The Prussian Government, 
 guided now by Bismarck, the keenest, most daring, and most 
 able of modern statesmen, constituted itself the thampion 
 of this national aspiration. It was natural that German 
 patriots should look to Prussia rather than Austria as their 
 leader, because, although Prussia was far from being liberal 
 in government, she was purely German; while the Austrian 
 empire was. made up of many nationalities, and only a small 
 part of it was German at all. Bohemians and Hungarians 
 and Croats could have little interest in a united German 
 fatherland. 
 
 The first step toward the realization of this long-cherished 
 dream was now to be taken. The means which were used 
 to further this noble end were, we must admit, unworthy of 
 so great a cause. 
 
 Three small German duchies, Schleswig, Holstein, and 
 Lauenburg, had been attached to Denmark. By a treaty 
 called the Treaty of London, made in 1852, the succession 
 to the government of these duchies was fixed in the Danish 
 
THE NEW CONSTITUTION, ETO. 539 
 
 crown. Austria and Prussia had signed this treaty. On 
 the 15th of November, 1863, Ferdinand VII., King of Den- 
 mark, died; and there was a general ferment of opinion 
 throughout Germany on the subject of these duchies. There 
 was a doubt as to the right of the new Danish king, Chris- 
 tian IX., to the succession. It seemed possible now to dc 
 something toward uniting Germany. Austria and Prussia 
 denied the right of Denmark. The matter came before the 
 diet. The duchies were claimed as part of Germany, anu 
 a decree of execution was put forth against Christian IX. 
 by the diet of the German Confederation. 
 
 It was intended that this decree should be carried out by 
 detachments of such troops of all the States included in the 
 Confederation as might be determined upon by the diet; and, 
 in accordance with this, troops from Hanover and Saxony 
 marched into Holstein, and the Danes retired into Schleswig. 
 
 But this did not suit the purpose of Prussia. She artfully 
 proposed that Austria and Prussia alone, as the leading pow- 
 ers in Germany, should execute the decree. To this Austria 
 assented ; and hostilities began Feb. 1, 1864. There could 
 be but one result of such a war. It was the strong against 
 the weak. On whichever side the right was, the might was 
 not with the Danes. Perhaps they ought to have had the 
 assistance of England. She was one of the parties to the 
 Treaty of London. But England was not prepared to go to 
 war with Austria and Prussia. The Danes got only an empty 
 sympathy from England; and after a heroic stand, in which 
 they proved themselves worthy foes of their powerful antago- 
 nists, they were conquered. On Oct. 30, 1864, the Treaty 
 of Vienna was signed, making over the duchies to Germany. 
 
 Now the question was, how to dispose of them. Prussia 
 laid claim to Holstein. She said it was hers by inheritance ; 
 that annexation to Prussia would be very advantageous to 
 the interests of Germany in general and not antagonistic 
 to Austria in particular; that the geographical position of 
 
540 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 the two countries would make it necessary for Prussia to 
 guard Holstein. 
 
 Austria said No! to all this. She had been intrusted by 
 the diet with the carrying out of this matter, and could make 
 no such arrangement as Prussia proposed. At any rate, 
 Austria could not allow Prussia to have this increase of terri- 
 tory without a corresponding increase on her part. 
 
 And so the quarrel about the dividing of poor little Den- 
 mark’s spoils went on, as doubtless Bismarck expected it 
 would. For really it was more than a quarrel about waich 
 should get a small slice more of territory than the other. It 
 was the beginning of strife between the old order of things 
 and the new spirit of German unity. It was becoming evi- 
 dent that a united fatherland would exalt Prussia and injure 
 Austria. And so the policy of Austria was to keep the small 
 German States separate. She made herself the champion of 
 the Confederation and the diet which had designed making 
 Holstein an independent state under the auspices of the diet 
 and governed by some popular prince. 
 
 It is a singular fact, that not only the conservative attitude 
 of Austria as to German politics was getting her into trouble 
 with Prussia, but her new departure toward constitutional 
 freedom was actually a means of aggravating the difficulty. 
 For Prussia and her great prime minister, Bismarck, although 
 representing the patriotism of Germany as to the question of 
 a united fatherland, came very far from representing popular 
 liberty. The Prussian Government was a despotism more 
 enlightened, but not less stern, than that from which Austria 
 was just emerging. The liberals in the duchies, while they 
 may have loved German unity, loved freedom more; and 
 Austria with her new constitution began to seem like a great 
 sun rising out of midnight darkness. They, therefore, turned 
 to her, and preferred that she, rather than Prussia, should 
 control their destinies; and others of the smaller German 
 States sympathized with them. Particularly in Schleswig, 
 
THE NEW CONSTITUTION, ETO. 541 
 
 which for the present was under the joint administration of 
 Austria and Prussia, things were said and done which gave 
 offense to Prussia. Her officials wanted to repress the ex- 
 pression of popular feeling. Austria, consistently with her 
 new-fiedged freedom, and, perhaps, because popular expres- 
 sion favored her side of the quarrel, encouraged it. Bitter 
 recriminations passed between the courts of the two great 
 powers. 
 
 At last the strife was quieted by a meeting of the Emperor 
 Francis Joseph with King William at Gastein near Salzburg. 
 An agreement was then made between them, by which the 
 administration of the newly acquired territory was divided, 
 Prussia taking charge of Schleswig, and Austria of Hole 
 stein. 
 
 The ‘* Convention of Gastein’’ seemed to produce quiet, 
 but there were other causes of disturbance. Italy, ever on 
 the watch for an opportunity to redeem Venetia, was culti- 
 vating friendship with Prussia. Bismarck, seeing doubtless 
 that the trouble with Austria was quieted only in appearance 
 and for the moment, and knowing how valuable the aid of 
 Italy might be in the near future, was meeting her advances 
 in a way that could not but excite Austrian jealousy. 
 
 And then there was beside, the irrepressible though af 
 present repressed contest for supremacy in Germany, —2a 
 contest which inevitably went on in spite of outward friend- 
 liness. There was nothing durable in the arrangement 
 made at the meeting of King William with the Austrian 
 emperor. Perhaps Bismarck, who was the master spirit in 
 all the affair, did not mean that there should be. 
 
 On the 30th of January, 1866, he sent a note to Aastria, 
 protesting against the freedom of discussion which was 
 allowed in Holstein, the discussion complained of being all 
 against Prussia. 
 
 Soon after a second note was sent. This spcke of ‘‘ the 
 happy days of Gastein,’’ but mourned that affairs were now 
 
$42 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 assuming a very serious aspect; that the bearing of the gove 
 ernment of Holstein must be regarded as directly aggressive. 
 It said that Prussia had a right to request Austria to main- 
 tain Holstein in statu quo, as Prussia felt bound to do in 
 regard to Schleswig. Austria was required to ponder and 
 negotiate, and the note closed with a threat. It stated, that 
 if a negative or evasive answer should be returned, painful as 
 that would be, Prussia would be forced to believe Austria no 
 longer friendly. If it should be impossible for her to act in 
 concert with Austria, Prussia must contract closer alliances 
 in other directions for the advancement of her own immediate 
 interests. 
 
 This was supposed to refer to an alliance with Italy, Aus- 
 tria’s mortal enemy. The note itself was considered almost 
 a declaration of war. Austria did return a negative and 
 evasive answer. ‘The crisis was fast developing. A council 
 of war was held at Vienna. As to Italy, detested as she was 
 by the Austrians, war would be welcomed with her. If the 
 war gave Italy a chance of gaining Venetia, it also might give 
 Austria a chance to recover what she had lost by the battles 
 of Magenta and Solferino. As to Prussia, it was thought 
 that her army was neither large nor in good condition. It 
 was thought that the German Confederation might be induced 
 to demand decisive action on the Schleswig-Holstein affair. 
 If, in response to this demand, Prussia yielded, her prestige 
 would be destroyed. If she did not yield, she would have all 
 the diet against her; and a decree of federal execution might 
 be obtained against Prussia, and then she might be crushed 
 with all the combined forces of the Confederation. 
 
 After the council of war, Austria began secretly to make 
 preparations. The fortresses, especially Cracow, were 
 strengthened: the troops in Bohemia, which lies near Prus- 
 sia, were re-enforced. 
 
 The attention of Prussia was excited, and she began to ask 
 the meaning of all these warlike preparations. Austria ree 
 
THE NEW CONSTITUTION, ETC. 5438 
 
 plied that the populace in Bohemia had broken out in riots 
 against the Jews. 
 
 But the Jews of Bohemia almost all lived in Prague; and 
 the Austrian anxiety for their welfare was bringing troops, 
 as it seemed to Prussia, suspiciously near her frontier. Slowly 
 and cautiously the Austrian army was mobilized. That is, 
 ie battalions were raised to their full strength, and supplied 
 with the transportation and other material necessary for a 
 campaign. Steps were taken to strengthen the fortresses in 
 Italy. Military preparations were also made secretly in 
 Saxony and Wurtemberg. 
 
 But this activity of preparation for war could not escape 
 the observation of the Prussian Government. Prussia was not 
 so weak or so unprepared as she was supposed to be. She 
 had really been leading her rival on toward the conflict. Bis- 
 marck had outwitted the Austrian statesmen throughout the 
 whole affair. He now began to show his purpose boldly. A 
 decree was issued in the king’s name, which declared that the 
 authors of any attempt to subvert his authority or that of 
 the Emperor of Austria in the duchies would be imprisoned. 
 The Austrian ambassador protested. The reception of. his 
 protest was such that Austria told the States of the Confed- 
 eration to arm themselves. 
 
 Then Bismarck declared, that, on account of the armaments 
 ef Austria, Prussia was at last compelled to take measures 
 for the protection of Silesia, which lay near the Austrian 
 frontier ; and, moreover, that Prussia must seek guaranties 
 for the future. 
 
 This forced from the other German States a declaration of 
 their policy. They wanted to go to war for neither of the 
 antagonists, but to refer the whole matter to the diet. But 
 ‘the days of the diet were numbered. Underneath and far 
 more important than the question as to whether Prussia or 
 Austria should get their way in Schleswig-Holstein, the real 
 question now before Germany was, Shall the old Confedera 
 
544 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 tion be superseded by a new Germany united under the lead 
 ership of Prussia? That could be decided only by war, and 
 the time for decision had come. 
 
 Prussia now began openly to put her army on a war-foot- 
 ing. The battalions which garrisoned the places nearest the 
 Austrian frontier were increased, but not yet raised to the 
 full war standard. The field artillery was made completely 
 ready. The fortresses were garrisoned and provisioned. 
 Confident in the rapidity with which the whole of her forces 
 could be mobilized under the new system, which had been for 
 a long time silently perfected, Prussia delayed until the last 
 moment calling her men away from their workshops and 
 farms. 
 
 Now ths two great rivals stood face to face. Before they 
 came to blows they argued with each other, as nations, no 
 less than individual men, who are quarreling, often do. An 
 English writer puts the debate in this way :— 
 
 Austria. ‘* You must disarm. I really don’t mean any 
 thing by the troops in Bohemia.’’ 
 
 Prussia. ** Yes, you do. When you disarm, I will.” 
 
 Austria. ‘*‘ Well, then, I will withdraw from Bohemia; 
 but I must take measures for the defense of Venetia against 
 Italy.”’ 
 
 But the Prussians say, ‘‘ This is just as much a threat 
 against us as the troops in Bohemia. When Italy is crushed, 
 then your whole force can be turned against us.’’ 
 
 But an Austrian army was got ready against Italy; and 
 then Prussia took her new ally under her protection, and 
 demanded, not only disarmament in Bohemia, but also in 
 Venetia. 
 
 Austria answered by increasing her army still more, and 
 then proposed once more to submit the whole question about 
 Schleswig-Holstein to the diet. Prussia would have no more 
 of the diet. She began to mobilize her army; and, at the 
 end of fourteen days, four hundred and ninety thousand men 
 
THE NEW CONSTITUTION, ETO. 545 
 
 stood on parade, armed, clothed, equipped, provided with 
 transportation trains, provisions, ammunition, and field hos- 
 pitals. 
 
 It is doubtful whether a great army has ever been put in 
 the field with such marvelous rapidity. The new Prussian 
 system was now for the first time displayed in its full practi- 
 cal power. And along with this system, by which all the 
 able-bodied men of the nation had been made efficient and 
 well-trained soldiers, ready to be called into the ranks ata 
 few days’ notice, a new weapon was now to be brought into 
 use, which was destined to revolutionize warfare. 
 
 Breech-loading rifles had been tried before on a limited 
 scale ; but, though they had been found far more deadly than 
 other arms, they were considered too complicated for the use 
 of ordinary soldiers. 
 
 But a breech-loading weapon invented by a humble me- 
 chanic had been adopted by the Prussian Government. It 
 was called the ‘‘ needle-gun,’’ from the peculiar mechanism 
 used to explode the cartridge. <A large portion of the Prus- 
 sian troops were armed with this now historic needle-gun, 
 with what result we shall see. 
 
 The war may be said to have begun on June 16, 1866, 
 when the Prussians entered Saxony, which sided with Austria, 
 and marched upon Dresden, its capital. A strong force also 
 occupied Hanover and Hesse-Cassel, thus protecting the 
 Prussian rear. The Saxon army retired as the Prussians 
 approached, and marched to join the Austrians. The Prus- 
 sians then occupied Dresden, and thus secured in Saxony 
 a good basis for offensive operations. 
 
 The Prussians were divided into three armies. The first 
 was under command of Prince Frederick Charles, who after- 
 ward became popularly known among the soldiers as ‘‘ Our 
 Fritz.’’ The second was commanded by the Crown Prince ; 
 and the third, or ‘‘army of the Elbe,’’ by Gen. Herwarth. 
 In all, they had about two hundred and twenty-five thon- 
 
946 THE HOUSER OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 sand men in the field, with seven hundred and seventy-fout 
 cannon. 
 
 The Austrian force was composed of two armies. One 
 under Count Clam Gallas, the other and largest under Gen. 
 Benedek. In all, they numbered over two hundred and 
 sixty thousand men, with seven hundred and sixteen cannon. 
 
 The Prussians now marched through the mountain-defiles 
 into Bohemia. To their surprise, and that of every one else, 
 they passed these easily defended defiles without opposition. 
 The reputation of Gen. Benedek was so great, that every 
 one suspected some deep-laid plan by which the Prussians 
 were to be enticed into the heart of the enemy’s country and 
 overwhelmed. But no plan at all seems to have been formed. 
 With all her long prejaration, the crisis found her unready, 
 her army ill-organized, poorly equipped and provisioned. 
 Benedek had announced to the soldiers, that he was going 
 ‘‘to lead the brave and faithful Austrian army against the 
 unjust and wanton foes of the empire.’’ But, instead, the 
 Prussian army was being led against him. it was from 
 the start, and all the way through, a defensive war on the part 
 of Austria. Though brave enough, the Austrians lacked 
 the spirit which animated the Prussians. 
 
 The Austrians expected the attack to come from behind 
 the mountains of Eastern Bohemia, and had massed their 
 largest army there. And so, when the advance of Frederick 
 Karl’s army crossed the Erzgebirge, it was opposed only by 
 the outlying brigades of Clam Gallas. There were several 
 unimportant engagements, and then a severe fight at Podol, 
 which cost the Austrians a loss of twenty-four hundred men, 
 while the Prussians lost only one hundred and twenty-four. 
 
