RHODOLPH II., ALBERT IV. AND ALBERT V.
From 1339 to 1437.
Rhodolph II.--Marriage of John to Margaret.--Intriguing for the
Tyrol.--Death of Rhodolph.--Accession of Power to Austria.--Dividing the
Empire.--Delight of the Emperor Charles.--Leopold.--His Ambition and
Successes.--Hedwige, Queen of Poland.--"The Course of true Love never
did run smooth."--Unhappy Marriage of Hedwige.--Heroism of Arnold of
Winkelreid.--Death of Leopold.--Death of Albert IV.--Accession of Albert
V.--Attempts of Sigismond to bequeath to Albert V. Hungary and Bohemia.
Rhodolph II., the eldest son of Albert III., when but nineteen years of
age succeeded his father in the government of the Austrian States. He
had been very thoroughly educated in all the civil and military
knowledge of the times. He was closely allied with the Emperor Charles
IV. of Bohemia, having married his daughter Catherine. His character and
manhood had been very early developed. When he was in his seventeenth
year his father had found it necessary to visit his Swiss estates, then
embroiled in the fiercest war, and had left him in charge of the
Austrian provinces. He soon after was intrusted with the whole care of
the Hapsburg dominions in Switzerland. In this responsible post he
developed wonderful administrative skill, encouraging industry,
repressing disorder, and by constructing roads and bridges, opening
facilities for intercourse and trade.
Upon the death of his father, Rhodolph removed to Vienna, and being now
the monarch of powerful realms on the Danube and among the Alps, he
established a court rivaling the most magnificent establishments of the
age.
Just west of Austria and south of Bavaria was the magnificent dukedom of
Tyrol, containing some sixteen thousand square miles, or about twice the
size of the State of Massachusetts. It was a country almost unrivaled in
the grandeur of its scenery, and contained nearly a million of
inhabitants. This State, lying equally convenient to both Austria and
Bavaria, by both of these kingdoms had for many years been regarded with
a wistful eye. The manner in which Austria secured the prize is a story
well worth telling, as illustrative of the intrigues of those times.
It will be remembered that John, the arrogant King of Bohemia, engaged
for his son the hand of Margaret, the only daughter of the Duke of
Carinthia. Tyrol also was one of the possessions of this powerful duke.
Henry, having no son, had obtained from the emperor a decree that these
possessions should descend, in default of male issue, to his daughter.
But for this decision the sovereignty of these States would descend to
the male heirs, Albert and Otho of Austria, nephews of Henry. They of
course disputed the legality of the decree, and, aided by the Emperor
Louis of Bavaria, obtained Carinthia, relinquishing for a time their
claim to Tyrol. The emperor hoped to secure that golden prize for his
hereditary estates of Bavaria.
When John, the son of the King of Bohemia, was but seventeen years of
age, and a puny, weakly child, he was hurriedly married to Margaret,
then twenty-two. Margaret, a sanguine, energetic woman, despised her
baby husband, and he, very naturally, impotently hated her. She at
length fled from him, and escaping from Bohemia, threw herself under the
protection of Louis. The emperor joyfully welcomed her to his court, and
promised to grant her a divorce, by virtue of his imperial power, if she
would marry his son Louis. The compliant princess readily acceded to
this plan, and the divorce was announced and the nuptials solemnized in
February, 1342.
The King of Bohemia was as much exasperated as the King of Bavaria was
elated by this event, for the one felt that he had lost the Tyrol, and
the other that he had gained it. It was this successful intrigue which
cost Louis of Bavaria his imperial crown; for the blood of the King of
Bohemia was roused. Burning with vengeance, he traversed Europe almost
with the zeal and eloquence of Peter the Hermit, to organize a coalition
against the emperor, and succeeded in inducing the pope, always hostile
to Louis, to depose and excommunicate him. This marriage was also
declared by the pope unlawful, and the son, Meinhard, eventually born to
them, was branded as illegitimate.
While matters were in this state, as years glided on, Rhodolph succeeded
in winning the favor of the pontiff, and induced him to legitimate
Meinhard, that this young heir of Tyrol might marry the Austrian
princess Margaret, sister of Rhodolph. Meinhard and his wife Margaret
ere long died, leaving Margaret of Tyrol, a widow in advancing years,
with no direct heirs. By the marriage contract of her son Meinhard with
Margaret of Austria, she promised that should there be failure of issue,
Tyrol should revert to Austria. On the other hand, Bavaria claimed the
territory in virtue of the marriage of Margaret with Louis of Bavaria.
