HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 73 



year 860, subjugated these districts, and penetrated as far as Kiew and 

 Novogorod. 



Of the Asiatic empires, the Arabian Caliphate of Bagdad had readied its- 

 highest splendor under Al Mansur, Ilarun Al-llashid, and Al-Mahmun. The 

 realm, however, was soon after split into several divisions ; and thus materially 

 weakened, it fell at length into the hands of the Turks. The Arabs of 

 this period were distinguished for science and art, especially architecture. 



Towards the close of this period also commenced the Crusades, of which 

 we shall treat more fully hereafter. 



The House of Hohenstaufen. 



After the extinction of the Frankish imperial house by the death of 

 Henry Y., 1125, the Germans elected king Lothaire duke of Saxony. He: 

 was, however, vigorously opposed by the two Hohenstaufen, Frederic of 

 Suabia and Conrad of Franconia. In order to fortify himself against these 

 enemies, he formed an alliance with Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria, 

 giving him his daughter in marriage, and his own duchy of Saxony as' 

 dowry. This possession made Henry the most powerful prince in Ger- 

 many, so that when Lothaire died childless in 1137, he, as his son-in-law, 

 ventured to claim the succession, and to seize the imperial jewels. But the 

 people, fearing rather than loving his character, refused to elect him, and 

 chose for emperor Conrad of Hohenstaufen. With him began a line of 

 powerful monarchs, of the house of Hohenstaufen, whose members at first 

 resided at the castle of Hohenstaufen in Suabia. The rejected Henry w^as 

 deprived of his duchies and outlawed. Saxony fell to Albert the Bear, 

 Margrave of Brandenburg, and Bavaria to Leopold, Margrave of Austria.- 

 Henry, enraged at this partition of his territories, marched an army against 

 Albei't, whom he effectually subdued, but before hostilities commenced with 

 Leopold, he died, 1139. 



His son Henry, afterwards surnamed the Lion, only recovered Saxony. 

 Welph, a brother of the deceased, lent him his aid in asserting his claims to 

 the paternal inheritance, and at last strove to vindicate them in a battle . 

 with Conrad, near Weinsberg, 1140. From the battle-cry of the Bavarians, 

 " Here Welph !" and that of Hohenstaufen, " Here Waiblingen !" (the 

 name of a castle belonging to this family) originated the party names 

 Welphs (Guelphs or Bavarians) and Waiblingens (Ghibelines or Suabians) ; 

 and the bitterest feuds between these political factions existed for centuries. 

 Welph lost the battle ; and Conrad having stormed Weinsberg, permitted 

 none but the women to leave the town, with the clause, however, that each 

 might take with her the object which she might deem most valuable. 

 The women had recourse to the stratagem of carrying off their husbands as 

 their best treasures. Conrad died in 1151. 



He was succeeded by his nephew Frederic I. (Barbarossa), a most heroic 

 and sagacious monarch, who reigned from 1152 to 1190. Bavaria was now 

 restored to Henry the Lion, and Austria made a duchy independent of 



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