 Two of the Prussian armies now advanced leisurely, driv- 
 ing the enemy before them toward Munchengratz, where 
 Clam Gallas was intrenched. On the 28th of June he was 
 attacked ; and, after a short but sharp fight, he was forced te 
 retreat in haste. 
 
THE NEW CONSTI?7UTION, ETC. 547 
 
 The Prussian armies continued to advance by several 
 routes. They took Gitschin after a severe battle, in which 
 they lost two thousand men, and the Austrians twice as many, 
 and encamped the next morning near Horzitz, having estab- 
 lished communication with the forces of the Crown Prince: 
 while Clam Gallas retired to join the main army under Ben- 
 edek. He had proved himself a skillful commander. For 
 with only half as many men as the Prussians, and less than 
 half as many guns, he had compelled his enemies to spend 
 six days in advancing forty miles. 
 
 Meanwhile the third Prussian army had crossed the defiles 
 with but little trouble. Gen. Steinmetz alone met with op- 
 position, and was once driven back into the pass. But he 
 persevered, and by six-hours’ fighting he got through with a 
 loss of nearly two thousand men. The Austrians lost six 
 thousand. On the 28th he had another battle at Skalitz. 
 He was again successful, causing a loss to the Austrians of 
 over eleven thousand. The Prussian right wing also had 
 a hard fight in coming through the mountains. After com- 
 ing through one of these defiles, they were driven back. The 
 Austrian general, Gablentz, obtained re-enforcements ; and 
 a corps of the Prussian guards was sent to re-enforce the 
 right wing and attack Gablentz. There was a series of 
 battles ; and the Austrians were again defeated with a loss 
 of four thousand, while the Prussians lost only eight hundred 
 and thirty-four. 
 
 The great preponderance of Austrian loss in these battles 
 was owing, not only to the superior fighting qualities of the 
 Prussian army, but also to the fact that the needle-gun 
 vastly increased the effectiveness of each Prussian soldier. 
 
 The deadly power of breech-loading arms was being con- 
 clusively proved.? 
 
 The three Prussian armies were now all in Bohemia, and 
 
 1 It is said, that, in one of the first of these engagements, ‘‘ an entire battalion of 
 Austrians was struck down almost to a man.” 
 
548 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 moving steadily forward in lines converging toward a poiné 
 north of the Austrian army, which was now concentrated 
 between Josephstadt and Koniggritz. 
 
 The two armies were now face to face, and the decisive 
 battle of the war was to be fought. 
 
 On the Ist of July the King of Prussia arrived at the head- 
 quarters of the army. He had heard that Gen. Benedek 
 intended to attack the Prussians before the Crown Prince 
 and the army under his command could come up. The 
 Crown Prince was approaching, but he was still fifteen miles 
 away. King William resolved not to wait, either for his 
 arrival or for Benedek’s onset, but to attack at once, and 
 thus anticipate his enemies. 
 
 A message was sent to the Crown Prince, ordering him to 
 hasten his advance; and on July 3, at eight o’clock in the 
 morning, the Prussians began to move upon the Austrian 
 position. They would have been less hasty, it may be, had 
 they known the true state of affairs. They supposed they 
 had only part of the Austrian army before them. They were 
 soon undeceived. 
 
 At the foot of the slope, on the crest of which was the 
 Austrian position, were several villages, occupied by outposts. 
 The Prussians carried these easily enough, and advanced up 
 the slope. But now they were met by a withering fire from 
 their enemy’s artillery. Their progress was checked. They 
 could not advance in the face of the storm of shot and shell 
 which burst upon them. They were compelled to halt. Ben- 
 edek, seeing the Prussians hesitate, now hurled his reserves 
 against their left wing, intending to cut it off, and crush it 
 before the Crown Prince could have time to come up to its 
 help. But the Prussians stood their ground with true Ger- 
 man stubbornness. All efforts to drive them from their posi 
 tion were in vain; though at times the left wing wavered, 
 and seemed on the point of giving way before the overwhelm 
 ing weight of the Austrian assault. Thus the battle con 
 
THE NEW OONSTITUTION, ETC. 549 
 
 tinued, the artillery on both sides keeping up an incessant 
 and tremendous fire, until, as the day wore on, the Austrian 
 right showed signs of wavering. It was evident that help 
 was coming to the sorely pressed Prussians. 
 
 The advance of the army of the Crown Prince was attack- 
 ing the flank of the Austrian right wing. The Prussians 
 began to cheer. The unseen assailant of the Austrians was 
 evidently becoming more and more formidable every minute. 
 The Crown Prince had come. The Austrian right wing was 
 giving way. It was being rolled up and crushed. The Prus- 
 sians advanced, and, by partially enclosing the Austrians 
 between two fires, threw them into confusion. The battle was 
 decided. The Austrians were hopelessly and terribly de- 
 feated. Their army was speedily broken up, and the soldiers 
 fled in confusion. Many perished in the waters of the Elbe, 
 or were crushed under the wheels of the fleeing baggage- 
 wagons. All that saved the Austrians from the extremest 
 horrors and miseries of such a terrible defeat, was their 
 splendid cavalry, which with undaunted courage stood be- 
 tween the flying host and their foes, — that, and the further 
 fact, that the Prussians were deficient in cavalry. 
 
 This great battle is sometimes called Koniggratz, but more 
 commonly Sadowa, from the small town of that name near 
 the battle-field. The Prussian loss was 9,000 men, killed and 
 wounded. The Austrians lost 16,235 killed and wounded, 
 and 22,684 prisoners. 
 
 They asked for a truce. It was refused ; and the Prussians 
 pushed forward for Vienna, whither Benedek had withdrawn 
 the shattered remnant of his army. At the same time the 
 Southern army, which had been employed against Italy, was 
 brought to the capital. Every thing was done to strengthen 
 the fortifications of the city ; and preparations were made for 
 a last desperate stand, when the Emperor of the French in- 
 tervened, and proposed a truce. This was eccepted, and was 
 soon followed by a treaty of peace. 
 
559 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Italy, the ally of Prussia in this war, though entering ac 
 tively into the strife, did not greatly distinguish herself. 
 She entered into the war with the enthusiasm which became 
 her revived nationality, and with heroic determination to free 
 Venetia from the hated Austrian yoke. 
 
 An army of two hundred thousand men was raised. Half 
 of this number, under Gen. Della Marmora, were to cross 
 the Mincio between Peschiera and Mantua. The other half 
 were stationed around Bologna to operate on the lower Po. 
 
 The Austrian Archduke Albert opposed this force. He 
 had ninety thousand men, beside the garrisons of the great 
 fortresses which compose what is called ‘‘ the Quadrilateral,’’ 
 and that of Venetia, which were not available for active 
 service. 
 
 La Marmora crossed the Po with his army. He proceeded 
 on his march in a careless manner. The Archduke Albert 
 watched him closely; and, when the Italian army became 
 entangled between the river and the hills, the Austrians 
 attacked them in full force. 
 
 The Italian left wing was broken, and would have been 
 destroyed had not another division crossed the river, and, 
 coming to their assistance, held the enemy at bay for the 
 remainder of the day. 
 
 The Austrian attack on the Italian right was at first unsuc- 
 cessful. In the center were the villages of Custoza and 
 Monte Belvidere. ‘These were the keys to the Italian posi- 
 tion. There was an obstinate struggle on both sides for the 
 possession of these villages; but toward the close of the day 
 the Austrians gained them, and victory was decided in their 
 favor. The Italians feli back in fair order toward the Min- 
 cio, and were soon re-assembled on the right bank of the 
 river. The loss to each side in this battle was about eight 
 thousand. 
 
 The Italian generals now spent more than a week in dis- 
 cussing another plan for a campaign, since this first one had 
 
THE NEW CONSTITUTION, ETO. 551 
 
 failed. In the mean time the news of Sadowa came, and with 
 it the news that Austria had ceded Venetia to the French Em 
 peror, Napoleon III. Although it was well understood that 
 this was done simply to save Austria the humiliation of giv 
 ing up Venetia directly to Italy, and that the French emperor 
 would surely hand that much-desired province over, the 
 italians refused to make a separate treaty with Austria. 
 They remained true to their ally, Prussia, and continued to 
 prosecute the war vigorously. Gen. Garibaldi, with his 
 volunteers, and Gen. Medeci, with a division of the Italian 
 army, advanced into the Trentino, driving before them the 
 small body of Austrians which had been left after the Arch- 
 duke’s army had been withdrawn from Italy to assist in the 
 defense of Vienna. The Italians also made vigorous war by 
 sea. In this, however, they were not very successful; the 
 Austrian admiral, with his small fleet, proving more than a 
 match for them, in spite of their great ironclads. At last 
 Italy was content to sign an armistice. She‘laid claim to the 
 Trentino, but it was thought that she was sufficiently rewarded 
 and Austria sufficiently punished by the cession of Venetia 
 to a now really united Italy. 
 
 By the treaty of Prague (Aug. 23, 1866) which now fol- 
 lowed, Austria was completely bereft of her ancient place in 
 Germany. The old Confederation was dissolved ; and a new 
 Germany, with Prussia at its head, appeared. 
 
 Austria was entirely excluded from participation in this 
 new Germany, and had to consent formally to the surrender 
 of Venetia to Italy, and to pay beside a war indemnity of 
 forty million thalers, the Prussian troops to remain on her 
 territory until it was paid. 
 
 It was bitter humiliation to Austria, but the peace pur- 
 chased at such a heavy cost has brought its blessings. As 
 soon as it was concluded, the emperor turned his attention 
 to home affairs. We have seen how, when constitutional 
 reforms were introduced into jpe Austrian empire b?fore the 
 
552 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 war with Prussia, Hungary was dissatisfied. She insisted on 
 her right to self-government, and refused to be put off with 
 any thing else. ‘There was no insurrecti@n or revolution in 
 Hungary this time. It was a puely passive resistance that 
 was now Offered. The Hungarians refused to pay taxes: and 
 Austria, always in financial straits, was, in consequence of 
 the war, sorely pressed for money ; and this sort of resistance 
 on the part of Hungary was very effective. 
 
 On Dec. 14, 1865, the emperor opened the Hungarian 
 Diet in person at Pesth. He then declared, that, so far as 
 it did not affect the unity of the empire and the position of 
 Austria as a European power, he was willing to grant what 
 they demanded, and recognize their right to self-government. 
 
 In November, 1866, after the peace had been concluded, 
 an imperial rescript, signed by the emperor, was published, 
 in which he promised, by the appointment of a responsible 
 ministry and the restoration of municipal self-government, to 
 do justice to the constitutional demands of Hungary. 
 
 Not only was the cause of German unity advanced by the 
 humbling of Austria, but the renovation of the Austrian em- 
 pire itself and the long-delayed liberation of Hungary was 
 promoted by it. Austria, having ceased to be a great German 
 power, was compelled to cherish the other nationalities com- 
 mitted to her care. Of these Hungary was the most impor- 
 tant; and she was now to assume the place which rightfully 
 belonged to her, —the leading place in the membership of 
 States which compose the Austrian empire. 
 
 The progress of Austria in liberal government has been 
 rapid since the war with Prussia. 
 
 In 1866 Baron Beust, a Saxon, and therefore a foreigner 
 in Austria, and a Protestant, became the minister of foreign 
 affairs. Afterward he was made prime minister and chancel 
 lor of the empire. 
 
 In 1867 the Reichsrath assembled at Vienna to deliberate 
 on amendments to the Hungarian Constitution, on the re- 
 
THE NEW CONSTITUTION, ETO. 558 
 
 sponsibility of the imperial ministers to the Reichsrath, on 
 the extension of constitutional self-government in the differ- 
 ent provinces, on the re-organization of the army, on the 
 improvement of the administration of justice, and the pro- 
 motion of the economical interests of the country. 
 
 In his speech at the opening of this meeting of the Reichs- 
 rath, the emperor said, ‘‘ To-day we are about to establish 
 a work of peace and concord. Let us throw a veil of forget- 
 fulness over the immediate past, which has inflicted such 
 deep wounds upon the empire. Let us lay to heart the les- 
 sons which it leaves behind ; but let us derive with unshaken 
 courage new strength, and the resolve to seek the peace and 
 prosperity of the empire.’’ 
 
 On the 8th of June, 1867, the Emperor and Empress of 
 Austria were crowned King and Queen of Hungary at Pesth. 
 
 On the 30th of July, 1870, the concordat with Rome, which 
 had long been an incubus upon Austria, was suspended, on 
 account of the proclamation of the infallibility of the pope. 
 One beneficent result of this action was, the bringing about 
 of a better state of feeling between Austria and Italy. A 
 sympathy which had hitherto been wanting arose between 
 these two countries. In the great war of 1870, between 
 France and Prussia, Austria took no part. Nothing could 
 more plainly show how entirely her connection with Germany 
 had been severed ; and nothing could better prove how utterly 
 her hope of regaining her position in Germany had gone out, 
 than the fact that she remained a silent spectator of this 
 great struggle, one result of which was, to consolidate Prus- 
 sian power in Germany more firmly than ever. It was far bet- 
 ter for Austria that she should remain at peace, and exert her 
 strength in the task so new to her of perfecting the institu- 
 tions of a constitutional state. To this task she applied 
 herself. 
 
 In 1873 a reform bill was passed, taking the election of 
 members of the Reichsrath out of the hands of the provincial 
 
§54 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 diets, and transferring it to the body of electors in the several 
 provinces. Almost every householder now has the right to 
 vote. 
 
 In the autumn of 1873 an international exhibition of the 
 world’s industry, similar to those which had taken place at 
 London and Paris, and afterward in our own country, was 
 held at Vienna. It attracted visitors from all parts of the 
 world. 
 
 In 1874 a bill for the abolition of the concordat with the 
 pope was introduced by the government, and measures were 
 taken for the restriction of the power of the Romish clergy. 
 One by one the fetters and the props of despotism were fall- 
 ing, and Austria was entering more and more entirely into the 
 progressive spirit of the age. 
 
 The emperor had not always maintained his course ‘‘ in 
 the path of constitutionalism.’’ Between the years 1865 and 
 1867 he had been inclined to swerve from it. But the terri- 
 ble lessons of Sadowa had made him sadder and wiser; and 
 now, in his speech at the opening of the Reichsrath on the 
 15th of November, 1874, he declared, that, ‘‘ by the system of 
 direct popular elections, the empire has obtained real inde- 
 pendence.’’ 
 
 The treaty of Berlin, which resulted from the war between 
 Russia and Turkey, placed the former Turkish provinces of 
 Bosnia and Herzegovinia under the administration of Austria. 
 It has proved a troublesome trust. But it has extended 
 Austrian territory and influence in the direction of her now 
 manifest destiny. Practically these provinces have been 
 incorporated into the Austrian empire. The acquisition has 
 increased her strength in Eastern Europe. ‘‘ Austria, as a 
 constitutional state, no longer enfeebled by the just discon- 
 tent of the multitudinous races which she governs, enjoys 
 abundantly the elements out of which a prosperous career 
 may be fashioned.’’ 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY SINCE 1878. 
 
