made of them by the citizens shows that they understood how to extend
their liberties still further. The benefit derived from the powers
granted to civic judges might have been neutralised by the way in which
the judgeships were still conferred by the kings on their personal
favourites; but the jurymen of Brünn claimed for themselves the power
of checking, and even overruling the judge, which must have been a far
better guarantee for the self-government of the city than any that was
directly contained in the royal decree.
“The judge,” say these administrators, “must reverence the jury as
legislators, never dictate sentences on his own authority, never arrest
any one without their knowledge, never appropriate to himself the fines
of the city, never bring back those that are driven from the city,
without the consent of the jurors; always listen to them, and arrange
all the business of his office according to their advice.”
How much the sense of equality before the law grew under this
administration may be illustrated by the following instance. A servant
has brought an action against a fellow-servant for wounding him; while
at the same time a master brings an action against the same defendant
for debt. The question arises which of these shall be heard first.
The jury decide that “since the body of a man is more precious than
money,” the defendant should answer for his violence to the man whom
he has wounded, before he answers to the master for his debt. More
bold still was the assertion of the rights of the citizens to hold the
nobles responsible to the city tribunals for lands held within the
city. And while they held their own against the nobles outside, the
popular magistrates increased their authority within the city. The
power of regulating trade, which in England was seized by the Guilds,
was, in the Moravian towns, at once taken into the hands of the civic
authorities; and thus those conflicts, which Mrs. Green has described
as prevailing in so many English towns, between the magistrates and the
leaders of the trades, never assume such prominence in the history of
Brünn and Olmütz.
Nor was it only in their immediate security for liberty and good
government that these civic rights were of advantage to Bohemia and
Moravia. Questions were forced upon the practical consideration of
the jurors, the very discussion of which formed an important element
in political education. Thus the treatment by the jurors of the
questions of the value of torture, and ordeal by battle, as methods of
discovering truth, show how experience was already preparing the way
for the overthrow of abuses, which were yet too strongly supported by
popular prejudice to be removed at once. The steady growth of these
liberties, which had received so powerful an impulse from the needs
produced by the Tartar invasion, was still further promoted by Pr̆emysl
Ottakar II., and became in his hands part of a complete scheme for
humbling the power of the nobility.
Wenceslaus, in spite of some fine qualities, had been a self-indulgent
and pleasure-seeking man; and he had, like some of his predecessors,
mortgaged many of the royal lands and castles to the nobles. This had
naturally increased their power, and had enabled them to organise those
insurrections against the king in which they had at first succeeded in
involving his son. But even while he was still Margrave of Moravia,
young Pr̆emysl Ottakar had broken loose from these influences; and
by various economies and convenient pecuniary transactions he had
succeeded in raising money enough to purchase back the lands from the
nobles, compelling them, sometimes against their will, to surrender
their mortgages. He also forced them to break down those castles which
had been great causes of disorder and weakness in the country. Nor did
he fail to strengthen his cause by alliance with the clergy.
Ever since the quarrel between Frederick II. and Wenceslaus, that
King had been a devoted champion of the Pope; and in the growing
weakness of the Empire, the Pope became more and more the one great
Power to which a rising and ambitious king could appeal. Ottakar II.
became distinguished as a friend of the Church, not only by his strong
support of the Papal power, but by his endowment and development of
the monasteries. In this, indeed, he was carrying on that revival of
Bohemian life which Wenceslaus had begun after the repulse of the
Tartars. But it was evident that these ecclesiastical exemptions must
sometimes come into collision with those civic liberties of which we
have spoken.
This contradiction was evidently felt by Ottakar; and it showed itself
in three different ways. The freedom of trade, which, under certain
limitations, was so welcome to the towns, was by no means in accordance
with the claims of the abbots. They wished that certain occupations
should be carried on under their control; and not that there should be
any exchange of the articles connected with those occupations. Thus we
find in some of the grants to the monasteries that, while the monks
and their dependants are relieved from certain forms of taxation, the
exemption is specially limited to those who are not engaged in trade.
