252 GERMANY. 
Germany. duchy or county of his father, which in the first.age 
of the monarchy was solicited as.a favour, was at length 
extorted as a right; and this right was claimed even 
: by collateral or female branches, 2 
yy cob 7 The emperors of the house of Suabia succeeded to 
pach egy °°" those of the house of Franconia, and held the empire 
‘A.D. 1138 from A.D. 1138, to.A. D. 1254. They were Conrad 
—A.D.  III.; Frederic I. surnamed Barbarossa; Henry VI. ; 
1224. Philip; Otho 1V.;, Frederic LI.; and Conrad [V.. The 
principal events. in the history of the latter princes of 
the Franconian line, and of all the princes of the Sua- 
bian line, were produced or influenced by the contests 
between the popes and the emperors ;, and the princi- 
pal ground of. these contests. was the claim, of the 
popes to the supreme dominion of every part of the 
Christian world, both in temporal and spiritual concerns. 
Guelphsand ‘This claim gaye rise to the factions of the Guelphs and 
Ghibelines. the Ghibelines; of which the former. were. attached. to 
the popes, and the latter to the emperors.. These two 
factions kept Germany and Italy in perpetual agitation 
. during three.centuries; and during this period, the im-, 
y perial authority continued to decline. 
Great inter- ‘The next period, between. 1254 and 1272, is general- 
regnum, 
‘A. Dp. 1254 ly called by the German writers, the Great Interregnum.. 
—A.D. During it, six princes claimed to be emperors, The in- 
1272. terregnum. was determined. by the election of Rodolph, 
Count.of Hapsburgh, From_him till the ultimate ae-; 
eases cession of the house of Austria, the empire of Germany 
beteeen Was, held by the following emperors. Rodolph.Count 
1273 and of Hapsburg, elected, A, D..1273., Adolph, Count.of 
A. D. 1519, Nassau, elected A. D. 1292. Albert I. Archduke of Aus- 
tria, elected A. D. 1298.,, Henry, Count of Luxemburg, 
elected A. D, 1308. Louis V. Duke of Bavaria, elected; 
A. D. 1314, . Charles, King, of Bohemia,, A. D. 1347. 
Winceslaus, King of Bohemia, A. D. 1378, Robert, 
Elector Palatine, A. D. 1400. Sigismond, King. of 
Hungary, A.D. 1410, And, Albert II. Duke of Aus- 
tria, A. D. 1438, During the period between the last 
accession. of the house of Hapsburg and the election 
of Charles V. the empire was possessed by the. follow- 
ing emperors. Frederic III. elected A. D. 1440 ; Maxi- 
milian I. elected 1493; and Charles V. elected A. D. 
1519, 
Beundaries ‘During this period, the boundaries of the Germanic 
a pe empire, the form of its government, and the rise of’ its 
towns, particularly those which composed the Hansea- 
tic league, are the chief subjects of consideration. . Its 
boundaries were the Eyder and the sea on the north; 
the Scheldt, Meuse, the Saone, and the. Rhone,, on the 
west.; the Alps and the Rhine onthe south; and. the 
Lech and Vistula on the east. In this great extent of 
country, the principal provinces were the duchy of Bur- 
gundy, comprising Savoy, the. Lesser Burgundy, Pro- 
vence, Dauphiny, and Switzerland: the duchy of Lor- 
raine, which, besides Lorraine, contained Holland, Zea- 
Jand, Brabant, Limburgh, Hainault, Flanders, Guel- 
dres, and Luxemburgh... Friesland was attached: to 
Lorraine, but was not governed either by a duke or a 
count. _When.the line,of Suabian, princes ceased, the 
ancient Alemannia and Franconia, in which. their pos- 
sessions chiefly lay, was divided. into various. principa- 
lities, At this. period, Saxony was divided by the We- 
ser into Eastern and Western. The former was some~ 
times called Saxony on the Elbe. the latter Saxony on: 
the Weser.. Misnia, Thuringia, and. Hessia were usual«, 
ly comprised under Saxony... The Slavic, territory, be- 
tween the Oder and the. Vistula, was occupied. by the 
Margraves of Brandenburg, and.the Dukes of. Poland 
and emia. To the last, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusa-~ 
Principal 
states, 
tia were subject. Pomerania and’ Prussia »wereyat thise Ger 
period in a very unsettled state, Bavaria still retained * 
the name of Boisaria. To the east of it, a considerable. 