 HIsTEROGENEITY OF POPULATION.—EXTERNAL AND JnTERNAL ProcRESS.—THB 
 TRIPLE ALLIANCE.—Frars of A RussIAN War. — IMPROVEMENTS IN THB 
 ArmMy.—ReErorms In CURRENCY AND IN THE FPRaNOHISE.—THE CrviL Mar- 
 Ri4Ge Bitt.—Laneuace AnD Rack ANTAGONISM.—ANTI-SEMITISOM.—DEATH , 
 OF THE CRowN PRINCE: oF KossutH.—THe Minianntan EXposirion IN 
 HuUNGARY.—ASSASSINATION OF THE Empress Wiizasstu.—Tue Foururr 
 OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 
 
 YR history of Austria-Hungary since the treaty 
 of Berlin in 1878 has been, on the one hand, one 
 of internal improvements, both material and constitu- 
 tional, making for a higher order of civilization and 
 adjustment of relations with foreign nations. This 
 has been accomplished, on the other hand, not with- 
 out much party strife, and friction between the sev- 
 eral nationalities which the monarchy now embraces. 
 This national emulation is the more to be expected 
 when we consider the differences of customs, religion, 
 and particularly of language, which exist within the 
 comparatively small region covered by the Austria- 
 Hungarian dominion. Not only Germans and Hun- 
 garians, but several Slavonic nationalities, such as 
 ©zechs and Poles, are represented within its borders 
 to-day. In the imperial army eleven languages are 
 spoken; and the strong religious antagonism which 
 often breaks forth into violent expression between > 
 Catholics and Jews goes also to make the internal 
 
556 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 life of the nation at times very turbulent. <A great 
 part, however, of the political perturbation arises from 
 the jealousy with which those speaking one language 
 regard the political favors bestowed upon, or successes 
 gained by, those speaking a different language. 
 
 It is to be noticed too that the parts out of which 
 Austria-Hungary are formed are less homogeneous, 
 politically, than those of any other European nation, 
 and that consequently it has required much shrewd 
 diplomacy on the part of the country and her advisers 
 to refrain from falling into the horrors of a war with 
 other nations, and thus, possibly, embroiling the whole 
 of Europe. 
 
 An example of the heterogeneity just referred to is 
 the peculiar relations of Austria to Bosnia and Herze- 
 govina, whose fate was narrated in the last chapter. 
 The Congress of Berlin ceded these two small coun- 
 tries to Austria, to be administered and occupied, 
 while, strictly speaking, the title of them remained 
 with, and to this day belongs to, Turkey, of which 
 they are a province. Add to this that when occupied 
 a dispute arose immediately between Austria and Hun- 
 gary as to which of them should have the privileges 
 which this occupation implied. This difference be- 
 tween the two parts of the Austria-Hungarian mon- 
 archy was settled only by agreeing that both should 
 have the two new countries, and that the common 
 imperial government should administer them. 
 
 Perhaps a still better example of the national heter- 
 ogeneity is the great number of national and political 
 parties in the houses of parliament. It will suffice to 
 mention two of them. The German party of the Aus- 
 trian lower house is anxious to return to the state of 
 affairs which existed from 1806 to 1866; in other words, 
 they desire to be united in some manner to Germany. 
 This party represents the Germans, numerous in Bo- 
 
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY SINCE 1878. 557 
 
 hemia, Moravia, Styria, Lower Austria, Silesia, and 
 some in the Alps. On the other hand, Poles and Ru- 
 thenians wish to be united with Russia. 
 
 The progress made in the administration of the coun- 
 try since 1878, during which time she has had no seri- 
 ous wars and her material and national prosperity has 
 ostensibly increased, falls naturally into two divisions. 
 ist. External progress, which will include the improve- 
 ment of relations with foreign powers already referred 
 to. 2d. Internal progress. To these will be added a 
 short account of the party strife, in spite of which the 
 monarchy has grown to be one of the great powers 
 of EKurope. Party strife is common enough in most 
 nations, but has been more markedly spectacular in 
 Austria-Hungary than in most of the other nations. 
 
 The most significant advance made in the direction 
 of external progress by Austria-Hungary was when 
 in 1879 she signed a defensive treaty of alliance with 
 Germany. This was, on Germany’s part, a far-seeing 
 policy of the late Prince Bismarck. Itresulted in added 
 strength both to Germany and Austria, and the latter 
 was once and for all excluded from all purely German 
 affairs. Both countries were thus a further protection 
 to the peace of Kurope, in that they constituted a for- 
 midable enemy with which, in case of any war, Russia 
 would have to cope. This was an important gain in 
 the European politics of the time, for Russia had been 
 making great strides in the direction of Constantinople. 
 This alliance between Austria-Hungary and Germany 
 tended to hold Russia back. 
 
 The alliance, still further strengthened in the autumn 
 of 1881 by Italy’s joining, thus forming the so-called 
 Dreibund or Triple Alliance, gave to Austria-Hungary 
 a still more powerful voice in the concert of Kuropean 
 powers. : 
 
 The subsequent history of the country is marked only 
 
558 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA- 
 
 by the occasional disturbances in peaceful tranquillity 
 caused by revolution and disorder in the smaller Balkan 
 atates—Servia, Roumania and Bulgaria. 
 
 A difference arose in 1883 between Austria and Ron- 
 mania over the latter’s refusal to accept the decisions 
 of a conference which had met in London in February, 
 and at which the representative of Austria had made 
 concessions in the favor of Roumania. This disaffec- 
 tion, on the part of the smaller state, was patched up, 
 however, by a friendly visit of the king, Charles, to 
 the court of Vienna. 
 
 The year 1884 saw the end of a rivalry with Russia 
 under the leadership of Count Kalnoky, who had been 
 appointed three years before to the duties of Foreign 
 Minister upon the death of Haymerle. An interview 
 between the emperors of Austria, Germany and Russia 
 was brought about, at which a more cordial entente 
 between them was effected by the efforts of the foreign 
 ministers. ‘This marked the highest point of success 
 in foreign relations since 1866; for it Austria had to 
 thank a line of notable foreign ministers. Counts 
 Beust and Andrassy had managed the felicitous alli- 
 ance with Germany, under Count Haymerle Italy had 
 been added to the alliance, and Kalnoky had effected 
 the reconciliation of Russia. Austria was now more 
 strongly protected against attack from foreign nations 
 than she had been for several hundred years. Al- 
 though not altogether approved by the Hungarian 
 half of the monarchy, whose patriotism was some- 
 what hurt by the terms of the agreement, the under- 
 standing with Russia was shown to be in the direction 
 of peace and not to have any ulterior motive; and the 
 wholesome effects of the confidence in the balance of 
 power in Europe which it gave rise to was of great 
 ' material advantage not only to Austria-Hungary, but 
 to the small states of the Balkan peninsula, and in- 
 
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY SINCE 1878. 559 
 
 spired the latter, together with Turkey, with a wish 
 to maintain the best relations possible with the dual 
 monarchy. 
 
 In the following year a temporary estrangement took 
 place between the peoples of Austria and Germany, 
 though it did not, of course, take the shape of open 
 rupture. Prince Bismarck had concluded an agree- 
 ment with Spain by which the duties levied on rye 
 imported from that country were to be made lower 
 than those on rye brought into Germany from Austria. 
 This, though not in itself enough to cause any very 
 hard feeling, was only one of a number of changes 
 made in German tariffs which were not pleasing to 
 Austria. In addition to the injured sentiment regard- 
 ing tariffs, Germany had still further irritated Austria 
 by expelling many Austria-Hungarian Poles who had 
 settled in Germany. This action, however, having 
 been satisfactorily explained by the German authori- 
 ties, and measures having been taken by the home gov- 
 ernment to receive and give temporary shelter to the 
 refugees, the irritation was allayed and finally forgot- 
 ten. Promises on the part of the government to make 
 a final customs arrangement with Germany further 
 quieted the dissatisfaction at this time. 
 
 The attention of Hurope was now turned in the 
 direction of Bulgaria, where a revolution threatened to 
 terminate the balance begun by the Congress of Berlin 
 and to precipitate the powers into the former state of 
 conflict which was ended by that congress. The sym- 
 pathies of Germany and Austria now tended to draw 
 them further apart, and, at the same time, to unite 
 England and Austria. The latter, however, wisely re- 
 frained from taking any active part in the eastern 
 question, and preserved its neutrality. 
 
 In 1887 the amicable relations with Russia were 
 brought to a state of great tension, resultant upon 
 
560 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 the threatening attitude, position and mobilization of 
 the Russian army upon the Austrian frontier of Ga- 
 licia. Measures were quickly taken to protect Galicia, 
 which, on the northeastern boundary of Hungary, was 
 particularly open to attack from Russia on account of 
 its geographical nature. Galicia is a plain separated 
 from Russian Poland on the north partially by the 
 river Vistula. In addition to its easy access from 
 Russia, it is further unfortunate strategically, being 
 separated from Hungary by a great natural barrier, 
 the Krapacks or Western Carpathian Mountains. The 
 threatening position occupied by large numbers of 
 the Russian army, which were gathering about the 
 Galician frontier, was the signal for a display of 
 great activity in the Austria-Hungarian army. By 
 extraordinary work on the part of the gun factories, 
 the whole army was supplied with Mannlicher rifles, 
 and the cavalry and infantry were much increased in 
 numbers. 
 
 The following year saw closer relations established 
 between Austria and Turkey. This was due merely 
 to material causes in the shape of two railways, one 
 to Salonica, opened May 18, and another to Constanti- 
 nople, opened August 11. This year, too, the Emperor 
 Francis Joseph celebrated the fortieth anniversary of 
 his succession to the throne, which he ascended Decem- 
 ber 3, 1848, and was gratified to observe that the inter- 
 national atmosphere of HKurope was less clouded than 
 at any time for many years. 
 
 The continued peaceful foreign relations in the case 
 of Austria were and have been undisturbed to the pres- 
 ent day, Austria having wisely refrained from doing 
 anything to subvert the pacific order of events. In 1891 
 an appeal was made to her to give aid in restoring to. 
 the Pope of Rome his temporal power in Italy, but this 
 was obviously impossible, in view of the nature of the 
 
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY SINCE 1878, 561 
 
 participation of King Humbert’s government in the 
 Triple Alliance. 
 
 The foreign relations of Austria-Hungary since that 
 time, in the hands of Count Kalnoky, and after 1895 
 under the guidance of his successor, Count Goluchow- 
 sky, who closely follows the policy of Kalnoky, have 
 been continually directed toward the peace of nations, 
 though a proposition for general disarmament, made 
 as early as 1893, was unfavorably received by the mon- 
 archy. Compacts, largely commercial in nature, were 
 made with Servia in 1892, with Russia in 1894, and 
 again in 1897, the latter excluding Hngland from the 
 advantages of the agreement. 
 
 The internal progress of the country has been most 
 satisfactory on its material side, though the legislation 
 necessary for its accomplishment has been carried on 
 with the most unfortunately notorious partisan dis- 
 agreements, which too often resulted in individual 
 personal violence on the part of the legislators. The 
 time, however, available for serious debate in the 
 Austria-Hungarian parliaments has been devoted, 
 after much consideration of the details of carrying 
 out the provisions made by the Berlin Congress, to 
 the preparation and passage of several laws impor- 
 tant to the peaceful and prosperous administration of 
 the interior. 
 
 The greatest attention next to the maintenance of 
 the army was given to the legislation with respect to 
 the reform of the currency, the franchise, and the civil 
 regulation of marriages. In 1886 a bill was introduced 
 creating a militia, to be composed of all men between 
 the ages of nineteen and forty-two not belonging either 
 to the regular army or the regular reserves. It was 
 estimated that the strength of this militia would be 
 about 330,000. This bill was passed in 1889, but not 
 without demonstrations of much violence on the part 
 
562 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 of the Hungarians, who were obliged to see this meas- 
 ure permanently adopted instead of for ten years only, 
 as before, which would have given them more voice in 
 the matter. The strengthening of the army and the 
 frontier defenses continued in 1891. The apparent in- 
 tention on the part of Russia to station permanently a 
 large force on the Galician frontier called for appro- 
 priations to be made for costly stone barracks to be 
 built and extensive new fortifications at Brody, Tarno- 
 pol and Stanislau. This, together with increase of 
 artillery, new rifles and tents and smokeless powder 
 in 1891, was followed in 1893 by a reorganization and 
 extension of the landwehr or regular militia. There 
 was nothing in this, however, that would not be ex- 
 pected, as a natural increase of army, after the agree- 
 ment between Germany and Austria; which agreement 
 is understood to have stipulated a regular augmenta- 
 tion of the military forces in order to keep pace with 
 the other HKuropean powers. 
 
 The reform of the currency was nce up in 1892, 
 and after lengthy consideration and investigation con- 
 cerning the position abroad of Austria-Hungarian State 
 Funds, the two parliaments, at Vienna and at Buda- 
 Pesth, simultaneously resolved in July to adopt a gold 
 standard and to mint two new gold coins and two new 
 silver coins, besides numerous nickel and bronze pieces 
 as fractional currency, which took the place of the 
 then existing coinage.* In 1894 the resumption of 
 specie payments went into effect. 
 
 The electoral reform was accomplished in 1893, un- 
 
 * The gold coins are: 
 
 20 kronen piece = $4,062 10 kronen piece = $2.026 
 The silver coins are: 
 1 krone = 100 heller — $0.20 4 krone = $0.10 
 The nickel are: 
 
 20 heller = $0.04 10 heller — $0.02 
 The bronze coins are of one and two-heller pieces. 
 
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY SINCE 1878. 563 
 
 der the new Windischgratz ministry, by the extension 
 of the franchise so as to give a vote not only to lit- 
 erates, but to all who have contributed to a working- 
 man’s fund for the space of two years. In order to 
 counterbalance the excessive power which might thus 
 be given to the new voters, they were put in a new 
 curia or voting class, whose delegates in the Reichs- 
 rath were limited to 43. This gives five curic to the 
 Reichsrath, the other four being: first, the great land- 
 owners, with 85 delegates; second, the towns, with 48 
 delegates; third, the chambers of commerce, with 21 
 delegates; and, fourth, the rural communities, with 
 129 delegates. This new adjustment in the franchise 
 gave to the large middle class a representation which 
 they had long coveted. 
 
 In spite, however, of the reforms of the franchise, 
 the abuse still maintains by which the emperor is al- 
 lowed, in some cases obliged, to create peers for the 
 purpose of influencing the vote in parliament. As 
 late as 1895, he created, on the ‘“‘recommendation’’ of 
 the premier, Baron Banffy, four new peers, which en- 
 abled him to pass through the House of Magnates bills 
 for freedom of worship, and to allow those not Jews to 
 be converted to Judaism. 
 
