Part 2

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

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

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

“His situation was full of difficulty and danger. He was threatened with the vengeance of his disappointed rival Ottocar, and he was opposed by the Anti-Cæsar, Alphonso of Castile; both of whom refused to acknowledge his election, and sent ambassadors with large presents, to obtain the countenance of the Pope. Fully sensible therefore of the perils with which he was surrounded, Rodolph did not rely on the unanimity of his election, nor on his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle; but turned his first and principal attention to secure the ratification of the reigning pontiff. It was on this occasion he wrote the letter to Gregory X. already quoted.

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

The foregoing extract is a commentary on the letter to the Pope first quoted. We must now proceed to illustrate the career of Rodolph and his successors, as _Emperors_, in order to show how the system of rapine which had marked his private action, became the rule thereafter, in spite of the prayers which he craved from the Pope, that the most High _should lead him_ in the ways _of His commandments, to successfully perform what is most acceptable to Him_!

And here we must draw a distinction. Rodolph contended in the spirit of rapine with other kings animated by the same spirit, and his successors do the same. We do not care to examine all these struggles of selfishness with selfishness. What we wish to select from history, is the contest of these rulers with the liberty and welfare of _the nations_, the possession of which was the subject matter of dispute. It is impossible by means of any history yet written, or indeed for any thing short of the imagination of a humane heart, to conceive all the sufferings and oppressions and injustice done to the people, whose territories were the theatres of these struggles, whose laboriously acquired property supported the combatants, and who themselves were constrained to become combatants in battles where even victory brought them no benefits. We shall especially dwell upon the direct invasion of the Constitutions and natural rights of nations, and the most salient calamities inflicted in these ever renewing wars of selfish ambition.

Rodolph’s first contest was with Ottocar, king of Bohemia, his old friend, but who had been a rival for the imperial crown, and now refused to accept Rodolph as Emperor.

Ottocar was then the most powerful prince of Europe. “For his dominions extended from the confines of Bavaria to Raab in Hungary, and from the Adriatic to the shores of the Baltic.” He had himself acquired Styria, Austria, Carniola, and Carinthia. He had also the alliance of Henry of Bavaria.

But Rodolph was not daunted by Ottocar’s power. He began upon Henry of Bavaria, and forcing him to renounce his alliance with Ottocar, attached him to himself by giving his daughter Hedwig to Otho, son of Henry, promising a part of Upper Austria for her portion. He then conquered Austria, while he employed Meinhard of Tyrol to conquer Styria and Carinthia, and ended with himself laying siege to Vienna. The result of all in the end was nothing less than that Ottocar renounced all his claims to Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Windischmark, and delivered up to the king of Hungary all the places he had formerly wrested from him with Rodolph’s own assistance, doing homage to Rodolph, kneeling, for Bohemia and Moravia, of which he obtained from him the investiture.

Immediately after this Rodolph established his own family in the Austrian dominions, by persuading the Archbishop of Saltzburgh and the bishops of Passau, Freysinger, and Bamberg, to confer on his sons, Albert, Hartman, and Rodolph, the ecclesiastical fiefs held by the duke of Austria.

“In order to reward his retainers,” says Coxe, “_he was compelled to lay considerable impositions on his new subjects_, and to obtain free gifts from the bishops and clergy; and the discontents arising from this, probably induced Ottocar to attempt the recovery of the territories which he had lost. So desperate did Rodolph then find his affairs, and so little had he gained of real power, or made his allies and new people feel that their interests were identified with his success, that he frequently exclaimed, says Coxe, “that there was not one in whom he could confide, or on whose advice he could depend,” and, in the words of a contemporary chronicle, “all his family ran to confessors, arranged their affairs, forgave their enemies, and received the communion.”

