INTERNAL HISTORY OF FRANCE, SPAIN, AND GERMANY, 1494-1519
Administration of Cardinal d’Amboise--Union of Crowns of Castile
and Aragon--Policy of Ferdinand and Isabella--Ximenes--Spanish
Conquests in Africa--Discovery of America--Character of Isabella
and Ferdinand--Results of their Policy--Maximilian and the
Empire--Diet of Worms--Attempted reforms--Opposition of
Maximilian--Diet of Augsburg--Compact of Gelnhausen--The Landshut
Succession--Results of attempts at reform--The Swiss
Confederation--War with Maximilian--Peace of Basel--Policy and
character of Maximilian.
§ 1. _France._
| Internal condition of France.
The most important events in the internal history of France during the
reigns of Charles VIII. and Louis XII. have already been mentioned.
The nation, engaged in war abroad, enjoyed peace at home. The nobles,
reduced in number, found, in the Italian wars, satisfaction for their
ambition, and did not disturb the country with their feuds. Under the
administration of the Cardinal, Georges d’Amboise, the minister of
Louis XII. (1498-1510), the country prospered. Population increased
rapidly and towns grew. One-third of the land, we are told, was
again restored to cultivation. In a word, France, having at last
escaped from the disastrous English wars, showed her marvellous power
of recuperation. Nor was she behindhand in art. In the reign of
Louis XII., the domestic architecture of the early Renaissance style
reached, perhaps, its highest point of excellence before it became
over-refined and overloaded with ornament: witness the eastern façade
of the chateau of Blois, and part of the chateau of Amboise; while so
renowned were the glass painters of France that Julius II. sent for
the artists, Claude and William de Marseille, to help decorate the
windows of the Vatican.
Louis earned the title of Father of his People, and the popularity
of the cardinal is illustrated by the proverb, ‘Leave things to
Georges.’ Nothing, indeed, was done to strengthen the constitutional
liberties of the country. The Estates-General won no extension
of their privileges. Although Louis forbade the sale of judicial
offices, he really extended the evil system by openly applying it
to the financial offices. Yet, if the government was despotic, it
was at least kindly; and if the taxes were heavy, the poor were not
oppressed. Indeed, if we confine our view to the domestic policy, we
should not perhaps be wrong in holding that the popularity was well
earned. If Louis had only refrained from the Italian wars, his reign
might have been a turning-point in the history of his country, and
in a few years she might have become the richest and most powerful
country in Europe.
But if the internal history of France during the period we have
covered is uneventful, far different is the case of Spain and Germany.
§ 2. _Spain._
| Union of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon.
By the accession of Isabella to the throne of Castile in 1474,
and of her husband, Ferdinand the Catholic, to that of Aragon in
1479, not only did these two countries escape from a long period of
internal anarchy, but the rivalry hitherto existing between Castile
and Aragon was put an end to, and, while the autonomy of the two
governments was preserved, the policy which guided them was one. In
their determination to increase the power of the crown at home and
the prestige of their nation abroad, Isabella and Ferdinand were in
singular agreement. The most startling events of their reigns either
occurred before the beginning of our period, or have been already
mentioned. In 1492, Granada had been conquered from the Moors; and
the expulsion of the Jews, the establishment of the Inquisition, even
the discovery of Hispaniola by Columbus, had also occurred before the
Italian wars.
| The Policy of Ferdinand and Isabella. Marriage Alliances.
At this time, the policy of Ferdinand and Isabella was mainly devoted
to the formation of a great European alliance based upon the tie of
marriage, whereby they might at once strengthen themselves against
the formidable power of France, and contribute to the further
consolidation of the Spanish Peninsula. With this end in view, their
eldest daughter, Isabella, was given in marriage to Alonso, the Prince
of Portugal, and on his death to his kinsman, Emanuel, who ascended
the Portuguese throne in 1495. To this period also belongs the
betrothal of Catherine, their youngest daughter, with Arthur, Prince
of Wales (1496), an alliance which brought England into intimate
relations with Spain for the first time since the days of John of
Gaunt. More important was the double marriage treaty with the House of
Hapsburg. It was agreed that John, the heir to the Spanish kingdom,
should marry Margaret, the daughter of the Emperor Maximilian, and
that the Archduke Philip, the son and heir of Maximilian, should marry
Joanna, second daughter of the Spanish monarchs. The hopes founded
on these marriages by Ferdinand and Isabella were not, however,
realised. By the death of their only son John in 1497, and by that of
Don Miguel, only son of Isabella of Portugal, in 1500, all hopes of
uniting Portugal to Spain were destroyed; and Joanna, the wife of the
Hapsburg prince, and mother of Charles V., became heiress of Castile
and Aragon. Thus an alliance which had been originally made to protect
the balance of power against France, was eventually to destroy that
balance in the interest of the House of Hapsburg.
| Their internal Policy.
In their internal policy, Ferdinand and Isabella consistently pursued
the principles adopted from the commencement of their reigns. In no
countries in Europe perhaps were privileges so strong, the crown so
poor, or the royal prerogative so limited, as they were in Castile in
the fifteenth century.[27] A direct attack on these ancient privileges
would have been dangerous among so proud a people. The sovereigns
left, therefore, the outward forms of the constitution intact, and
indirectly pursued their aim by concentrating the machinery of
government in the royal hands, and by strengthening the personal
authority of the crown. They took advantage of the disinclination of
the nobles to attend the Cortes; they omitted to summon them to it,
or even to call them to their councils, and deprived the hereditary
officers of state of many of their powers.
One of the most efficient instruments for keeping the nobility in
check was the ‘Hermandad.’ This association, which had been originally
organised by the principal cities of Castile to protect themselves
at once against the crown and the aristocracy, had, in 1476, been
reorganised under royal control. In every city of importance a court
was established for the trial of highway robbery and other acts of
violence. From these city courts, appeal lay to a supreme court of
the whole kingdom. The courts had in their service a force of mounted
police, which was maintained by a contribution levied on householders.
The regulation of affairs was placed in the hands of provincial
assemblies acting under a supreme ‘junta,’ which passed laws relating
to justice, and often trenched upon the privileges of the Cortes
itself. So effectual was the work of this reorganised ‘Hermandad’ that
in 1495 its powers were considerably curtailed. A few subordinate
functionaries alone were retained for the execution of justice, and
these were placed under the appellate jurisdiction of the ordinary
law-courts.
During this period also, the resumption of grants of royal lands to
the nobility was persistently pursued, while the policy of annexing
the mastership of the powerful military orders to the crown, first
begun in 1487 with that of Calatrava, was completed. In 1494, the
mastership of Alcantara, and in 1499, that of St. Iago of Compostella,
were assumed by Ferdinand. It was not until the reign of Charles V.
that a Bull of Adrian VI. finally accorded the papal sanction to
this measure, but Ferdinand and Isabella reaped the practical fruits
of the policy. Not only was the royal prestige thereby materially
increased, but the crown gained complete control of wealthy and
powerful organisations, which had long been a menace to its authority,
as the Hospitallers and Knight Templars had been in other European
kingdoms during the Middle Ages.
In the kingdom of Aragon the opportunities of the crown were not so
great. The Cortes had more extensive powers, the nobles were more
regular in their attendance, and there were no military orders whose
masterships might be annexed. Above all, the peculiar privilege of
the ‘Justiza’ formed a serious obstacle to royal encroachment. This
notable officer, elected by the Cortes, claimed the right of hearing
all appeals, of inquiring into the legality of any arrest, of advising
the King on constitutional questions, and of sharing the executive
with him. Even here, however, Ferdinand excluded his nobles as far
as possible from political power, ruled with the aid of commoners
whose fidelity could be more safely relied upon, and introduced the
Castilian Hermandad.
The Catholic sovereigns also turned their earnest attention to church
reform. The relations between Church and State had always been close
in Spain. The long Crusades against the Moors had given the crown a
peculiar position of which it had taken advantage. It was the aim
of Ferdinand and Isabella to subordinate still further the Church
to the royal will, and use it as an engine at once for extirpating
heresy, and increasing the royal authority. Having, in 1482, gained
from Pope Sixtus IV. the right of exclusive nomination to the higher
dignities of the Church, the sovereigns proceeded to make excellent
use of their prerogative. The sees of Spain were filled with men of
energy and devotion, and the work of reform begun. Cardinal Mendoza,
Talavera (the first confessor of the queen), and, above all, the
famous Franciscan friar, Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros, were the chief
agents of the royal policy.
| Administration of Ximenes.
