WURTEMBERG. 



127 



of Luxemburg put him under the ban of the empire, 

 and he was attacked from all sides, so that he fled to 

 the margrave of Baden. But Henry VII. died in Italy, 

 and Eberhard recovered all that he had lost. His 

 son Ulrich purchased new territories, among which 

 was Tubingen. His son Eberhard der Greiner, a 

 knight known all over Germany, purchased, during 

 his reign, from 1344 to 1392, about twenty towns 

 in whole or in part, and a number of villages, &c., 

 and maintained what he had acquired in a constant 

 struggle with the free imperial cities of Suabia. His 

 successors continued to increase their possessions 

 almost down to the elevation of the Wurtemberg 

 territories into a duchy, profiting by the spend- 

 thrift habits of their neighbours, and seizing the 

 wealth of the convents and free cities when they 

 found opportunity. But the chief cause of the 

 gradual rise of this family was the circumstance 

 that its territory remained undivided. The first 

 division took place in 1442; but it lasted only to 

 1482, and, by the treaty of Miinsingen, the same 

 year, the indivisibility of the territory became a 

 family law. The emperor Maximilian, in 1495, 

 made it a duchy ; and Wurtemberg became now 

 the name of a country. The dukes soon acquired 

 importance as members of the empire. To Eber- 

 hard, the same duke who made the family law just 

 mentioned, the people of Wurtemberg owe the first 

 steps towards a constitution founded upon compact. 

 Eberhard had, in consequence of a family quarrel, 

 convoked deputies of the citizens for the settle- 

 ment of public affairs, in 1482. On this occasion, 

 it was solemnly stipulated that every thing done in 

 future by the rulers of Wurtemberg for the advan- 

 tage of the country, should be done with the co- 

 operation of the prelates, counsellors and deputies. 

 The country nobility was excluded at his own de- 

 sire. Lutheranism was introduced under Chris- 

 topher, and through him and his successors the 

 " permanent delegations" (standing committees) 

 and the separate treasury acquired completeness, 

 and stability. Frederic, at the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century, and Charles, in the middle of 

 <he eighteenth, attempted to overturn the consti- 

 tution, but in vain. It was not till 1806, that the 

 government became an absolute monarchy, after the 

 constitution had lost much of its efficacy and esti- 

 mation in the last years of the reign of Charles. 

 The thirty years' war, so ruinous to all Germany, was 

 particularly disastrous to Wurtemberg. Between 

 1634 and 1641, the population sunk from about 

 330,000 men to 48,000. All who were able left 

 the country : great numbers were destroyed in bat- 

 tle or by famine and pestilence : towns and villages 

 lay deserted and in ruins. To the Swedes, under 

 the government of the chancellor Oxenstiern, and 

 to the Swedish ministers at Osnabriick, Wurtem- 

 berg owes her restoration, which was effected by 

 the peace of Westphalia, (q. v.) But the reign of 

 Louis XIV. was also a time of great suffering for 

 this country ; Melac, and other monsters, burned 

 and devastated it. During the reign of duke Louis, 

 Wiirtemberg was under the government of a mis- 

 tress, like France in the time of Louis XIV. From 

 the war of the Spanish succession to the wars of 

 the French revolution, the country was free from 

 foreign enemies. Only once, in the second Silesian 

 war, foreign troops marched through it ; arid duke 

 Charles took part with Austria against Prussia in 

 the third Silesian war, with the hope of being as- 

 sisted by that power in suppressing the chamber of 

 deputies. But his attempt at absolute power was 



defeated by the aulic council of the empire, under 

 the guarantee of Prussia, Hanover and Denmark, 

 and the government became still more limited. The 

 duke at once changed the character of his adminis- 

 tration, diminished the expense of his court, and, 

 during the last half of his reign, did much good. 

 He patronised arts and sciences, though in a some- 

 what military manner. The Charles academy (see 

 Schiller, and Dannecker) was founded by him. 

 The population rose to 600,000. The religion of 

 the country had suffered by the circumstance that, 

 from 1733 to 1797, the princes were Catholic. Un- 

 der the reign of duke Charles Alexander, a Jew, 

 named Suss, ruined the finances, of which he was 

 minister. He was hanged by Charles's successor. 

 Through a Prussian princess, the mother of 

 Frederic Eugene, Protestantism became again the 

 religion of the rulers. During the government of 

 Frederic, the French republic took possession of the 

 Wurtemberg territories on the left bank of the 

 Rhine, and repeatedly occupied the duchy. His 

 son, subsequently king Frederic I., was indemnified 

 by an additional territory, containing 12,000 in- 

 habitants. He himself was made elector. In 1805, 

 he took part with France in the war with Austria; 

 in return for which he was made king, with sove- 

 reign power, and received an addition to his terri- 

 tory, which gave him 200,000 new subjects. As 

 soon as the empire was dissolved, the new king 

 became a member of the confederation of the Rhine 

 (see the article), and, as such, took part in all the 

 wars of France, except that with Spain. Subse- 

 quently to the last war between France and Austria 

 (1809), the population of the kingdom was in- 

 creased to 1,350,000. After the downfall of the 

 French empire, the king secured all his acqui- 

 sitions by joining the allies. Since 1815, Wiir- 

 temberg, though a small kingdom, has formed one 

 of the larger states of the Germanic confederacy. 

 Frederic I. was a tyrant, and that to a degree which 

 is rare at the present time; yet like many other 

 tyrants, he was a man of talent, and judiciously pro- 

 moted the good of his subjects, where it was in ac- 

 cordance with his own objects. He died in 1816, 

 and was succeeded by his son William I. When 

 Frederic I. assumed the royal title, in 1806, he 

 declared himself absolute sovereign. The peace of 

 Presburg made him such in fact. The people of 

 Wurtemberg, in the confusion of the new order of 

 things, took the oath of unconditional obedience, 

 instead of the former constitutional oath. Only 

 two or three persons made some opposition. But 

 when the king went, in 1814, to the congress of 

 Vienna, some voices demanded the old constitution. 

 At this congress, the king supported by Bavaria, 

 opposed Prussia and Hanover, which expressed 

 themselves in favour of the establishment of repre- 

 sentative estates throughout Germany. But he 

 soon declared that he intended to give a new con- 

 stitution, and offered one in 1815 ; but it was re- 

 jectee. The representatives of the people de- 

 manded the old constitution, and laid particular 

 stress on the compact which it recognised between 

 the people and the monarch. After the subject 

 had been long under discussion, Frederic was on the 

 point of cutting the whole matter short ; but death 

 prevented him. A constitution was at last agreed 

 to by king William, September 26, 1819. It is 

 founded on compact. (See Constitution.) The 

 outlines are given in the preceding paragraph. 



WURZBURG, GKAND-DUCHY OF, has been, 

 since 1814, a part of the kingdom of Bavaria. The 