In these desperate circumstances he roused himself to conciliate the city of Vienna by declaring it an imperial city, and then, with the assistance of the king of Hungary, at the battle of Marchfield, defeated Ottocar, who was taken prisoner and killed in cold blood, (not, however, by the hand or with the consent of Rodolph). A peace ensued, for Rodolph was afraid to retain the Hungarian army in his dominions, and he could not fight without it. He obtained Moravia for five years by the treaty of peace; his son-in-law Otho became regent for the infant son of Ottocar, while his son Rodolph married the Bohemian princess Agnes, and his two daughters were affianced to the young king of Bohemia, and to Otho the Less. After this, some time was spent in transferring the Austrian territories to his family, in which operation he found many difficulties; but at length he succeeded, and with the consent of the States of Austria, declared that duchy and Styria an indivisible domain, and vested its sole administration in his son Albert.

But even before the second war with Ottocar was over, we find Rodolph in Italy. He had indeed yielded to the conditions made by Pope Gregory X. not to interfere with the house of Anjou in Naples, or to claim any authority over the papal territories; but in less than two years after Gregory’s death, he attempted, the revival of the imperial authority in Italy. The decided action of Nicholas III. who threatened him with excommunication, induced him, however, to give up this enterprise; and to reward his compliance, Nicholas induced Charles, King of Naples, to resign the vicariate of Tuscany to Rodolph, receiving in exchange the investiture of Provence and Tourcalquier _as fiefs of the_ EMPIRE, for which acts of homage Rodolph, on the other hand, affianced his daughter Clementia to Charles Martel of Naples. But, after all, Rodolph could not revive the imperial authority in Tuscany, on account of the secret action of Naples, and not being sure of success, he with great judgment let the matter rest, “and indemnified himself,” says Coxe, “by drawing considerable sums from Lucca and other cities, for the confirmation and extension of their privileges;” thus making them pay for retaining their own rights.

The rest of Rodolph’s life was taken up in what Coxe calls “establishing the internal tranquillity of the empire,” for which he is much lauded: for, in doing this, he put down the power of many oppressive barons. At one time “he condemned to death nine and twenty nobles of the most illustrious families in Thuringia, who had broken the public peace; and he razed in one year seventy castles and strongholds, the habitation of banditti, or of powerful nobles worse than banditti.” He was also “zealous to wrest from the princes those fiefs which they had appropriated during the troubles of the war.” Coxe gives an account of these expeditions, and the circumstances of each particular case. We extract one paragraph, which seems to indicate that, in all this action for the “tranquillity of the empire,” Rodolph was animated by something else than the pure motive of saving the people from the exactions of the barons.

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

The settling of the affairs of Bohemia, which had become intolerable through the mal-administration of Otho, the regent whom Rodolph had appointed, seems to have been for the advantage of Bohemia, or at least of its king; who became distracted at that time (1290) by the contest for the throne of Charles Martel with Ladislaus, proposed nothing better for Hungary than his conferring the investiture of it, _as a fief of the empire_, upon his son Albert! This, it is true, resulted in nothing, as Albert was too much occupied in settling the dissensions in his own dominions, to make good his claims (_if claims_ they could be called); and Andrew III. maintained himself on the throne of his grandfather, to which the Hungarians had called him.

It was in vain that Rodolph, when he saw his end approaching, assembled the German Diet, to choose his son Albert Emperor. He died on the 15th of July, 1291, with this purpose unfulfilled; having been himself Emperor nineteen years. Coxe calls his reign glorious, and closes his memoir of him with a description of his person, and anecdotes to illustrate his chivalric character.

It may readily be conceded that Rodolph had the noble qualities and manners possible to his position and circumstances. But we have given his life to be judged by another standard than that usually applied to measure princes; a standard, however, that _his own pretensions of serving God and His Church_[1] make an equitable one. The House of Hapsburgh can show nothing better than the life and actions of Rodolph, its founder, on which to ground its pretensions of divine right. Does mankind admit the _legitimacy_ of the claim? Does the God of humanity admit it?