Ximenes was first appointed confessor to the Queen in 1492 at the
instigation of Cardinal Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo, and on the
death of his patron (1492), was nominated as his successor to this,
the richest see of Europe, as well as to the post of High Chancellor.
The very elevation of this remarkable man was a blow to the privileged
classes, since the see of Toledo had hitherto been exclusively
reserved to men of noble birth. The appointment was even contrary to
the wish of Ferdinand, who had hoped to secure the coveted position
for his natural son, the Archbishop of Saragossa. The confidence
of the Queen was not misplaced. The proud Castilian nobles learnt
to quail before the inflexible integrity of this Franciscan friar,
whom no terrors, no blandishments nor bribes could turn from his
purpose. Nor were the energies of Ximenes confined to secular matters.
Appointed Provincial of the Franciscans in 1494, he had zealously
pressed for reform of his Order, which of late had departed from
its primitive severity, owned large estates, and lived in luxury
and indolence. He now extended his view, and aimed at a general
reform, not only of the Franciscans, but of the monastic orders and
the secular clergy in his province. In the face of much opposition,
not only on the part of the General of the Franciscans, who in vain
visited Castile, but of the Pope himself, the efforts of Ximenes
succeeded. A Castilian writer of the following century asserts that
the clergy, the monks, and the friars of Castile, once the most lax
in Europe, could then compare most favourably with those of other
countries. The energies of the Archbishop were also devoted to the
promotion of theology and scholarship. He insisted on compliance with
a papal Bull of 1474, by which stalls were to be reserved in each
chapter for men of letters, canonists, and theologians. He reformed
the old universities, founded and richly endowed the University
of Alcala, started other schools, and caused the famous polyglot
Bible to be published. This was an edition of the Scriptures in
the ancient languages: the Old Testament in the Hebrew original,
the Septuagint version, and the Chaldaic paraphrase with Latin
translations thereof; the New Testament in the original Greek, and
the Vulgate of Jerome. Under his influence there arose in Spain a
school of Catholic Humanists free from the taint of heresy, and it is
mainly due to the efforts of the Cardinal and his royal patrons, that
Protestantism gained no hold in the country, and that Spain became the
centre of the future Catholic reaction.
Unfortunately, the zeal of Ximenes was not confined to these excellent
objects. He burned also to be the extirpator of heresy. By the terms
of the capitulation of Granada in 1492, considerable privileges had
been promised to the Moors. Freedom of worship and of education, as
well as personal freedom, had been secured to them. They were to live
under the Mahometan laws, administered by their own judges, and to
be tried by mixed tribunals. Content with their position, the Moors
had settled down in tranquillity, and many had been converted by the
energetic but conciliatory policy of Talavera, Archbishop of Granada.
But his measures were not stringent enough for the fiery Ximenes.
The promises were violated. The Arabic copies of the Koran and other
theological treatises were collected and consigned to the flames, and
terror was called in to further the work of proselytism. A series of
revolts ensued during the years 1500-1501, revolts which seriously
taxed the military energies of Castile and embittered the relations
of the two nationalities. Finally in 1502, on the suppression of the
rebellion, a decree was issued offering the alternative of baptism or
exile to the unfortunate Moors. Meanwhile, the Inquisition assailed
the Jews and any Spaniard suspected of heretical views.
| Conquests in Africa.
Mahometanism thus nominally driven from the Peninsula, it was natural
that the Spaniards should cast their eyes across the narrow channel
which divided them from Africa. The ravages of Moorish pirates on the
Spanish coasts, the desire of national aggrandisement, jealousy at the
notable advances of the Portuguese on the eastern shores of Africa,
the crusading spirit engendered of their past history, all these
motives urged the Spaniards to extend their dominion in the north of
the great dark continent. And we cannot be surprised to find that
Ximenes, true Castilian as he was, eagerly advocated such a policy.
At his instigation Mazarquiver, a nest of pirates on the Barbary
coast, was taken in September, 1505. In 1509, the far more important
reduction of Oran followed, while, in the following year, Algiers and
Tripoli submitted to the Spanish arms.
But although these African exploits fill the pages of the Spanish
chroniclers, the expeditions of Columbus and his followers, which
received much less support from the royal exchequer, and which
attracted far less attention, were destined to play a far greater part
in the future of Spain and of Europe.
| The discovery of America. Why so long delayed.
That the discovery of America was so long delayed will not surprise
us if we remember the following facts. The Carthaginians, who had
done something to explore the islands off the coast of Africa, had
been overthrown in their struggle with Rome. The Romans were not
a seafaring people; Europe was large enough to monopolise their
energies, and for the rest their gaze turned naturally enough to
Africa, or to the East, which was inseparably bound up with their
traditions. After the fall of the Roman Empire it was long before
her Teutonic conquerors were strong enough, or consolidated enough,
to think of foreign enterprise. When that time arrived, it was
only natural that they too should look eastward. The East was the
birthplace of their religion, and Palestine was in the hands of the
Saracens and subsequently of the Turks; the East was the fabled
treasure-house of riches and of luxury. Eastward therefore the
adventurer, the trader, and the pilgrim turned, and found in the
Mediterranean their natural pathway.
Besides all this, as a glance at a physical atlas will show, the
winds and the currents of that part of the Atlantic which lies in the
latitude of central Europe, are not favourable to western enterprise.
There westerly winds prevail throughout the year, and with greater
force than those winds which occasionally blow from the north and
east. Moreover, the great ocean current known as the Gulf Stream sets
continuously eastwards. To the north and south of these latitudes
the conditions are different. In the north, the great arctic current
runs southward from Davis’ Straits to Greenland, and thence to the
North American shore. In the south, the equatorial current sweeps
from the shores of Africa to Brazil; while immediately north of the
Equator, the trade winds blow to the south-west, and south of the
Equator to the north-west, continuously. It might therefore have been
predicted that America would not be discovered until the northern or
southern latitudes had been occupied by some seafaring nation with
sufficient resources, and sufficient knowledge of navigation, to brave
the unknown perils of the ocean.
In the tenth century, indeed, the Norsemen had discovered Labrador,
Newfoundland, and even the mainland of North America, which they
called ‘Wineland.’ But their numbers were insufficient, Europe offered
plenty of scope for their inroads and for settlement, and the memories
of Wineland remained in their sagas alone. In the southern latitudes
there was little opportunity for such enterprise until the close of
the fourteenth century. Then, however, as shown at p. 85, the Genoese,
and subsequently the Portuguese, had begun to creep down the African
coast. The primary aim of the Portuguese in their expeditions had
been to seek an oceanic route to India and the east, which since
the appearance of the remarkable work of Marco Polo at the end of
the thirteenth century, had assumed a new importance as an earthly
paradise of gold and spices.
| The idea of reaching India by the Atlantic, abandoned by the
| Portuguese, is taken up by Columbus.
The African mainland, it was then believed, did not reach south of
the Equator. But, as the continent continued to expand before the
explorers in its endless length, these ideas faded away, and hopes
were entertained of seeking Asia across the Atlantic. For, that the
Atlantic washed the eastern shores of Asia, was a belief which gained
strength in mediæval Europe. This idea, guessed at by some of the
ancients, was first definitely revived by Roger Bacon, the Franciscan
schoolman of Oxford, in the thirteenth century. From him it was
adopted by Peter d’Ailly, the chancellor of the University of Paris,
in his treatise _de Imagine Mundi_, written early in the fifteenth
century. It seemed to receive confirmation from the tradition of
islands lying out far in the Atlantic, and from drift-wood carried to
European shores on the Gulf Stream, and was definitely asserted by
Paolo Toscanelli, a Florentine astronomer, in a letter to a monk of
Lisbon, dated June 25, 1474. By that time, however, the Portuguese had
made a notable advance down the western shores of Africa, and finally
the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by Bartholomew Diaz in 1486,
caused them to concentrate their efforts on the eastern route.
| Columbus approaches various courts, and finally gains the
| support of Spain.
The idea thus abandoned by the Portuguese was now to be taken up
by Christopher Columbus. To appreciate the exact position of this
remarkable citizen of Genoa in the history of discovery, we must
remember that he had no idea of discovering a new continent. To find a
shorter way to the Indies was his sole aim. His views in this respect
were not beyond his age. His knowledge was based on the authorities
above mentioned; and he is marked out from his contemporaries only by
his determination to sail due west until he should reach the continent
of Asia. With this intention, and furnished with the treatise of
D’Ailly, a copy of Toscanelli’s letter, and a chart given him by the
author, he first applied to the court of Lisbon, where he had already
settled with his brother Bartholomew. But John II. of Portugal, intent
on the circumnavigation of Africa, declined his offer, and, if we may
believe some accounts,[28] his attempts to obtain assistance from
Venice and Genoa were equally unsuccessful. He now, in 1484, turned to
England, and to Spain.