Rhodolph was so apprehensive that Bavaria might make an immediate move
to obtain the coveted territory by force of arms, that he hastened
across the mountains, though in the depth of winter, obtained from
Margaret an immediate possession of Tyrol, and persuaded her to
accompany him, an honored guest, to his capital, which he had
embellished with unusual splendor for her entertainment.
Rhodolph had married the daughter of Charles, King of Bohemia, the
emperor, but unfortunately at this juncture, Rhodolph, united with the
kings of Hungary and Poland, was at war with the Bavarian king.
Catherine his wife, however, undertook to effect a reconciliation
between her husband and her father. She secured an interview between
them, and the emperor, the hereditary rival of his powerful neighbor the
King of Bavaria, confirmed Margaret's gift, invested Rhodolph with the
Tyrol, and pledged the arm of the empire to maintain this settlement.
Thus Austria gained Tyrol, the country of romance and of song,
interesting, perhaps, above all other portions of Europe in its natural
scenery, and invaluable from its location as the gateway of Italy.
Bavaria made a show of armed opposition to this magnificent accession to
the power of Austria, but soon found it in vain to assail Rhodolph
sustained by Margaret of Tyrol, and by the energies of the empire.
Rhodolph was an antiquarian of eccentric character, ever poring over
musty records and hunting up decayed titles. He was fond of attaching to
his signature the names of all the innumerable offices he held over the
conglomerated States of his realm. He was Rhodolph, Margrave of Baden,
Vicar of Upper Bavaria, Lord of Hapsburg, Arch Huntsman of the Empire,
Archduke Palatine, etc., etc. His ostentation provoked even the jealousy
of his father, the emperor, and he was ordered to lay aside these
numerous titles and the arrogant armorial bearings he was attaching to
his seals. His desire to aggrandize his family burned with a quenchless
flame. Hoping to extend his influence in Italy, he negotiated a
matrimonial alliance for his brother with an Italian princess. As he
crossed the Alps to attend the nuptials, he was seized with an
inflammatory fever, and died the 27th of July, 1365, but twenty-six
years of age, and leaving no issue.
His brother Albert, a young man but seventeen years of age, succeeded
Rhodolph. Just as he assumed the government, Margaret of Tyrol died, and
the King of Bavaria, thinking this a favorable moment to renew his
claims for the Tyrol, vigorously invaded the country with a strong army.
Albert immediately applied to the emperor for assistance. Three years
were employed in fightings and diplomacy, when Bavaria, in consideration
of a large sum of money and sundry other concessions, renounced all
pretensions to Tyrol, and left the rich prize henceforth undisputed in
the hands of Austria. Thus the diminutive margrave of Austria, which was
at first but a mere military post on the Danube, had grown by rapid
accretions in one century to be almost equal in extent of territory to
the kingdoms of Bavaria and of Bohemia. This grandeur, instead of
satisfying the Austrian princes, did but increase their ambition.
The Austrian territories, though widely scattered, were declared, both
by family compact and by imperial decree, to be indivisible. Albert had
a brother, Leopold, two years younger than himself, of exceedingly
restless and ambitious spirit, while Albert was inactive, and a lover of
ease and repose. Leopold was sent to Switzerland, and intrusted with the
administration of those provinces. But his imperious spirit so dominated
over his elder but pliant brother, that he extorted from him a compact,
by which the realm was divided, Albert remaining in possession of the
Austrian provinces of the Danube, and Leopold having exclusive dominion
over those in Switzerland; while the magnificent new acquisition, the
Tyrol, lying between the two countries, bounding Switzerland on the
east, and Austria on the west, was shared between them.
Nothing can more clearly show the moderate qualities of Albert than that
he should have assented to such a plan. He did, however, with easy good
nature, assent to it, and the two brothers applied to the Emperor
Charles to ratify the division by his imperial sanction. Charles, who
for some time had been very jealous of the rapid encroachments of
Austria, rubbed his hands with delight.
