Chapter XXVII: Front Matter (27)

"After the death of Sigismund, the princes, in 1438, elected
an emperor [king?] from the house of Austria, which, with
scarcely any intermission, has ever since occupied the ancient
throne of Germany. Albert II. of Austria, who, as son-in-law
of the late Emperor Sigismund, had become at the same time
King of Hungary and Bohemia, was a well-meaning, distinguished
prince, and would, without doubt, have proved of great benefit
to the empire; but he died ... in the second year of his
reign, after his return from an expedition against the Turks.
... In the year 1431, during the reign of Sigismund, a new
council was assembled at Basle, in order to carry on the work
of reforming the church as already commenced at Constance. But
this council soon became engaged in many perplexing
controversies with Pope Eugene IV. ... The Germans, for a
time, took no part in the dispute; at length, however, under
the Emperor [King?] Albert II., they formally adopted the
chief decrees of the council of Basle, at a diet held at Mentz
in the year 1439. ... Amongst the resolutions then adopted
were such as materially circumscribed the existing privileges
of the pope. ... These and other decisions, calculated to give
important privileges and considerable independence to the
German church, were, in a great measure, annulled by Albert's
cousin and successor, Duke Frederick of Austria, who was
elected by the princes after him in the year 1440, as
Frederick III. ... Frederick, the emperor, was a prince who
meant well but, at the same time, was of too quiet and easy a
nature; his long reign presents but little that was calculated
to distinguish Germany or add to its renown. From the east the
empire was endangered by the approach of an enemy--the Turks,
against whom no precautionary measures were adopted. They, on
the 29th of May, 1453, conquered Constantinople. ... They then
made their way towards the Danube, and very nearly succeeded
also in taking Hungary [see HUNGARY: A. D. 1442-1458]. ... The
Hungarians, on the death of the son of the Emperor Albert II.,
Wladislas Posthumus, in the year 1457, without leaving an heir
to the throne, chose Matthias, the son of John Corvinus, as
king, being resolved not to elect one from amongst the
Austrian princes. The Bohemians likewise selected a private
nobleman for their king, George Padriabrad [or Podiebrad], and
thus the Austrian house found itself for a time rejected from
holding possession of either of these countries. ... In
Germany, meantime, there existed numberless contests and
feuds; each party considered only his own personal quarrels.
... The emperor could not give any weight to public measures:
scarcely could he maintain his dignity amongst his own
subjects. The Austrian nobility were even bold enough to send
challenges to their sovereign; whilst the city of Vienna
revolted, and his brother Albert, taking pleasure in this
disorder, was not backward in adding to it. Things even went
to such an extremity, that, in 1462, the Emperor Frederick,
together with his consort and son, Maximilian, then four years
of age, was besieged by his subjects in his own castle of
Vienna. A plebeian burgher, named Holzer, had placed himself
at the head of the insurgents, and was made burgomaster,
whilst Duke Albert came to Vienna personally to superintend
the siege of the castle, which was intrenched and bombarded.
{203}
...The German princes, however, could not witness with indifference
such disgraceful treatment of their emperor, and they
assembled to liberate him. George Padriabrad, King of Bohemia,
was the first who hastened to the spot with assistance, set
the emperor at liberty, and effected a reconciliation between
him and his brother. The emperor, however, was obliged to
resign to him, for eight years, Lower Austria and Vienna.
Albert died in the following year. ... In the Germanic empire,
the voice of the emperor was as little heeded as in his
hereditary lands. ... The feudal system raged under
Frederick's reign to such an extent, that it was pursued even
by the lower classes. Thus, in 1471, the shoeblacks in Leipsic
sent a challenge to the university of that place; and the
bakers of the Count Palatine Lewis, and those of the Margrave
of Baden defied several imperial cities in Swabia. The most
important transaction in the reign of Frederick, was the union
which he formed with the house of Burgundy, and which laid the
foundation for the greatness of Austria. ... In the year 1486,
the whole of the assembled princes, influenced especially by
the representations of the faithful and now venerable Albert,
called the Achilles of Brandenburg, elected Maximilian, the
emperor's son, King of Rome. Indeed, about this period a
changed and improved spirit began to show itself in a
remarkable degree in the minds of many throughout the empire,
so that the profound contemplator of coming events might
easily see the dawn of a new era. ... These last years were
the best in the whole life of the emperor, and yielded to him
in return for his many sufferings that tranquillity which was
so well merited by his faithful generous disposition. He died
on the 19th of August, 1493, after a reign of 54 years. The
emperor lived long enough to obtain, in the year 1490, the
restoration of his hereditary estates by the death of King
Matthias, by means of a compact made with Wladislas, his
successor."

_F. Kohlrausch, History of Germany, chapter 14_.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1347-1493.

AUSTRIA: A. D. 1468.
Invasion by George Podiebrad of Bohemia.
The crusade against him.

See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1458-1471.

AUSTRIA: A. D. 1471-1491.
Hungarian invasion and capture of Vienna.
Treaty of Presburg.
Succession to the throne of Hungary secured.