His brother Bartholomew sailed for England, but unfortunately fell
among pirates in the English Channel. Returning to Portugal, he
accompanied Diaz on his expedition which reached the Cape, and though
he subsequently sought the court of Henry VII., where he was well
received, it was then too late: Christopher had already entered into
negotiations with Ferdinand and Isabella. The affair was indeed long
delayed. The Spanish Monarchs listened to his tempting scheme; but the
financial strain of the war of Granada, then in progress, was severe,
and the terms of Columbus were high. He demanded the hereditary office
of royal admiral and viceroy in all the lands and islands he might
discover, and the privileges enjoyed by the high admiral of Castile.
One-tenth of all treasures--gold, or otherwise--was also to fall to
his share. On the conquest of Granada, however, the contract was at
last signed (April 1492), and, in the following August, Columbus left
the roadstead of Palos on his memorable voyage, with three carracks,
one hundred and twenty souls, and provisions for twelve months. He
carried with him a letter from the Catholic sovereigns to the Khan of
Cathay, and announced his intention, not only of opening the riches of
the Indies to Spain, but of leading a new crusade against the
infidel. The details of his voyage we must leave to others, and
content ourselves with the briefest summary.
| His first expedition, 1492.
In his first expedition, after a sail of five weeks due west from
the Canaries, he touched land at one of the islands of the Bahama
group, and shortly after reached Crooked Island and Long Island.
Understanding from the signs of the natives that gold was to be found
to the south-west, he reached the shores of Cuba, and from thence the
island of Hispaniola or Hayti. Here, on the night of Christmas Eve,
his ship struck on the sands and became a wreck. Pinzon, one of his
subordinates, had deserted him, hoping to be beforehand in announcing
the news in Spain; and Columbus, leaving the crew of the wrecked
_Santa Maria_ in Hayti, returned to Spain in the _Nina_, his sole
remaining ship.
| His later voyages, 1493.
In his second voyage, 1493, he discovered Jamaica, and some of the
Antilles group. In his third voyage, he at last touched the continent,
and explored the coast of Venezuela. This was in 1498, the same year
in which Vasco da Gama, rounding the Cape, had reached India by the
eastern route. In 1502, Columbus landed on the coast of Honduras. But
although Columbus had thus discovered the continent of America, he
had been really forestalled in this by his compatriot John Cabot, who
started from Bristol in the pay of Henry VII., reached the coast of
North America, near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, in 1497, and traced
the coast possibly as far south as Cape Cod. Columbus therefore was
not the first to touch the continent, and, moreover, to the day of
his death believed that Cuba was part of the mainland of Asia, and
that Hispaniola and the other islands he had found lay in the Asian
Archipelago.
| His failure as a Governor.
Meantime, his governorship of his colony in Hispaniola was so
unsuccessful that he had been removed by the command of his royal
masters in 1498. Although Ferdinand and Isabella may be open to the
charge of some ingratitude in their treatment of one who had done so
much for the cause of Spain, Columbus had certainly shown himself
incapable as a ruler, and it was out of the question that they should
fulfil all the promises originally made to him. He had, indeed, been
the unconscious instrument in the discovery of South America, but the
determination he displayed in his first voyage forms his best title
to fame, and the true importance of his discovery was left to be
appreciated by his successors.
| Further discoveries.
In 1500, Vincent Pinzon, one of the original companions of Columbus,
sailing farther southwards reached Cape St. Agostino, at the northern
extremity of the future Brazil, and explored the coast to the
north-west between that point and Venezuela. In the same year the
Portuguese Cabral, on his way to the Cape, was driven to the westward
and again reached Brazil, which was then claimed by Portugal,
as falling within the limits of the line drawn by the Treaty of
Tordesillas (p. 86). In the succeeding year, 1501, the country was
more completely explored by Amerigo Vespucci. This Florentine, who
was once in the employ of Spain, but had deserted to the service of
Portugal, now traced the coast line down as far as Rio de Janeiro--a
point far to the southward of any yet reached--and by a curious
literary freak was destined to give his name to this New World.
The ‘New World,’ however, was still supposed to be either a huge
promontory of Asia, or a large island lying in the Atlantic. Five
years later, Columbus died in Spain, in obscurity, and almost
forgotten. After his death the discoveries continued apace.
In 1512, Ponce de Leon, a colonist of Hispaniola, discovered or
explored Florida. Shortly after, the Gulf of Mexico was again entered,
and the continuity between North and South America demonstrated. In
1513, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Darien, and from
the summit of the Cordilleras gazed on the waters of the Pacific. So
strong, however, was the belief in the Columbian hypothesis, that this
great ocean was still believed by many to be but an inland sea.[29]
| America discovered to be a new Continent by Magellan, 1519.
The final explosion of this idea was probably due to the Portuguese
advance in the East. During the early years of the sixteenth century
they had gradually crept round the shores of Asia. Fernan de Andrade
explored part of the Asian Archipelago, and, in 1517, reached Canton.
In some of these Portuguese expeditions Magellan had taken a part. It
was the knowledge thus acquired of a great sea to the east of Asia
which led him to conceive his great exploit of seeking a western
approach through the newly discovered world of America to Asia. Piqued
by the refusal of Emmanuel of Portugal to increase his pay, he entered
the service of the young Charles V., and in September 1519, started
on his notable voyage. After thirteen months’ sail, he discovered the
Straits which are known by his name. It took him three months more to
reach the Philippines. On the 27th of April, 1521, the intrepid seaman
was unfortunately slain on one of the Ladrone islands in an attempt
to aid a native Christian convert against his enemies, and eventually
only one of his fleet of five ships returned to Spain (September,
1522). At last the globe had been circumnavigated; and though it took
two centuries to work out the precise size of America and its relation
to Asia, it had at least been proved to be a ‘New World’ in a sense
hitherto never dreamt of. Meanwhile Mexico had been conquered by
Cortes (1519-21), and in 1524 Pizarro began the conquest of Peru.
| Death of Isabella, Nov. 26, 1504. Her character.
Some twenty days after the return of Columbus from his last voyage,
the great Queen of Castile had passed away (November 26, 1504), in
the fifty-fourth year of her age, and the thirtieth of her reign.
No queen of Spain, and few queens in Europe have ever enjoyed such
a reputation. She represents in a striking way the virtues and
weaknesses of her times. Of genuine and unaffected piety; affable,
yet dignified; stern in the execution of her duty; gifted with rare
fortitude, magnanimity, and disinterestedness, and with a true insight
into the needs of her kingdom, she was admirable as a woman, and
every inch a queen. The only blemish in her otherwise fine character
is to be found in her persecuting spirit. The establishment of the
Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews, and subsequently the violation
of the terms promised the Moors at the capitulation of Granada, these
all met with her full approval. But in justice to Isabella it must be
remembered that she shared this spirit of intolerance with the best
men of the age, and that the time had not yet come when toleration was
thought of, or perhaps was possible.
| Character of Ferdinand.
Her husband Ferdinand, who survived her twelve years, was not nearly
so fine or attractive a character. Crafty, in an age remarkable for
its diplomatic faithlessness, he prided himself on often having
deceived others without himself ever having been duped. Suspicious,
and often ungrateful to those who had served him best, with a cold
and calculating heart which was rarely stirred by any generous
emotion, he seemed unworthy of his wife. Yet it must be remembered
that state-craft was then looked upon as virtue in a prince; that
his contemporaries, if less successful in their falseness, were not
more honest; and that his statesmanship was guided on the whole by a
true insight into the needs of his country. He supported, and for the
most part originated, the schemes for the consolidation of the royal
authority, and, as long as Isabella lived, worked heartily for the
union of the two kingdoms.
| His policy after the death of Isabella.