"We have long," said he, "labored in vain to humble the house of
Austria, and now the dukes of Austria have humbled themselves."
Leopold the First inherited all the ambition and energy of the house of
Hapsburg, and was ever watching with an eagle eye to extend his
dominions, and to magnify his power. By money, war, and diplomacy, in a
few years he obtained Friburg and the little town of Basle; attached to
his dominions the counties of Feldkirch, Pludenz, Surgans and the
Rienthal, which he wrested from the feeble counts who held them, and
obtained the baillages of Upper and Lower Suabia, and the towns of
Augsburg and Gingen. But a bitter disappointment was now encountered by
this ambitious prince.
Louis, the renowned King of Hungary and Poland, had two daughters, Maria
and Hedwige, but no sons. To Maria he promised the crown of Hungary as
her portion, and among the many claimants for her hand, and the
glittering crown she held in it, Sigismond, son of the Emperor Charles,
King of Bohemia, received the prize. Leopold, whose heart throbbed in
view of so splendid an alliance, was overjoyed when he secured the
pledge of the hand of Hedwige, with the crown of Poland, for William,
his eldest son. Hedwige was one of the most beautiful and accomplished
princesses of the age. William was also a young man of great elegance of
person, and of such rare fascination of character, that he had acquired
the epithet of William the Delightful. His chivalrous bearing had been
trained and polished amidst the splendors of his uncle's court of
Vienna. Hedwige, as the affianced bride of William, was invited from the
more barbaric pomp of the Hungarian court, to improve her education by
the aid of the refinements of Vienna. William and Hedwige no sooner met
than they loved one another, as young hearts, even in the palace, will
sometimes love, as well as in the cottage. In brilliant festivities and
moonlight excursions the young lovers passed a few happy months, when
Hedwige was called home by the final sickness of her father. Louis died,
and Hedwige was immediately crowned Queen of Poland, receiving the most
enthusiastic greetings of her subjects.
Bordering on Poland there was a grand duchy of immense extent,
Lithuania, embracing sixty thousand square miles. The Grand Duke
Jaghellon was a burly Northman, not more than half civilized, whose
character was as jagged as his name. This pagan proposed to the Polish
nobles that he should marry Hedwige, and thus unite the grand duchy of
Lithuania with the kingdom of Poland; promising in that event to
renounce paganism, and embrace Christianity. The beautiful and
accomplished Hedwige was horror-struck at the proposal, and declared
that never would she marry any one but William.
But the Polish nobles, dazzled by the prospect of this magnificent
accession to the kingdom of Poland, and the bishops, even more powerful
than the nobles, elated with the vision of such an acquisition for the
Church, resolved that the young and fatherless maiden, who had no one to
defend her cause, should yield, and that she should become the bride of
Jaghellon. They declared that it was ridiculous to think that the
interests of a mighty kingdom, and the enlargement of the Church, were
to yield to the caprices of a love-sick girl.
In the meantime William, all unconscious of the disappointment which
awaited him, was hastening to Cracow, with a splendid retinue, and the
richest presents Austrian art could fabricate, to receive his bride. The
nobles, however, a semi-barbaric set of men, surrounded him upon his
arrival, refused to allow him any interview with Hedwige, threatened him
with personal violence, and drove him out of the kingdom. Poor Hedwige
was in anguish. She wept, vowed deathless fidelity to William, and
expressed utter detestation of the pagan duke, until, at last, worn out
and broken-hearted, she, in despair, surrendered herself into the arms
of Jaghellon. Jaghellon was baptized by the name of Ladislaus, and
Lithuania was annexed to Poland.
The loss of the crown of Poland was to Leopold a grievous affliction; at
the same time his armies, engaged in sundry measures of aggrandizement,
encountered serious reverses. Leopold, the father of William, by these
events was plunged into the deepest dejection. No effort of his friends
could lift the weight of his gloom. In a retired apartment of one of his
castles he sat silent and woful, apparently incapacitated for any
exertion whatever, either bodily or mental. The affairs of his realm
were neglected, and his bailiffs and feudal chiefs, left with
irresponsible power, were guilty of such acts of extortion and tyranny,
that, in the province of Suabia the barons combined, and a fierce
insurrection broke out. Forty important towns united in the confederacy,
and secured the co-operation of Strasburg, Mentz and other large cities
on the Rhine. Other of the Swiss provinces were on the eve of joining
this alarming confederacy against Leopold, their Austrian ruler. As
Vienna for some generations had been the seat of the Hapsburg family,
from whence governors were sent to these provinces of Helvetia, as
Switzerland was then called, the Swiss began to regard their rulers as
foreigners, and even Leopold found it necessary to strengthen himself
with Austrian troops.
