033 



WENCESLAUS. 



WERGELAND, HENRIK ARNOLD. 



631 



ducted, they of course, at the age of sixteen, knew quite as much as, 

 and were in every other respect superior to, common men of double 

 that age. The electors wero less persuaded by these arguments than 

 by the wealth of Chflrles, who is said to have given one hundred 

 thousand gold guldens to each of them, besides estates and other 

 advantages, and thus Wenceslaus was chosen king at Fraukfurt in 1376. 



Wenceslaus succeeded his father in 1378. The state of the empire 

 was this : After the death of Pope Gregory XL, at Avignon, in 1378, 

 the Roman cardinals chose Urban VI., who was to reside in Rome. 

 The French cardinals however chose Clement VII., who maintained 

 himself a short time in Rome, but he was driven out by Urban VI., 

 and took up his residence at Avignon. Wenceslaus recognised Ur- 

 ban VI. as pope, and in return received the papal recognition of his 

 election to the imperial throne, which he had not yet obtained. This 

 policy involved him in difficulties with the kings of France, Charles V., 

 and, after him, Charles VI., from which however he disentangled 

 himself by an alliance with King Richard II. of England, in 1381, 

 who married the- emperor's sister, Anne, and who likewise recognised 

 Urban VI. As to the disturbances occasioned by the disputed govern- 

 ment of two popes, the emperor was unable to quell them ; and he 

 only quieted Clement VII. 's adherents among the princes of the 

 empire by granting to them several important privileges. To Leopold, 

 duke of Austria, he pledged the imperial rights over the free cities of 

 Suabia for a large sum of money ; but these cities, fearing that they 

 would lose their freedom under Leopold, concluded an alliance to 

 which a great number of towns and free cities on the Rhine adhered, 

 and they defended themselves against the duke. Some other princes 

 of Southern Germany also tried to obtain imperial rights, and then 

 gradually the sovereignty over other towns and free cities, and for 

 that purpose they concluded a union, which was headed by Eberhard, 

 count of Wiirtemberg, and Leopold, duke of Austria, who had very 

 extensive possessions in Suabia. The consequence was a dreadful 

 civil war between the princes and the citizens, whose party was 

 strengthened by the towns and cities of Switzerland, which was then 

 a province of Germany. In Switzerland the princes were defeated in 

 the battle of Sempach (9th of July 1386), where Duke Leopold of 

 Austria was slain, with 656 counts and knights ; but in Suabia the 

 citizens were routed at the battle of Dofmgen (24th of August 1388) 

 and in several other engagements. Wenceslaus tried to pacify the 

 belligerent parties, but his measures were partial, and had no effect. 

 In order to please the victorious princes, he cancelled the heavy debts 

 which they had contracted by borrowing money from the Jews, a 

 proceeding of which we find many other instances in Germany, 

 England, and France : 3000 Jews were killed by the mob in Prague. 

 For some time the emperor, who seldom left Prague, succeeded in 

 maintaining peace in Bohemia and other parts of his own dominions, 

 but he abandoned himself to a dissolute life and committed many acts 

 of cruelty. By his order John Pomuk, commonly called Nepomuk, a 

 virtuous divine, and afterwards a saint, was drowned in the Moldau, 

 after Wenceslaus had tortured him with his own hand (1393). He 

 showed himself faithless to his own brothers, aud to Jobst of Moravia, 

 who surprised the emperor and put him in prison, in order to obtain 

 justice from him, but was compelled to liberate him at the summons 

 of the other princes. As Wenceslaus resided at Prague, and seldom 

 appeared in any other part of Germany, the princes declared that 

 they would depose him if he did not fulfil his duty of visiting the pro- 

 vinces of the empire, and contributing by his personal appearance to 

 their tranquillity. Through sloth or timidity, Wenceslaus did not 

 leave Bohemia, but appointed his brother Siegmund vicar-general of the 

 Roman empire, and kept for himself nothing but the imperial name. 



The state of the Church was still deplorable : Boniface IX., the 

 successor of Urban VI., was pope at Rome, and Benedict XIII., the 

 successor of Clement VII., was pope at Avignon. The doctrines of 

 Wycliffe had found their way into Bohemia, where they were propa- 

 gated by Huss, and the confusion was so great, that a general council 

 was considered the only means of restoring peace to the church. On 

 this Wenceslaus suddenly left Bohemia and appeared at the diet at 

 Frankfurt (1398), but his propositions were so imprudent, and his 

 conduct so destitute of good faith, that the princes resolved to depose 

 him. He was summoned to appear at Lahnstein before the tribunal 

 of the electors, and on his non-appearance he was declared to have 

 forfeited his crown, and his deposition, founded on seven different 

 charges, was pronounced by John, elector of Mainz, in the pre- 

 sence of a numerous crowd (20th August 1400). Ruprecht, elector- 

 palatine, was chosen emperor on the following day. Wenceslaus pro- 

 tested against his deposition, and continued to style himself emperor, 

 and as such he was recognised by the council of Pisa in 1409. But he 

 had not influence enough to form a powerful party in the empire, and 

 even his authority in Bohemia was disregarded by his brother Sieg- 

 mund, who kept him in prison for two yeara. After the death of 

 Ruprecht, in 1410, Wenceslaus, without giving up his imperial title, 

 effected the election of his cousin Jobst of Moravia, who died in the 

 following year (1411). The choice of the electors fell upon Siegmund, 

 elector of Brandenburg and king of Hungary, the brother of Weuces- 

 laus, who now renounced the imperial title aud lived quietly in 

 Bohemia. He tried to protect Huss against the proceedings of the 

 Council of Constanz, but did not succeed. After the burning of Huss, 

 in 1415, his adherents in Bohemia formed a union, the ultimate con- 



sequence of which was the dreadful war of the Hussites against the 

 empire. The beginning of this war was an outbreak at Prague in 

 1419. Wenceslaus resided then at his castle of Kunratiz, and when 

 the news of the outbreak reached him, he fell into a fit of passion, and 

 died of apoplexy on the 16th of August, 1419. He left no male issue, 

 and his nominal successor in the kingdom of Bohemia was his brother, 

 the emperor Siegmund. 