After her death, he seemed at times to waver in his policy. In the
autumn of 1505, he married Germaine de Foix, in the hopes of having
a son by her who might succeed to Aragon, hopes which, if realised,
would have destroyed that union of the two kingdoms for which he had
hitherto worked. Jealousy of the House of Hapsburg was, however,
the explanation of this move. By the death of Isabella the crown of
Castile had fallen to Joanna. As she had already begun to show signs
of madness,[30] Ferdinand claimed the regency. This was, however,
disputed by her husband, the Archduke, and eventually, in June 1506,
Ferdinand had to yield. The death of Philip on the following September
25, removed, indeed, Ferdinand’s more immediate apprehensions, yet
transferred the claims of the Archduke to his young son Charles.
Disappointed in his hopes of a male heir by his second wife, the King
in his later years is said to have thought of leaving his dominions
to Ferdinand, his younger grandson. The old diplomatist foresaw the
danger both to Spain and Europe involved in the consolidation of so
wide a dominion in Charles’ hands. Had he had his will, he would have
secured Italy and Spain for Ferdinand, Charles’ younger brother,
and thus balanced the power of Austria by that of Spain and France.
But the victory of Francis at Marignano (September, 1515) aroused
once more his apprehensions of French supremacy. The counsels of
Ximenes prevailed, and on his death (January 23, 1516), the whole
of the magnificent inheritance passed on unimpaired to Charles of
Austria.[31]
| Importance of the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella.
The reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella form the turning-point in the
history of Spain. Succeeding to their respective possessions after
long periods of anarchy and civil discord, they had re-established
order, and bridled the turbulence of the nobility. Their kingdoms,
which had been divided by long-standing national rivalries, were
united, never to be again dismembered. The confines of their territory
had been extended by the conquests of Granada and Spanish Navarre,
and now comprised the whole of the Peninsula with the exception
of Portugal. To this had been added the conquests in Italy and on
the north coast of Africa, while the discoveries in the New World
were soon to give Spain a dominion upon which the sun never set.
The infantry and artillery, reorganised by Gonzalvo de Cordova, and
Pedro Navarra, had already become the terror of Europe, and Spain had
definitely, and for the first time, established her position as one of
the leading powers of Europe.
Yet amidst all these appearances of outward greatness, signs of coming
trouble might have been detected. The union of the kingdoms was not
more than a personal one. No constitutional unity had been effected,
and the national rivalries were deep-seated. The nobility had been
kept in control, but their power was not gone, and the absence of
all real constitutional liberty was to lead to the revolt of the
‘Communeros’ under Charles V. Above all, the bigotry which had led
to the establishment of the Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews,
and the proscription of the Moors, was soon to destroy all liberty
of opinion. The greed for the precious metals which accompanied the
discovery of the New World, had already led to an inordinate belief in
their value, and to a neglect and even a proscription of trade which
was shortly to ruin the commercial prosperity of the country.
§ 3. _Germany._
| Internal history of Germany during the reign of Maximilian,
| 1493-1519.
The history of Germany during the period we have covered (1494-1519),
comprises almost exactly the reign of the Emperor Maximilian I.
Elected King of the Romans during the lifetime of his father,
Frederick III., he had of late practically controlled affairs, and,
on Frederick’s death in 1493, he quietly succeeded him. Our attention
throughout the reign must be mainly directed to a consideration
of those attempted reforms of the imperial constitution which, in
their origin, and in their comparative failure, illustrate forcibly
the weakness of Germany, and the fatal conflict of interests which
prevailed.
| The Imperial Constitution.
While the other kingdoms of northern Europe were becoming consolidated
under the strong rule of a monarch, it was otherwise with Germany.
The Holy Roman Emperor, in theory at least the temporal head of
Europe, and still enjoying considerable prestige on that account,
was, so far as his actual authority in Germany went, the weakest
monarch in Europe. The office was considered too dignified a one to
become hereditary, and, like that of the Pope, the spiritual head of
Europe, was elective.[32] The electoral privilege was vested in seven
Electors; the three Archbishops of Mainz (Mayence), Trier (Trèves),
and Köln (Cologne), the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg,
the Count Palatine of the Rhine, and the King of Bohemia. Of these
seven Electors all, with the exception of the King of Bohemia, who
took no part in the legislative affairs of the Empire, formed the
first college of the Diet. Below it stood two other colleges; that of
the Princes, spiritual and lay; and that of the Imperial Cities, which
had only lately obtained a place. The Diet deliberated on imperial
questions, passed laws with the assent of the Emperor, and issued the
ban of the Empire against the recalcitrant. But the rivalries between
the three colleges, and between the Diet and the Emperor, prevented
effective legislation, and it was still more difficult to get laws
obeyed, or ban enforced.
The Diet was in no real sense a representative assembly. With the
exception of the deputies of the Imperial Cities, who were few in
number and played an unimportant part, the members sat in their own
right,[33] while the lesser nobility, the Imperial Knights, were
entirely excluded. This numerous and influential class claimed to
hold immediately of the Emperor, and refused to pay the taxes levied
by the Diet. Owners, perhaps of one, perhaps of several villages,
they entrenched themselves in their strong castles, levied tolls and
exercised other rights of petty sovereignty, and, profiting by the
old German privilege of private war, disturbed the country with their
quarrels and their raids. Nor was the system of imperial justice in
any better plight. This lay with the court of the Emperor, called,
since 1486, the Imperial Chamber (_Reichskammergericht_). But its
jurisdiction was disliked as being too much under the control of the
Emperor. The Electors claimed to be free from its jurisdiction, except
on appeal for refusal of justice, and in the other states it was
impossible to get its verdicts enforced.
The weakness of the imperial system was also displayed in its military
organisation. The imperial army was levied by a requisition of
men from each Elector, Prince, or City. But the summons was often
neglected, and if obeyed, resulted in the collection of a mob of
ill-armed and ill-drilled soldiery, with no united organisation or
even common commissariat. In a word, if we except the few occasions
when the national spirit was really stirred as against the Turk, the
imperial army was the laughing-stock of Germany and of Europe.
While the imperial authority, once--in theory at least--the centre
of unity and control, had become a cipher, no efficient substitute
had taken its place. So complete was the failure of the imperial
constitution to maintain order, that Germany had of late protected
itself by forming leagues. These were usually confined to one class
or estate. In 1488, however, a union of the various existing leagues
was established in Suabia. Joined by Cities, Knights, and Princes,
it organised a common army, held a common purse, and regulated its
affairs by a federal assembly consisting of two colleges. This famous
Suabian League was favoured by Frederick III.; it maintained some
order in the district, hitherto one of the most disturbed of Germany,
and its authority was far more real than that of the Diet itself.
| Attempted Reform of the Empire.
The reign of Frederick III., however, had witnessed a remarkable
attempt on the part of the Electors to meet the most serious evils
of their country. That attempt had failed; it was now to be revived.
The aims of this party of reform, now led by Berthold Archbishop of
Mayence, John of Baden the Archbishop of Trèves, Frederick the Wise
of Saxony, and John Cicero of Brandenburg, were briefly these:
1. To establish and enforce ‘The Public Peace’ and put an end to the
system of private feuds.
2. To establish a federative Court of Justice, freed from the
absolute control of the Emperor, for the settlement of disputes, and
the maintenance of peace.
3. To organise a more equal system of Imperial taxation under the
control of the Diet.
4. To extend and complete the system of ‘The Circles’ for
administrative purposes.
5. Finally, to establish a more effective Central Council of the
Empire which might control the administration, and act as a check on
the Emperor himself.
In a word, the Electors aimed at substituting a more effective system
of justice, and a government freed from the irresponsible rule of
the Emperor, and representing a new unity, based on a federative
organisation of Germany.
| The Diet of Worms, 1495.
Such were the reforms which the Electors demanded of Maximilian when,
at the Diet of Worms, 1495, he sought the aid of the Empire for his
expedition to Italy. Whether it would have been well for Germany
if these reforms had been effected, is a matter much disputed.[34]
Certainly they are wrong, who attribute the cry for reform solely
to a selfish desire on the part of a few Electors for personal
aggrandisement and independence. Yet who can doubt that the movement,
if successful, would have resulted in the establishment of an
aristocratic federation, primarily in the interest of the Electors and
greater Princes--a federation which would have been unpopular with
the smaller Princes, the Knights, and the other classes below them?
Whether such a federation would have stopped the tendencies towards
separation, and given Germany a new centre of unity, must ever remain
doubtful. Yet the history of Germany from henceforth inclines one to
believe that the cure of German evils was not to be found in this
direction.
| Opposition of Maximilian.
