36 GEOGRAPHY. 



Pope, and even after the addition of vast temporal possessions to spiritual 

 supremacy, the Popes for a long time recognised the superiority of the 

 Emperor. The boundaries of the present Papal States were assigned in 

 1209 by Emperor Otto IV. Since the time of Innocent III. (died 1206), 

 the reigning Pope has been Primate of Rome and her territories ; these, 

 however, did not increase materially before the fifteenth centurv. 



In eastern Europe we find the following governments : 1. The continually 

 decaying Eastern or Greek Empire. From 1081-1185, the race of the 

 Comneni had possession of the throne, but in 1185, Isaac Angelus established 

 a new dynasty. From 1204-1261 there existed a Latin dynasty in Con- 

 stantinople, estabUshed by Count Baldwin of Flanders, who, in 1204, 

 captured Constantinople, at the head of the Crusaders : this was limited to 

 the vicinity of the capital. 2, Serbia, after the death of the powerful 

 Emperor, Emanuel I. Comnenus (1143-1180), became independent, and the 

 Zupan (Prince) Stephan Venceanus (1195-1224) was in 1217 crowned 

 king of Rascia. 3. In 1186 a new JVallachian- Bulgaria?, kingdom was 

 established. John Asan I. (1217-1241) conquered Macedonia and the 

 greater part of Thrace, and immediately assumed the imperial title. 4. 

 The kingdom of the Hungarians or Madschars was ruled by Princes of 

 the house of Arpad up to 1301. At this period Stephan I. the Holy received 

 the royal crown from the Pope (about 997), and obtained Siebenbiirgen ; 

 he introduced Christianity among his people. Kings Ladislaus I. (1077-1095) 

 and Colomann (1095-1114) conquered the whole of Croatia, Sclavonia, and 

 Dalmatia, although the latter province subsequently fell into the hands of 

 the Venetians. 5. The duchy, and afterwards kingdom of Poland, which, 

 since 1130, had extended over Pomerania and Silesia, but, since 1163, had 

 had a separate duke. For more than five centuries, from 840-1370, the race 

 of Duke Piast, called from the plough to the sceptre, ruled over the land. 

 In 965, Mieczyslaw I. embraced Christianity, and in 999 his son Boleslaw 

 I. (992-1025) assumed the title of king. Boleslaw III., in 1138, divided the 

 land among his four sons ; but Wenzeslaw 11. , in 1305, again united most 

 of the provinces. The principality, and subsequently the duchy of 

 Lithuania, was independent of Poland. 6. The Grand Principality of 

 Russia, under Wladimir I., who introduced Christianity, in 1015, among his 

 twelve sons. The government descended to his son Jaroslaw I., who, in 

 1015, divided his dominions among his five sons, who held their residences 

 in Kiew, Tschernigow, Perejoslawl, Wladimir, and Smolensk. Division after 

 divi'sion subsequently took place, until there w^ere fifty principalities, of 

 which, however, the Grand Principality of Kiew was the most powerful, and 

 claimed the supremacy. About the middle of the twelfth century, George 

 Dolgoruki, the founder of Moscow^ established a new principality in Western 

 Russia, with Wladimir as the seat of government, which soon became more 

 potent than all the rest; in 1155 he united Wladimir and Kiew, but in 1157 

 both principalities were again separated. From 1237-1477 Russia came 

 under the rule of the Mongolian Tartars, and was tributary to the Khan of 

 Kaptschak. The seat of government, from 1015-1169, was held at Kiew; 

 fit Wladimir, from 1169-1328, and after that at Moscow. Prussia and 



