136 



A U S T R I A. 



Austria. 



Battle of 

 Muhldorf. 



X.uuis. 



Maximi- 

 lian. 



the imperial crown, and was accordingly elected by a 

 party, while Louis of Bavaria was set up in opposi- 

 tion by a very powerful body of the Germanic union. 

 A bloody battle was fought at Muhldorf, in 1 322, 

 between Frederick and Louis. The latter gained 

 the day, and took his rival and his brother Henry 

 prisoners. He imprisoned Frederick in the castle of 

 Transnitz, and entrusted Henry to the king of Bo- 

 hemia, who powerfully befriended him on this mo- 

 mentous occasion. Louis was, however, soon after 

 greatly embarrassed by the intrigues and hostility of 

 Pope John XXII., who was determined, if possible, 

 to pull him from his throne, and, with that view, 

 wished a reconciliation with the Austrian princes. 

 He therefore gave liberty to Frederick to return 

 home to his states, but under the condition of re- 

 nouncing the imperial dignity, both for himself and 

 his family, during Louis's life, and also of procuring 

 his four brothers agreement to that condition. Here 

 a scene of honourable and disinterested generosity 

 opens, which is uncommon among princes in every 

 age, and of which few traces exist in the history of 

 the world. Frederick's brothers could not be pre- 

 vailed upon to agree to the renunciation promised to 

 Louis. The spouse and children of the Austrian 

 monarch supplicated him to remain at home, and to 

 consider his engagement to his rival as cancelled by 

 the cruel treatment which he had met with during 

 his imprisonment, as well as by the consideration that 

 his promise of returning was extorted from him by 

 force, and consequently void in a moral as well as 

 in a religious sense. His brothers joined in the same 

 entreaties, and displayed sentiments of affection very 

 inconsistent with the ambitious projects which pre- 

 vented them from accepting the alternative of re- 

 nouncing all claim, during the life of Loui3, to the 

 imperial dignity. Frederick, in spite of all their en- 

 treaties, returned to Munich, his enemy's capital ; de- 

 livered himself up, on the day appointed, as his pri- 

 soner ; and, to the astonishment of Europe, renoun- 

 ced his crown, his liberty, the endearments of a fa- 

 mily whom he tenderly loved, and every prospect 

 that could make life valuable, for the sacred pledge 

 which he had given by his word. What a contrast 

 to the conduct of the popes and princes of his age ; 

 and what a charming glimpse of moral light across 

 .the midnight darkness of the times ! 



Louis, deeply affected by the magnanimity of his 

 rival, received him as his bosom friend. They swore 

 perpetual friendship, and lived as brothers until the 

 end of Frederick's life. 



For the space of 150 years from this period, the 

 house of Austria underwent various changes, too te- 

 dious to mention, sometimes very critical, but gene- 

 rally ending favourably, until, in 11-96, all the pro- 

 vinces which had belonged to it, excepting the Swiss 

 cantons, were united into one sovereignty, along with 

 many other rich countries, in the person of Maximi- 

 lian, emperor elect in Germany, and king of the 

 Romans. This took place nearly 200 years after 

 the Austrian provinces had been divided among the 

 descendants of Rudolf of Habsburg. Maximilian 

 married Mary, the only child of Charles the Bold, 

 duke of Burgundy, and heiress of his valuable states 

 in France, Flanders, and on the Rhine. By her he 



Ferdi- 

 nand H. 



had a son and heir, Philip the Handtome, who es- 

 poused Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand, king of Ar- * \ 

 ragon, and of Isabella, queen vi' Casfilc. This Phi- 

 lip was father of the celebrated Charles V., who suc- 

 ceeded, in 1516, to an aggregate of European pow 

 superior to that of any monarch since the the death 

 of Charlemagne. Charles V. had a vouuger brother, 

 Ferdinand, and a sister, Mary, who married Louis II., 

 king of Hungary and Bohemia. Ferdinand espoused, 

 in his turn, Anne, sister of his brother-in-law Louis ; 

 and thus, by a double marriage, the wav was paved 

 for the annexation of Hungary and Bohemia to the 

 Austrian states. The marriages took place at Lmtz, 

 in Upper Austria, on the 27th of May 1521. 



Louis, of Hungary and Bohemia, fell in the battle 

 of Mohatsch, in 1527, and Ferdinand contrived to get 

 himself crowned king of Hungary and of Bohemia 

 towards the end of that year. He, and his succes- 

 sors, however, have not enjoyed those two kingdoms 

 in tranquillity since their incorporation with the Aus- 

 trian provinces. They carried on, for 150 years, 

 until the peace of Carlowitz, almost constant wars 

 with the Turks for them ; and the frontiers of Hun- 

 gary, towards Turkey, were not definitively fixed un- 

 til our own times. 



In 1522, Charles V. yielded up to his brother Fer- 

 dinand all the German provinces, excepting the Low 

 Countries, which he inherited in right of Ins grand- 

 mother, Mary of Burgundy ; and thus the Austrian 

 line was divided into two branches, the German and 

 the Spanish. His brother procured him to be elect- 

 ed king of the Romans in 1530. Ferdinand died in 

 1564, after having added the kingdoms of Hungary 

 and Bohemia, with Moravia, part of Silesia, and se- 

 veral other smaller principalities, to the Austrian 

 empire. 



The three sons of Ferdinand of Austria, viz. Max- 

 imilian, Ferdinand, and Charles, divided his domi- 

 nions among them. The eldest was emperor of Ger- 

 many, and archduke of Austria. The descendant of 

 Charles, the youngest son of Ferdinand, also named 

 Ferdinand II., reunited once more, in 1619, under 

 his authority, almost all the provinces which were 

 possessed by Ferdinand, his grandfather. This Fer- 

 dinand began the 30 years war against the Protes- 

 tants, and carried it on during the remainder of his 

 life. Under him served Tilly, Wallenstein, and 

 other eminent captains, against Gustavus Adolphus 

 and his heroic generals. He fixed it as a law in his 

 family-succession, that all his territories should de- 

 scend to one, by right of primogeniture, and soon 

 thereafter died, in 1637. 



Ferdinand III. succeeded his father, and put an 

 end, in 1648, to the 30 years war, by the famous 

 Treaty of Westphalia, which constituted, for a long 

 time, the basis of the public law of Germany. 



Leopold I. succeeded Ferdinand III. in 1657, and Leopold I. 

 reigned as emperor and archduke of Austria for 48 

 years, till 1705. 



Joseph I. ascended the throne of Germany as em- Joseph I; 

 peror and archduke, on the death of his father Leo- 

 pold I., and, aided by our great countryman Marl- 

 borough, raised the house of Austria's power to its 

 ancient pitch. He died in 1711, and was succeeded 

 by his brother, who assumed the name of Charles VL 

 3 



Maximi- 

 lian. 



Ferdi- 

 nand III. 