In any case, the opposition of Maximilian was natural enough. He had
indeed shown some sympathy with the movement during his father’s
lifetime, and was not averse to reforms, so long as they did not
weaken his own authority. Now, however, he saw more clearly their true
import. Not only would they circumscribe his imperial prerogative,
they would also seriously hamper his designs for the aggrandisement
of his House. For although the highly romantic mind of the Emperor
was not unaffected by the splendour of the imperial title, his policy
was really dynastic, rather than imperial. The Empire he hoped to
make practically, if not theoretically, hereditary in his family.
The dignity of the office was to be enforced by the resources of
the house of Hapsburg, and to be used meanwhile to further Hapsburg
interests. To secure the Netherlands, to regain Hungary, and if
possible, Bohemia, to reassert his claims on Italy, to overthrow the
threatening power of France, these were his present aims; while from
time to time, day-dreams of an universal Empire in the future, based
on a succession of brilliant marriages, and on an enlarged hereditary
dominion, floated before his eyes. Thus might the anagram of his
father AEIOU, ‘Austriæ est imperare orbi universo,’ be realised in
part.[35]
With aims thus fundamentally different, real harmony between
Maximilian and the Electors was impossible. Of all the projected
reforms, those with regard to taxation alone met with his hearty
approval, as likely to replenish his ever empty exchequer, and enable
him to form a more efficient army for the prosecution of his own
designs. Yet this was the one reform which the Electors cared for
least. Whether therefore they would carry their projects depended on
the fortunes of Maximilian. As long as he needed their assistance in
men and money, something might be extorted from his weakness, but when
success smiled upon him, he grew cold and opposed or postponed their
schemes.
When in March 1495, he met the Diet of Worms, he was in need of help
that he might join the League of Venice, just formed to prevent the
undue extension of French influence in Italy. In return for the
establishment of the Common Penny (_der gemeine Pfennig_)--that is, a
tax upon all property throughout the Empire, and a poll-tax on those
of small means,--he allowed the Diet to proclaim the public peace, and
make it perpetual. Those who broke it were to be under the ban of the
Empire.
To remove all pretext for private war, the Imperial Chamber was to be
reorganised. The Emperor was to retain the right of nominating the
President, the sixteen Assessors were to be elected by the Diet. The
court was not to follow the Emperor, but was to have a fixed place
of session, and was to be supported by imperial taxation. It was to
have supreme jurisdiction in all cases arising between states of the
Empire, and to hear appeals on all causes arising in their courts,
except where the Prince enjoyed the _privilegium de non appellando_;
and it could pronounce the ban of the Empire without the Emperor’s
consent. Maximilian also consented to an annual meeting of the Diet,
and conceded to it the right of appropriating the proceeds of the
Common Penny.
| Diet of Augsburg. April 1500.
The demand for a Council of Regency (_Reichsregiment_) to control the
central administration he rejected, as trenching too seriously on his
prerogative. Yet five years afterwards, at the Diet of Augsburg, 1500,
his difficulties were so great, and his need of help so imperious,
that he yielded even on this point. His Italian expeditions of 1495
and 1498 had failed. On the day on which the Diet met, Ludovico Sforza
had been taken prisoner, April 10, 1500 (cf. p. 38), and Milan was
once more in French hands.
The system of the Common Penny had failed, owing to the difficulty of
collection. The Diet therefore ordered a levy of men for six months.
Every four hundred inhabitants were to furnish one soldier, the
Princes to provide the cavalry; a tax was also laid on those who did
not serve. In return, the Emperor consented to the establishment of
the Council of Regency (_Reichsregiment_). This standing Council of
the Empire was to be formed of a President, one Elector, one Bishop,
one Prince, one Count, and sixteen representatives of the States. It
was to summon the Diet, of which it served as a standing committee,
to nominate the members of the Imperial Chamber, to collect taxes,
to maintain order at home, and decide on questions of peace and war.
Although under the presidency of the Emperor or his Stadtholder,
nothing of importance could be done without its leave, and thus it
shared the executive power with him.
| 1502. Opposition of Maximilian.
| Compact at Gelnhausen. June 1502.
Maximilian, however, had no intention of seeing his authority thus
controlled, and this abortive Council only lasted a few months.
Henceforth, disappointed at the niggard support which his concessions
had produced--for the levy voted at Augsburg was never fully
furnished--he determined to lean upon his own resources. ‘As King
of the Romans,’ he said, ‘he had only experienced mortification.
He would for the future act as an Austrian Prince.’ Accordingly,
in 1502, he fell back on his imperial right of holding Courts of
Justice (_Hofgerichte_), and erected a standing Court or Aulic Council
(_Hofrath_), entirely under his own control, to which he referred
matters pertaining to his own territories, and cases which he was
called upon to adjudicate in his capacity of overlord.[36] He even
thought of instituting a Council of his own to take the place of
the Council of Regency. The Electors on their side entered into a
solemn compact at Gelnhausen (June 1502) to unite themselves as one
man against the dangerous innovations of the Emperor; carried on
negotiations with Louis XII. on their own account; and, in 1503, even
spoke of deposing Maximilian and electing his rival, the French king,
in his stead.
| 1504. Success of Maximilian in the Landshut succession
| question.
At this moment the position of Maximilian began to improve. He found
himself supported by many of the literary men who cherished the
memories of the Empire, by many of the Princes, the Imperial Knights,
and others who dreaded the power of the Electors, and, in 1504,
the question of the Landshut succession gave him an opportunity of
humiliating his chief enemy, the Elector Palatine, Frederick the
Victorious, or the Wicked, as his opponents called him. On the death
of Duke George, the Rich, of Landshut (December 1503), without direct
heirs, three claimants appeared: Rupert, the second son of the Elector
Palatine, and son-in-law and nephew of George, who claimed under the
will of his father-in-law; and the two Dukes of Bavaria, Wolfgang
and Albert, who urged their claim as his nearest agnates. Maximilian
supported the cause of Bavaria; called on the princes who were jealous
of the Elector Palatine; with their help, defeated his forces in a
battle where Rupert, his son, was killed, and forced the Diet of
Cologne, in 1505, to divide the territories of Landshut between the
Dukes of Bavaria and himself; while the son of Rupert was fain to
content himself with the small district of the upper Palatinate on the
north of the Danube.
| 1504. Death of Berthold of Mayence and of the Elector of
| Trèves.
| Improved position of Maximilian.
By this defeat of a prominent Elector, the prestige of Maximilian was
much enhanced. Moreover, the death of John of Baden the Elector of
Trèves, and of Berthold of Mayence during the year, 1504, seriously
weakened the party of reform. The Emperor’s position abroad also
seemed magnificent. The Treaty of Blois (September 1504) promised a
brilliant match for his grandson Charles (cf. p. 61), a match which
was not only to bring Brittany, Burgundy, and the French possessions
in North Italy to the Hapsburgs, but might even, so Maximilian hoped,
end in uniting the crowns of the Empire and of France. In the ensuing
November, the death of Isabella made Joanna, his daughter-in-law,
Queen of Castile; and the old age of Ladislas, of Bohemia and Hungary,
gave prospects of the speedy fulfilment of the agreement, made by
that King fifteen years before, by which Hungary was to fall to the
Hapsburg house in the event of his dying without male issue.
| End of the attempted Reforms.
While Maximilian indulged in wild projects of universal empire, he
was not in a mood to listen to further demands, nor were the Electors
in a position to enforce them. Here therefore the attempts at reform
may be said to have practically ceased. The hopes of Maximilian were
not indeed fulfilled. Accordingly, in 1507, at Constance we find him
once more demanding men and money against the perjured Louis XII., in
return for a promise to revive the Imperial Chamber, which had held
no sittings for three years. Supplies were granted, no longer by the
Common Penny, or by assessment by parishes, but by a matricula or roll
on which the separate states were rated, according to their resources,
a system which emphasised the independence of the separate states.
Thus furnished, Maximilian once more invaded Italy, only to fail even
more ludicrously than before (cf. p. 65); and the Diets of the years,
1509 to 1512, are taken up with mutual recriminations--the Emperor
bitterly remonstrating with the Diet for refusing adequate support,
and for attempting to weaken his prerogative; while the Diet retorted
that his alliances and his wars had been entered into without its
consent, and that he had prevented the execution of the reforms which
had been enacted.
| 1512. Establishment of the Circles.
At the Diets of Trèves and Cologne (1512), something indeed was done.