Secondly, there was an obvious risk of a conflict of authority between
the monastic tribunals and those of the city. Thirdly, the records of
Brünn, and of its imitators, show that the growing ideas of equality
before the law did not always seem to the citizens quite consistent
with the privileges claimed by the clergy. Nor must it be supposed that
charters to monasteries and charters to towns represented, in the same
degree, the ordinary idea of human liberty. The dependants of the abbot
were as much at his mercy as those of any feudal lord; and though it
might be an advantage for them to escape from the oppressions of the
Z̆upani, it was not always certain that the abbot would be a gentler
master.
That Ottakar felt the difficulty of this conflict, and desired to
compromise between the interests of these rivals for his favour, is
strikingly illustrated by the two cases of Hradiste and Litomys̆l. In
the former case, Ottakar was particularly anxious to secure the good
will of the citizens, because he looked upon their town as a possible
bulwark against Hungarian invasion; but the neighbouring convent
of Vilegrad feared that the grant of liberties to Hradiste would
interfere with the privileges of their convent. The compromise to which
Ottakar was forced seems a considerable surrender to ecclesiastical
pretensions. The townsmen were to settle in one particular island, for
which they were to pay rent to the monastery. The monastery was to
retain all its former rights over waters, fisheries, mills, meadows,
woods, and corn-fields; and, though the town was to hold a market two
days a week, the profit of that market was to go on one day to the
king, and on another to the monastery; and, above all, the judge of the
town was to be appointed by the monastery. But in this decree there is
a provision which seems to suggest how even such a compromise might
work for freedom. The common rights in pasture held previously by the
townsmen are to be shared with the dependants of the monastery; but
the dependants of the monastery in their turn are to share their common
rights with the citizens of the town. Thus there would naturally grow
up a combination among the dependants of the monasteries, like those
unions which, in England, gave such trouble to the abbots of St. Albans
and Dunstable.
In the case of Litomys̆l the grants to the monastery and those given to
the town are so entangled that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish
between the benefits received by the respective recipients of the
royal favour; and, in this case, Ottakar seems to have cut the knot by
raising Litomys̆l to the ordinary position of a royal town, and thereby
emancipating it from the control of the monastery. Ottakar indeed had
one sure protection against any possible offence which the Church
might fear from the growth of civic liberty. Bruno, Bishop of Olmütz,
was his right-hand man in this as in other parts of his work. Himself
a German by birth, he warmly encouraged the introduction of German
town rights into the cities of Moravia; while, on the other hand, he
always succeeded, until the final catastrophe of Ottakar’s life, in
strengthening the good understanding between the Pope and the King of
Bohemia.
Thus there were now growing up in Bohemia the elements of internal
liberty, under the patronage of a king strong and wise enough to hold
his own against the nobles. Had Ottakar been content to remain King
of Bohemia alone, the effect of his reign on his country might have
been permanently beneficial. But it is now necessary to speak of that
career of conquest and aggression which raised up against him so many
enemies, and which at last put into the hands of his most dangerous
rival the weapon by which king and country were alike overthrown.
However evil were the final results of his aggressions, it must be
owned that there was a certain plausibility in the justification
offered by Ottakar for each of his conquests. To begin with the first
and most important of them, the conquest of Austria. The Babenbergers
had been undoubtedly troublesome neighbours to the Dukes of Bohemia;
and Frederick the Quarrelsome, the last of the line, had been also so
oppressive to his subjects that they had appealed to the Emperor to
choose them a new duke. On this occasion the King of Bohemia had been
one of those to whom the enforcement of the ban of the Empire had been
entrusted. When, then, on the death of Frederick the Quarrelsome, the
land seemed likely to fall into the hands of the Emperor, or to be torn
in pieces by rival claimants, Wenceslaus and Ottakar may have naturally
considered it a matter of self-defence to establish their rule, and
with it some kind of order, in the lands of so near a neighbour; and
they were further encouraged in their attempt by the approval of Pope
Innocent IV.