tract was called Marchia Orientalis, or Oostrich ; after-» 
wards Austria. The empire was always elective; but Const 
great alterations took place in the mode of election. In 
early periods, the emperor was chosen by the people at. 
large: afterwards the nobility and na rk, officers of 
state possessed the privilege exclusively ; by degrees, it Elec 
was engrossed by the five great officers, the n 5 
the great marshal, the great chamberlain, the great but«: 
ler, and the great master, At first they contented thems) 
selves with proposing a candidate to the general. body. 
of electors. Afterwards they confined the whole sis ar 
of election to themselves. This mode was finally ; 
in the reign of Charles, IV. by the celebrated constitu-. 
tion called the Golden Bull, which fixed the right. of. 
election in four spiritual and three temporal electors.. 
These were, the King of Bohemia, the Duke of Saxony, 
the Margrave of Brandenburgh, the Count Palatine. of. 
the Rhine, and the three ishops of Mentz, Treves, . 
and Cologne. Subsequently, the Duke of Bavaria and ~ 
the Duke of Brunswick Lunenburgh wereadded. The: 5" 
multitude of princes, bishops, abbots,\and male and fe __ 
male. nobles, who, under various names, possessed: 
sovereign rights, though all recognised the emperor.as: 
their feudal lord, were divided Peper states,’ 
or those which had always been:held of the empéror, as: 
the duchies of Saxony and Bavaria, the Palatinate, and. 
several bishoprics ; those, which arose on the ruin of the. 
Guelphic family, in consequence of the confiscation of: 
the possessions of Henry the Lion; those which arose. 
from the ruins of the oak F family ; and those which | 
arose principally during the interregnum. . 
But. though the exclusive privilege of chusing the, Dies 
emperor was confined to the electors, Chay fchmodoslif ' 
one branch of the diet.. The other two. branches con-. 
sisted of the princes, and of the free and imperial. cities, 
of Germany. _ In process of time, the college of princes: 
and. prelates. purged themselves of a promisctous mul-, 
titude, aye 5 reduced to four representative 
long series of independent counts, and totally excluded. 
the nobles, 60,000 of whom had often appeared in the: 
field of election. The cities.of Germany, the origin and. Citie 
first state of which has been already noticed, insensibly, . _ 
became divided into the free cities, or those which held» __ 
immediately of the emperor, and: had a voice at the diet; . 
the mixed cities, or those under the protection of some: 
prince, which had no voice; and. the municipal cities; —_ 
entirely subject to the, states.. The Hanse towns also. § 
arose during the same period... They were. ‘ 
united for the support and encouragement of theircom= 
merce. Bremen. and several.sea-ports in Livonia first; 
established the confederacy...At one time 80 towns: — 
were included in it. They were divided into four clas« 
ses: the Vandallic, or the citieson the Baltic, between: 
Hamburgh and Pomerania; over these Lubeckpresided: 
the Rhinarian, or cities.on. the: Rhine, at: the head:of _ 
which was Cologne: the Saxon, the .cities in Saxon, 
and Westphalia, over which: Brunswick. presided: ‘ 
the Prussian, the cities in Prussia and Livonia, at. the 
head of which was Dantzic... From the beginning ofthe = __ 
15th century, Lubec was régarded as the head of the 
whole confederacy. In the following century it declix — 
ned; in the middle of the 17th, it was almost. wholly — 
confined to Hamburgh, Lubeck, and Bremen, Then 
political existence terminated in 1806. = ; 
Another important event. in this period of the history Inst 
of Germany, is the division of the territories of the.em- of ¢ 
5 