WENT WORTH, THOMAS. [STRAFFORD.] 



WERGELAND, HENRIK ARNOLD, a very distinguished Nor- 

 wegian poet and political writer, was born on the 17th of June 1808 

 at Christiansand, where his father, Nikolai Wergeland, a clergyman, 

 was one of the assistant masters at the Latin school. The father, who 

 was much respected, and who survived the son, was one of the deputies 

 who, when in 1814 Norway was severed by the allied powers from 

 Denmark and united to Sweden, met and framed the constitution of 

 Eidsvold, the acceptance of which by Sweden laid the foundation of 

 a new and much more prosperous and glorious period in the annals of 

 Norway. He was afterwards appointed priest of the parish of Eids- 

 vold, the place from which the constitution takes its name, which is 

 at the distance of about 40 English miles from Christiania; and it was 

 there and at Christiania, first at the cathedral school and afterwards 

 at the university, that hiS*son received his education. It was in 1827 

 that Henrik Wergeland commenced his literary career under the 

 assumed name of Siful Sifadda, by a farce or dramatic satire entitled 

 ' Ah.' It was afterwards followed by twelve other farces of a similar 

 kind, some in verse and some in prose, and mostly of an Aristophanic 

 vein, with a political bearing and a seasoning of personalities. It was 

 not surprising that these productions should arouse the animosity of 

 the parties to whom they referred, and for the ten years from 1827 to 

 1837 Wergeland's life was passed in what is familiarly called 'hot 

 water." His contributions to the Norwegian newspapers, some of 

 which he occasionally edited, were very frequent; and his poems, 

 many of which were on political subjects, were hardly less numerous. 

 His admirers were at this time fond of calling him ' the Byron of 

 Norway;' but Dr. R. G. Latham, who knew him personally, and in 

 his ' Norway and the Norwegians ' gives an interesting account of a 

 visit to the parsonage of Eidsvold, observes that his productions 

 rather reminded him of those of Elliott, the Corn-Law Rhymer, and 

 that he might be called an ' Elliott Ossian.' His political feelings were 

 intensely and exclusively Norwegian, and so narrow as to be antago- 

 nistical even to the other members of the Scandinavian family, the Danes 

 and Swedes. For some time he drew the whole youth of Norway 

 with him, but in 1832 the appearance of an attack upon him by 

 Welhaven, another rising poet and critic ' Henrik Wergelands 

 Digtekunst og Polemik ' (Henry Wergeland's Poetry and Polemics) 

 began to turn the current, thpugh Wergeland's father wrote vigorously 

 in his defence, and at present it may be considered that the public 

 opinion of Norway is in favour of the united action of the three 

 Scandinavian countries. It was regarded however as a great triumph 

 of Wergeland's views that, in 1837, Sweden conceded the point of 

 allowing a separate national flag to Norway. In the following year 

 King Charles John (Bernadotte) paid a visit to Christiania, and Werge- 

 land wrote a complimentary poem on the occasion, which was said to 

 have been received by the sovereign with peculiar gratification. The 

 Norwegian public was surprised to hear afterwards that the king had 

 manifested his feelings by conferring on Wergeland, hitherto regarded 

 as the chief ' radical ' of Norway, an annual pension from his own 

 privy purse, and a storm of indignation burst on the head of the poet. 

 His position up to that time had been a somewhat precarious one. So 

 far back as 1834 he had given up the clerical pi-ofession, after passim/ 

 in 1829 his examination as candidate in theology, and officiating for 

 some time as curate to his father. A poem which he had published, 

 under the title of ' Creation, Man, and the Messiah,' which he regarded as 

 his best work, and which many even of his admirers declared themselves 

 unable either to admire or comprehend, contained views and opinions 

 which were not considered compatible with the position of a minister 

 of the church ; and the general freedom of his life and opinions was 

 also against him. On quitting theology he studied medicine ; in 1836 

 he was appointed keeper of the university library, and in 1840 keeper 

 of the Norwegian archives. Giving up political writing after his 

 pension, he devoted himself to poetry ; and though his productions at 

 this time did not meet with the enthusiastic reception their prede- 

 cessors had enjoyed, it is now acknowledged that they are the best of 

 his whole career. In 1840 he married, and was enthusiastically 

 attached to his wife. But his constitution, originally athletic and 

 corresponding with his stature of eix feet three, was irrecoverably 

 shattered by an immoderate indulgence in brandy, and he died on the 

 12th of August 1845, at the age of thirty-seven. 



A collected edition of the principal works of Wergeland was com- 

 menced in 1851 by the Students' Society of Christiama, under the 

 editorship of H. Lassen. The last volume we have seen of it is the 

 eighth, published in 1856, and it was to be completed in nine. The 

 editor, who had the task of collecting many of these writings from 

 magazines, reviews, and newspapers, has also had that of adding notes, 

 which on some occasions were necessary to render them intelligible to 

 those not intimately acquainted with the passing history of Norway 

 at the time during which they appeared. Three volumes of ^ the eight 

 are occupied with poetry, among which Jan Van Huysum's Flower- 