This formidable league roused Leopold from his torpor, and he awoke like
the waking of the lion. He was immediately on the march with four
thousand horsemen, and fourteen hundred foot, while all through the
defiles of the Alps bugle blasts echoed, summoning detachments from
various cantons under their bold barons, to hasten to the aid of the
insurgents. On the evening of the 9th of July, 1396, the glittering host
of Leopold appeared on an eminence overlooking the city of Sempach and
the beautiful lake on whose border it stands. The horses were fatigued
by their long and hurried march, and the crags and ravines, covered with
forest, were impracticable for the evolutions of cavalry. The impetuous
Leopold, impatient of delay, resolved upon an immediate attack,
notwithstanding the exhaustion of his troops, and though a few hours of
delay would bring strong reinforcements to his camp. He dismounted his
horsemen, and formed his whole force in solid phalanx. It was an
imposing spectacle, as six thousand men, covered from head to foot with
blazing armor, presenting a front of shields like a wall of burnished
steel, bristling with innumerable pikes and spears, moved with slow,
majestic tread down upon the city.
The confederate Swiss, conscious that the hour of vengeance had come, in
which they must conquer or be miserably slain, marched forth to meet the
foe, emboldened only by despair. But few of the confederates were in
armor. They were furnished with such weapons as men grasp when despotism
rouses them to insurrection, rusty battle-axes, pikes and halberts, and
two-handed swords, which their ancestors, in descending into the grave,
had left behind them. They drew up in the form of a solid wedge, to
pierce the thick concentric wall of steel, apparently as impenetrable as
the cliffs of the mountains. Thus the two bodies silently and sternly
approached each other. It was a terrific hour; for every man knew that
one or the other of those hosts must perish utterly. For some time the
battle raged, while the confederates could make no impression whatever
upon their steel-clad foes, and sixty of them fell pierced by spears
before one of their assailants had been even wounded.
Despair was fast settling upon their hearts, when Arnold of Winkelreid,
a knight of Underwalden, rushed from the ranks of the confederates,
exclaiming--
"I will open a passage into the line; protect, dear countrymen, my wife
and children."
He threw himself upon the bristling spears. A score pierced his body;
grasping them with the tenacity of death, he bore them to the earth as
he fell. His comrades, emulating his spirit of self-sacrifice, rushed
over his bleeding body, and forced their way through the gate thus
opened into the line. The whole unwieldy mass was thrown into confusion.
The steel-clad warriors, exhausted before the battle commenced, and
encumbered with their heavy armor, could but feebly resist their nimble
assailants, who outnumbering them and over-powering them, cut them down
in fearful havoc. It soon became a general slaughter, and not less than
two thousand of the followers of Leopold were stretched lifeless upon
the ground. Many were taken prisoners, and a few, mounting their horses,
effected an escape among the wild glens of the Alps.
In this awful hour Leopold developed magnanimity and heroism worthy of
his name. Before the battle commenced, his friends urged him to take
care of his own person.
"God forbid," said he, "that I should endeavor to save my own life and
leave you to die! I will share your fate, and, with you, will either
conquer or perish."
When all was in confusion, and his followers were falling like autumn
leaves around him, he was urged to put spurs to his horse, and,
accompanied by his body-guard, to escape.
"I would rather die honorably," said Leopold, "than live with dishonor."
Just at this moment his standard-bearer was struck down by a rush of the
confederates. As he fell he cried out, "Help, Austria, help!" Leopold
frantically sprang to his aid, grasped the banner from his dying hand,
and waving it, plunged into the midst of the foe, with saber strokes
hewing a path before him. He was soon lost in the tumult and the carnage
of the battle. His body was afterward found, covered with wounds, in the
midst of heaps of the dead.
