114 



VRD DICTIONARY OK FACTS 



by the pope. At this period there were . 

 many five nations the Franks, Saxons, Bava- 

 rians, Swabians, and Lorrainers. Their 

 of a ruler fell ujwn the Count of Franconia, who, 

 under the title of Conrad I., reigned King of 

 Germaav from 911-18. He was succeeded by 



. . 



ath of Lothaire of Saxony 



the throne till 1138. \\ii.-n tlu- : 



ie Danes, Slavs, and Magyars, which waa 



, :.:::.--! .,:,: fc 0080 bj DM HID and WO- 



cefflor, Otho I. (836-7 irri, -.1 the boun- 



daries of the emj.in l*yond the Elbe and Saale. 



3&-S6 Henry "ill 

 supremacy over Hungary. In 111'.') the male 



by the death 

 .i-d the 



power were assumed by Conrad III., Duke of 

 Franoonia, in whose reign tin- civil wars of the 

 GueJphs and Ghibellines began, lie was the 

 first of the Hohenstauffen dynasty. He was 

 succeeded by the famous Frederick I., sur- 

 named Barbarossa, wh.>. with the flower of his 

 fished in the Crusades. In li'To 

 the first of the Habsburg line, which 

 ."till reigns in Austria, began his reign. and 

 restored order by destroying the strongholds of 

 the nobles. n, counting 



from 1- riod of the accession of Adolph- 



phus. the i the German Empire pre- 



rsj of interest. In 1 !!'> Maxi- 

 milian I., succeeded his father, Frederick III.. 

 married Mary, daughter of Charles the Bold of 

 Burgundy, and became, consequently, involved 

 in the general | Clitics of Europe, while his 

 opposr MC reformed faith preached by 



Luther embittered the religious differences 

 which marked the close of his reign. He was | 

 succeeded by Charles V., who, although opposed 



Reformation, left the princes of Germany 

 to settle their religious differences among them- 



and to quell the insurrection of the peas- 

 ants in 1. ">_'."), which threatened to undermine 

 lit- abdicated in favor of his brother 

 Ferdinand in l.">.>6, who granted entire toleration 

 to the Protestants. Ferdinand's reign was dis- 

 by dome-tic and foreign aggressions. 

 Anarchy, both civil and religious, now obtained 

 to such an extent as to culmi- 

 nate in the Thirty Year-' War, which closed 

 under Ferdinand III. by the treaty of West- 

 phalia, 1. terrible war depopulated 



the rural districts of Germany, destroyed its 

 commerce, crippled the powers of the emperors, 

 burdened the j>eople witn taxes, and cut up the 

 empire into a multitude of petty states, whose 

 rulers exercised almost absolute power. The 

 malt- line <>t the Habsburg dynasty expired with 

 Charles VI.. 17K). The reign of this potentate 

 and that of his predecessor, Joseph I., were 

 signali/ed by the victories won by the imperialist 

 general, Prince Kugene. and Marlborough, over 



n nch. During the Seven Year-' War 



Frederick the Great, of Prussia, maintained his 



r skilli ul generalship at the expense 



of Austria. During the life-time of Maria Then-a 



she retained her authority over all the Christian 



but on her death her son, Joseph II., was 

 little more than nominal sovereign. In 1792 

 Francis II. was crowned Kmperor of Germany; 

 in iXOt lie a limed the title Francis I. Kmpen.r 



of Austria; in 1806 he resigned the German 

 crown and assumed the title of Emperor of 



. having suffered a series of defeats by the 



of the French Republic. From this 

 period till 1814-15 Germany was almost wholly 

 at t he mercy of Napoleon, who deposed the estab- 

 li-hed sovereigns, and dismembered the states 

 in the interest of his own favorites. Of the 300 



into which the empire was divided there 

 remained only forty a number subsequently 

 n-duced to thirty-five. The Diet was now reor- 

 gani/ed by all the allied states as the legislature 

 and executive organ of the Confederation. The 

 French Revolution of 1830 reacted sufficiently 

 to constrain the rulers of some of the German 

 states to give written constitutions to their sub- 



This was insufficient to meet the demands 

 of the people as a whole, so that in 1848, by 

 open insurrectionary movements was compelled 

 the convocation, by a provisional self-consti- 

 tuted assembly, of a national congress of repre- 

 sentatives of the people. The Archduke John 

 of Austria was elected vicar of the newly organ- 

 ized government, but his action embarrassed 

 the progressive tendencies of parliament and 

 dampened the hopes of the progressionists. The 

 refusal of the King of Prussia to accept the 

 imperial crown which was offered him by the 

 parliament was followed by a provisional regency 

 of the empire; but as there was no cohesion 

 among the members of the parliament, and as 

 Austria had been shut out from the German 

 Confederation by a majority of one vote, the 

 assembly soon lapsed into anarchy, which led to 

 its dissolution. In 1850 the Diet was restored 

 by Austria and Prussia. In 1859 the whole 

 federal army was mobilized, and the Prussian 

 prince regent made commander-in-chief. There 

 is little doubt that the feeling of the German 

 people, as distinguished from the princes and 

 bureaucracy, has, in recent times at least, been 

 in favor of the purely German Prussia as their 

 leader rather than Austria, the great mass of 

 whose population are Slavs and Magyars. And 

 when the Parliament of Frankfurt, in 1850, 

 offered the imperial crown to the King of Prussia, 

 the unity of Germany might have been secured 

 without bloodshed had the monarch been resolute, 

 or had he had a Bismarck for his adviser. But 

 that opportunity being let slip, and the incubus 

 of the Bund being restored, it became apparent 

 that the knot must be cut by the sword. By the 

 treaty of Gastein, Austria and Prussia agreed to 

 a joint occupation of the Elbe duchies; but to 

 prevent collision it was judged prudent that 

 Austria should occupy Holstein and Prussia 

 Sleswick. Already a difference of policy had 

 begun to show itself; Prussia was believed to 

 have the intention of annexing the duchies, 

 while Austria began to favor the claims of Prince 

 Frederick of Augustenburg, and wished to refer 

 the disposal of the matter to the Bund. At this 

 crisis England, France, and Russia invited the 

 disputants to a conference. Prussia and Italy 

 readily consented; but nothing came of it, 

 through the obstinate pride of Austria, who 

 would not allow her position in Italy to be even 

 taken into consideration. In the sitting of the 

 < lerman Diet, June 1, 1866, Austria, disregarding 

 the Convention of Gastein, placed the whole 