"George, King of Bohemia, expired in 1471; and the claims of
the Emperor and King of Hungary being equally disregarded, the
crown was conferred on Uladislaus, son of Casimir IV. King of
Poland, and grandson of Albert II. To this election Frederic
long persisted in withholding his assent; but at length he
determined to crush the claim of Matthias by formally
investing Uladislaus with the kingdom and electorate of
Bohemia, and the office of imperial cup-bearer. In revenge for
this affront, Matthias marched into Austria: took possession
of the fortresses of the Danube; and compelled the Emperor to
purchase a cessation of hostilities by undertaking to pay an
hundred thousand golden florins, one-half of which was
disbursed by the Austrian states at the appointed time. But as
the King of Hungary still delayed to yield up the captured
fortresses, Frederic refused all further payment; and the war
was again renewed. Matthias invaded and ravaged Austria; and
though he experienced formidable resistance from several
towns, his arms were crowned with success, and he became
master of Vienna and Neustadt. Driven from his capital the
terrified Emperor was reduced to the utmost distress, and
wandered from town to town and from convent to convent,
endeavouring to arouse the German States against the
Hungarians. Yet even in this exigency his good fortune did not
wholly forsake him; and he availed himself of a Diet at
Frankfort to procure the election of his son Maximilian as
King of the Romans. To this Diet, however, the King of Bohemia
received no summons, and therefore protested against the
validity of the election. A full apology and admission of his
right easily satisfied Uladislaus, and he consented to remit
the fine which the Golden Bull had fixed as the penalty of the
omission. The death of Matthias Corvinus in 1490, left the
throne of Hungary vacant, and the Hungarians, influenced by
their widowed queen, conferred the crown upon the King of
Bohemia, without listening to the pretensions of Maximilian.
That valorous prince, however, sword in hand, recovered his
Austrian dominions; and the rival kings concluded a severe
contest by the treaty of Presburg, by which Hungary was for
the present secured to Uladislaus; but on his death without
heirs was to vest in the descendants of the Emperor."

_Sir R. Comyn, The History of the Western Empire,
chapter 28 (volume 2)._

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1471-1487, and 1487-1526.

AUSTRIA: A. D. 1477-1495.
Marriage of Maximilian with Mary of Burgundy.
His splendid dominion.
His joyous character.
His vigorous powers.
His ambitions and aims.

"Maximilian, who was as active and enterprising as his father
was indolent and timid, married at eighteen years of age, the
only daughter of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy."

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1477

"She brought him Flanders, Franche-Comte, and all the Low
Countries. Louis XI., who disputed some of those territories,
and who, on the death of the duke, had seized Burgundy,
Picardy, Ponthieu, and Artois, as fiefs of France, which could
not be possessed by a woman, was defeated by Maximilian at
Guinegaste; and Charles VIII., who renewed the same claims,
was obliged to conclude a disadvantageous peace." Maximilian
succeeded to the imperial throne on the death of his father in
1493.