At the time of the death of Rodolph, Albert, his son, was engaged in quelling an insurrection in Austria, which he had provoked, says Coxe, “by his stern and unconciliating manners,” and by arbitrarily conferring the principal offices of state, and the richest heiresses in the country, upon his Suabian followers, rather than upon the magnates of Austria and Styria. The details of the contest it is not worth while to relate. The end was, that he besieged Vienna, and reduced the inhabitants by famine “to propose a surrender, when he accepted their submission.” We always quote the words of Coxe:—“_He commanded the principal magistrates to repair bareheaded and barefooted to his camp with their charters, tore them in pieces with his own hands, and abrogated all those privileges which he deemed injurious to his authority._” He then reduced the nobles to obedience by means of the military succour he received from Alsace and Suabia. Immediately afterwards he put down an insurrection in Styria, by similar means and with similar success. Albert was, however, disappointed of the imperial crown. “His splendid talents, powerful connections, and affinity to four of the electors, seemed to insure the possession of it; but his arrogance and rapacity, his unconciliating manners and despotic temper, had alienated some of the electors, while his power excited the jealousy and alarmed the apprehension of all.”

On the election of Adolphus of Nassau he was however prudent. The disappointment disciplined his pride to his advantage, and it was by means of the wisdom with which he then acted for his own future interests rather than from his present angry passions that he was enabled to take advantage of the faults and mistakes of Adolphus, and form a confederacy of the Electors against him, by which that Emperor was finally ruined. On the death of Adolphus, Albert was elected. In the meanwhile he had subdued the first confederacy formed against him by the Helvetian Republics. The details of this war is a tissue of violence and cruelty,[2] which was only interrupted by the general amnesty proclaimed by Adolphus, and which Albert was too prudent to openly defy, surrounded as he then was by enemies within and without, who would easily have been encouraged to combine against him.

The history of Albert next details the beginning of an intrigue made against Pope Boniface VIII., who had not confirmed his election to the Empire. This was an alliance with Philip the Handsome, of France, with whom Boniface was at variance. On his return from the journey Albert made to France, at this time, 1299, to negotiate this alliance, and confirm it by affiancing his son Rodolph to Philip’s sister Blanche, he was induced, by the death of the Count of Holland, to turn aside and lead an army against the Low Countries, to make good a claim which he laid to the counties of Holland, Zealand, and Friesland, that really belonged to John de Avesdes. But the inveterate enmity of the Pope, and the rising discontents of the Electors of the Rhine, called him to save his authority in the Empire. He therefore, being defeated by John de Avesdes, concluded an accommodation, and invested him with the territories in dispute.

The promptness and energy with which he reduced the Electors of the Rhine opened the way to a reconciliation with the Pope, who had asserted that there was no other sovereign or King of the Romans but the sovereign pontiff of Christendom. It is true Boniface at first not only refused to confirm Albert’s authority, but inveighed against him as the murderer of Adolphus, and released the electors, vassals, and subjects of the Empire from their oath of allegiance; yet finding himself foiled in his attempt to shake the authority of the King of France, he changed his policy, to detach Albert from Philip, by making overtures that Albert was glad to meet. In short his Boniface removed, by a sovereign act, all the irregularities of election, and declared him a faithful son of the Church; while Albert acknowledged on his side that the right of the electors to choose an emperor was derived from the See of Rome; and bound himself, by oath, to defend the supremacy of the Church against all the world; to oppose its enemies, whether kings or emperors; to renounce the alliances which he had contracted with powers inimical to the Holy See, and to declare war against them at the orders of Boniface or his successors. Boniface even excommunicated the King of France, and gave his crown to Albert! We do not know to what lengths the Pope would have induced the emperor to go against Philip, to make good this gift, but the latter prevented any movement by seizing Boniface violently, and treating him so harshly that he died.