 Much of the interest in the internal progress of Aus- 
 tria has centered about the legislation with regard to 
 marriage. As early as 1883 a bill was announced 
 making legal the marriage of a Jew and a Christian. 
 Further legislation was resumed in 1892 in the shape 
 of a bill providing that all marriages should be per- 
 formed with the civil ceremony first. This was neces- 
 sitated by the fact that it had long been the custom in 
 Hungary for the male children of mixed marriages to 
 be brought up in the faith of their fathers and the female 
 in that of their mothers. An attempt had been made 
 to compel the clergyman tending to the spiritual needs 
 
564 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 of one parent, when he baptized an infant to his. faith, 
 to notify the pastor who attended to those of the other. 
 To this order of things the Catholic clergy refused to 
 agree, and all attempts to make them act in accordance 
 with it, or to bring about any reconciliation, had been 
 found useless. To remedy this state of affairs, even 
 though indirectly, obligatory civil marriage was pro- 
 posed. The bill was at first rejected, then sent back 
 to the lower house for amendments, but returned to 
 the House of Magnates unchanged, where it finally 
 passed on June 21, 1894, by a very small majority. 
 This was followed by a second bill concerning the re- 
 ligion of the children of mixed marriages, and a third, 
 which provided that births, deaths and marriages should 
 be registered by the government. These bills were the 
 subject of much contention for several years, and were 
 finally made laws only upon the most earnest desires 
 of the emperor, who was known to have, in spite of 
 this fact, a personal dislike for the bill. It had been 
 a struggle between Roman Catholics and other relig- 
 ions, and terminated as it did in spite of the fact that 
 Greek Catholic and Greek orthodox churches did not 
 favor it. The orthodox Jews were also opposed to it. 
 Complicated with the question of civil marriage were 
 two other politico-religious matters—one, that of the 
 children of mixed marriages, being just noticed, and 
 the other involving the free practice of all religions, 
 Previous to 1892 the custom had been to divide the 
 religious beliefs into two classes, one of which was 
 *‘received’’ and the other merely ‘‘tolerated.’? The 
 Jewish faith had been included under the latter head, 
 and by the present bill it was proposed, among other 
 things, to ‘‘receive’’ the Jewish religion. This bill, 
 ealled the ‘‘Freedom of Worship’’ bill, granted the 
 right to decline or profess any religion whatever. 
 To illustrate how the feelings of rivalry engendered 
 
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY SINCE 1878. 565 
 
 between the different nationalities of Austria-Hungary 
 continually came to the surface in the parliamentary 
 actions, we here notice the story of the repeated defeat 
 of the project to found a Czech university in Prague, 
 There was already a German university there; in fact, 
 the most ancient German university in Europe, having 
 been founded in 1348. There was also a good reason 
 for the establishment of a Czech university; for the 
 number of residents of Prague, speaking that lan- 
 guage, was, at this time (1881), as great as that of 
 the German-speaking inhabitants. The bill for the 
 foundation of the university was read for the third 
 time on May 31, 1881, and the Germans in the Hun- 
 garian parliament, who were in the majority, all voted 
 against it. The bill was then dropped, and instruction 
 in the Czech language was taken up by a branch of 
 the German university. Certain German students of 
 the university, with their colors ostentatiously dis- 
 played, marched, on June 26 of the same year, sing- 
 ing German national songs as they went, to a little 
 village called Kuchelbad, where they celebrated the 
 founding of a new student society called Austria, 
 The Czechs were much enraged by this show of pride, 
 broke their way into the room where the students were 
 holding their meeting, and attacked them. This re- 
 sulted in a serious riot, which was not put down for 
 several days. As an indication of the implacable 
 hatred between these two nationalities, this incident 
 caused great solicitude in Vienna for the stability of 
 the empire; so great, in fact, that General von Kraus 
 was appointed military governor of Bohemia, and the 
 civilian, Baron von Weber, was retired. 
 
 In 1886 a bill was introduced in parliament to remove 
 certain regulations concerning the use of the Czech lan- 
 _ guage in Bohemia. These regulations had been bit- 
 _ terly opposed by the Germans there, and had caused 
 
566 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 them much discomfort and irritation. The German 
 members demanded that the Czech language should 
 be used only in the purely Czechish localities. This 
 movement was rejected, whereupon 73 German mem- 
 bers left the diet at once and refused to take part in 
 any of its doings. This had been done before in 1871, 
 and the diet had been forced to make concessions to 
 the seceding Germans; but this time the scheme did 
 not work, and the example of the members at Prague 
 was not, as they had hoped it would be, followed by 
 their German brothers at Vienna. 
 
 In October, 1895, an unfortunate series of riots oc- 
 curred at Agram, during a visit of the emperor. Agram 
 is in Croatia, where the native population is Roman 
 Catholic, but there is a proportion of Servians who are 
 believers in the Greek Orthodox faith. The Servians 
 have been permitted to use the Servian flag in their 
 religious celebrations. The use of Servian flags and 
 colors on the occasion of the festivities attending the 
 presence of the emperor was so intensely irritating to 
 their Croatian neighbors that the latter, chiefly stu- 
 dents, stoned the windows of the church where the 
 Servians were, entered it and carried off the flags there 
 displayed. With the mob at their heels, the students 
 then proceeded to disfigure other Servian buildings, 
 and then exhibited in a similar manner their hatred 
 toward the Hungarian insignia on a triumphal arch 
 erected in honor of the emperor. The gendarmes suc- 
 ceeded in restoring the Hungarian colors, but did not 
 dare to replace the Servian flag, as the disorder was 
 becoming more general, and was directed particularly 
 toward the Servians, than whom the Croatians are 
 three times as numerous. Order was restored only 
 after the arrest and punishment of the ringleaders, 
 
 The race feeling against the Jews in the empire 
 has always been very strong, as is illustrated by the 
 
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY SINCE 1878. 567 
 
 following incident which occurred in 1882, and ab- 
 sorbed public attention for a year. It was reported 
 in Hungary that Esther Solyoszy, a Christian girl, 
 had been murdered by a Jew in a small village near 
 Tokay. It was further claimed that she was mur- 
 dered so that her blood could be used in the rites at- 
 tending the ordination of a Jew butcher, a superstition 
 concerning the Jews current among the Magyar Prot- 
 estants. Three months after the disappearance of 
 Esther Solyoszy, a body of a girl was found near by 
 drowned in the river Theiss, and alleged to be that 
 of the murdered girl. It was subsequently proved that 
 it was not, and that persons of anti-Semitic sympathies 
 had hired men to place the body in the river and caused 
 the accusation of murder to be preferred against the 
 Jewish butcher. The matter was dragged into the 
 debates of the Hungarian parliament and called forth 
 violent language and action on the part of some of the 
 deputies. 
 
 The sentiment of hatred against the Jews in the city 
 of Vienna is shown by the speeches of several of the 
 members of the Reichsrath on excluding the Jews 
 from the benefits of the electoral reform of 1896. Said 
 one: ‘‘Jews, whether baptized or not, are excluded 
 from exercising the franchise, and are a menace to 
 the whole community. There is no means of protec- 
 tion against their encroachments, unless it be the con- 
 fiscation of their property. These insolent persons de- 
 serve nothing but the horsewhip’’; and another affirmed: 
 “‘T am of the opinion that the franchise can be exercised 
 only by men in human society. I cannot concede to 
 the Jews the right of humanity, and think we should 
 make all intercourse between men and Jews punish- 
 able by criminal law, as an obscene act contrary to 
 nature.”’ 
 
 This perhaps will give, bette *han anything else, 
 
568 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 in addition to the light it throws upon contemporary 
 anti-Semite feeling in the monarchy, a glimpse of the 
 manners of Austria-Hungarian legislation. 
 
 Certain events of public interest in Austria-Hungary, 
 and indeed in the whole civilized world, have occurred 
 during the time covered by this chapter. 
 
 In 1889 the Crown Prince Rudolph, then thirty-one 
 years of age, shot himself through the head with a 
 pistol—a sad incident, which was the more unfortunate 
 owing to the circumstances of doubtful morality which 
 surrounded the latter years of his life. The brother of 
 the emperor then became the heir-apparent to the 
 throne. He, in turn, transferred this prerogative to 
 his son, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, nephew 
 of the present emperor. 
 
 In 1894 the Hungarian patriot, Louis Kossuth, died. 
 His funeral at Buda-Pesth was a signal for national 
 demonstrations of sorrow, and was publicly attended. 
 Over two hundred thousand persons lined the route of 
 his funeral procession. An oration was delivered by 
 the famous writer, Mamus Jokai. Partisan feeling ran 
 so high at the time that the Royal Opera and the Na- 
 tional Theatre were seriously damaged by the onslaught 
 of a mob led by university students. 
 
 The one thousandth year of the existence of Hungary 
 as a nation was celebrated by the opening on May 2, 
 1896, of a millennial exposition at Buda-Pesth. The 
 exposition was opened amid brilliant pageantry by the 
 king in person. Features of the exhibition were a col- 
 lection of historical relics displayed in buildings in the 
 styles of various centuries and specially built for the 
 occasion. The products of the country—industrial and 
 agricultural—were given a full representation in the 
 exhibition. A village was also constructed in the expo- 
 sition grounds to illustrate the different nationalities 
 which go to make up the Hungarian population. The 
 
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY SINCE 1878. 569 
 
 Asiatic origin of the Magyar race was shown by the 
 works of an Arabian writer who affirms that they were 
 originally a tribe of nomadic Turks, driven from their 
 own country, who finally crossed the plains of the lower 
 Danube, and, on the invitation of King Arnulph of 
 Bavaria, settled in what is now Hungary. Chris- 
 tianity was introduced in the tenth century, and at the 
 same time the different tribes which had hitherto re- 
 mained nomadic warriors were united to form the 
 nucleus of the present Hungarian nation. The Hun- 
 garians were a bulwark against the inroads of the 
 eastern barbarians, and thus were of permanent use in 
 the progress of western civilization. The development 
 of the Hungarian people during the last hundred years 
 was shown by the population which at the beginning 
 of the nineteenth century was three millions and is 
 now over eight millions. 
 
 In the same year, 1896, was consummated the work, 
 intrusted to Austria-Hungary by the Congress of Ber- 
 lin in 1878, of making a channel through what is called 
 the Iron Gate of the Danube. The Iron Gate is really 
 one of a series of rocks projecting out of the water be- 
 tween Orsova in Hungary and Gladova in Servia, 
 which have made navigation there always very pre- 
 carious. The rock known as the Iron Gate was cut 
 through by a canal two miles long, over two hundred 
 and fifty feet broad and ten feet deep. The work of 
 excavating this enormous channel took several years 
 to complete, and cost nearly $10,000,000. As a result 
 of this the Danube was then for the first time navigable 
 from the Black Sea the entire distance to Vienna. The 
 completion of this work was signalized by the presence 
 of the Emperor Francis Joseph, who formally opened 
 the river to navigation with imposing ceremonies on 
 September 27th. 
 
 In the following year, 1897, a remarkable agrarian 
 
570 THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 movement in the peasantry of Galicia and other por- 
 tions of the country was headed by an excommunicated 
 priest, a socialist and a man of much eloquence. He 
 fired his hearers to riotous demonstration, as is so fre- 
 quently the case in the annals of the Austria-Hungarian 
 monarchy, but with little result, the insurrection being 
 finally put down by the imperial troops. 
 
 The year 1898 was a turbulent one in Austria-Hun- 
 garian politics. The new cabinet of Baron von Sautsch 
 resigned and was replaced by one under the Count von 
 Thun Hohenstein. 
 
 On September 10th a man supposed to be an Italian 
 anarchist named Lucchesi assassinated the Empress 
 Elizabeth. Her body was taken to Vienna. The as- 
 sassin declared he had done the deed on his own re- 
 sponsibility and not upon the instigation of others. 
 As a result of the information that he was an Italian, 
 anti-Italian outbreaks occurred in Austria and even in 
 France, where there was no great Austrian sympathy. 
 The funeral of the empress took place at Vienna on 
 September 17th amid marks of general sorrow and 
 sympathy for the bereaved emperor. 
 
 From the viewpoint of 1898, it would seem that the 
 present chapter might conclude once for all the history 
 as a separate nation of Austria-Hungary. The seeds 
 of disruption have been sown by the government and 
 must ere long be reaped. The many divergent tenden- 
 cies, political, religious and linguistic, which make 
 Austria not a strongly centralized government but a 
 conglomeration of petty states with differing interests, 
 have caused this monarchy of to-day to be likened to a 
 barrel of gunpowder into which a spark is expected 
 any moment to fall. What these strongly centrifugal 
 tendencies point to is the partition of the empire by 
 Germany and Russia, the two gradually increasing 
 in strong centralized administration and in homogene- 
 
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY SINCE 1878. 571 
 
 ous character, and already attracting to themselves and 
 absorbing the commercial and the sentimental interests 
 of different parts of the Austria-Hungarian empire. 
 The empire had in 1897 an army estimated on the basis 
 of the grand war total of 1,700,000 men, but, as already 
 noted, there are eleven different dialects spoken by these 
 men, and it is predicted that they could hardly be held 
 together against any one enemy of Austria in case of 
 war. 
 

 
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 A. 
 
 Avo.ruos (of Nassau) election of over the 
 Germanic empire, 86 
 summoned to answer charges 
 against him, 87. 
 deposed by the diet, 87. 
 death of, 87. 
 AprIAN assumes the tiara, 114. 
 . ABNEAS Syivius, remarks of, 72. 
 AGNES Seen pic of Oune egunds) to marry 
 Rhodolph’s son, 
 engaged in the massacre, 40. 
 enters a convent, 41. 
 AIxX-LA-OHAPELLE, coronation of Albert f. 
 
 a < 
 porate of Charles 
 
 ‘eén: possession of by 
 Rhodolph, 193 
 peace of, 461. 
 ALBERT pda aunt of Hapsburg), 11, 17. 
 arture of for the aM war, 17. 
 address of to his sons, 1 
 death of, 18, 
 oe favorite captain of Frederic IL, 
 
 Auzas? I. CHE dh his father, 35. 
 his character, 85. 
 elected Emperor of Germany, 87. 
 victor at Gelheim, 87. 
 assassination of, 40. 
 Aupeset III. rules with Otho, 46. 
 acquisitions of, 47. 
 Arsezzt [V., succession of, Bi. 
 improvements projected by, 
 
 Auszert V. declared of age, 59. 
 aon oe ping of Hungary, 62. 
 ALBERT (of Bavaria) declines the throne of 
 
 ungary, 66. 
 Apert (Archduke) the candidate of the 
 Catholics, 229. 
 ALLIANoz of barons to crush Rhodolph of 
 Hapsburg, 21. 
 same Tiifano ved, 22. 
 A.pHonso (of Castile) candidate for crown 
 of Germany, 28. 
 Aurnonso (King of Naples), abdication of, 84, 
 AMURATH, conquests of, 
 ANABAPTISTS, rise of the sect of, 115. 
 AwHa.t (Prince of), dispatched with a list of 
 grievances to the emperor, 211. 
 