_W. Russell, History of Modern Europe, letter 49 (volume 1)._

"Between the Alps and the Bohemian frontier, the mark Austria
was first founded round and about the castles of Krems and
Melk. Since then, beginning first in the valley towards
Bavaria and Hungary, and coming to the House of Hapsburg, it
had extended across the whole of the northern slope of the
Alps until where the Slavish, Italian, and German tongues
part, and over to Alsace; thus becoming an archduchy from a
mark. On all sides the Archdukes had claims; on the German
side to Switzerland, on the Italian to the Venetian
possessions, and on the Slavish to Bohemia and Hungary. To
such a pitch of greatness had Maximilian by his marriage with
Maria of Burgundy brought the heritage received from Charles
the Bold. True to the Netherlanders' greeting, in the
inscription over their gates, 'Thou art our Duke, fight our
battle for us,' war was from the first his handicraft. He
adopted Charles the Bold's hostile attitude towards France; he
saved the greater part of his inheritance from the schemes of
Louis XI. Day and night it was his whole thought, to conquer
it entirely.
{204}
But after Maria of Burgundy's premature death, revolution
followed revolution, and his father Frederick being too old to
protect himself, it came about that in the year 1488 he was
ousted from Austria by the Hungarians, whilst his son was kept
a prisoner in Bruges by the citizens, and they had even to
fear the estrangement of the Tyrol. Yet they did not lose
courage. At this very time the father denoted with the vowels,
A. E. I. O. U. ('Alles Erdreich ist Oesterreich
unterthan'--All the earth is subject to Austria), the extent
of his hopes. In the same year, his son negotiated for a
Spanish alliance. Their real strength lay in the imperial
dignity of Maximilian, which they had from the German Empire.
As soon as it began to bestir itself, Maximilian was set at
liberty; as soon as it supported him in the persons of only a
few princes of the Empire, he became lord in his Netherlands.
... Since then his plans were directed against Hungary and
Burgundy. In Hungary he could gain nothing except securing the
succession to his house. But never, frequently as he concluded
peace, did he give up His intentions upon Burgundy. ... Now
that he had allied himself with a Sforza, and had joined the
Liga, now that his father was dead, and the Empire was pledged
to follow him across the mountains, and now, too, that the
Italian complications were threatening Charles, he took fresh
hope, and in this hope he summoned a Diet at Worms. Maximilian
was a prince of whom, although many portraits have been drawn,
yet there is scarcely one that resembles another, so easily
and entirely did he suit himself to circumstances. ... His
soul is full of motion, of joy in things, and of plans. There
is scarcely anything that he is not capable of doing. In his
mines he is a good screener, in his armoury the best plater,
capable of instructing others in new inventions. With musket
in hand, he defends his best marksman, George Purkhard; with
heavy cannon, which he has shown how to cast, and has placed
on wheels, he comes as a rule nearest the mark. He commands
seven captains in their seven several tongues; he himself
chooses and mixes his food and medicines. In the open country,
he feels himself happiest. ... What really distinguishes his
public life is that presentiment of the future greatness of
his dynasty which he has inherited of his father, and the
restless striving to attain all that devolved upon him from
the House of Burgundy. All his policy and all his schemes were
concentrated, not upon his Empire, for the real needs of which
he evinced little real care, and not immediately upon the
welfare of his hereditary lands, but upon the realization of
that sole idea. Of it all his letters and speeches are full.
... In March, 1495, Maximilian came to the Diet at Worms. ...
At this Reichstag the King gained two momentous prospects. In
Wurtemberg there had sprung of two lines two counts of quite
opposite characters. ... With the elder, Maximilian now
entered into a compact. Wurtemberg was to be raised to a
dukedom--an elevation which excluded the female line from the
succession--and, in the event of the stock failing, was to be
a 'widow's portion' of the realm to the use of the Imperial
Chamber. Now as the sole hopes of this family centred in a
weakling of a boy, this arrangement held out to Maximilian and
his successors the prospect of acquiring a splendid country.
Yet this was the smaller of his two successes. The greater was
the espousal of his children, Philip and Margaret, with the
two children of Ferdinand the Catholic, Juana and Juan, which
was here settled. This opened to his house still greater
expectations,--it brought him at once into the most intimate
alliance with the Kings of Spain. These matters might
possibly, however, have been arranged elsewhere. What
Maximilian really wanted in the Reichstag at Worms was the
assistance of the Empire against the French with its
world-renowned and much-envied soldiery. For at this time in
all the wars of Europe, German auxiliaries were decisive. ...
If Maximilian had united the whole of this power in his hand,
neither Europe nor Asia would have been able to withstand him.
But God disposed that it should rather be employed in the
cause of freedom than oppression. What an Empire was that
which in spite of its vast strength allowed its Emperor to be
expelled from his heritage, and did not for a long time take
steps to bring him back again? If we examine the constitution
of the Empire, not as we should picture it to ourselves in
Henry III. 's time, but as it had at length become--the legal
independence of the several estates, the emptiness of the
imperial dignity, the electiveness of a head, that afterwards
exercised certain rights over the electors,--we are led to
inquire not so much into the causes of its disintegration, for
this concerns us little, as into the way in which it was held
together. What welded it together, and preserved it, would
(leaving tradition and the Pope out of the question) appear,
before all else, to have been the rights of individuals, the
unions of neighbours, and the social regulations which
universally obtained. Such were those rights and privileges
that not only protected the citizen, his guild, and his
quarter of the town against his neighbours and more powerful
men than himself, but which also endowed him with an inner
independence. ... Next, the unions of neighbours. These were
not only leagues of cities and peasantries, expanded from
ancient fraternities--for who can tell the origin of the
Hansa, or the earliest treaty between Uri and Schwyz?--into
large associations, or of knights, who strengthened a really
insignificant power by confederations of neighbours, but also
of the princes, who were bound together by joint inheritances,
mutual expectancies, and the ties of blood, which in some
cases were very close. This ramification, dependent upon a
supreme power and confirmed by it, bound neighbour to
neighbour; and, whilst securing to each his privilege and his
liberty, blended together all countries of Germany in legal
bonds of union. But it is only in the social regulations that
the unity was really perceivable. Only as long as the Empire
was an actual reality, could the supreme power of the
Electors, each with his own special rights, be maintained;
only so long could dukes and princes, bishops and abbots hold
their neighbours in due respect, and through court offices or
hereditary services, through fiefs and the dignity of their
independent position give their vassals a peculiar position to
the whole. Only so long could the cities enjoying
immediateness under the Empire, carefully divided into free
and imperial cities, be not merely protected, but also assured
of a participation in the government of the whole. Under this
sanctified and traditional system of suzerainty and vassalage
all were happy and contented, and bore a love to it such as is
cherished towards a native town or a father's house. For some
time past, the House of Austria had enjoyed the foremost
position. It also had a union, and, moreover, a great faction
on its side. The union was the Suabian League. Old Suabia was
divided into three leagues--the league of the peasantry (the
origin of Switzerland); the league of the knights in the Black
Forest, on the Kocher, the Neckar, and the Danube; and the
league of the cities. The peasantry were from the first
hostile to Austria. The Emperor Frederick brought it to pass
that the cities and knights, that had from time out of mind
lived in feud, bound themselves together with several princes,
and formed, under his protection, the league of the land of
Suabia. But the party was scattered throughout the whole
Empire."

_L. von Ranke, History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations,
book 1, chapter 3._

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AUSTRIA: A. D. 1493-1519.
The Imperial reign of Maximilian.
Formation of the Circle of Austria.
The Aulic Council.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1493-1519.

AUSTRIA: A. D. 1496-1499.
The Swabian War with the Swiss Confederacy and the Graubunden,
or Grey Leagues (Grisons).
Practical independence of both acquired.

See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1396-1499.

AUSTRIA: A. D. 1496-1526.
Extraordinary aggrandizement of the House of Austria by its marriages.
The Heritage of Charles V.
His cession of the German inheritance to Ferdinand.
The division of the House into Spanish and German branches.
Acquisition of Hungary and Bohemia.