Thus perished the ambitious and turbulent Leopold the 1st, after a
stormy and unhappy life of thirty-six years, and a reign of constant
encroachment and war of twenty years. Life to him was a dark and somber
tempest. Ever dissatisfied with what he had attained, and grasping at
more, he could never enjoy the present, and he finally died that death
of violence to which his ambition had consigned so many thousands.
Leopold, the second son of the duke, who was but fifteen years of age,
succeeded his father, in the dominion of the Swiss estates; and after a
desultory warfare of a few months, was successful in negotiating a
peace, or rather an armed truce, with the successful insurgents.
In the meantime, Albert, at Vienna, apparently happy in being relieved
of all care of the Swiss provinces, was devoting himself to the arts of
peace. He reared new buildings, encouraged learning, repressed all
disorders, and cultivated friendly relations with the neighboring
powers. His life was as a summer's day--serene and bright. He and his
family were happy, and his realms in prosperity. He died at his rural
residence at Laxendorf, two miles out from Vienna, on the 29th of
August, 1395. All Austria mourned his death. Thousands gathered at his
burial, exclaiming, "We have lost our friend, our father!" He was a
studious, peace-loving, warm-hearted man, devoted to his family and his
friends, fond of books and the society of the learned, and enjoying the
cultivation of his garden with his own hands. He left, at his death, an
only son, Albert, sixteen years of age.
William, the eldest son of Leopold, had been brought up in the court of
Vienna. He was a young man of fascinating character and easily won all
hearts. After his bitter disappointment in Poland he returned to Vienna,
and now, upon the death of his uncle Albert, he claimed the reins of
government as the oldest member of the family. His cousin Albert, of
course, resisted this claim, demanding that he himself should enter upon
the post which his father had occupied. A violent dissension ensued
which resulted in an agreement that they should administer the
government of the Austrian States, jointly, during their lives, and that
then the government should be vested in the eldest surviving member of
the family.
Having effected this arrangement, quite to the satisfaction of both
parties, Albert, who inherited much of the studious thoughtful turn of
mind of his father, set out on a pilgrimage to the holy land, leaving
the government during his absence in the hands of William. After
wanderings and adventures so full of romance as to entitle him to the
appellation of the "Wonder of the World," he returned to Vienna. He
married a daughter of the Duke of Holland, and settled down to a monkish
life. He entered a monastery of Carthusian monks, and took an active
part in all their discipline and devotions. No one was more punctual
than he at matins and vespers, or more devout in confessions, prayers,
genuflexions and the divine service in the choir. Regarding himself as
one of the fraternity, he called himself brother Albert, and left
William untrammeled in the cares of state. His life was short, for he
died the 14th of September, 1404, in the twenty-seventh year of his age,
leaving a son Albert, seven years old. William, who married a daughter
of the King of Naples, survived him but two years, when he died
childless.
A boy nine years old now claimed the inheritance of the Austrian
estates; but the haughty dukes of the Swiss branch of the house were not
disposed to yield to his claims. Leopold II., who after the battle of
Sempach succeeded his father in the Swiss estates, assumed the
guardianship of Albert, and the administration of Austria, till the
young duke should be of age. But Leopold had two brothers who also
inherited their father's energy and ambition. Ernest ruled over Styria,
Carinthia and Carniola. Frederic governed the Tyrol.
Leopold II. repaired to Vienna to assume the administration; his two
brothers claimed the right of sharing it with him. Confusion, strife and
anarchy ensued. Ernest, a very determined and violent man, succeeded in
compelling his brother to give him a share of the government, and in the
midst of incessant quarrels, which often led to bloody conflicts, each
of the two brothers strove to wrest as much as possible from Austria
before young Albert should be of age. The nobles availed themselves of
this anarchy to renew their expeditions of plunder. Unhappy Austria for
several years was a scene of devastation and misery. In the year 1411,
Leopold II. died without issue. The young Albert had now attained is
fifteenth year.
The emperor declared Albert of age, and he assumed the government as
Albert V. His subjects, weary of disorder and of the strife of the
nobles, welcomed him with enthusiasm. With sagacity and self-denial
above his years, the young prince devoted himself to business,
relinquishing all pursuits of pleasure. Fortunately, during his minority
he had honorable and able teachers who stored his mind with useful
knowledge, and fortified him with principles of integrity. The change
from the most desolating anarchy to prosperity and peace was almost
instantaneous. Albert had the judgment to surround himself with able
advisers. Salutary laws were enacted; justice impartially administered;
the country was swept of the banditti which infested it, and while all
the States around were involved in the miseries of war, the song of the
contented husbandman, and the music of the artisan's tools were heard
through the fields and in the towns of happy Austria.