Albert was now obliged to turn his attention to matters nearer home than the crown of France. There had long been causes of misunderstanding with Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia, who in 1300 was elected King of Poland, where he had previous claims on the duchies of Cracow and Sandomir by the gift of Griffina, widow of the late duke Lesko. As his first wife, Albert’s sister, was dead, he married the daughter of Premislaus II. of Poland, who had died in 1296. Hardly had he obtained this new throne than his son Wenceslaus was chosen King of Hungary, over Charobert, who had been invested with that kingdom by Pope Boniface VIII. as a fief of the Roman see; an interference strongly resented by the Hungarians. Boniface had thundered a bull of excommunication against the Hungarians on this occasion; but it being despised, and his legate expelled, he called on Albert to support Charobert’s cause, who was also his own nephew. Albert eagerly listened to these overtures, and laid Wenceslaus under the ban of the empire, seconding the act by arms. The death of Wenceslaus II. and the accession of his inexperienced and feeble son, enabled Albert to arrange this affair in his own way; and in a few years, the death of Wenceslaus III. without issue, awakened in him new aspirations for power, and he prepared to transfer the crown of Bohemia into his own family.

“Like many other kingdoms of Europe, at that period, Bohemia was considered as an elective monarchy, though the crown was always continued in the same line, and the eldest son was chosen or confirmed during the lifetime of the father. Wenceslaus being the last male of the ancient dynasty, the throne was open to different pretenders. Henry of Carinthia became a candidate in virtue of his marriage with Anne, eldest sister of the deceased monarch; but Albert claimed the disposal of the crown, both as a fief of the empire, and in virtue of the compact between Rodolph and Wenceslaus II., which entailed Bohemia on the Austrian family, in default of issue male. He accordingly proposed his eldest son Rodolph, who strengthened his claims by promising to espouse Elizabeth[3], widow of Wenceslaus II., and was supported by a powerful party of the nobles.

“The States assembled at Prague, and the votes were divided between Henry of Carinthia, and Rodolph of Austria. The sisters of the late king came barefooted into the assembly, and supplicated with tears for Henry of Carinthia; but their entreaties were disregarded, and Rodolph was chosen on the 1st of April, 1306. Accompanied by his father, and at the head of a considerable force, he entered Prague in triumph, and fulfilled his promise of marrying the widowed queen. At the same time Albert obtained the formal renewal of the compact, which seemed to insure the succession of his own family.

“A mild and moderate system of conduct would have conciliated the natives, and fulfilled the accomplishment of his wishes, but such a conduct was not consonant to the character of Albert. By his influence Rodolph, though naturally mild and amiable, imposed heavy taxes on his subjects, disregarded their prejudices and customs, stripped the churches of their costly ornaments, and prosecuted the bishop of Prague, who remonstrated against this sacrilege. A large party of nobles broke into open revolt, the spirit of discontent spread with rapidity, and the whole nation seemed eager to take up arms against the Austrian despotism. To quell these commotions, Rodolph collected an army; but while he was besieging the fortress of Horazdovitz, he was hurried to the grave by a dysentery, in July, 1307, at the age of twenty-two, and before he had completed the first year of a precarious and disputed sovereignty.

“On this event, Frederic, the second son of Albert, was proposed to the states, who met in the episcopal palace of Prague. When Tobias of Bechnia, a nobleman of high rank, named Frederic of Austria, the assembly exclaimed, “We will have no Austrian king!” Bechnia tauntingly observing, “You will perhaps again choose a peasant from the village of Staditz, and marry him to the widowed queen,” a tumult arose; the most violent drew their sabres; Bechnia, with two others of the Austrian party were massacred, and Henry of Carinthia raised to the throne by unanimous acclamation.

“The haughty spirit of Albert, affected with the loss of Bohemia, was still more deeply wounded by the contemptuous rejection of his son. He accordingly asserted his claims in arms, and accompanied by Frederic, whom he declared King of Bohemia, led a powerful body of troops from Germany into the kingdom, and laid siege to Kuttenberg and Colin. But the approach of winter, the desultory attacks of the Bohemian forces, the obstinate resistance of the garrisons, and the severity of the season, at length compelled him to retire. He did not, however relinquish his object, but placing garrisons in Königsgratz, and other fortified towns, which had been yielded to him by Elizabeth, drew his troops into Austria, and determined to return in spring with a still more powerful army.