In 1496, Philip the Fair, son of Maximilian, Archduke and
Emperor, by his marriage with Mary of Burgundy, "espoused the
Infanta of Spain, daughter of Ferdinand [of Aragon] and
Isabella of Castile. They had two sons, Charles and Ferdinand,
the former of whom, known in history by the name of Charles
V., inherited the Low Countries in right of his father, Philip
(1506). On the death of Ferdinand, his maternal grandfather
(1516), he became heir to the whole Spanish succession, which
comprehended the kingdoms of Spain, Naples, Sicily, and
Sardinia, together with Spanish America. To these vast
possessions were added his patrimonial dominions in Austria,
which were transmitted to him by his paternal grandfather, the
Emperor Maximilian I. About the same time (1519), the Imperial
dignity was conferred on this prince by the electors [see
GERMANY: A. D. 1519]; so that Europe had not seen, since the
time of Charlemagne, a monarchy so powerful as that of Charles
V. This Emperor concluded a treaty with his brother Ferdinand;
by which he ceded to him all his hereditary possessions in
Germany. The two brothers thus became the founders of the two
principal branches of the House of Austria, viz., that of
Spain, which began with Charles V. (called Charles I. of
Spain), and ended with Charles II. (1700); and that of
Germany, of which Ferdinand I. was the ancestor, and which
became extinct in the male line in the Emperor Charles VI.
(1740). These two branches, closely allied to each other,
acted in concert for the advancement of their reciprocal
interests; moreover they gained each their own separate
advantages by the marriage connexions which they formed.
Ferdinand I. of the German line married Anne (1521), sister of
Louis King of Hungary and Bohemia, who having been slain by
the Turks at the battle of Mohacs (1526), these two kingdoms
devolved to Ferdinand of the House of Austria. Finally, the
marriage which Charles V. contracted with the Infant Isabella,
daughter of Emmanuel, King of Portugal, procured Philip II. of
Spain, the son of that marriage, the whole Portuguese
monarchy, to which he succeeded on the death of Henry, called
the Cardinal (1580). So vast an aggrandisement of power
alarmed the Sovereigns of Europe."

_C. W. Koch, The Revolutions of Europe, period 6._

ALSO IN:
_W. Coxe, History of the House of Austria,
chapter 25 and 27 (volume 1)._

_W. Robertson, History of the Reign of Charles V., book 1._

See, also, SPAIN: A. D. 1496-1517.

AUSTRIA: A. D. 1519.
Death of Maximilian.
Election of Charles V., "Emperor of the Romans."

See GERMANY: A. D. 1519.

AUSTRIA: A. D. 1519-1555.
The imperial reign of Charles V.
The objects of his policy.
His conflict with the Reformation and with France.

"Charles V. did not receive from nature all the gifts nor all
the charms she can bestow, nor did experience give him every
talent; but he was equal to the part he had to play in the
world. He was sufficiently great to keep his many-jewelled
diadem. ... His ambition was cold and wise. The scope of his
ideas, which are not quite easy to divine, was vast enough to
control a state composed of divers and distant portions, so as
to make it always very difficult to amalgamate his armies, and
to supply them with food, or to procure money. Indeed its very
existence would have been exposed to permanent danger from
powerful coalitions, had Francis I. known how to place its
most vulnerable points under a united pressure from the armies
of France, of England, of Venice, and of the Ottoman Empire.
Charles V. attained his first object when he prevented the
French monarch from taking possession of the inheritance of
the house of Anjou, at Naples, and of that of the Viscontis at
Milan. He was more successful in stopping the march of Solyman
into Austria than in checking the spread of the Reformation in
Germany. ... Charles V. had four objects very much at heart:
he wished to be the master in Italy, to check the progress of
the Ottoman power in the west of Europe, to conquer the King
of France, and to govern the Germanic body by dividing it, and
by making the Reformation a religious pretext for oppressing
the political defenders of that belief. In three out of four
of these objects he succeeded. Germany alone was not
conquered: if she was beaten in battle, neither any political
triumph nor any religious results ensued. In Germany, Charles
V. began his work too late, and acted too slowly; he undertook
to subdue it at a time when the abettors of the Reformation
had grown strong, when he himself was growing weaker. ... Like
many other brilliant careers, the career of Charles V. was
more successful and more striking at the commencement and the
middle than at the end, of its course. At Madrid, at Cambrai,
at Nice, he made his rival bow down his head. At Crespy he
again forced him to obey his will, but as he had completely
made up his mind to have peace, Charles dictated it, in some
manner, to his own detriment.
{206}
At Passau he had to yield to the terms of his enemy--of an
enemy whom Charles V. encountered in his old age, and when his
powers had decayed. Although it may be said that the extent
and the power of the sovereignty which Charles V. left to his
successor at his death were not diminished, still his armies
were weakened, his finances were exhausted, and the country
was weary of the tyranny of the imperial lieutenants. The
supremacy of the empire in Germany, for which he had struggled
so much, was as little established at the end as at the
beginning of his reign; religious unity was solemnly destroyed
by the 'Recess' of Augsburg. But that which marks the position
of Charles V. as the representative man of his epoch, and as
the founder of the policy of modern times, is that, wherever
he was victorious, the effect of his success was to crush the
last efforts of the spirit of the middle ages, and of the
independence of nations. In Italy, in Spain, in Germany, and
in the Low Countries, his triumphs were so much gain to the
cause of absolute monarchy and so much loss to the liberty
derived from the old state of society. Whatever was the
character of liberty in the middle ages--whether it were
contested or incomplete, or a mockery--it played a greater
part than in the four succeeding centuries. Charles V. was
assuredly one of those who contributed the most to found and
consolidate the political system of modern governments. His
history has an aspect of grandeur. Had Francis I. been as
sagacious in the closet as he was bold in the field, by a
vigorous alliance with England, with Protestant Germany, and
with some of the republics of Italy, he might perhaps have
balanced and controlled the power of Charles V. But the French
monarch did not possess the foresight and the solid
understanding necessary to pursue such a policy with success.
His rival, therefore, occupies the first place in the
historical picture of the epoch. Charles V. had the sentiment
of his position and of the part he had to play."