 Ansar (Prince of) ( addresa 
 to the emperor, 212. 
 ban of the empire declared sgainst, 
 
 265. 
 Ann (Prineess of Hungary and Bohemia), 
 marriage of to Ferdinand I., 145. 
 Anna (of Russia), desire of to secure a har- 
 bor for Russia, 400. 
 Anzoporss of Rhodolph, 33. 
 of Charles V., 144, 
 ApoLocy of Maximilian, 96. 
 ASOHHAUSEN, confederacy at, 194 
 AUGSBURG, diet of, 24. 
 bold speech of the diet at, 102. 
 ceri ap reception of Maurice 
 
 Confession of, 118. 
 Aveustvs IT. Np and regains his empire, 
 2. 
 
 death of, 382. 
 Av1io Counci1, establishment of the, 102. 
 Austria, a portion of given as dowry to 
 edwige, 25. 
 nucleus of the empire of, 27. 
 ah of by John of Bohemia, 
 
 wonderful growth of, 52. 
 
 division of, 72. 
 cession of Ladislaus over, 81. 
 e house of invested with new 
 dignity, 101. 
 
 becomes a part of Spain, 108. 
 
 the empire of a parently on the 
 eve of dissolution, 286. 
 
 the leading power in Europe, 314, 
 
 dispute as to the succession to the 
 crown of, 352. 
 
 treaty between Spain and, 3878. 
 
 psp Theresa ascends the throne 
 
 415. 
 deplorabi state of at that time, 
 
 defeat of by Frederic, 420. 
 the Ae division of, 422. 
 Emporis ty of, 444, 
 
 ortant eeinay wrested from, 
 
 ae, of with Prussia, 459. 
 soeepe II. ascends the throne of 
 situation and character of, 492. 
 languages spoken in, 498. 
 tecraa ascends the throne of 
 
 573 
 
574 
 
 Austria (continued), 
 the battle of Waterloo, 
 present constitution of, 504. 
 nie of the government of, 
 03 
 
 its future, 506. 
 AvsTRians, triumph of the at Brussels, $40, 
 ae cie of the at Malplaquet, 
 
 841. 
 eee of Madrid by the, 
 
 prohibited from trading with 
 Spain, 380. 
 
 the, driven from the Neapolitan 
 States, 388. 
 
 the, defeated at Orotzka, 407. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bapen, peace of, 359. 
 BasazeEt, victory achieved by, 64. 
 Bauoprg, attack of Rhodolph upon, 22. 
 Bau.or-zox, its authority in Poland, 385. 
 Bane (Lord), followers ef put to death, 40. 
 BAnDITTI, comps..‘2s of put down by Rho- 
 dolph, 82. 
 BarBartA, wife of Sigismond, 60. 
 BarckELona, capture of by Charles, 354. 
 Bastz, attack upon the city of, 20. 
 demands of the Bishop of upon 
 Rhodolph, 22. 
 impious remark of the Bishop of, 
 
 28. 
 aid of the Bishop of to EE 29. 
 Savant (Henry, Duke of), intimidated by 
 Rhodolph, 25. 
 marriage of Hedwige to Otho of, 
 i} 
 
 agrees to earry the edict of Worms 
 into effect, 114. 
 his hatred of Wallenstein, 275. 
 urged as a candidate for the im- 
 perial crown, 279. 
 dishonorable despair of, 488. 
 death of, 488. 
 Bavakzia (Charles of), death of, 451. 
 Bavazia, Maximilian Joseph ascends the 
 throne of, 451. 
 Bayakrp (Chevalier De), the knight without 
 fear or ina 90, 
 BELGRADE, relief of, 69. 
 > siege of, 860. 
 capture of by Eugene, 363. 
 surrendered to the Turks, 408. 
 BELLEISLE (General), heroic retreat of, 441. 
 BLenuEIM, massacre at, 384. 
 Buoopy diet, the, 158. 
 theater of Eperies, 825. 
 BonemiA, triumphal march of Rhodolph 
 into, 80. 
 the crown of demanded by Al- 
 bert I., 89. 
 revolt in, 89, 
 Fise of the nobles of against Fer- 
 dinand, 127. 
 the monarchy of, 154. 
 religious conflicts in, 155, 
 resistance of to Ferdinand, 156. 
 ha toms of the pa 160. 
 er d’s blow at, 
 severity of Ferdinand towards, 
 
 ° 
 
 uisitions of by | Bonemza ( 
 
 INDE. 
 
 son of Ferdinand 
 crowned king of, 271. 
 change of rospert of during 
 reign of Ferdinand IL, 272. 
 rise of the Protestants in, 286. 
 the Elector of Bavaria crowned 
 king of, 484. 
 the Prussians driven from, 450. 
 (King of), chosen Emperor of 
 Germany, 431. 
 BRANDENBURG, reply of the Marquis of te 
 Charles V., 118. 
 Brrriso Minister, letter of the in regard 
 to Maria Theresa, 295. 
 letter of the in regard 
 to the affairs in Hume 
 
 gary, 416. 
 
 Bronav, the Protestant church of, 288. 
 Brunswick, marriage of Charles VI. to 
 
 Elizabeth Christina of, 164. 
 Brussets, diet at, 139. 
 Bupa taken by the Turks, 147. 
 Butt (see Pope). 
 Borcuers prevented from attending Prot 
 
 estant Afar 188. 
 
 Bureunpy (Duke of), ambition of the, 77. 
 BureunDy Cary of), marriage of by proxy, 
 
 death of, 79. 
 
 C. 
 
 Casar Borst, he for, 89. 
 
 CaLenpar, the Julian and Gregorian, 192. 
 CAMPEGTO, a e from the Pope to, 114. 
 CAPISTRUN, Jorn, rousing eloquence of, 69, 
 CarpiInaL KiEsEs, were to ng, 
 
 241, 
 abduction of, 242. 
 OarmTeta, dukedom of, 48. 
 Cartos crowned as Charles III., $88 
 CaRrLoviTz, treaty of, 326. 
 Cassavu captured by Botskoi, 198. 
 CastLE f awk’s), situation of, 17. 
 Ooltingen), the dowry of Gertrude 
 of Hohenburg, 19. 
 OatHarine II. ascends the throne of Rus- 
 
 sia, 480. 
 coéperates with Austria, 481 
 desire of to acquire Constans 
 tinople, 495. 
 grand excursion of, 496, 
 places Count Pontatowski on 
 the throne of Poland, 484 
 OaTaEeine Bora, narra of to Luther, 
 
 CHANOELLOR OF SAXONY, reading of the Oon- 
 fession of Augs- 
 burg by, 118. 
 reply to the 
 emperor, 118. 
 CHARLES OF BopEMIA, st on of to the 
 kingdom of Aus: 
 tria, 47. 
 death of, 47. 
 CHARLES EMANUEL (King of Sardinia) char- 
 acter of, 386. 
 
 Osaries Gueravus succeeds 
 bc eauchen 
 
 his invasion of Po- 
 land, 808. 
 
INDEX. 
 or eee oN ger 
 OARLES —— of Lorraine) marriage of, 
 
 Ouagcss II., oe of Spain held by, 
 a ee to the pope, 
 induced to bequeath the 
 
 b75 
 
 (of Spain) ‘continued) con- 
 founded at the success of 
 
 - the Protestants, 133. 
 
 flight of from Maurice, 133. 
 
 unconquerable will of, 135. 
 
 arged to yield, 186. 
 
 fortune deserting, 187. 
 
 ng VE despondency of, 
 138. 
 
 abdication ofin favor of Philip 
 
 eee ra *pageaDy $30. his —_ 1389. ees 
 eath o 3 enters the conyent t. Jus- 
 Omantze Sif. crowned King of Spain, 382. tus, 141. 
 army of routed, 340. convent life of, 144. 
 arrival of at Barcelona, 342. death of, 148. 
 ws ge condition of, 344. anecdotes of, 144, 
 flight of, 346. | attempt of to abdicate the 
 description of his appearanca, elective crown of Germany 
 853. _. to Ferdinand, 160. 
 Gilatoriness of, 355 Onarias VL (see also Charles III. for pre- 
 crowned king, 856. vious information), limita- 
 Carlos crowned as, 888. tions imposed on the power 
 (See also Charles VL) of, 356. 
 Greaues V. (of Spain) inherits the Austrian desertion of by his allies, 357. 
 States, 106. : addition of Wallachia and 
 
 petitions to, 106. 
 ne sgn to sign a constitation, 
 
 ambition of, 109. 
 
 apologetic declaration of, 112. 
 
 refusal of te violate his safe 
 conduct, 112. 
 
 eg of to bribe Luther, 
 
 determination of to suppress 
 religious agitation, 115. 
 
 interview of with the pope at 
 Bologna, 117. 
 
 ee a for the diet at Augsburg, 
 
 1 
 
 intolerance of, 119. 
 
 appeal of to the Protestants for 
 aid, 122, 
 
 in violation of bis pledge, turns 
 against the Protestants, 122. 
 
 secret treaty of with the King 
 of France, 128. 
 
 treaty of with the Turks, 123, 
 
 forces secured by against the 
 Protestants, 124. 
 
 alarin of at the preparations of 
 the Protestants, 125. 
 
 preparations of to enforee the 
 
 ouncil of Trent, 125. 
 
 march of to Ingolstadt, 126. 
 
 flight of to Landshut, 126. 
 
 triumph of over the 
 sats, 126. 
 
 conguers the Elector of Sage 
 ony, 128. 
 
 vevenge of towards the Elector 
 arch to Witternberg, 198, 
 
 march to Wittem 
 
 Meet the grave ‘a Lather, | C#anizs VI 
 
 ettempts of to settle the relig- 
 fous differences, 129. 
 
 Servia to the dominion of, 
 864 
 
 marriage of, 364. 
 alteration of the compact 
 established by Leopold, 364. 
 er of, 365. 
 volved in duplicity, 377. 
 insult to, 880. 
 ambition of to secure the 
 throne of Spain for his 
 daughters, 382. 
 a of Lombardy felt by, 
 attempt of to force assistance 
 from France, 890. 
 his first acknowledgment of 
 the people, in his letter to 
 Count Kinsky, 391. 
 interference ofin Poland, 393. 
 sends Strickland to London 
 a al the cabinet, 
 
 troubles of in Italy, 994. 
 crac ear 896. nt 
 
 posal of for a settlement 
 Oath France, 897. 
 mewbiad by loss of empire, 
 
 & scrupulous Romanist, 400. 
 
 removal of all the Protestants 
 from the army, 404. 
 
 fears of for the safety of Ms 
 tia Theresa, 406. 
 
 anguish of at the surrender 
 of Belgrade, 411. 
 
 letter of to the Queen of Ras- 
 sia, 412. 
 
 death of, 414. 
 death of, 451. 
 
 Onazies VEIL informed of the league 
 
 against him, 88. 
 death of, 89. 
 
 ettempt of to establish the in- ) Coartes XII. joins the Austrian party, 388. 
 quit 129 : : 
 
 on in , 129. 
 power of over the pope, 130. 
 
 death of, 368. 
 conquests of, 882. 
 
 calls a diet at Augs 180. | CHazLEad, battle of, 435. 
 feilure of to accomplish the | Canistrana, the succession of Sweden con 
 
 election of Philip, 131. 
 
 ferred upon, 280, 
 
576 
 
 Ongistrana (continued) abdicates in favor 
 of Charles Gustavus, 802. 
 CuEist1an IV. (of Denmark), leader of the 
 Protestants, declares war, 
 267. 
 conquered by ferdinand, 
 8. 
 
 268. 
 Cevron, exactions of the, 102. 
 Oxi1i, influence of Count over Ladislaus, 
 
 driven from the empire, 68. 
 CLemeEnt VII. succeeds Adrian as pope, 116, 
 OLevzs, duchy of put in sequestration, 218. 
 CoLoenz, the Archbishop of joins the Prote 
 
 estants, 124. 
 Ng auetar ing of the Archbishop of, 
 20. 
 
 Connpvot, Luther presented with a safe, 110. 
 ConFession or AuasBuRG, 118. 
 reading of, 119. 
 OonexeEss at Rothenburg, 226. 
 at Hanau, 445. 
 at Prague, 1618, and letter of to 
 Matthias, 236. 
 of electors at Frankfort, 85. 
 Conspiracy against Albert, 36. 
 formed by Albert against Adol- 
 phus, 37. 
 ConsTANTINOPLE, od pe of by the Turks, 
 
 ConsTITUTION, Charles V. required to sign 
 a, 108. 
 
 Counoit of Trent, 124. 
 
 of Trent in 1562, 164. 
 
 of State convened in Spain, 831, 
 OrEMNITZ, resistance of, 148. 
 Cremonia to be disposed of as plunder, 89. 
 Croatta invaded by the Turks, 195. 
 CrorzxKa. battle of, 407. 
 Crusape against the Turks, 64. 
 CunEGUNDA (wife of Ottocar), her taunts, 
 
 27 
 
 offer of to place Bohemia un- 
 der the protection of Rho- 
 dolph, 31. 
 
 D. 
 
 Danvsz, position of Austria on the, 25. 
 Daun (Count), honors of at his victory, 473. 
 DrnMARE, the King of obliged to yield to 
 Charles Gustavus, 806. 
 DirpoLp thrown from the palace by the 
 mob, 828. 
 Dirt, peo of the of Augsburg to Otto- 
 car, 14. 
 at Augsburg, 118. 
 at Augsburg, 180. 
 at Brussels, 139. 
 at Lubec, 269. 
 at Prague, in 1547, 158. 
 at Prague, 179. 
 the Protestant at Prague, 209. 
 decrees of the, 210. 
 at Passau, 187. 
 its agreement as to the rights of the 
 Protestants, 188, 
 at Pilgram, 66. 
 at Presburg, accusation of Leopold 
 by the, 309. 
 at Katisbon, 179. 
 at Spires, 116, 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Drier coat ip at Stetzim, 849. 
 emands of, 850. 
 at Worms, 86. 
 
 refusal of the at Worms to codperate 
 with Maximilian, 96. 
 
 at Znaim, 61. 
 
 power of the Hungarian, 808. 
 Doorerns of the three parties, 190. 
 
 ancient and modern, contention 
 about shadowy points of, 255. 
 
 DREspDEN, treaty of, 458. 
 
 E. 
 
 Ernest, death of, 202. 
 ELEONORA ne of Leopold), ner character, 
 
 marriage of, 836. 
 her death, $37. 
 ELYSNABEN, 2 fleet assembled at by Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus, 281, 
 ELIZABETH Sie of Philip V.), ambition of 
 
 demands of on Charles VI., 372. 
 EizaBetTH (of Russia), death of, 479. 
 Emerrio TEKzLI invested with the Hunga- 
 rian forces, 819. 
 ENGLAND, assistance of against the Turks, 
 94, 
 
 supports the house of Austria 
 against France, 332. 
 
 curious contradictory conduct of, 
 846 
 
 pledge of to support the Prag- 
 matic Sanction, 880. 
 
 supports Austria to check 
 France, 428. 
 
 determines to support Maria 
 Theresa, 486. 
 
 prodigality of, 447. 
 pdophiser against by France, 
 
 purchases the aid of Poland, 452. 
 private arrangement of with 
 Prussia, 457. 
 remonstrated w.th for its treat- 
 ment of the queen, 463. 
 alliance of with Prussia, 466. 
 a subsidy voted Prussia by, 475. 
 alarmed at the strides of Austria 
 and Russia, 499. 
 Epertss, tribunal at, 824, 
 ERNEST, conquests of, 59. 
 Ev@eEne (Prince) commands the Austrian 
 army, 332. 
 his heroic capture of Belgrade, 868. 
 his disapproval of the war, 889. 
 death of, 398. 
 funeral honors of, 899. 
 Eveopg, condition of the different powers 
 
 of, 269. 
 ExoomMMuNIOATION of the Venetians, 97, 
 
 F. 
 
 Famity of Rhodolph, 25. 
 = ee aughters of the imperial, 
 
 Frepranp (of Austria) invested with the 
 overnment of the Austrian 
 tates, 118. 
 