The organisation of the Empire into six circles,[37] hitherto only
used for elections to the Council of Regency, and of the Assessors
to the Imperial Chamber, was extended, and the administrative and
military work of the districts placed in their hands. Even then the
Diets refused to allow Maximilian the privilege of nominating the
Captains of the circles, or of appointing a Captain-general who
should be supreme, or nominating a council of eight, who were to act
as a Privy Council under his control. In short, the eternal conflict
continued; Maximilian, though not averse to reforms which might make
the executive and judicial work of the Empire more efficient, refused
to allow his prerogative to be touched, and the Diet would only
sanction those which secured them some control. The measure therefore
was still-born, the Captains were never elected, and the establishment
of the circles was not finally effected till 1521, three years after
Maximilian’s death.
| Permanent results of the attempt at Reform.
Of the reforms thus attempted during the reign of Maximilian, the
Common Penny, and the Imperial Council of Regency were revived
again under Charles V., soon to be abandoned for ever; and
though the Imperial Chamber (_Reichskammer_), the Aulic Council
(_Reichshofrath_), the circles, the system of taxation, and the levy
by matricula were destined, with certain modifications, to last as
long as the Empire itself, they did not succeed in saving the Empire
from the continuation of weakness and intestine disorder. Not only
were they disliked by the Emperor in the shape in which they were
passed, but they received lukewarm support from most of the Princes,
and were opposed by the Imperial Knights; while the Cities, which
feared increased taxation as likely to fall chiefly upon their
citizens, complained that they had no representatives among the
assessors of the Imperial Chamber. The failure of these reforms
confirms the opinion that the idea of reconciling imperial unity
with the establishment of an aristocratic federation was a hopeless
one, and that two alternatives alone were practicable: either the
consolidation of Germany into a strong concentrated kingdom under
an hereditary Monarch; or the overthrow of national unity, and the
dismemberment of the Empire into a number of petty states, practically
sovereign and independent.
| Condition of States of the Empire.
The condition of the separate states formed a counterpart to that of
the Empire. The more powerful Electors and Princes, who wished to
establish a strong government, met with the same opposition from their
vassals, their cities, and even their peasants, which they themselves
offered to the Emperor; their provincial Diets were torn with the same
dissensions as those which disturbed the Imperial Diet. Yet here, more
surely than in the Empire, the authority of the ruler was asserting
itself, based upon that principle of independent territorialism which
was eventually to triumph.
The Imperial Knights, enemies of the Princes whose power they dreaded,
were the chief opponents of such consolidation, and the Emperor was
not ashamed at times to lean upon these questionable allies, who
ruined commerce by their raids, and welcomed the wolves as their
comrades. ‘Good luck, my dear comrades,’ cried an Imperial Knight to
a pack of wolves which he saw fall on a flock of sheep; ‘good luck to
us all, and everywhere.’ The condition of the peasants under such a
state of things was probably a more miserable one than in any other
country, and led to frequent revolts and conspiracies, such as that
of ‘The Bundschuh’ (peasant’s shoe)--risings which, however, were put
down with cruelty. Germany, in a word, was suffering the throes of
dissolution. The old institutions were falling into decay, the new
ones had not yet been established, and soon the religious troubles
were to add one more element of discord and weakness.
| Social and economical condition of Germany.
But if Germany at the close of the fifteenth century was in a
condition of anarchy political and social, it is a mistake to suppose
that she was in a condition of barbarism. Many a prince--nay, the
Emperor Maximilian himself--was a patron of art and literature; while
the cities at least formed an exception to the prevailing anarchy.
They protected themselves with some success from the raids of the
knights by their strong walls, their sturdy burghers, and their
leagues; and, although not free themselves from violent ferments
between the governing bodies of the towns and the unprivileged
classes, who sought for entrance into the town councils, this civic
turbulence, as is often the case, did not ruin the trade by which many
towns and burghers enriched themselves.
The cities also were the home of education, of literature, and of
art. At the close of the fifteenth century sixteen universities
existed, of which nine had been recently founded. Hence came the
humanist scholars, Agricola, Erasmus, Reuchlin, Melanchthon, and a
host of others, who revived the knowledge of the ancient languages,
and enriched their own mother-tongue with their pens. In the cities
too, the arts of printing, etching, metal-working, and painting
flourished--witness more especially the names of Holbein, Albert
Dürer, and Peter Vischer, the metal-worker of Nuremberg. In a word,
Germany was in a condition of transition, of unrest, of political
dislocation, and yet of much intellectual ferment, which was preparing
her to take the lead in the Reformation.
| The Swiss Confederation.
| 1291. The Everlasting Compact of the three Forest Cantons.
| The struggle with the House of Hapsburg.
| Battles of Morgarten, 1315, and Sempach, 1386.
| Their wars with Charles the Bold.
The reign of Maximilian witnessed also an actual loss of territory to
the Empire, for it was then that Switzerland practically established
its independence. The Swiss Confederation was originally one of
those numerous leagues formed in Germany for self-protection as the
Empire fell into decay. In the year 1291, the three Forest Cantons
of Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden, lying at the head of the lake of
Lucerne, formed ‘The Everlasting Compact,’ to protect themselves
more especially against the powerful Counts of Hapsburg, who, with
their castle of Hapsburg on the lower Aar, held large possessions,
and enjoyed considerable political authority within, and around these
districts. Henceforth, for some two hundred years, opposition to this
aggressive house forms the clue to the history of Switzerland. By
the victories of Morgarten, 1315, and of Sempach, 1386, they freed
themselves from all claims to political control or jurisdiction on
the part of the Hapsburgs and of any other power except the Emperor.
In 1468, Sigismund of Tyrol ceded to them all the lands he held in
Switzerland, with the exception of the Frickthal in the Aargau. By
their famous war with Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, 1474-1477,
they not only established the reputation of their formidable infantry,
but gained a footing in the French-speaking territories belonging to
the House of Savoy.
| Condition of the Confederation at the accession of
| Maximilian.
The primitive Confederation of the three Forest Cantons had, by the
date of Maximilian’s accession, increased its numbers to ten, and
ruled over a stretch of country roughly bounded by the Jura and the
lake of Neuchâtel on the west, the Bernese Alps on the south, and the
Rhætian Alps, the lake of Constance, and the Rhine on the south-east,
east, and north.[38] The city of Constance was a free imperial city,
and was not a member of the Confederation.
[Illustration: THE SWISS CONFEDERATION]
| The Government of the Confederation.
The constitution of the Confederation was based on ‘The Everlasting
Compact’ of 1291, which had been confirmed and expanded by subsequent
compacts, notably the Parson’s ordinance (_Pfaffenbrief_) of 1370,
the Sempach ordinance of 1393, and the Compact of Stanz, 1481. These
agreements referred almost exclusively to questions of jurisdiction
and police, and of mutual assistance and common action with regard to
foreign powers, and assumed, rather than defined, the character of the
central institutions which should give sanction to these compacts.
The Diet, composed of two delegates from each member of the
Confederation, and one from each ‘Socius,’ was little more than a
meeting of envoys, strictly limited by their instructions. Nor were
the minority bound by the decisions of the majority, except in matters
concerning the ‘Common Bailiwicks.’ Although all the Confederates
were allied with the three Forest Cantons, they were not necessarily
leagued with one another--thus Bern had made no direct league with
Zurich, nor Lucerne with Glarus. The internal constitution of the
separate states also varied infinitely. Some, like the Forest Cantons
and Zurich, were practically democracies, while Bern was ruled by
an exclusive burgher aristocracy. Thus the constitution was that of
a ‘Confederation’ of the loosest kind, a union between communities
practically sovereign, neither all bound to each other, nor alike in
their internal organisation. The complications, which were certain
to result from these peculiarities, were further increased by the
existence of other territories more or less intimately connected. Of
these there were three kinds:
| The Subject Lands.
1. The ‘Subject Lands.’ Some of these belonged to the separate states;
others, ‘the Freie Orte,’ such as the Thurgau and Aargau, were
held as Common Bailiwicks by several or all of the members of the
Confederation. These districts enjoyed no political rights, and, as is
so often the case with the dependencies of democracies, were governed
most harshly.
| The Associated Districts.
2. Secondly came the ‘Associated Districts’ (_Zugewandte Orte_). Of
these, three indeed, the abbot, and town of St. Gall and the town of
Bienne (Biel), on the lake of that name, were admitted as ‘socii’ with
one vote each in the Diet.
But the far more numerous class, the ‘Confœderati,’ were not
admitted to the privileges of full membership, and yet were bound to
obey the orders of the Confederation in matters of peace and war.[39]
| The Protected Districts.