_J. Van Praet, Essays on the Political History of the 15th,
16th, and 17th Centuries, pages 190-194._

See, also, GERMANY: A. D. 1519 to 1152-1561,
and FRANCE: A. D. 1520-1523, to 1547-1559.

AUSTRIA: A. D. 1525-1527.
Successful Contest for the Hungarian and Bohemian Crowns.

In Hungary, "under King Matthias the house of Zapolya, so
called from a Slavonic village near Poschega, whence it
originated, rose to peculiar eminence. To this house, in
particular, King Wladislas had owed his accession to the
throne; whence, however, it thought itself entitled to claim a
share in the sovereign power, and even a sort of prospective
right to the throne. Its members were the wealthiest of all
the magnates; they possessed seventy-two castles. ... It is
said that a prophecy early promised the crown to the young
John Zapolya. Possessed of all the power conferred by his rich
inheritance, Count of Zips, and Woiwode of Transylvania, he
soon collected a strong party around him. It was he who mainly
persuaded the Hungarians, in the year 1505, to exclude all
foreigners from the throne by a formal decree; which, though
they were not always able to maintain in force, they could
never be induced absolutely to revoke. In the year 1514 the
Woiwode succeeded in putting down an exceedingly formidable
insurrection of the peasants with his own forces; a service
which the lesser nobility prized the more highly, because it
enabled them to reduce the peasantry to a still harder state
of servitude. His wish was, on the death of Wladislas, to
become Gubernator of the kingdom, to marry the deceased king's
daughter Anne, and then to await the course of events. But he
was here encountered by the policy of Maximilian. Anne was
married to the Archduke Ferdinand; Zapolya was excluded from
the administration of the kingdom; even the vacant Palatinate
was refused him and given to his old rival Stephen Bathory. He
was highly incensed. ... But it was not till the year 1525
that Zapolya got the upper hand at the Rakosch. ... No one
entertained a doubt that he aimed at the throne. ... But
before anything was accomplished--on the contrary, just as
these party conflicts had thrown the country into the utmost
confusion, the mighty enemy, Soliman, appeared on the
frontiers of Hungary, determined to put an end to the anarchy.
... In his prison at Madrid, Francis I. had found means to
entreat the assistance of Soliman; urging that it well
beseemed a great emperor to succour the oppressed. Plans were
laid at Constantinople, according to which the two sovereigns
were to attack Spain with a combined fleet, and to send armies
to invade Hungary and the north of Italy. Soliman, without any
formal treaty, was by his position an ally of the Ligue, as
the king of Hungary was, of the emperor. On the 23d of April,
1526, Soliman, after visiting the groves of his forefathers
and of the old Moslem martyrs, marched out of Constantinople
with a mighty host, consisting of about a hundred thousand
men, and incessantly strengthened by fresh recruits on its
road. ... What power had Hungary, in the condition we have
just described, of resisting such an attack? ... The young
king took the field with a following of not more than three
thousand men. ... He proceeded to the fatal plain of Mohaez,
fully resolved with his small band to await in the open field
the overwhelming force of the enemy. ... Personal valour could
avail nothing. The Hungarians were immediately thrown into
disorder, their best men fell, the others took to flight. The
young king was compelled to flee. It was not even granted him
to die in the field of battle; a far more miserable end a
waited him. Mounted behind a Silesian soldier, who served him
as a guide, he had already been carried across the dark waters
that divide the plain; his horse was already climbing the
bank, when he slipped, fell back, and buried himself and his
rider in the morass. This rendered the defeat decisive. ...
Soliman had gained one of those victories which decide the
fate of nations during long epochs. ... That two thrones, the
succession to which was not entirely free from doubt, had thus
been left vacant, was an event that necessarily caused a great
agitation throughout Christendom. It was still a question
whether such a European power as Austria would continue to
exist;--a question which it is only necessary to state, in
order to be aware of its vast importance to the fate of
mankind at large, and of Germany in particular. ... The claims
of Ferdinand to both crowns, unquestionable as they might be
in reference to the treaties with the reigning houses, were
opposed in the nations themselves, by the right of ejection
and the authority of considerable rivals.
{207}
In Hungary, as soon as the Turks had retired, John Zapolya
appeared with the fine army which he had kept back from the
conflict; the fall of the king was at the same time the fall
of his adversaries. ... Even in Tokay, however, John Zapolya
was saluted as king. Meanwhile, the dukes of Bavaria conceived
the design of getting possession of the throne of Bohemia. ...
Nor was it in the two kingdoms alone that these pretenders had
a considerable party. The state of politics in Europe was such
as to insure them powerful supporters abroad. In the first
place, Francis I. was intimately connected with Zapolya: in a
short time a delegate from the pope was at his side, and the
Germans in Rome maintained that Clement assisted the faction
of the Woiwode with money. Zapolya sent an agent to Venice
with a direct request to be admitted a member of the Ligue of
Cognac. In Bohemia, too, the French had long had devoted
partisans. ... The consequences that must have resulted, had
this scheme succeeded, are so incalculable, that it is not too
much to say they would have completely changed the political
history of Europe. The power of Bavaria would have outweighed
that of Austria in both German and Slavonian countries, and
Zapolya, thus supported, would have been able to maintain his
station; the Ligue, and with it high ultra-montane opinions
would have held the ascendency in eastern Europe. Never was
there a project more pregnant with danger to the growing power
of the house of Austria. Ferdinand behaved with all the
prudence and energy which that house has so often displayed in
difficult emergencies. For the present, the all-important
object was the crown of Bohemia. ... All his measures were
taken with such skill and prudence, that on the day of
election, though the Bavarian agent had, up to the last
moment, not the slightest doubt of the success of his
negotiations, an overwhelming majority in the three estates
elected Ferdinand to the throne of Bohemia. This took place on
the 23d October, 1526. ... On his brother's birth-day, the
24th of February, 1527, Ferdinand was crowned at Prague. ....
The affairs of Hungary were not so easily or so peacefully
settled. ... At first, when Zapolya came forward, full armed
and powerful out of the general desolation, he had the
uncontested superiority. The capital of the kingdom sought his
protection, after which he marched to Stuhlweissenburg, where
his partisans bore down all attempts at opposition: he was
elected and crowned (11th of November, 1526); in Croatia, too,
he was acknowledged king at a diet; he filled all the numerous
places, temporal and spiritual, left vacant by the disaster of
Mohaez, with his friends. ... [But] the Germans advanced
without interruption; and as soon as it appeared possible that
Ferdinand might be successful, Zapolya's followers began to
desert him. ... Never did the German troops display more
bravery and constancy. They had often neither meat nor bread,
and were obliged to live on such fruits as they found in the
gardens: the inhabitants were wavering and uncertain--they
submitted, and then revolted again to the enemy; Zapolya's
troops, aided by their knowledge of the ground, made several
very formidable attacks by night; but the Germans evinced, in
the moment of danger, the skill and determination of a Roman
legion: they showed, too, a noble constancy under difficulties
and privations. At Tokay they defeated Zapolya and compelled
him to quit Hungary. ... On the 3rd November, 1527, Ferdinand
was crowned in Stuhlweissenburg: only five of the magnates of
the kingdom adhered to Zapolya. The victory appeared complete.
Ferdinand, however, distinctly felt that this appearance was
delusive. ... In Bohemia, too, his power was far from secure.
His Bavarian neighbours had not relinquished the hope of
driving him from the throne at the first general turn of
affairs. The Ottomans, meanwhile, acting upon the persuasion
that every land in which the head of their chief had rested
belonged of right to them, were preparing to return to
Hungary; either to take possession of it themselves, or at
first, as was their custom, to bestow it on a native
ruler--Zapolya, who now eagerly sought an alliance with
them--as their vassal."