INDEX. 67% 
 
 Bensme x (of At mare (continued) deter- 
 3 to arrest Protestant- 
 
 a oi. 
 assumes some impartiality, 116. 
 on King of the Romans, 
 20 
 
 Bohemia and Han eary added 
 to his kingdom, 146. 
 demands the restitution of Bel- 
 grade, 146. 
 his siege of Buda, 1538. 
 tribute of to the Turks, 153. 
 his attempts to weaken the 
 ower of the Hungarian no- 
 les, 155. 
 eonditions of his pardon of the 
 Hungarian nobles, 157. 
 oes Lop reaper of the revolt- 
 
 8, 158. 
 
 his Patetlidement of the Jesuits 
 in Bohemia, 158. 
 
 his inconsistencies, 158. 
 
 obtains the crown of Germany, 
 161. 
 
 opposed by the pope, 162. 
 eiected Emperor of Germany, 
 
 233. 
 character of, en 
 rich spoils of, 278 
 ceeeeaios a diet at Ratisbon, 
 5. 
 perplexity of in regard to the 
 demands of the diet, 277. 
 Perpmvanp (King of Arragon) furnishes 
 pits ies for the war against 
 Venetians, 95. 
 fzRDINAND a“ Naples), flight of to Ischia, 
 
 FERDINAND (King of the Romans) crowned 
 at Ratisbon, 802. 
 his death, 302. 
 Ferpinanp L., illustrious birth of, 145. 
 marriage of, 145. 
 efforts of to unite Protest- 
 ants and Catholics, 164. 
 attempts of to prevent the 
 ate of Protestantism, 
 the founder of the Austrian 
 empire, 168. 
 death of, 168. 
 Panpranp (1, manifesto of, 240. 
 abduction of Cardinal 
 Eleses by, 242. 
 troops of defeated by the 
 Protestants, 243. 
 refers the complaints of 
 the Protestants to arbi- 
 Rapa 343. 
 pularity of with the 
  Gatholics, 247, 
 unexpected reseue of, 249 
 
 ret esr EE RN a NT 
 
 Feroxaxp II. continued), meeting at 
 Ratisbon to approve the 
 acts of, 265. 
 victories of, 268. 
 capture of the duchies of 
 ecklenburg, 268 
 seizes Pomerania, 268. 
 revokes all concessions te 
 the Protestants, 270. 
 son of crowned King of 
 Bohemia, 271. 
 manifesto of against Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus, 288. 
 decorous appreciation of to 
 the memory of Gustavus 
 Adolphus, 296. 
 eutwitted by a Capuchin 
 friar, 279. 
 succeeds in securing the 
 election of his son Ferdi- 
 nand, 299. 
 his death, 299. 
 Frrpmanp IIL ascends the throne, 245. 
 his proposal for a truce 
 with Prague, 246. 
 desire of for peace, 800. 
 succeeds in securing the 
 election of his son as 
 Ferdinand King of the 
 Romans, 302. 
 death of, 303. 
 Fuirvey (Cardinal), ascendancy of over 
 Louis XV., 878. 
 FLORENCE threatened by Louis XII, 90. 
 Franos, influence of in wresting sacrifices 
 from the emperor, 279. 
 the dominant power, 315. 
 frand by which Satsined posses- 
 sion of Spain, 3 
 Te of ae Louis XTV., 
 refusal of to engage in the Polish 
 war, 390. 
 design of to deprive Maria Theresa 
 of her kingdom, 428. 
 declares war against England, 
 
 448. 
 — of effected with Austria, 
 
 Franows (of Aaa claims Austria, 106. 
 perfidy of, 127. 
 death of, 128. 
 Feranois L (Duke of Lorraine) elected Em- 
 eror of Germany, 457. 
 Francois IL. ascends the throne, 504. 
 Franois Ravat..ac, shee assassin of Henry 
 35. 
 FRANKFORT, Congress at, 35. 
 FREDERIC (King of Naples), doom of, 92. 
 Frxeperio (of Saxony), frienaiy seizure of 
 Luther by, 1138. 
 death of, 114. 
 
 elected King of Germany, | Frmpznio I. ihe Handsome), captare of 
 
 250. 
 concludes an alliance with 
 Maximilia 
 gecures the feo, pat of 
 the Elector of Saxony 
 and Louis XIIL, 256. 
 subdues Austria, OT. 
 a of the troops of, 
 
 einai of, 263, 
 
 surrender of, 44. 
 eath of, 45, 
 Fexpezto If. tor Germany), renown of, 18 
 eath of, 482. 
 curious occupations of, 488 
 Freprrio If. (of Austria), treachery of, 7 
 wanderings of, 77. 
 death of, 
 Faspnno V., obaracter of, 251. 
 
578 
 
 _ontinued) accepts the crown 
 of Bohemia, 25i. 
 inefficiency of, 258. 
 
 his feast during the assault, 
 
 Frepeeio V. 
 
 renounces all claim to Bohe- 
 mia, 259. 
 flight of, 262. 
 his pro a sequestrated, 264. 
 Freprerio (King of Bohemia, Elector of 
 Palatine), death of, 296. 
 FEEDEBIO (of Prussia), demands of, 417. 
 seizure of Silesia by, 418. 
 veges entrance into Breslau, 
 
 419. 
 his defeat of Neuperg, 420. 
 nd gorse of on magnanimity, 
 23. 
 his indignation at the small con- 
 cessions of Austria, 424. 
 implores peace, 433. 
 violation of his pledge, 435, 
 capture of Prague by, 449. 
 surprises and defeats Prince 
 Charles, 454, ~ 
 invasion of Saxony by, 458. 
 explanation demanded from 
 Austria by, 469. 
 woe of to entrap the allies, 
 470. 
 defeat ofat Prague, 478. 
 recklessness of, 476. 
 undaunted perseverance of, 477. 
 despair of, 479. 
 secures an alliance with Prussia, 
 480. 
 letter of to Maria Theresa, 488. 
 peaceful reply of, 500. 
 #BENOH, the, driven out of Italy, 94. 
 the, routed near Brussels, 340, 
 rout of at Brussels, 340, 
 defeat of tne at Malplaquet, 841, 
 
 G. 
 
 GaBRiEL BeTeLrHeM chosen leader in the 
 Hungarian revolu- 
 tion, 152. 
 he retires to Pres- 
 burg, 253. 
 compelled te sue for 
 peace, 268, 
 GELHEIM, battle of, 87. 
 GALLAS appointed commander in place of 
 Wallenstein, 268. 
 Genoa, aid furnished Leopold by, 811. 
 GERMANY, its conglomeration of States, 18, 
 eo at of each State of, 
 sition of the Emperor of, 19. 
 ecline of the imperial dignity 
 of, 85. 
 eg See into ten distriots, 
 
 growing independence in of the 
 pope, 162. 
 ter ead of under Ferdinand, 
 
 re oicing in at the downfall of 
 
 hodolph, 225. 
 divided into two leagues, 253. 
 distracted state of, 299, 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 GERMANY (conti eee ), religious agitation 
 in, 370. 
 the Elector of Bavaria chosen 
 Emperor of, 434. 
 GEETEUDE (of eR le marriage of to 
 Rhodolph of Hapsburg, 79. 
 her dowry, 19. 
 GHISRADADDA to i bestowed on Venice 
 
 GIBRALTAR taken by the English, 339. 
 Gontpen Fix808, establishment of the om 
 der of the, 372. 
 Gran, capture of the fortress at, 324. 
 Great W ABDELN, siege of, 307. 
 the Turks retain, 313. 
 
 GrenApER, the plot at, 92. 
 GEIEVANOES complained of by the confed- 
 
 eracy at Heilbrun, 192. 
 GQUIOOIAEDINI, conier of Charles V. about, 
 
 GuNPOWDER, its introduction, 82. 
 Guntz, triumphant resistance of the for- 
 tress of, 150. 
 Gustavus Vasa (King of Sweden), league 
 ipl against Charles V., 
 127. 
 
 Gustavus ADOLPHUS, rouses the country 
 pene Ferdinand 
 IL., 280. 
 
 assembles a fleet at 
 Elfsnaben, 281. 
 Stettin captured by, 
 
 281. 
 
 Mark of Branden- 
 burg taken posses- 
 sion of by, 281. 
 
 conquers at the bat- 
 tle of Leipsic, 285. 
 
 his tran ual cam: 
 aign, 286. 
 
 his ntesncnieete at 
 Nuremberg, 290. 
 
 his attack on Wal- 
 lenstein, 293. 
 
 his death, 293. 
 
 relics of, 29), 
 
 H. 
 
 HANAU, conference at, 445. 
 Hanover, title of the Elector of to the 
 crown of England, 367. 
 Hawk's Castle. (See Castle.) 
 Hrpwicée, wife of Albert of Hapsburg, 18. 
 betrothal of, 53. 
 Hetvetio States, independence of ace 
 knowledged, 89. 
 Henry (Duke of Anjou), abdication of the 
 throne of Poland, 180. 
 succeeds Charles IX., 180. 
 Henry (Duke of Carinthia) chosen pa hy 
 HENRY ‘oat of Luxemburg) elected Em- 
 peror of Austria, 41. 
 his death, 41. 
 Henry (of Valois) succeeds Charles IX, 
 
 171. 
 Henry VIII. ce eeipeand) claims Austria, 
 0 
 
 Henry IV. (of France), efforts of to unite 
 Lp wrEoe and Calvinis's 
 
 political course of, 214, 
 
INDEX, 
 
 579 
 
 Henry IV. (of France) Kcontinued) assas-} JOHN SOBIESKI (continued), enthusiastic 
 
 sination of, 215. 
 his plans for remodeling Eu- 
 rope, 216. 
 HockkIRcHEN, battle of, 475. 
 Hoty Leaeve, formation of, 116. 
 HuneARIANS, the, summon a diet, 849. 
 the, remonstrate with Leo- 
 pold, 501 
 (see also PAA tee 
 HuNa@ARY, Lo A te of Rhodolph III. in, 
 
 new revolt in, 307. 
 
 attempt of Leopold to establish 
 oa gd power in, 317. 
 
 rise of against Leopold, 333. 
 troubles in observed by Joseph 
 
 I., 349. 
 enthusiastic support of Maria 
 Theresa in, 482 
 (see also Hungarian). 
 HuNNIADES (John), regent of liungary, 68. 
 popularity of, 68. 
 death of, 71. 
 Hymn, singing of a by the army of Gus- 
 tavus on the field of battle, 292. 
 
 I. 
 
 {SsABELLA feng of Frederic), death of, 45. 
 ISABELLA (of Spain), determination of to 
 obtain for her son the crown of 
 Hungary, 152. 
 propositions of to Ferdinand for 
 peace, 154. , 
 IMPERIAL CHAMBER, Creation of the, 87. 
 INGOLSTADT, Charles V. marches to, 126. 
 INNSPRUOK, arrival of the Duke of Ludo- 
 vico at, 90. 
 the emperor sick at, 103. 
 the palace at surrendered to 
 pillage, 134. 
 INSURRECTION in Vienna, 36. 
 of Suabia, 55. 
 Inzenvorr, the Lord of, arrested by Mat- 
 
 thias, 206. 
 Iscur, flight of Ferdinand to the island of, 
 
 ITay, invasion of by Mahomet II., 82. 
 victories of Henry of France in, 136. 
 invaded by the Spaniards, 388. 
 invaded by the French and Span- 
 
 iards, 452. 
 
 J. 
 
 JAGHELLON, the Grand Duke, 53. 
 marriage of Hedwige to, 54. 
 baptism of, 54 
 (for further reference see Lad- 
 islaus. 
 James I., matrimonial negotiations of, 266. 
 JEANETTE Poisson (see Marchioness of 
 Pompadonr). 
 Jesuits, the, expelled from Prague, 239, 
 JOANNA (of Spain), insanity of, 106. 
 Joun (of Bohemia), character of, 46. 
 his invasion of Austria, 49. 
 JOHN SIGISMOND, death of, 178. 
 JOHN SOBIESKI meer the relief of Vienna, 
 
 reception of, 322. 
 refuses to fight Tekeli, 324. 
 JoHN (the Constant) succeeds Frederic, 
 Elector of Saxony, 114. 
 JOHN (of Tapoli), negotiations of with the 
 regis for the throne of Hungary, 
 Marriage and death of, 52. 
 JOHN (of Medici) elected pope, 100. 
 JOSEPH (of Germany) elected as successor 
 of Leopold, 316. 
 
 | SOSEPH I. secures a treaty with France for 
 
 neutrality for Italy, 339. 
 Sith the war against Spain, 
 
 political concessions of in Hun- 
 ry, h 
 refusal of to grant the demands 
 of the diet, : 
 pri ti again subject to, 
 
 rout of the Hungarians by, 351. 
 death of, 352. 
 
 JosEPuH II. (of Austria) elected to succeed 
 the Emperor Francis, 481. 
 frestiett hee the crown of Germany, 
 
 succeeds Maria Theresa, 491. 
 
 character of, 492. 
 
 death of, 500. 
 
 attempt of to obliterate distinc- 
 tions in Austria, 493. 
 
 emancipates the serfs of, 494. 
 
 joins the excursion of Catherine 
 
 ., 497. 
 defeat of at Belgrade, 498. 
 successes of, 499. 
 duis Ii. here the pontifical throne, 
 
 K. 
 Kaounitz (Count) appointed prime minis- 
 ter, 462. 
 
 iven the com- 
 
 KEVENHULLER (General) 
 the Austrian 
 
 mand o 
 
 army, 405. 
 Kina, nominal power of the, 308. 
 Krinsky, letter of Charles VI. to, 391. 
 KugEszs. (See Cardinal.) 
 Koniasree (General), power of in a coun- 
 
 sel of war, 404. 
 recalled in disgrace, 405. 
 
 L. 
 
 Lapisiavs I, coronation of, 65. 
 visit of to the pope, 67. 
 inglorious flight of, 69. 
 tyranny of towards the fam- 
 ily of Hunniades, 71. 
 flight of from Buda, 71. 
 his projected marriage to 
 Magdalen, 71. 
 death of, 72. 
 LapisLavs I. ore King of Hungary 
 
 assumes the government of 
 
 Austria, 81. 
 Lanpat, the Austrians checked at, 47. 
 
580 
 
 LANDSHUT, flight of Charles VY. to, 126. 
 rae ainst France, 85. 
 Augsburg, 315. 
 rsa se by Tilly, 285. 
 Lzo X., John of Medici assumes the name 
 
 100. 
 L&cPOLD iter oe succeeds Ferdinand 
 T., 30 
 convenes the diet at Presburg, 
 
 accused by the diet of persecu- 
 tion, 809. 
 
 his desire for peace, 312. 
 
 ey eae a coalition against 
 
 ouis X1LY., 315. 
 
 attempt of to establishdespotic 
 power in Hungary, 317. 
 
 driven from Hungary, 317, 
 
 flight of with his family, 819. 
 
 humiliation of, 322. 
 
 disgust of the people with, 324. 
 
 vengeance of, 324. 
 
 efforts of toobtain adecree that 
 the crown was hereditary, 325. 
 
 claims Spain, 826. 
 
 declares war against France, 
 
 331. 
 
 deserted by the Duke of Bava- 
 ria, 334. 
 
 death of, 334. 
 
 canonization of, 835. 
 
 his various marriages, 336. 
 