But the latter phases of the conquest are perhaps less excusable, and
even somewhat discreditable to Wenceslaus and his son. The Austrian
nobles, on the death of the Emperor Frederick had resolved to choose
the Margrave of Meissen as their duke, and to send representatives to
invite him to accept the ducal crown. On their way through Bohemia,
Wenceslaus invited them to a banquet, and tried to cajole them into
choosing his son as their duke. The messengers, alarmed and taken by
surprise, declared that they had no authority to accept this proposal.
Wenceslaus, thereupon, uttered such threats, that the Austrians
considered it dangerous to continue their journey; and they returned to
their country to reconsider the question.
Apart from the claim given to the Margrave of Meissen by the choice of
the nobles, there were two rival claimants to the dukedom of Austria;
Margaret the widow of the Emperor Henry VI., and daughter of Leopold
the Glorious, the most popular of all the Babenberg House; and Gertrude
a niece of Frederick the Quarrelsome, and wife of the Margrave of
Baden. Margaret was, of course, tolerably advanced in life, and had
taken a vow of virginity after the death of her husband; but Wenceslaus
and Bruno of Olmütz persuaded young Ottakar to make good his claim to
the duchy by wooing the widow. In an evil hour for herself, Margaret
consented to Ottakar’s proposal; the approval of the Pope, and possibly
some slight display of military force, completed Ottakar’s claim; and
he was accepted by some at least of the Austrian nobles as their Duke.
In Austria, as in Bohemia, Ottakar looked chiefly for his support to
the great cities. Vienna flourished under his rule; and he granted
special privileges to the neighbouring town of Neustadt. But the
hostility of the nobles still continued; and they were resolved that,
at all events, the German province of Styria should not fall into
Bohemian hands. The difficulty of Ottakar’s position on this question
lay in the fact that the most important rival claimant was Bela, King
of Hungary, who, like Ottakar, was a special favourite of the Pope;
and in the beginning of the struggle the King of Hungary succeeded
in establishing his authority in Styria. But, by the admission even
of Ottakar’s enemies, the tyranny of the Hungarians in Styria was so
great that, when Ottakar again made an attempt on the province, he was
welcomed as a deliverer; and for the time he made good his footing.
It was now necessary to get a formal sanction for these conquests; and
Ottakar chose Richard of Cornwall, from the rival claimants to the
German Empire, as the puppet most useful for this purpose. Richard was
willing enough to secure so influential a supporter; but the King of
Hungary was not so easily satisfied. In 1260, he once more poured his
forces into Styria and Austria; and he was now followed, not only by
the Hungarian troops, but by the savage Cumanians, and even, according
to one account, by the Tartars. The struggle was a fierce one; but it
ended in the complete victory of the Bohemians.
Ottakar, however, thought it necessary to secure himself against future
invasions, by a singularly questionable step. The unfortunate Margaret,
to whom, it was evident, he must very soon have become unfaithful,
was to be repudiated on the ground of her former vow of virginity, in
order that Ottakar might marry Kunigunda, the daughter of Bela, King
of Hungary. Urban IV., like many of his predecessors, was extremely
desirous to procure a good understanding between Hungary and Bohemia,
as in the union of these kingdoms he saw the best hope of security
against a future Tartar invasion; so Kunigunda was crowned Queen of
Bohemia by the Archbishop of Mainz.
But Ottakar’s conquests were not yet at an end. Ulrich, the Duke
of Carinthia and Carniola, had a very troublesome brother called
Philip, who was generally at feud with some prince or other. Amongst
his other enemies was the Patriarch of Aquileia, to whose office he
desired to succeed. Ulrich, knowing Ottakar’s influence with the
Pope and the ecclesiastics generally, tried to secure that influence
in favour of the election of Philip to the patriarchate. Ottakar
agreed, on condition that Ulrich would make him his heir in Carinthia
and Carniola. Ulrich consented to this proposal; and, by Ottakar’s
influence, the Chapter of Aquileia elected Philip Patriarch. Philip
was apparently unaware of the bargain; and he was therefore extremely
indignant, when, on Ulrich’s death, the King of Bohemia entered
Carinthia and Carniola as the lawful heir of Ulrich. This bitterness
was further increased when the Pope refused to confirm the election of
the Chapter, and Philip found himself without either patriarchate or
dukedom.