_L. Von Ranke, History of the Reformation in Germany,
book 4, chapter 4 (volume 2)._

AUSTRIA: A. D. 1564-1618.
The tolerance of Maximilian II.
The bigotry and tyranny of Rodolph and Ferdinand II.
Prelude to the Thirty Years War.

"There is no period connected with these religious wars that
deserves more to be studied than these reigns of Ferdinand I.,
Maximilian [the Second], and those of his successors who preceded
the thirty years' war. We have no sovereign who exhibited that
exercise of moderation and good sense which a philosopher
would require, but Maximilian; and he was immediately followed
by princes of a different complexion. ... Nothing could be
more complete than the difficulty of toleration at the time
when Maximilian reigned; and if a mild policy could be
attended with favourable effects in his age and nation, there
can be little fear of the experiment at any other period. No
party or person in the state was then disposed to tolerate his
neighbour from any sense of the justice of such forbearance,
but from motives of temporal policy alone. The Lutherans, it
will be seen, could not bear that the Calvinists should have
the same religious privileges with themselves. The Calvinists
were equally opinionated and unjust; and Maximilian himself
was probably tolerant and wise, chiefly because he was in his
real opinions a Lutheran, and in outward profession, as the
head of the empire, a Roman Catholic. For twelve years, the
whole of his reign, he preserved the religious peace of the
community, without destroying the religious freedom of the
human mind. He supported the Roman Catholics, as the
predominant party, in all their rights, possessions, and
privileges; but he protected the Protestants in every exercise
of their religion which was then practicable. In other words,
he was as tolerant and just as the temper of society then
admitted, and more so than the state of things would have
suggested. ... The merit of Maximilian was but too apparent
the moment that his son Rodolph was called upon to supply his
place. ... He had always left the education of his son and
successor too much to the discretion of his bigoted consort.
Rodolph, his son, was therefore as ignorant and furious on his
part as were the Protestants on theirs; he had immediate
recourse to the usual expedients--force, and the execution of
the laws to the very letter. ... After Rodolph comes Matthias,
and, unhappily for all Europe, Bohemia and the empire fell
afterwards under the management of Ferdinand II. Of the
different Austrian princes, it is the reign of Ferdinand II.
that is more particularly to be considered. Such was the
arbitrary nature of his government over his subjects in
Bohemia, that they revolted. They elected for their king the
young Elector Palatine, hoping thus to extricate themselves
from the bigotry and tyranny of Ferdinand. This crown so
offered was accepted; and, in the event, the cause of the
Bohemians became the cause of the Reformation in Germany, and
the Elector Palatine the hero of that cause. It is this which
gives the great interest to this reign of Ferdinand II., to
these concerns of his subjects in Bohemia, and to the
character of this Elector Palatine. For all these events and
circumstances led to the thirty years' war."