3. Lastly came the ‘Protected Districts,’ where the tie was still more
loose.
The extraordinary complications and conflict of interests thus caused
had from time to time led to serious disputes, both internal and
external. They were now to involve the Swiss in a war with the Empire.
| Causes of the War with the Empire.
As long as the imperial title was in other hands than those of the
hated Hapsburg, the Swiss had remained faithful to the Empire,
although practically free. But in 1440, the election of Frederick
III. reawakened their apprehensions. They feared lest he should use
his imperial authority to regain his power over them. On the cession
of most of the family possessions by Sigismund of Tyrol (cf. p. 118),
a brief period of friendship ensued, which was strengthened when, by
‘The Everlasting Compact’ of 1475, he confirmed his renunciation,
and promised help against Charles of Burgundy. But the startling
successes of the Swiss had caused the Emperor and Sigismund to desert
their cause, and the old jealousies revived. The Confederation looked
with dislike on the formation of the Suabian League (1488), to the
north of them, a dislike which was embittered by the open contempt
shown by the German nobility for these upstart Swiss. The claim
made by the imperial city of Constance to jurisdiction over the
district of the Thurgau, which had been mortgaged to it by Sigismund,
caused further friction. After the death of Frederick III. matters
grew worse. The reforming party among the Electors were eager to
bring Switzerland under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Chamber,
and to force the Confederation to bear its share of the taxation
imposed on the Empire by the Diet of Worms (1495). Maximilian here
attempted to play double. He hoped that by allowing the Diet to make
these claims he might frighten the Swiss, while by refraining from
enforcing them he might gain the aid of the Confederation against the
French. In this he made a double blunder. The Electors, anxious to
make the imperial organisation a reality, insisted on the execution
of the decrees of the Diet, and the Swiss looked upon his policy
as a dishonest attempt to revive the claims of his house. They had
long been practically, although not legally, free from all imperial
jurisdiction and taxation. They had no representative in the Diet,
and their consent had not been asked. The tax of the Common Penny
they declared to be a scheme on the part of the princes to tax the
peasants. In short, their view of the matter was singularly like that
of the American Colonies when, in the eighteenth century, England
attempted to tax them. The Swiss, however, not only refused to comply
themselves, they even claimed independence for their ally St. Gall.
This at least could not be sanctioned, and, in 1497, St. Gall was
placed under the ban of the Empire. Maximilian still continued his
double dealing. He delayed the execution of the ban in the vain hope
of influencing the Swiss to make a personal arrangement with him,
and serve him in his wars. Meanwhile, other differences precipitated
the crisis. Of several leagues which had grown up around that of
the Swiss Confederation, some of the most important were the three
Rhætian Leagues: the League of God’s House, ‘Gotteshausbund,’
round about Chur, from the cathedral of which it took its name; the
‘Grauer Bund,’ or Grisons, on the Upper Rhine; and the League of the
Ten Jurisdictions in the Prättigau and the valley of Davos. The
succession of Maximilian to the possessions of the cadet branch of
his family in Tyrol on the death of Sigismund (1496), not unnaturally
aroused the fear of these Leagues, the more so because Maximilian also
about this time gained part of the Prättigau. Accordingly in 1497,
the Grauer Bund, and in 1498, the League of God’s House, entered into
an alliance with the Swiss and became associates (Confœderati).
The Swiss Confederation was thus drawn into the interminable disputes
as to possessions and jurisdictions, which existed between these two
Leagues and Tyrol. Finally, the occupation of the Münsterthal--one of
the valleys which joins that of the upper Adige--by the authorities at
Innsbruck, led to hostilities (1499).
| Outbreak of War, 1499.
| Defeat of the Suabian League and of Maximilian.
The war was at first carried on by Maximilian as Archduke of Austria,
assisted by the Suabian League, and was not taken up by the Empire
until the following year. The best policy on the Emperor’s part
would probably have been to concentrate his attack, and try to
outmanœuvre the Swiss and crush them in one decisive battle; for
the Swiss army, organised according to the states in which it had
been levied, was better fitted for detached enterprises, and its
leaders were always somewhat deficient in strategy. Instead of this,
Maximilian divided his forces and thus played into the hands of his
enemies. The Swiss, advancing in a dense column, or in phalanxes in
echelon of three divisions, with four rows of pikemen in front armed
with pikes eighteen feet long, supported in the rear by halberdiers
with halberds (a combination of battle-axe and spear), proved more
than a match for the German landsknechts. The French king sent money
and artillery; even the Venetians contributed money, unwilling to see
Hapsburg influence increase in these parts. Ludovico Sforza, Duke of
Milan, Maximilian’s only ally, was at this moment driven from Milan
(September 2). The Suabian League was defeated at Bruderholz and at
Dornach, near Basel. Maximilian himself was worsted at Frastenz in the
Tyrol, and again at the gorge of the Calven in the Münsterthal, and
on September 22, 1499, was forced to come to terms.
| The Peace of Basel, 1499.
By the peace of Basel all matters in dispute between Maximilian and
the Rhætian Leagues were referred to arbitration. All decisions of
the Imperial Chamber against the Confederation were annulled, and
though nothing definite was said as to its future relations with
the Empire, no attempt was ever again made to subject the Swiss to
imperial taxation, jurisdiction, or military levy. Though still
nominally a member of the Empire the Confederation enjoyed practical
independence, which was finally recognised at the peace of Westphalia,
1648.
In 1501, for the purpose of strengthening their northern frontier,
the Swiss admitted Basel and Schaffhausen to the Confederation; and
the addition of Appenzell, in 1513, brought up the number of the
Confederate States to thirteen, a number which was not increased
till the present century. The Swiss continued to be the mercenaries
of Europe, and in 1502, and 1512, gained, as we have seen, further
possessions to the south of the Alps (cf. p. 72). One thing at least
Maximilian learnt from his defeats. He copied the arms, and to some
extent the organisation, of the Swiss, and thus did much to form that
formidable infantry which did Charles V. good service in Italy. Yet
even this had its disadvantages; for the German landsknechts, finding
themselves in request, sometimes adopted the mercenary habits of the
Swiss, and took service with the enemies of their country.
| The Policy of Maximilian towards the Empire and his Hapsburg
| territories.
| His success as a Hapsburg Prince.
In spite of Maximilian’s attachment to the imperial name it may be
said of him, as it was of an earlier Emperor, Charles IV., that he was
‘stepfather’ of the Empire. Further, it was his aim to humiliate the
Electors. He had robbed the Palatinate of the succession to Landshut
(cf. p. 113). He defrauded the Elector of Saxony of his claim to Berg
and Julich by securing the succession, through marriage, to the Duke
of Cleves, and of the tutelage of Philip of Hesse, by declaring the
young Landgrave of age when only fourteen; and though he supported the
house of Brandenburg (Hohenzollern) by approving of the election of
Albert, a cadet of the house, to the Grand Mastership of the Teutonic
Order in Prussia (1512), he irritated him by confirming the peace of
Thorn of 1466, by which the knights had been forced to cede Western
Prussia to Casimir of Poland, and to hold East Prussia as a fief of
that king. To this he was induced by family reasons: Lewis,[40] the
nephew of Sigismund, the reigning King of Poland, had recently married
Maximilian’s granddaughter Mary, while Anne, the sister of Lewis,
married his grandson Ferdinand, with the promise of succession to
Hungary and Bohemia, should Lewis die without heirs. In short, the
policy of Maximilian was mainly dynastic. To increase the power and
the future prospects of his house was his main aim,--by the aid of the
imperial position, if possible; if not, by conquest, by policy, and by
successful marriages. His success in this design will be best realised
by contrasting the position held by his house in 1485 with that which
it enjoyed at his death in 1519.
In 1485, one year before Maximilian was elected King of the Romans,
Mathias Corvinus not only held Hungary and Bohemia, which had belonged
to the Hapsburgs from 1437 to 1457, but had driven Frederick III.
from Vienna. The Tyrol and Alsace were in the hands of Maximilian’s
cousin Sigismund. Styria and Carinthia were being ravaged by the Turk,
and Maximilian himself, now that his wife Mary of Burgundy was dead
(1482), was deprived of the government of the Netherlands, and even
of the education of his son Philip. Far different was the state of
things in 1519. Not only had all Austria proper been regained, but on
the death of Sigismund, 1496, the Emperor reunited in his own hands
all the Hapsburg possessions, and the ravages of the Turks had for the
time ceased. If he had lost Switzerland, and if his attempt to restore
his authority in Italy had ludicrously failed, these were losses to
the Empire rather than to his house.
| His Marriage Alliances.