 LEOPoupD II. ascends the Austrian throne, 
 
 500. 
 
 despotism of in Hungary 
 seit) with a remonstrance, 
 50 
 interposes against France, 502, 
 letter of to the King of En- 
 gland, 502. 
 death of, 502. 
 LEoPotp I. (of Germany), character and 
 death of, 45. 
 LEOPOLD I. (of pie ey character of, 
 5: 
 
 death of, 57. 
 LEOPOLD II., succession of, 57. 
 assumes the guardianship of 
 Albert V., 59. 
 death of, 59. 
 LEOPOLD figs en invasion of Upper 
 Austria 
 defeat of by ‘Matibias, 221. 
 Lewis If., excommunication of, 50. 
 LipeRrty the spirit of acting in France,501. 
 LITHUANIA, duchy of, 53. 
 annexation of to Poland, 54. 
 LOREDO, arrival of Charles Y. at, 141. 
 LORRAINE (Chevalier De), duel between 
 the and the young Turk, 312. 
 LoRRAINE, duchy of demanded by France, 
 
 397. 
 LORRAINE (Francis Stephen, Duke of) com- 
 lied to flee from Hungary, 
 
 ent with Maria The- 
 deptaen of his kingdom, 397. 
 
 his marriage, 398. 
 rt tse He commander of the ar- 
 
 reply ted = roy the demand of 
 
 19. 
 his tah 9 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 | Louis XIL., succession of to the throne or 
 
 France, 89. 
 inaugurated Duke of Milan, 90. 
 diplomacy of, 91. 
 Louis XIIL. espouses the cause of Ferdi- 
 
 nand I., 256. 
 Louts XTV., auempt of to thwart Leopold, 
 
 marriage of, 314. 
 resolve of to annex a part of 
 Spain, 314, 
 i onsible for devastation of 
 e Palatinate, 316. 
 eden character of, 317. 
 
 claims S 826. 
 iy of to invade 
 
 preparations. 
 pain, 829. 
 desire of ee retire from the 
 conflict, 34 
 melancholy sna of, 357. 
 Louis XV. begins to take part in the gov- 
 erninent, 378. 
 Louis XVI., plans of, 502. 
 Louts (of Bavaria) elected em 
 excommunication of, 4%, 
 death of, 47. 
 Louis (of Hungary), death of, 146. 
 Louis (son of Philp V.), death of, 372. 
 LUBEC, peace of, 269. 
 Lupovico, escape of the Duke of, 99. 
 Lupovico’ (Duke of Milan), recovery of 
 Italy by the Duke of ee 
 mutiny of the troops of, 91 
 death of, 92. 
 Lvrugr summoned to repair to Rome, 102. 
 bull of the pope against, 108. 
 works of burned, 109. 
 support of at the dict of Worms, 
 110. 
 
 » Ae 
 
 geiaap in to appear before the 
 jet 
 
 triumphal march of, 111. 
 memorable reply of, 111. ' 
 triumph of, 112. 
 
 ey of Charles V. to bribe, 
 
 his Patmos, 118. 
 his German Bible, 113. 
 the party of encouraged by Adrian 
 the pope, 114 
 marriage of, 114. 
 the Confession of Augsburg too 
 mild for, P 
 visit of Chokes V. to grave of, 128. 
 LUTHERANS, reply of to Henry IV., 191 
 (see also Luther). 
 LuTZzEN, meeting of the armies at, 291. 
 battle of, 292. 
 
 M. 
 Maprrm, pee of, by the Austrians, 
 MaepEBURS, we ally. — espouses Gus- 
 
 i of, eany the imperial 
 M IL., sioge of Belgrade by, 69. 
 AHOMET IT., siege o 
 Manomer [V., his foreign war, ay. 
 MARLBOROVEeH (Duke off. the guardian of 
 Anne, 332. 
 MALPLAQUET, battle at, 341. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Manto, aid furnished Leopold by, 311. 
 battle at, 387. 
 MARCHIONESS OF PoMPADOUR, arrogance 
 
 ol, 
 Maria ANTOINETTE, history of, 487. 
 letter of Maria The- 
 resa to, 488. 
 Maria THERESA (of Spain), marriage of to 
 Louis XIV., 314. 
 Maria THERESA Se Austria), character of, 
 95 
 
 her attachment for the 
 Duke of Lorraine, 395. 
 
 marriage of, 398. 
 
 ascends the Austrian 
 throne, 415. 
 
 solicitations of toforeign 
 powers, 417. 
 
 her apparent doom, 421. 
 
 consents to part with 
 Glogau, 424. 
 
 a son born to her, 426. 
 
 desire of that her husband 
 should obtain the im- 
 perial crown, 427. 
 
 her coronation at Pres- 
 burg, 429. 
 
 address of to the diet, 431. 
 
 reinforcements of, 436. 
 
 ambitious dreams of, 439. 
 
 forbids the conference for 
 the relief of Prague,440, 
 
 attempt of to evade her 
 promise to Sardinia,446. 
 
 arrogance of excites in- 
 dignation of the other 
 powers, 449. 
 
 rouses the Hungarians, 
 450. 
 
 recovers Bohemia, 450. 
 
 interview of the English 
 
 ‘ ambassador with, 454. 
 
 signs the treaty of Dres- 
 den, 458. 
 
 indignation of at peace 
 being signed by En- 
 gland, 460. 
 
 chagrin of, 461. 
 
 ar energetic discipline, 
 
 62 
 
 secures the friendship of 
 the Marchioness of 
 Pompadour, 465. 
 
 Yreproaches towards En- 
 gland, 466. 
 
 her diplomatic fib, 468. 
 
 victories of, 475. 
 
 ee Russia and Sweden, 
 
 recovers the codperation 
 of Russia, 481. 
 children of, 486. 
 letter of to Maria Antoin- 
 ette, 488. 
 letter to Frederic desir- 
 ing peace, 489. 
 charge to her son, 490. 
 death of, 491. 
 fate of her children, 491. 
 Mary ANNE (of Spain) affianced to the 
 dauphin of France, 872. 
 insulting rejection of, 873. 
 Marcarert(of Bohemia), engagement of 46, 
 
 581 
 
 MARGARET (of Bohemia) (continued), mars 
 riage and flight of, 49. 
 divorce of, 49. 
 MARGARET, celebration of the nuptials of, 
 
 MARK OF BRANDENBURG, taken possession 
 of by Gustavus 
 Adolphus, 281, 
 MARTINETZ “aap diem the palace by the 
 
 mob, 328. 
 Massacre, the, of St. Bartholomew, 171. 
 MATHEW HeENRy (Count of Thurn), leader 
 of the Protestants, 234. 
 convention called by, 236. 
 MATTHIAS (of Hungary), invasion of Aus- 
 tria by, 75. 
 death of, 79. 
 Matraias, character of, 201. 
 chosen leader of the revolters 
 in the Netherlands, 202. 
 increasing popularity of, 203. 
 announces his determination 
 to depose Rhodolph IiI., 204. 
 his demand that Rhodolph 
 should abdicate, 205. 
 distrust of by the Protestants, 
 05. 
 arrest of the Lord of Inzendorf 
 
 reluctance of to sign the con- 
 ditions, 207. 
 
 elected king, 207. 
 
 haughtiness .of towards the 
 Austrians, 208. 
 
 political reconciliation between 
 Rhodolph III. and, 219. 
 
 march of against Leopold, 221, 
 
 limitations affixed to the offer 
 of the crown to, 222. 
 
 coronation of, 224, 
 
 marriage of, 225. 
 
 suspicions of the Catholics 
 against, 229. 
 
 elected Emperor of Germany, 
 229 
 
 thwarted in his attempts to 
 levy an army, 280. 
 concludes a truce with Turkey, 
 231. 
 his revival of the ban against 
 the Protestants, 231. 
 efforts of to secure the crownof 
 Germany for Ferdinand, 232. 
 opposed by the Protestants, 233. 
 defiant reply of to the congress 
 at Prague, 236. 
 disposition of to favor toler- 
 ation, 239. 
 death of, 344. ’ 
 MauRics (of Saxony), Protestant princi- 
 ples of, 181. ; 
 treaty of with the King of 
 France, 1382. 
 capture of the Tyrol by, 133. 
 demands of from Charles V., 135, 
 death of, 137. 
 L., ambition of, 84. 
 efforts of to rouse the Ital- 
 ians, 88. ; 
 efforts to secure the Swiss 
 estates, 89. 
 Gefeat of at tke diet of 
 Worms, 87. 
 
582 
 
 Maxmmntan I. (continued), roused to new 
 efforts, 92. 
 superstitious fraud of, 93. 
 drawn into a war with Ba- 
 varia, 94, 
 
 league formed by against 
 the Venetians, 95, 
 abandoned by his allies, 97. 
 
 perseverance of rew. 
 confident of success against 
 
 Italy, 99. 
 letter of to his daughter, 99. 
 nage beginning toattend, 
 
 plans of to secure the 
 crowns of Hungary and 
 Bohemia, 101. 
 
 omen of for the pope, 
 
 03. 
 peculiarities of exhibited, 
 103. 
 
 death of, 104, 
 accomplishments of, 105. 
 Maxiuriran II. allowed to assume the title 
 of emperor elect, 161. 
 character of, 169. 
 his letter to the Hlector 
 Palatine, 170. ; 
 profession of the Catholic 
 faith, 170. 
 address of to Henry of Va- 
 lois, 172. 
 liberal toleration main- 
 tained by, 172. 
 answer of to the complaints 
 of the diet, 173. 
 offer of to pay tribute to 
 the Turks, 174, 
 aby Se King of Poland, 
 death of, 181. 
 character and acquirements 
 of AE2T oO) 
 tribute of honor by the am- 
 bassadors to, 183. 
 wife of, 183. 
 fate of his children, 184. 
 MAxXIMILIAN(brother of Matthias), the can- 
 a of the Protestants, 
 MAXIMILIAN, JOSEPH, ascends the throne 
 of Bavaria, 451. 
 MEINHARD, legitimate rights of, 50. 
 death of, 50. 
 MELANCTHON, Character of, 119. 
 MeEnTzZ, taunts of the Elector of, 38. 
 METTERNICH, his theory of social order, 506. 
 Metz, siege of, 137. 
 Mian, captured by Louis XII, 90. 
 
 Louis XII. created Duke of, 90, 
 MINISTER (see the countries for which the 
 minister acted). 
 
 MonatTz, battle of, 146. 
 Mo.LnirTz, ae ore of Frederic established 
 at, 421. 
 MoNTEcUCULI (Prince), commander of the 
 troops of Leopold, 311. 
 MOoNTSERRAT, shrine of the holy Virgin 
 
 at, 355. 
 MoRAvi4, to be held five years by Rho- 
 doiph, 31. 
 the province of, 208. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Moravia (continued), triumphal march of 
 Count Thurn into, 247. 
 Mosts TZEKELI, crowned Prince of Tran- 
 syivania, 196. 
 
 MULHEM, ro tsa of demolished, 
 
 MunNIcH captured by Frederic, 449, 
 MURCHFIELD, meeting of the armies on the 
 field of, 29. 
 NN. 
 NAPLsEs, subjugation of, 84, 
 
 | NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, similarity of the 
 
 lans of Hi 
 VY. and, gi6. 
 hess of verified, 
 
 remark of concern- 
 ing Russia, 399. 
 NETHERLANDS, revolt in the, 201. 
 Marlborough in possession 
 of the, 339. 
 NEUPERG iGenural), imprudence and insult 
 © 
 
 arrested by Charies, 413. 
 
 Neustant, the emperor’s remains to ‘be 
 deposited at, 104, 
 NicHoLas (Count of Zrini), heroic defense 
 of Zigeth by, 175. 
 Nissa, capture of, 402. 
 Nogxzs, the, of Bohemia banished, 271. 
 Novara, defense of the citadel of, 90. 
 NUREMBURG, COnarees at rath 
 request o Rhodoipb 
 should abdicate, 228. 
 
 battle of, 290. 
 famine in the city of, 200. 
 
 Oo. 
 
 Orricers, ignorance of the Austrian, 389. 
 ORLEANS (Duke of), matrimonial arrange- 
 
 ments of the, 369. 
 death of the, 378. 
 ORsOVA Captured by the Turks, 405, 
 surrendered to the Turks, 408. 
 
 OTHO marries Hedwige, of Hapsburg, 25. 
 harmonious rule of, 46. 
 OTtTocaR (of Bohemia), candidate forcrown 
 of ideas & 23. 
 opposition of Rhodolph, 24. 
 command of the diet to, 24. 
 message of, to Rhodolph, 24, 
 ower of, 25. 
 is contempt for Rhodoiph, 25, 
 his excommunication by the 
 pope, 26. 
 his performance of feudal hom- 
 
 age, 27. 
 violates his oath, 28. 
 the body of found after battie, 30. 
 OXENSTIERN (Chancellor), appointed com- 
 mander of the Swedish at- 
 SONY 2h 
 
 Pp; 
 
 PALATINATE, omens of the, 230, 
 PAPPENHEIM (General), death of, 293. 
 Passau, diet at. 187, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 eanoe, Lather's, 1138, 
 7 (of Russia), alliance of with 
 Prussia, 480. 
 assassination of, 480, 
 AUL IV. (Pope), death of, 162, 
 of Passarovitz, 364, 
 PxoPLE, contempt for the, 95. 
 Pst taken by the Turks, 147, 
 THE GREAT, ambition of, 399. 
 death of, 399. 
 PgTERWARDEN, strength of, 406. 
 Pair (of Burgundy) obtains the duke- 
 dom of Burgundy, 84. 
 Puri III. institutes the order of the 
 Golden Fleece, 372. 
 Parr *V. (of Spain) obtains renunciation 
 of succession in favor of Mar- 
 garet, 314. 
 resolve of, to maintain his 
 throne, 341. 
 supported by his subjects, 342. 
 flight of, from Catalona, 343, 
 Parr V., despondency of, 369, 
 abdication of, 870. 
 resumes his crown, 271. 
 Prreram, diet at, 66. 
 Prus IV. elected pope, 162. 
 PODIEBRAD (George) assumes regal au- 
 thority, 66. 
 intrusted with the regency of 
 Bohemia, 68. 
 elected King of Bohemia, 73. 
 Poa, Pa geo aflixed to the throne 
 
 of, 
 Stephen Barthori chosen king of, 
 by the minority, 181. 
 attempis of France to place Stan- 
 isiaus on the throne of, 382 
 Count Pouiatowski secures the 
 crown of, 484. 
 to be carved out, 485, 
 annihilation of, 486. 
 PoMERANTA, seizure of, by Ferdinand, 269. 
 Pompapbourk (Marchioness of), arrogance 
 of the, 464. 
 PoONIATOWSEI 7 Rae pe evi King of Po- 
 
 nd, 484, 
 Pore, the letter of Rhodolph to, 24. 
 character of Pope Gregory X., 24. 
 indignation of the, 38. 
 capitulation of the, 84. 
 & exander VI.) bribery of, 89. 
 ulins 1.) the, bought over, 92. 
 bull of the, deposing the 
 King of Naples, 93. 
 demands of the,as booty, 
 
 95. 
 infamy of, 95. 
 a acquisitions 
 of, 98. 
 proclammation against 
 the, by Maximilian, 98. 
 death of, 100. 
 dohn of Medici elected as, 100. 
 (Leo X.), command of the, to Luther 
 to repair to Rome, 102. 
 Maximilian’s contempt for the, 103. 
 bail of the, against Luther, 108. 
 bull of the, burned by Luther, 109. 
 death of Leo X., the, 113. 
 cae accession of, as, 113. | 
 she VIl.) succeeds Adrian, 
 
 583 
 
 Pops (continued), offer ef pardon by the, 
 for those who assist in enforcing 
 Pad oe of nbsp stipe eee 
 of the, against CharlesV.,129. 
 Taine IIL.) elected as, 130, 
 dignation of the, at the toleration 
 of the diet at Passau, 138. 
 the, allows Maximilian to assnme 
 the title of emperor elect, 161. 
 intolerant pride of, 161. 
 us IV.) elected as, 162. 
 agra on the, dispensed with, 
 refusal of the, to reform abuses, 165, 
 attempts of the to influence Maxi- 
 milian IT., 174. 
 aid extended to Leopold by the, 31%, 
 eee from Charles IT. to the, 
 
 alarm of the, at the innovations of 
 Joseph II., 494. 
 Praematic SANCTION, the, 364. 
 the, supported by 
 various powers, 
 