_W. Smyth, Lectures on Modern History, volume I, lecture 13._

See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1611-1618,
and GERMANY: A. D. 1618-1620.

{208}

AUSTRIA: A. D. 1567-1660.
Struggles of the Hapsburg House in Hungary and Transylvania to
establish rights of sovereignty.
Wars with the Turks.

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1567-1604, and 1606-1660.

----------AUSTRIA: End----------

Seventeenth Century: Second Half.

Contemporaneous Events.

A.D.

1651.
Invasion of England by Charles II. and the Scots;
Cromwell's victory at Worcester; complete conquest of
Scotland.

1652.
Victorious naval war of the English with the Dutch.
End of the Fronde.
Institution of the Liberum Veto in Poland.

1653.
Expulsion of "the Rump" by Cromwell, and establishment of
the Protectorate in England.
Adoption of the Instrument of Government.
Return of Mazarin to power in France.
The Cromwellian settlement of Ireland.

1654.
Incorporation of Scotland with the English Commonwealth,
under Cromwell.
Peace between the English and Dutch.
Conquest of Nova Scotia, by the New England colonists.

1655.
Alliance of England and France against Spain.
English conquest of Jamaica.

1656.
Beginning of the persecution of the Quakers in Massachusetts.

1658.
Capture of Dunkirk from the Spaniards and possession given
by the French to the English.
Death of Cromwell and succession of his son Richard as
Protector.

1659.
Meeting of a new Parliament in England;
its dissolution;
resuscitation and re-expulsion of the Rump, and formation
of a provisional government by the Army.

1660.
March of the English army under Monk from Scotland to
London.
Call of a new Parliament by Monk, and restoration of the
monarchy, in the person of Charles II.

1661.
Restoration of the Church of England and ejection of 2,000
nonconformist ministers.
Personal assumption of government by Louis XIV. in France.
Beginning of the ministry of Colbert.

1662.
Sale of Dunkirk to France by Charles II.
Restoration of episcopacy in Scotland and persecution of
the Covenanters.

1664.
Seizure of New Netherland (henceforth New York) by the
English from the Dutch and grant of the province to the
duke of York.
Grant of New Jersey to Berkeley and Carteret.

1665.
Outbreak of the great Plague in London.
Formal declarations of war between the English and the
Dutch.

1666.
The great fire in London.
Tremendous naval battles between Dutch and English and
defeat of the former.

1667.
Ravages by a Dutch fleet in the Thames.
Peace treaties of Breda, between England, Holland, France
and Denmark.
War of Louis XIV., called the War of the Queen's Rights, in
the Spanish Netherlands.

1668.
Triple alliance of England, Holland and Sweden against
France.

1669.
First exploring journey of La Salle from the St. Lawrence
to the West.

1670.
Treaty of the king of England with Louis XIV. of France,
betraying his allies, the Dutch, and engaging to profess
himself a Catholic,

1672.
Alliance of England and France against the Dutch.
Restoration of the Stadtholdership in Holland to the Prince
of Orange, and murder of the De Witts.

1673.
Recovery of New Netherland by the Dutch from the English.

1674.
Treaty of Westminster, restoring peace between the Dutch
and English and ceding New Netherland to the latter.

1675. War with the Indians in New England, known as King Philip's War.

1678.
Pretended Popish Plot in England.
Treaties of Nimeguen.

1679.
Passage of the Habeas Corpus Act in England.
Oppression of Scotland and persecution of the Covenanters.
Defeat of Claverhouse at Drumclog.
Defeat of Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge.

1680.
First naming of the Whig and Tory parties in England.

1681.
Merciless despotism of the duke of York in Scotland.
Beginning of "dragonnade" persecution of Protestants in
France.
Grant of Pennsylvania by Charles II. to William Penn.

1682.
Exploration of the Mississippi to its mouth by La Salle.

1683.
The Rye-house Plot, and execution of Lord Russell and
Algernon Sidney, in England.
Great invasion of Hungary and Austria by the Turks;
their siege of Vienna, and the deliverance of the city by
John Sobieski, king of Poland.
Establishment of a penny post in London.

1685.
Death of Charles II., king of England, and accession of his
brother James II., an avowed Catholic.
Rebellion of the duke of Monmouth.
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. of France.

1686.
Consolidation of New England under a royal
governor-general.
League of Augsburg against Louis XIV. of France.

1688.
Declaration of Indulgence by James II. of England, and
imprisonment and trial of the seven bishops for refusing to
publish it.
Invitation to William and Mary of Orange to accept the
English crown.
Arrival in England of the Prince of Orange and flight of
James.

1689.
Completion of the English Revolution.
Settlement of the crown on William and Mary.
Passage of the Toleration Act and the Bill of Rights.
Landing of James II. in Ireland and war in that island;
siege and successful defense of Londonderry.

1690.
The first congress of the American colonies.
Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.

1692.
The Salem Witchcraft madness in Massachusetts.
Massacre of Glencoe in Scotland.

1695.
Passage of the first of the Penal Laws, oppressing
Catholics in Ireland.

1697.
Peace of Ryswick.
Cession of Strasburg and restoration of Acadia to France.

1699.
Peace of Carlowitz, between Turkey, Russia, Poland, Venice,
and the Emperor.

1700.
Prussia raised in rank to a kingdom.
First campaigns of Charles XII. of Sweden.

Seventeenth Century: First Half.

