GERMANY 



GERMANY 



Frederick H died in 1250, and 

 his surviving son Conrad, beaten 

 and disheartened, soon left Ger- 

 many to look after itself. Several 

 puppet kings, foreigners such as 

 Richard, earl of Cornwall, were 

 put forward, but none of these had 

 any power, save that of the few 

 soldiers who followed them and 

 their supporters. 



One or two characteristics of 

 this period may be mentioned. In 

 the first place, apart from the 

 court and surroundings of the 

 kingjthere was no central authority. 

 In this fact lay the mischief done 

 by the continual expeditions to 

 Italy. A regent or someone of the 

 kind was left behind, but the 

 machine he controlled was de- 

 prived of its principal parts. Thus 

 came a chance for the ambitious 

 among the princes and prelates. 

 Civil wars were inevitable. The 

 barons and their troops plundered 

 wherever they could, causing an 

 immense deal of suffering among 

 the peasantry. Something of the 

 kind happened in England and 

 France, but to nothing like the 

 same extent. Moreover, in those 

 countries the hereditary character 

 of the kingship made for stability. 



The early part of this period was 

 marked by the spread of Christian- 

 ity; the latter by the growth of 

 towns. Otto the Great especially 

 believed in securing the aid of the 

 Church, and about his time many 

 bishoprics and monasteries were 

 founded, mainly, but not solely, in 

 the newly conquered regions. The 

 energies of Christianity were also 

 aroused by the Crusades, in which 

 several German kings and many 

 princes participated. 



Trade and Townships 



Other causes, the growth of trade 

 being prominent, led to the in- 

 crease in the number and size of 

 the towns. As in England, kings 

 found that selling privileges to 

 them was an easy way of raising 

 money. The general disorder added 

 to their strength, for their walls 

 were generally able to keep out the 

 marauding bands, and the benefits 

 secured by living therein were 

 increasingly appreciated by the 

 countrymen. Many of them were 

 independent states in all but name, 

 and the eagerness with which kings 

 sought their aid is eloquent of their 

 position at this time. 



In general, during these years 

 the size of Germany was being 

 increased. There were set-backs, 

 it is true, as towards the end of 

 the 10th century, but notwith- 

 standing this the gains were con- 

 siderable. Henry the Fowler began 

 the work of bringing the Slavs 

 over his eastern frontiers into his 

 duchy. Other kings carried on 



wars with Poles,Bohemians, Danes, 

 and others, whose rulers now and 

 again owned themselves as their 

 vassals, but the important fact was 

 not so much this as the steady roll 

 of German influence eastwards. On 

 the borders were watchful and 

 ambitious men, lords of a piece of 

 debatable land, small but capable 

 of indefinite expansion by the 

 sword. One mark district was 

 extended until it became Branden- 

 burg, while another area of expan- 

 sion was in the south-east, Styria, 

 Carinthia, and thereabouts. In 

 1250 the Elbe was far from being 

 the boundary river it had been 

 300 years before. 



Rise of the Hapsbuigs 



Under the conditions prevailing 

 after 1250, it mattered little to 

 the princes whether Germany had 

 a king or not, but the pope was 

 anxious for one, and at his instiga- 

 tion the electors met in 1273 and 

 chose Rudolph of Hapsburg, a 

 count ruling over some land in 

 what is now Switzerland, and one 

 who had made a reputation as a 

 fighter. From this date until 1866, 

 with only one long break, a 

 member of this family was the 

 senior of Germany's rulers, the one 

 with the greatest prestige, though 

 not always with the greatest 

 power. The Hapsburgs were 

 Roman emperors and German 

 kings as long as the empire lasted ; 

 and as Austrian emperors were of 

 high consequence in Germany until 

 the events of 1866. 



But Rudolph secured something 

 intrinsically more valuable than 

 the throne of a disunited country. 

 The result of some fighting with 

 the king of Bohemia, he took the 

 duchies of Austria, Styria, and 

 Carniola, and by giving these to 

 his sons he began the long asso- 

 ciation of his family with the duchy 

 that grew into the empire of 

 Austria. When he died in 1298 his 

 son Albert was not elected king, 

 but he made war upon his success- 

 ful rival, Adolph, who was killed 

 in battle. Albert then secured the 

 throne. 



Albert's reign was brief, and 

 when it ended there was another 

 fight, this time between one of his 

 sons, Frederick, and Louis, a 

 member of the Wittelsbach family. 

 The latter soon became the 

 emperor Louis IV, another ruler 

 who spent his strength freely, but 

 without advantage to his country, 

 in a quarrel with the pope. The 

 next emperor, Charles IV, was a 

 son of the king of Bohemia, and to 

 him, also, though for a different 

 reason, Germany was only a 

 secondary consideration. Charles 

 was followed by his son Wenceslaus, 

 who was dethroned by the electors 



because he was too idle to attend 

 to his duties, and then came 

 another son, Sigismund. On 

 Sigismund's death in 1437 a 

 Hapsburg was again chosen king, 

 and the election soon became a 

 mere form, a Hapsburg being 

 chosen as a matter of course. 



The emperor, however, was by 

 no means the only ruler in Ger- 

 many, nor was he necessarily its 

 most powerful figure. From one 

 end to the other were states, 

 bewildering in number and of 

 every conceivable size and shape, 

 ruled by counts, marquesses, 

 dukes, and some, not less import- 

 ant, by bishops and abbots. By 

 virtue of the Golden Bull of 1356, 

 which named seven electors, these 

 were winning an exceptional 

 position for themselves, standing 

 out amid the crowd of petty 

 rulers. They were the king of 

 Bohemia, the rulers of the Palati- 

 nate, Saxony, and Brandenburg, 

 and the arcnbishops of Mainz, 

 Cologne, and Treves. With Austria 

 and Bavaria these may be regarded 

 as the chief of the German states, 

 and much of Germany's history is 

 that of their rivalries and growth. 

 In Germany by this time some- 

 thing like a parliament had devel- 

 oped. Called the Reichstag, it met 

 at the instance of the king in any 

 city in which he was. At first, as 

 in England, the members sat all 

 together, but gradually they 

 became divided into three houses, 

 the college of electors, the college of 

 princes, i.e. all the rulers save the 

 electors, and the college of free cities. 



The Hanseatic League 

 Two other movements should be 

 mentioned the Teutonic Order 

 and the Hanseatic League. The 

 knights of the former, the crusades 

 being over and their occupation 

 gone, accepted an invitation from 

 the bishop of Prussia to help him 

 to conquer the heathen Prussians. 

 This the soldier monks did and the 

 country, roughly the district now 

 known as East Prussia, became 

 the possession of the order, its 

 ruler being the grand master. 

 German immigrants settled in the 

 land, and towns were built therein. 

 The Hanseatio League arose 

 from an association of German 

 towns for mutual protection. 

 There were a number of small 

 alliances, which the conditions of 

 the time almost compelled, but 

 this one became unique as a 

 trading confederation. It had its 

 own fleet, and was strong enough 

 to fight, as it did against Denmark 

 for instance, but its main activities 

 were commercial. It was indepen- 

 dent of any German authority, 

 save that the free cities owed a 

 certain allegiance to the king, and 