Sigismond, second son of the Emperor Charles IV., King of Bohemia, was
now emperor. It will be remembered that by marrying Mary, the eldest
daughter of Louis, King of Hungary and Poland, he received Hungary as
the dower of his bride. By intrigue he also succeeded in deposing his
effeminate and dissolute brother, Wenceslaus, from the throne of
Bohemia, and succeeded, by a new election, in placing the crown upon his
own brow. Thus Sigismond wielded a three-fold scepter. He was Emperor of
Germany, and King of Hungary and of Bohemia.
Albert married the only daughter of Sigismond, and a very strong
affection sprung up between the imperial father and his son-in-law. They
often visited each other, and cooperated very cordially in measures of
state. The wife of Sigismond was a worthless woman, described by an
Austrian historian as "one who believed in neither God, angel nor devil;
neither in heaven nor hell." Sigismond had set his heart upon
bequeathing to Albert the crowns of both Hungary and Bohemia, which
magnificent accessions to the Austrian domains would elevate that power
to be one of the first in Europe. But Barbara, his queen, wished to
convey these crowns to the son of the pagan Jaghellon, who had received
the crown of Poland as the dowry of his reluctant bride, Hedwige.
Sigismond, provoked by her intrigues for the accomplishment of this
object, and detesting her for her licentiousness, put her under arrest.
Sigismond was sixty-three years of age, in very feeble health, and daily
expecting to die.
He summoned a general convention of the nobles of Hungary and Bohemia to
meet him at Znaim in Moravia, near the frontiers of Austria, and sent
for Albert and his daughter to hasten to that place. The infirm emperor,
traveling by slow stages, succeeded in reaching Znaim. He immediately
summoned the nobles to his presence, and introducing to them Albert and
Elizabeth, thus affectingly addressed them:
"Loving friends, you know that since the commencement of my reign I have
employed my utmost exertions to maintain public tranquillity. Now, as I
am about to die, my last act must be consistent with my former actions.
At this moment my only anxiety arises from a desire to prevent
dissension and bloodshed after my decease. It is praiseworthy in a
prince to govern well; but it is not less praiseworthy to provide a
successor who shall govern better than himself. This fame I now seek,
not from ambition, but from love to my subjects. You all know Albert,
Duke of Austria, to whom in preference to all other princes I gave my
daughter in marriage, and whom I adopted as my son. You know that he
possesses experience and every virtue becoming a prince. He found
Austria in a state of disorder, and he has restored it to tranquillity.
He is now of an age in which judgment and experience attain their
perfection, and he is sovereign of Austria, which, lying between Hungary
and Bohemia, forms a connecting link between the two kingdoms.
"I recommend him to you as my successor. I leave you a king, pious,
honorable, wise and brave. I give him my kingdom, or rather I give him
to my kingdoms, to whom I can give or wish nothing better. Truly you
belong to him in consideration of his wife, the hereditary princess of
Hungary and Bohemia. Again I repeat that I do not act thus solely from
love to Albert and my daughter, but from a desire in my last moments to
promote the true welfare of my people. Happy are those who are subject
to Albert. I am confident he is no less beloved by you than by me, and
that even without my exhortations you would unanimously give him your
votes. But I beseech you by these tears, comfort my soul, which is
departing to God, by confirming my choice and fulfilling my will."
The emperor was so overcome with emotion that he could with difficulty
pronounce these last words. All were deeply moved; some wept aloud;
others, seizing the hand of the emperor and bathing it in tears, vowed
allegiance to Albert, and declared that while he lived they would
recognize no other sovereign.
The very next day, November, 1437, Sigismond died. Albert and Elizabeth
accompanied his remains to Hungary. The Hungarian diet of barons
unanimously ratified the wishes of the late king in accepting Albert as
his successor. He then hastened to Bohemia, and, notwithstanding a few
outbursts of disaffection, was received with great demonstrations of joy
by the citizens of Prague, and was crowned in the cathedral.