Contemporaneous Events.

A.D.
1602.
Chartering of Dutch East India Company.
First acting of Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

1603.
Death of Queen Elizabeth of England and accession of James I.

1600.
Gunpowder plot of English Catholics.
Publication of Bacon's "Advancement of Learning," and part
1 of Cervantes' "Don Quixote."

1606.
Charter granted to the London and Plymouth companies, for
American colonization.
Organization of the Independent church of Brownists at
Scrooby, England.

1607.
Settlement of Jamestown, Virginia.
Migration of Scrooby Independents to Holland.

1609.
Settlement of the exiled Pilgrims of Scrooby at Leyden.
Construction of the telescope by Galileo and discovery of
Jupiter's moons.

1610.
Assassination of Henry IV. of France and accession of Louis XIII.

1611.
Publication in England of the King James or Authorized
version of the Bible.

1614.
Last meeting of the States General of France before the
Revolution.

1610.
Appearance at Frankfort-on-the-Main of the first known
weekly newspaper.

1616.
Opening of war between Sweden and Poland.
Death of Shakespeare and Cervantes.

1618.
Rising of Protestants in Bohemia, beginning the Thirty
Years War.

1619.
Trial and execution of John of Barneveldt.
Introduction of slavery in Virginia.

1620.
Decisive defeat of the Protestants of Bohemia in the battle
of the White Mountain.
Rising of the French Huguenots at Rochelle.
Migration of the Pilgrims from Leyden to America.

1621.
Formation of the Dutch West India Company.
The first Thanksgiving Day in New England.

1622.
Appearance of the first known printed newspaper in England
"The Weekly Newes."

1624.
Beginning of Richelieu's ministry, in France.

1625.
Death of James I., of England, and accession of Charles I.;
beginning of the English struggle between King and
Parliament.
Engagement of Wallenstein and his army in the service of
the Emperor against the Protestants.

1627.
Alliance of England with the French Huguenots.
Siege of Rochelle by Richelieu.

1628.
Passage by the English Parliament of the act called the
Petition of Right.
Assassination of the duke of Buckingham.
Surrender of Rochelle to Richelieu.
Publication of Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the
blood.

1629.
Tumult in the English Parliament, dissolution by the king
and arrest of Eliot and others.

1630.
Appearance in Germany of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden,
as the champion of Protestantism.
Settlement of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, in New
England, and founding of Boston.
The Day of the Dupes in France.

1631.
Siege, capture and sack of Magdeburg by the imperial
general, Tilly.
Defeat of Tilly on the Breitenfeld, at Leipzig, by Gustavus
Adolphus.

1632.
Defeat and death of Tilly.
Victory and death of Gustavus Adolphus at Lützen.
Patent to Lord Baltimore by James I., of England, granting
him the territory in America called Maryland.
First Jesuit mission to Canada.

1634.
Assassination of Wallenstein.
Levy of Ship-money in England.

1635.
First settlements in the Connecticut valley.

1636.
Banishment of Roger Williams from Massachusetts, and his
founding of Providence.

1637.
The Pequot War in New England.
Introduction of Laud's Service-book in Scotland; tumult in
St. Giles' church.

1638.
Banishment of Anne Hutchinson from Massachusetts.
Rising in Scotland against the Service-book;
organization of the Tables;
signing of the National Covenant.

1639.
The First Bishops' War of the Scotch with King Charles I.

1640.
Meeting of the Long Parliament in England.
Recovery of independence by Portugal.

1641.
Impeachment and execution of Strafford and adoption of the
Grand Remonstrance by the English Parliament.
Catholic rising in Ireland and alleged massacres of
Protestants.

1642.
King Charles' attempt, in England, to arrest the Five
Members, and opening of the Civil War at Edgehill.
Conspiracy of Cinq Mars in France.
Death of Cardinal Richelieu.

1643.
Meeting of the Westminster Assembly of Divines.
Subscription of the Solemn League and Covenant between the
Scotch and English nations.
Siege of Gloucester and first battle of Newbury.
Death of Louis XIII. of France and accession of Louis XIV.

1644.
Battles of Marston Moor and the second Newbury, in the
English civil war.

1645.
Oliver Cromwell placed second in command of the English
Parliamentary army.
His victory at Naseby.
Exploits of Montrose in Scotland.

1646.
Adoption of Presbyterianism by the English Parliament.
Surrender of King Charles to the Scottish army.

1647.
Surrender of King Charles by the Scots to the English, and
his seizure by the Army.

1648.
The second Civil War in England.
Cromwell's victory at Preston.
Treaty of Newport with the king.
Grand Army Remonstrance, and Pride's Purge of Parliament.
Last campaigns of the Thirty Years War.
Peace of Westphalia; cession of Alsace to France.

1649.
Trial and execution of King Charles I., of England, and
establishment of the Common-wealth.
Campaign of Cromwell in Ireland.
First civil war of the Fronde in France.

1650.
Charles II. in Scotland.
War between the English and the Scotch.
Victory of Cromwell at Dunbar.
The new Fronde in France, in alliance with Spain.

-----End "Contemporaneous Events"-----

AUSTRIA: A. D, 1618-1648.
The Thirty Years War.
The Peace of Westphalia.