AUSTRIA. 



135 



Austria. 



Frederick I 

 Leopold II, 



Rudolf of 

 Habsburg, 



of there being no direct heir of the ducal house, the 

 actual possessor was to bequeath Austria to whom 

 he pleased. These last mentioned privileges are very- 

 remarkable for that period of our European history. 



Henry died in 1177, and was succeeded by his eld- 

 est son Leopold, who was the first hereditary duke 

 of Austria. This prince was fortunate enough to 

 receive from Othokar VI. duke of Stiria, that exr 

 tensive province as a formal legacy. The important 

 donation was confirmed to him by the Emperor Hen- 

 ry VI., who granted him the solemn investiture of that 

 dukedom, at Worms in 1192: But Leopold proved 

 very ungrateful to his superior for this act of kind- 

 ness. Our Richard Lion-Heart, on his return from 

 the Holy Land, was shipwrecked on the coast of 

 Istria, and attempted to make his way through Ger^ 

 many to England in the dress of a pilgrim. He was 

 discovered, however, at Vienna, and, by the order of 

 Leopold, with whom he had quarrelled at St Jean 

 d'Acre, ungenerously cast into a dungeon, and treat- 

 ed with extreme inhumanity. It was a considerable 

 time before the mediation of the emperor, and a heavy 

 ransom procured the liberty of the gallant Richard.* 



Leopold was, in 1191, succeeded by Frederick I., 

 who went to Palestine, and obtained the sirname 

 of Catholic. The younger brother, Leopold, the 

 seventh margrave, but second duke, succeeded him; 

 and mi the first of the Austrian princes who adopt- 

 ed the wise policy of acquiring territory by purchase 

 instead of chicanery or arms. He bought from the 

 bishop of Freisingen some extensive estates and su- 

 periorities in Carniola, which, in 1809, remained in 

 his family. He proved himself, in many respects, to 

 be greatly superior to most princes of his age. Many 

 of his successors availed themselves of the same means 

 for gaining admission into provinces, which they in- 

 tended gradually to secure altogether for themselves ; 

 and they were, perhaps, as much indebted for their 

 astonishing success to their pacific policy, as to their 

 military talents and their good fortune. It was not, 

 however, until 1272, when Rudolf, count of Habs- 

 burg and Kyburg, and landgrave of Upper Alsatia, 

 (founder of the houses of Austria and Lorraine,) was 

 elected emperor, that Austria became a formidable 

 power. That prince, the best politician, and one of 

 the ablest men of his age, contrived to elude the jea- 

 lousy of his rivals, and to consolidate the power of 

 his heir, while he apparently studied the advantage 

 of all the collateral branches of his house. In order 

 to soothe the minds of the electors, always suspicious 

 of their emperor's destination of their property and 

 power, he granted to his two sons the investiture of 

 Austria, Stiria, and Carinthia, with their dependen- 

 cies; and to Mainard, their nearest heir, Carniola, 

 and part of Tyrol ; but with the restriction of a joint 

 investiture with his sons, and a reversion in their fa- 

 vour. The count of Tyrol acknowledged thtm also 

 as his superior lords. All these arrangements took 

 place at a solemn diet at Augsburg, on the 27th of 

 December 1282. 



Austri 



The sudden and great elevation of a simple count 

 of the empire to the imperial dignity, and to the 

 power of granting investitures so important to his 

 family, without making enemies of the other great 

 German princes, is a singular fact in the history of 

 the times. Rudolf certainly was not elected to esta- 

 blish and extend the imperial authority, but, on the 

 contrary, because his> territories and his influence were 

 so inconsiderable as to excite no fears or jealousies 

 in the other princes of the empire, who were willing 

 to preserve the forms of a constitution, the power 

 and usefulness of which they had destroyed. Some of 

 his successors were placed on the imperial throne from 

 the same motive ; but none knew so well as he did how 

 to profit by the occasion thus offered, for extending 

 and confirming the power of his family. The parti- 

 tion which he mace of his territories among his sons 

 and relations was entirely illusory, and calculated 

 merely to lull asleep the suspicions of his neighbours. 

 By the very acts of division and investiture, he reser- 

 ved to himself the power of making what changes he 

 might think fit in the testament by which he convey- 

 ed his estate to the members of his house ; and ac- 

 tually declared his eldest son Albert sole proprietor 

 of his Austrian provinces, a few months after he had 

 secured the legal confirmation of the first grant by 

 the diet. 



It was the uncommon prudence, foresight, and 

 caution with which he steadily followed out one 

 grand leading object, without losing sight of it for a 

 moment, that enabled Rudolf to accomplish the pro- 

 jects which he had formed for the grandeur of his 

 family, and to lay so firmly the foundations of the 

 Austrian monarchy. Among his other talents as a 

 statesman, we may remark two, by which he obtained 

 the greatest advantages ; and the want of which, in 

 his-successors, has endangered or ruined their govern- 

 ment : These are, a respect for established forms, and 

 the opinions of his contemporaries ; and a singular 

 felicity in seizing the proper time for the execution 

 of his purposes. He was often heard to say, " that 

 violence in form was worse policy than violence in 

 act;" and, " that for every human effort it could 

 only once be said Dies ist die zeit," ' this is the pro- 

 per moment.' He did every thing through the me. 

 dium of the electors and great princes, whom he 

 knew how to gain and to attach, according to the 

 forms and regulations of the empire, and never once 

 began any thing too soon or too late. How diffe- 

 rent from the conduct of his successors Joseph and 

 Francis in our own days ! 



Albert was declared king of the Romans in 1278;, 

 but this did not much contribute to his personal hap- 

 piness, nor to his power as a sovereign. He was 

 murdered by his own nephew John, (his brother Ru- 

 dolf's son,) in 1308. His son Frederick, simamed Frede- 

 the Handsome, succeeded him as archduke of A us- rick II. 

 tria ; and his other sons, Leopold, Albert, Henry, 

 and Otho, enjoyed considerable fortunes in conse- 

 quence of their father's will. Frederick aspired at 



* The ruins of the castle of Thierstein, a few leagues above Vienna, where he passed many dismal hours, exhibited to us, 

 in 180 ,, a sight worthy of the barbarism of its ancient master Some French infantry took refuge among the ruins, after 

 having been put to flight by a superior body ot Russians. The latter paying no attention to the demand for quarter made 

 by i he French, murdered the greater part of them in the ruins, and can the rest headlong from the ramparts into the Da- 

 nube. 