Ottakar was now the lord of all the territories which form the western
part of the present Austrian Empire, with the exception of the Tyrol.
But his hold on these conquered territories was by no means so certain
as it at first appeared. Though none of his rivals were able, at the
moment, to make good their claims against him, yet any one of them
might reckon on a formidable amount of discontent in all the conquered
provinces. For the same policy which he had pursued in Bohemia of
breaking down the power of the nobles, by destroying their castles, was
carried on in his new dominions; and, while in all of them it caused
considerable opposition, in Styria the discontent soon ripened into
rebellion.
The attitude of the Styrian nobles had, from the first, been one of
more determined hostility than Ottakar had encountered in his other
dominions; and it soon provoked him into measures which increased the
evil. One can scarcely accept as undoubted history all the charges of
cruelty made against him by the Styrian noble Ottakar von Horneck,
who was evidently in full sympathy from the first with those who
resisted the Bohemian claims. Still less can we accept as authentic the
reckless attacks of the chronicler Victor, who was a chaplain of the
House of Hapsburg. But those facts, which seem to be indisputable, are
sufficient of themselves to account for Ottakar’s failure to reduce the
province to submission. As usual in such cases, intriguers were found
to intensify the king’s suspicions by false accusations; some nobles
were thrown into prison on insufficient evidence; and when the case
broke down against them, their accuser was in turn imprisoned. Finally,
Milota, the governor appointed by Ottakar, tried to bring in Bohemian
soldiers and Bohemian settlers to maintain the authority of the king.
But, though all these elements of discontent were gradually ripening
to violent conclusions, to outward appearance Ottakar was still at the
height of his power. Old King Bela of Hungary, in dying, placed his
wife, daughter, and barons under the special protection of Ottakar;
and, when Bela’s son and successor Stephen tried to shake off the power
which his father had given to Bohemia, he found himself opposed by the
bishops and archbishops of Hungary, and by some even of the barons.
Ottakar was able to dictate peace in Hungary itself, and Stephen was
forced to renounce all claims to Styria and Carinthia.
A change, however, was shortly to occur in Europe which was to diminish
one of the chief causes of Ottakar’s success. In his, as in former
reigns, Germany’s difficulty had been Bohemia’s opportunity; and it
was Ottakar’s too ready recognition of this fact which now brought him
into collision with the wisest and most patriotic rulers in Europe,
as well as with some of the most daring intriguers. Ever since the
death of Henry VI., the son of Barbarossa, the claim to the throne of
the Holy Roman Empire had been perpetually disputed. The striking and
romantic figure of Frederick II. had indeed arrested the attention of
Europe in a marked manner; but the intense hatred felt for him by all
the Popes, his own preference of Sicily to Germany, and the complete
disorganisation produced by the Tartar invasion, had combined to
prevent him from establishing any firm rule in the Empire. Since his
death the phantom figures of William of Holland, Conrad the Fourth,
Alfonso of Castille, and Richard of Cornwall had flitted across the
stage of German politics, each contributing a certain amount of
increase to the general anarchy. In the absence of any settled central
government, the great towns of Germany had endeavoured to form leagues
for their own protection, and in the general interest of order; but
even these had a difficulty in maintaining their existence against the
pretensions of the archbishops and the robberies of the knights and
nobles.
In such a state of things the first instinct of those who desired to
restore order was to choose the strongest ruler who could be found; and
therefore it was not altogether surprising that the Imperial crown was
offered, by some at least of the German princes, to Ottakar himself.
The grounds of Ottakar’s refusal have been variously given; and it is
highly probable that both of the explanations offered were parts of the
truth. On the one hand his nobles, already jealous of his power, were
extremely unwilling that he should have a new and independent force at
his back, which would enable him still further to overawe them; while,
on the other hand, Ottakar himself saw clearly that the position of
King of Bohemia and King-maker of the Empire was a far safer and more
powerful one than the position of a Holy Roman Emperor, checked, and
often controlled, by the Electors of the Empire.