 PRAGUE, Spicer crushes the revolt in, 
 
 diet at, 158. 
 seizure of, by Leopold, 221. 
 vecarreagnet | of, expelled from the 
 
 city, 239. 
 indignation of the inhabitants of, 
 against Frederic, 262. 
 eurrender of, to Ferdinand, 262. 
 poten of, to the Austrians, 
 
 suffering in, on account of the 
 siege, 472. 
 PRAUNSTEIN (Lord of), reasons for the, 
 declaring war, 80. 
 PrREcocITYy, not a modern innovation, 108, 
 PRESBURG, diet at, 309. 
 Press, success of the, in diffusing intelit- 
 
 gence, 102. 
 PRINTING, fe aoe of, beginning to be 
 elt, 83. 
 PRIVILEGES Confined to the nob:es, 187. 
 Protest of the minority at the diet of 
 Spires, 116. 
 PROTESTANTISM, spread of, in E , 168. 
 its working for ry, 
 264. 
 PROTESTANTS, erect of, at Smaikaide, 
 21. 
 refusal of the, to assist 
 Charles V., 122. 
 contributions of the, to ex- 
 pel the Turks, 122. 
 increase of the, 128. 
 the, reject the Council of 
 Trent, 124. 
 fuin of the ar Ae the, by 
 Charles V., 126. 
 party of the, predominant 
 in Germany, 133. 
 shameful quarreling among 
 the, 190. 
 tnion of,at Aschhausen, 194, 
 opposition of the, to Mat- 
 jas, 206. 
 their demands on Matthias, 
 ff 
 
 207. 
 reason: ble demands of, 21. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Protestants (continued), forces of the, 
 vanquished at Pritznitz, 
 
 259. 
 secret combinations of the, 
 for the rising of the, 267. 
 concessions to, revoked by 
 Ferdinand, 270. 
 the, prefer the Duke of Bava- 
 ria to any of the family of 
 Ferdinand, 279. 
 loss of the, in the death of 
 Gustavus, 296. 
 pleasure of the, at the entry 
 of Frederic into Silesia,419. 
 Prussia inhabited by a pagan race, 20. 
 alliance of, with Austria, 459. 
 alliance of, with England, 466. 
 a yoga voted to, by England, 
 75. 
 ee preparations against, 
 
 Prusstans, the, driven from Bohemia, 450. 
 
 R. 
 
 Ras taken by the Turks, 147. 
 Ragotsky (Francis), leader of the rebel- 
 lion, 333. 
 assembles a diet, 349. 
 chosen dux, or leader, 350. 
 outlawed, and escape of, 351. 
 RaTISBON, diet at, in 1629, 275. 
 refusal of, to accept Ferdi- 
 nand’s word, 276. 
 REFORMATION, commencement of the, 103. 
 RELIGION, remarkable solicitude for the 
 reputation of, 98. 
 REWARD offered for the head of Rhodolph, 
 30 
 
 RuHOopoLpPH (of Hapsburg), at the time of 
 
 his father’s death, 18. 
 
 presentation of, by the emperor 
 for baptism, 19. 
 
 his incursions, 19. 
 
 marriage. 19. 
 
 excommunication of, 20. 
 
 engaged in Prussian crusade, 20. 
 
 a monument reared to, by the 
 city of Strasburg, 21. 
 
 principles of honor, 21. 
 
 chosen chief of Uri, Schweitz, 
 
 and Underwalden, 21. 
 chosen mayor of Zurich, 21. 
 elected Emperor of Germany, 
 
 23. 
 ba of, as emperor, 25. 
 amily of, 25. 
 gathering clouds around, 28. 
 address of the citizens of Vien- 
 na to, 28. 
 death of, 35. 
 RHOopOLPH II., character and court of, 48. 
 ostentatious titles of, 51. 
 death of, 51. 
 RuHopo.ps II. beaten King of Hungary, 
 
 obtains the imperial throne, 
 bigotry of, 187. 
 
 infringement of the 
 ie of the burghers, 
 
 Raopotpa YT. (continued), Wis blows 
 against Protestantism, 189, 
 intolerance of in Bohemia, . 
 
 193 
 
 superstition of, 200. 
 
 his favor to Ferdinand, 204. 
 
 demands of the Protestants 
 on, 205. 
 
 his encouragement of filli- 
 bustering expeditions,208. 
 
 remarkable pliancy of, 210. 
 
 his terror at the chance of 
 assassination, 212. 
 
 political reconciliation be- 
 tween Matthias and, 219. 
 
 his plot with Leopold, 220. 
 
 Rhodolph taken prisoner, 
 
 221. 
 his abdication, 222. 
 required to absolve his sub- 
 jects from their oath of 
 allegiance, 223. 
 retains the crown of Ger- 
 many, 225. 
 supplication of to the con- 
 gress at Rothemberg, 226. 
 a congress at Nuremberg 
 summoned by, 227. 
 death of, 228. 
 RHoDOLPH (of Bohemia), death of, 39. 
 RAINE, pela Basle from Rhodolph, 
 
 RICHELIEU, motives influencing, 267. 
 ambassadors of urge the Duke 
 of Bavaria as candidate for 
 the imperial crown, 279. 
 RIPPERDA (Baron), the secret agent of the 
 Queen of Spain at Vienna, 373. 
 rise and fall of, 375. 
 escape of to England, 376. 
 RoBInson (Sir Thomas), interview of with 
 Maria Theresa, 454. 
 ROTHENBURG, congress at, 226. 
 Russi, growing power of, 399. 
 succession of the crown of, 399, 
 instrumental in placing Augustus 
 II. on the throne, 400. 
 
 S. 
 
 SaRaGossa, battle of, 343. 
 Saxony, defeat of the Elector of, 128. 
 nobility of, 128. 
 degradation of, 129. 
 power of, 132. 
 “ Seas of, passes to Augus- 
 us A 
 ScHARTLIN (General), the Protestants 
 march under, 125. 
 ScHwEITz, Rhodolph of Hapsburg chosen 
 chief of, 21. 
 ScLAVONIA, marriage of the Duke of to 
 the daughter of Rhodolph, 25. 
 SECKENDORF (General), the Austrian army 
 intrusted to, 400. 
 his plans of campaign broken 
 up by Charles, 402. 
 capture of Nissa by, 402. 
 condemned to the dungeon, 
 2, 
 
 SxcrET ARTICLES of the treaty with Aus: 
 tria, 376. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 SECGERERG, aca at, 267. 
 Scumerrau (General), the retreat of Wal- 
 lis arrested by, 407. 
 compelled to yield Belgrade, 
 409 
 
 Szram succeeds Solyman, 177. 
 SEMENDRIA, defense of, 64. 
 its rp 65. 
 SEMPACH, battle of, 55. 
 SzRFs emancipated by Joseph I1., 494. 
 his plan for seizing Bavaria frus- 
 trated, 495. 
 SEVEN YEARS’ Wak, termination of the, 
 bs 
 
 Vs 
 Sictty, subjr-ated and attached to the 
 Neapolitan crown, 388. ¢ 
 SieisMoNnD (Francis, Duke of Tyrol), his 
 alliance with Rhodolph, 195. 
 representation in the diet in- 
 troduced by, 308 
 death of, 314. 
 SigteMOND (of Bohemia), power of, 60. 
 address of tothe diet at Znaim, 
 61. 
 death of, 62. 
 Srmzsta sold to Rhodolph, 195. 
 pony possession of by Frederic, 
 41 
 SisEcK, Turks routed at, 195. 
 SuavatTa thrown from the palace by the 
 
 mob, 238. 
 SMALKALDE, mere of the Protestants 
 at, 121. 
 SoLyYMAN (the Magnificent), victories of, 
 
 146. 
 ag of tothedemand made by 
 erdinand, 147. 
 his method of overcoming difii- 
 culties, 149. 
 his attack upon Guntz, 150. 
 is prise of peace with Hungary, 
 
 death of from rage, 176. 
 Spat decreed by the will of Charles II. to 
 succeed to France, 331. 
 espouses the cause of Ferdinand TEs, 
 256 
 
 assistance furnished Leopold by,311. 
 
 invasion of by the British and 
 Charles ITT., 354. 
 
 treaty between Austria and, 373. 
 
 a forbidden to trade in, 
 
 invasion of Italy by, 388. 
 SPANIARDS, the, routed at Catalonia, 343. 
 Sr. BARTHOLOMEW, massacre of, 171. 
 
 St. GoTHARD, mtg stationed at, 311i. 
 battle of, 312. 
 Sr. InpEFonso, the palace of, 870. 
 Sr. Justus, convent of, 140. 
 Sr, PETERSBURG, rearing of the city of 399. 
 STANHOPE (General), bearing of, 342. 
 esperate position of, 347. 
 StayisLaus LEcZINSKI, career of, 382. 
 daughter of married 
 to Louis XV., 382. 
 Teceives a pension 
 from France, 383. 
 elected King of Po- 
 land, 383. 
 his marvelous jour- 
 ney through Ger- 
 many, 384. 
 
 585 
 
 STAREMBERG (General), bearing of, 342. 
 Strats, the independence of each German 
 
 STEPHEN, crowning of the infant as king, 
 5 
 
 STEPHEN Borskort, indignity offered to, 197. 
 his manifesto, 198. 
 proclaimed King of 
 
 Hungary, 199. 
 
 STETTIN far eured by Gustavus Adolphus. 
 
 1 
 
 SvTETzIM, diet at, 849. 
 
 STRALSUND, defense of, 269. 
 STRICKLAND sent to London to overthrow 
 the cabinet, 392. 
 
 Srypta traversed by the Turks, 811. 
 
 SWEDEN roused by Gustavus Adolphus 
 against Ferdinand IT., 280. 
 
 prudent conduct of on death of 
 
 Gustavus, 297. 
 
 SWEDES, sorrow of the at the death oi 
 Gustavus, 294. 
 
 SWITZERLAND, divisions of, 40. 
 
 T. 
 
 TsuvREn (Count) leads the mob to the king’s 
 council, 237. 
 appointed commander of the Prot- 
 estants, 338. 
 invades Austria, 247. 
 Trinity (Count), the imperial troops in- 
 trusted to, 282. 
 TITIAN, ose compliment of Charles Y. 
 to 
 
 TRAUSNITZ, Frederic I. a prisoner at the 
 castle of, 43. 
 TRANSLYVANIA, rebellion in, 3838. 
 TREASURE abandoned by the Turks, 823. 
 TREATY of Passau, 136. 
 TRENT, Council of, 124. 
 the second council at, 180. 
 council at in 1562, 164. 
 declarations of, 166. 
 TRIBUNAL at Eperies, 324. 
 TRIESTE, arrival of troops at, 94, 
 TURENNE, the Palatinate devastated by, 
 3 
 
 15. 
 challenged by the Elector of 
 Palatinate, 316. 
 TuRIn, the court of bribed, 89. 
 TURKS, Origin and increase of the, 63. 
 
 defeat of at Belgrade, 70. 
 spread of the, 121. - 
 invasion of Hungary by the, 122, 
 the, driven from cig «A 122. 
 treaty of Charles V. with the, 123, 
 victorious in Hungary, 136. 
 invasion of Europe by the, 145. 
 compelled to return home, 148. 
 the, retire from Hungary, 177. 
 peace made by Maximilian with 
 
 the, 178. 
 invasion of Croatia b the, 195. 
 Union of the with the forces of 
 
 Botskoi, 199, 
 truce of Hungary with the, 208. 
 sei Soa a peace with Austria, 
 
 invasion of Hungary by the, 310. 
 defeat of on the field of St. Go 
 thard, 312. 
 
586 
 
 TuRKS (continued), favorable treaty se- 
 cured by the, 313. t 
 the invasion of Sclavonia by the, 
 
 360. 
 destruction of the ary of the, 363. 
 the, implore peace, 364. 
 Orsova besieged by the, 404, 
 the, routed at Rimnik, 499. 
 Tuscany, eub aeenon of by Charles VIIL., 
 8 
 
 aid furnished Leopold by, 311. 
 death of the Duke of, 398. 
 TyRoL, marriage of Albert to Elizabeth, 
 daughter of the Count of, 25. 
 possession of obtained by Rho- 
 dolph IT., 50. 
 its A hea as the key to Italy, 
 
 313. 
 death of the Duke of, 314. 
 
 U. 
 ULapisLaus obtains the throne of Hun- 
 gary, : 
 Um, rendezvous of the Protestants at, 
 257 
 
 Duric, the Protestant Duke of restored to 
 Wirtemberg, 122. 
 UNDERWALDEN, Rhodolph of Hapsburg 
 chosen chief of, 21. 
 Uri, Rhodolph of Hapsburg chosen chief 
 of, 21 
 
 UTTLEBERG, capture of the castle of by 
 Rhodolph, 22. 
 
 Va 
 
 VALERIUS BARTHOLOMEW, the king’s con- 
 fessor, 248. 
 VALLADOLID, court ed Philip established 
 at, 346. 
 
 VENDOME (General) joins Philip, 343. 
 VENICE bribed, 89. 
 
 Maximilian bound by truce with, 
 
 95 
 
 aid furnished Leopold by, 311. 
 Victor ASMEDEvS, business of, 369. 
 VIENNA one of the strongest defenses of 
 the empire, 26. 
 the king’s residence at, 27. 
 address of the citizens of to Rho- 
 dolph, 28. 
 siege of, 74. 
 the professors of the university at 
 avow the doctrines of Luther, 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Vienna (continued, assault of, 320. 
 eliverea by Sobieski, 822, 
 
 W. 
 
 WALLENSTEIN made generalissimo of all 
 the forces, 268. 
 arrogance of, 273. 
 
 matrimonial alliances of, 
 
 274. 
 
 his dismissal from the army 
 demanded, 276. 
 
 he Peis from the army, 
 
 8. 
 his regal mode of living, 287. 
 his humiliating exactions 
 from the emperor, 289. 
 superstition of, 291. 
 urges Ferdinand to make 
 peace, 297. 
 traitorous offer to surrender 
 to the Swedes, 298. 
 his assassination, 299. 
 Watts (Marshal) given the command of 
 the army, 406. 
 arrested by Charles, 413. 
 Wak, its debit and credit account, 859 
 (see also the various campaigns). 
 WATERLOO, its advantage to Austria, 404. 
 WENCESLAUS acknowledged king, 31. 
 marriage to Judeth, 31. 
 death of, 38. 
 WESTPHALIA, signing of the peace of, 300. 
 eS of the treaty of, 
 
 WHITE Mountaln, battle of, 259. 
 WILLIAM (son of Leopold), demand of for 
 the government, 58. 
 marriage of, 59. 
 WINEELREID (Arnold), heroism of, 56. 
 WIsM4R, the naval depotof Ferdinand,268, 
 WITTEMBERG, procession of the students 
 
 of, 109. 
 Worxs, diet at in 1521, 108. 
 the diet of inveighs Luther, 110. 
 
 Z. 
 
 ZEALAND, encampment of Charles Gus- 
 tavus in, 306. 
 
 ZicETH, heroic defense of by Nicholas, 176. 
 noble death of the garrison of, 177, 
 
 ZINZENDORF, remark of, 393. 
 
 ZNAIM, diet at, 61. 
 
 ZuRIcH, Rhodolph of Hapsburg choses 
 
 chief of, 21. 
 

 

 

 
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