It is, however, in his marriage alliances that Maximilian met with
most success. The marriage treaties with Ladislas and his son Lewis,
mentioned just above (p. 125), were shortly (1526) to restore Hungary
and Bohemia to the Hapsburgs. His wife Mary, daughter of Charles the
Bold, had brought him most of the possessions of the powerful House of
Burgundy, and Philip, the issue of this match, had wedded Joanna of
Spain. Already in 1516, Charles, their son, ruled in the Netherlands
and in Spain and in Naples.[41]
| His Character.
In spite of his long struggle with the electors, and the failure of
his Italian wars, Maximilian was not unpopular with the Germans.
Indeed, he must have been an attractive character, if rather an
irritating person to deal with. Although not handsome--for his
complexion was pale, and he had a snub nose rising above a grey
beard--his countenance was manly, and his activity and strength
extraordinary, as his feats in pursuit of the chamois prove. His
intellectual activity was not less remarkable; well educated, speaking
seven languages or dialects; with wide interests, quick sympathies,
a chivalrous and highly imaginative mind, and inexhaustible energy,
his many-sidedness won him admirers among all classes. No doubt, some
of these qualities stood in the way of his success. Fond of indulging
in magnificent schemes, many of them incapable of realisation, his
very versatility and resource opened him to the reproach of being
indecisive and changeable. ‘What he says at night he holds of no
account on the morrow,’ said Louis XI. of him. His self-confidence
taught him to be impatient of strong men; ‘to refuse the advice of
any, and yet to be deceived of all,’ says Machiavelli. His overweening
ambition led him into financial straits, and these to humiliating
shifts, more especially in his dealings with foreign powers who called
him ‘the man of few pence,’ and treated him as an importunate beggar,
to be pensioned or bought off at will. But at least, Maximilian
was not self-deceived. In his epic of ‘Teuerdank,’ the adventurous
knight of ‘glorious thoughts,’ who sets out to seek his bride and
finally wars against the Turk, he depicts himself, and introduces
us to self-conceit and the desire of adventure as the two great
dangers which, with envious intrigue, beset him. This attractive,
lovable, impracticable, exasperating man of dreams, of nervous,
though ill-directed energy, is a fit representative of that period of
transition which may be said to be covered by his reign.
| The death of Maximilian, 1519, marks the beginning of a new
| period.
With the accession of Francis in 1515, and with the death of
Maximilian in 1519, we are definitely introduced to a new period. It
is an interesting fact that Italy, the home of that papacy which had
guided the Teutonic barbarians out of barbarism, had nursed their
earlier days and introduced them to the priceless legacy of Roman law,
government, and civilisation, should have been the stage upon which
the scenes were shifted.
It was in the Italian wars that the kingdoms of Europe first
showed full consciousness of their national identity. In them,
notwithstanding their deadly rivalries, they learnt that their
fortunes were necessarily bound together as members of the European
commonwealth of nations. Thence the system of the balance of
power, the birth of modern diplomacy, the foundation of a system
of international law. In short, during this period, that political
system of Europe was established which still survives. Further, in the
Italian wars the nations found it necessary to keep large armies on
foot, and the art of war was revolutionised by the more extensive use
of gunpowder.
Italy indeed suffered terribly. At no date was the selfishness of
nations more flagrantly exhibited than in these Italian wars. The
peninsula became the spoil of the foreigner, never to regain her
independence till our own day. Yet in the midst of her supreme agony,
she had bestowed a priceless gift on Europe. The revived knowledge
of Greek art and literature, the highest perfection of painting,
the new style of architecture, the knowledge of man, and the spirit
of criticism--these were to be her final legacies to Europe in the
movement of the Renaissance, which was so peculiarly Italian.
Henceforth the main interest of European history will no longer lie in
Italy. The struggle for her fair plains is not indeed over. The papacy
will still demand our attention, in its relations to the Reformation
and to the Empire. But Italy falls back into a subordinate position.
The Mediterranean ceases to be the highway of commerce between east
and west. Our gaze is directed north of the Alps to follow the great
struggle between the Hapsburg and Valois houses, and the momentous
issues which were involved in the Reformation.
FOOTNOTES:
[27] For a description of the constitution of Castile and Aragon,
cf. _Cambridge Mod. Hist._, vol. i. 348 ff.
[28] These supposed visits to Genoa and Venice are very doubtful.
[29] On this point cf. Ruge, _Geschichte des Zeitalters der
Entdeckungen_, p. 458 ff.
[30] The madness of Joanna has been denied by Bergenroth, _State
Papers_, London 1868, supplement to vol. i. II. But cf. Gachard,
_Sur Jeanne La Folle_, Brussels, 1869; Rösler, _Johanna die
Wahnsinnige_, Vienna, 1870; Ranke, _Latin and Teutonic Nations_,
Bk. II. ch. ii., note.
[31] Isabella had left Castile to Joanna, and after her to Charles,
and Ferdinand did the same with Aragon. But Ximenes proclaimed
Charles king conjointly with his mother; and her madness made
Charles practically sole king.
[32] On election he assumed the title ‘The King of the Romans.’
But coronation by the Pope was then held necessary for the
assumption of the title ‘Holy Roman Emperor.’ Frederick III.
was, however, the last Emperor crowned at Rome; Maximilian in
1508, assumed the title of ‘Roman Emperor elect’ with the assent
of the Pope; and after Charles V., who was crowned at Bologna
(1529), no Emperor sought for coronation from the Pope.
[33] Besides the Princes who enjoyed an individual vote
(_Virilstimme_), there were three collective votes
(_Curiatstimmen_)--that of the Prelates who were not princes,
and those of the Suabian and Wetterabian Graves and Barons.
[34] Cf. _Cambridge Mod. Hist._, vol. i. 299 ff.
[35] This is the usual interpretation. But Ottokar Lorenz,
_Deutschland Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter_, ii. 280, reminds
us that this solution is not found in the Emperor’s ‘Diary.’ Cf.
_Kollarii Analecta Monumentorum Vindobonensia_, ii. p. 675.
[36] The Aulic Council was also to act as a supreme administrative
body.
[37] The idea of dividing Germany into circles dates from the reign
of Albert II. The four then instituted were now increased to
ten--
1. Franconia.
2. Suabia, including the Duchy of Wurtemberg, the Margraviate of
Baden, and 32 imperial cities.
3. Bavaria, with the Archbishopric of Salzburg.
4. The Upper Rhine, including Lorraine.
5. Lower Rhine, composed of the three Ecclesiastical
Electorates.
6. Westphalia, Julich, Cleves, Berg, the County of Oldenburg,
and numerous Bishoprics.
7. Upper Saxony, formed of the Duchies of Saxony, and Pomerania,
the Margraviate of Brandenburg.
8. Lower Saxony, composed of the Duchies of Brunswick, Luneburg,
and Holstein (held by the King of Denmark), Mecklenburg, the
Archbishoprics of Magdeburg and Bremen, and the towns of
Hamburg, Lubeck, and Goslar.
9. Austria.
10. Burgundy, including the Netherlands and Franche-Comté.
N.B.--Bohemia did not form part of any circle.
The duty of police and administration were to be in the hands
of a captain (_Hauptmann_), with two assessors elected by the
circles.
[38] List of Cantons in 1499, with date of their admission to the
league:
{ Three { Uri,
1291. { Forest { Schwytz,
{ Cantons { Unterwalden.
1332. Lucerne.
1335. Zurich.
1352. { Glarus.
{ Zug.
1353. Bern.
1481. { Fribourg.
{ Solothurn.
[39] List of ‘Confœderati’ before 1497--
The league of Wallis, or Valais
Schaffhausen
Mülhausen
Rothweil
Appenzell.
1497, The Grisons.
1498, The League of God’s House.
[40]
Casimir IV. of Poland, 1445-1492
|
+--------------+-----------+-+-----------+
| | | |
John Albert Alexander Sigismund I. Ladislas, King of Hungary and
1492-1501 1501-1506 1506-1548 Bohemia, 1471-1516
|
+----------------------+-------------------+
| |
Lewis = Mary, _g.d._ of Max. Anne, _g.d._ of Max. = Ferdinand I.
1516-1526
[41] The success of these and other marriages of the Hapsburgs is
commemorated in the lines:--
‘Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube,
Nam quæ Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus.’