The Elector who took the most prominent part in this offer to Ottakar
had been the Archbishop of Köln; but Werner of Mainz now succeeded in
inducing the Archbishops of Köln and Trier to join him in an alliance
which was to secure the election of an Emperor who would be amenable
to their advice. Werner had been specially alarmed at the growth of
Ottakar’s power; for any development of Bohemian independence would
weaken the power of the Empire over the diocese of Prague, and would
thereby weaken also the ecclesiastical authority of Mainz. He was,
therefore, specially anxious to secure a counterbalancing power to
Ottakar’s, but a power which would at the same time be dependent on
the Electors of the Empire. The Archbishops first considered, and
then rejected, the proposal to raise to the Imperial throne the Count
Palatine of the Rhine; for they soon saw that he might be useful as an
ally, but extremely dangerous as a master. As the great hindrance to
the unity of the Empire seemed, at that time, to come from the South,
it was particularly necessary for the Archbishops to win to their
side Duke Louis of Bavaria, who was the principal rival and enemy of
Ottakar. Bavaria had recently been divided into two parts, between the
two brothers Louis and Henry; and the warm friendship of Henry for
Ottakar had strengthened the opposition of Louis. Louis, indeed, may
have himself dreamt of the Imperial crown; but neither the Archbishops,
nor the more northern Electors, were disposed to concede this dignity
to him. They had, however, a bait which was sufficiently attractive to
the Duke.
It appeared that in the year 1257, the Duke of Bavaria had taken part
in one of those confused elections to the Empire which had given an
opportunity for every kind of irregular interference. The Archbishops
now proposed to recognise this precedent as conferring on the Duke of
Bavaria the position of Elector of the Empire, and thus completing
the mystic number of seven, without the help of the King of Bohemia. A
candidate for the throne had, however, still to be found; and, as the
idea of choosing one of the more powerful princes was now definitely
abandoned, the Margrave of Brandenburg and the Duke of Saxony put
forward a kinsman of their own, named Siegfried of Anhalt.
The majority, however, of the Electors, and the most active spirits
among them, desired to strengthen their position in the South
rather than the North of Germany; and it was now that Frederick of
Hohenzollern, the Burggraf of Nürnberg, brought forward the candidate
for whom he had been secretly preparing the way. This was Count Rudolf
of Hapsburg, the owner of a castle near the Lake of Constance, who had
become known in his own neighbourhood as the protector and champion of
Bern and other growing towns. He had gained considerable reputation
for military ability; and he had evidently some of that personal power
of fascination so important to a great ruler. Fortunately for his
chances of success he had already attracted the attention of Werner of
Mainz, at the time when the Archbishop was on his journey to Rome to be
confirmed in his diocese. But, besides this important support, Rudolf
had another source of influence, the peculiar use of which was to be
a marked characteristic of his descendants. He had a large number of
marriageable daughters. One of these was promised to the Count Palatine
of the Rhine; and by marriage with another the Duke of Saxony was
persuaded to abandon the cause of Siegfried of Anhalt. By what means
the Elector of Brandenburg was won over is not quite clear; and, in
all probability, he was the least willing of the Imperial Electors to
grant his support to Rudolf. His opposition, however, cannot at this
time have been very decided; for, when the Electors held their formal
meeting, the resolution to support Rudolf was unanimous.
Thus far the intrigues appear by some mysterious means to have been
kept from the knowledge of Ottakar. But such an arrangement could not
long be hid. Henry of Bavaria must necessarily have been admitted to
the knowledge of some of these proceedings; and, although the Electors
were anxious to conciliate him, he was not yet prepared to abandon his
friendship for Ottakar. Probably, therefore, it was through his means
that Ottakar had received notice of the meeting of the final Assembly
for deciding the election; and he was able, therefore, to send a
representative to it. Apparently, however, the King of Bohemia had not
even yet realised the full extent of his enemies’ intrigues; and it
was with the greatest surprise and indignation that his representative
discovered that the meeting to which he had been summoned was merely
called to confirm an election already previously agreed upon. That
Ottakar should be indignant at this ignoring of his electoral rights
was natural enough; but the amazement and horror which the election of
Rudolf excited in his mind can only be described in his own words.