Naples and Sicily then, the Two Sicilies of later political

nomenclature, lie outside our present subject. ♦Venice no part of

Italy.♦ So does the commonwealth of _Venice_, except so far as Venice

afterwards won a large subject territory on the Italian mainland.

♦Her Italian dominions.♦ Both these states have to do with Italy as

a geographical expression, but neither the Venetian commonwealth nor

the Sicilian kingdom is Italian within the meaning of the present

section. They formed no part of the Carolingian dominion. ♦Venice

and the Sicilies part of the Eastern Empire.♦ They were parts of the

Eastern Empire, not of the Western. They remained attached to the New

Rome after an Imperial throne had again been set up in the Old. They

gradually fell away from their allegiance to the Eastern Empire, but

they were never incorporated with the Empire of the West. I shall deal

with them here only in their relations to the Imperial Kingdom of

Italy, and treat of their special history elsewhere among the states

which arose out of the break-up of the Eastern Empire. Again, on the

north-western march of Italy a power gradually arose, partly Italian,

but for a long time mainly Burgundian, which has in the end, by a

strange fate, grown into a new Italian Kingdom. ♦The House of Savoy.♦

This is the House of _Savoy_. The growth of the dominions of that

house, the process by which it gradually lost territory in Burgundy

and gained it in _Italy_, form another distinct subject. ♦Its special

history.♦ It will be dealt with here only in its relations to the

kingdom of Italy.

♦The Kingdom of Italy continues the Lombard kingdom.♦

The Italian Kingdom of the Karlings, the kingdom which was reunited

to Germany under Otto the Great, was, as has been already said, a

continuation of the old Lombard kingdom. It consisted of that kingdom,

enlarged by the Italian lands which fell off from the Eastern Empire

in the eighth century; that is by the _Exarchate_ and the adjoining

_Pentapolis_, and the immediate territory of _Rome_ itself. ♦Austria

and Neustria.♦ The Lombard kingdom, in the strictest sense, took in

the two provinces north of the Po, in which we again find, as in

other lands, an _Austria_ to the east and a _Neustria_ to the west.

♦Æmilia. | Tuscany.♦ It took in _Æmilia_ south of the Po—the district

of Piacenza, Parma, Reggio, and Modena—also _Tuscany_, a name, which,

as it no longer reaches to the Tiber, answers pretty nearly to its

modern use. ♦Romagna.♦ The Tuscan name has lived on; the Exarchate and

Pentapolis, as having been the chief seat of the later Imperial power

in Italy, got the name of _Romania_, _Romandiola_, or _Romagna_. This

name also lives on; but the Lombard Neustria and Austria soon vanish

from the map. Their disappearance was perhaps lucky, as one knows not

what arguments might otherwise have been built on the presence of an

Austria south of the Alps. ♦Lombardy proper. | Venetia.♦ The Lombard

Neustria together with Æmilia got the special name of _Lombardy_, while

the Lombard Austria, after various shiftings of names taken from the

principalities which rose and fell within it, came back in the end to

its oldest name, that of _Venetia_. ♦Mark of Ivrea. | Duchy of Friuli.♦

In the north-west corner _Iporedia_ or _Ivrea_ appears as a distinct

march; but the Venetian march at the other corner, known at this stage

as the duchy of _Friuli_, is of more importance. It takes in the county

of _Trent_, the special march of _Friuli_, and the march of _Istria_.

♦Fluctuation of boundary at the north-west corner.♦ This is the corner

in which the German and Italian frontier has so often fluctuated. We

have seen that, after the union of the Italian and German crowns, even

Verona itself was sometimes counted as German ground.

♦Comparison of Italy and Germany.♦

Under the German kings Italy came under the same influences as the

other two Imperial kingdoms. Principalities grew up; free cities

grew up; but, while in Germany the principalities were the rule and

the cities the exception, in Italy it was the other way. ♦Growth

of a system of commonwealths in Italy.♦ The land gradually became

a system of practically independent commonwealths. Feudal princes,

ecclesiastical or temporal, flourished only in the north-western and

north-eastern corners of the kingdom. But, if the range of the German

cities was less wide, and their career less brilliant, than those of

Italy, their freedom was more lasting. ♦Tyrants grow into princes.♦ The

Italian cities gradually fell under tyrants, and the tyrants gradually

grew into acknowledged princes. ♦Growth of the dominion of the Popes.♦

The Bishops of Rome too, by a series of claims dexterously pressed

at various times, contrived to form the greatest of ecclesiastical

principalities, one which stretched across the peninsula from sea to

sea. ♦Four stages of Italian history.♦ The geographical history of

Italy consists of four stages. In the first the kingdom fell asunder

into principalities. In the second the principalities vanished before

the growth of the free cities. In the third the cities were again

massed into principalities, till in the fourth the principalities were

at last merged in a kingdom of united Italy.

* * * * *

Under the Saxon and Frankish Emperors the old Lombard names of Neustria

and Æmilia pass away. Several small marches lie along the Burgundian

frontier, as _Savona_ on the coast, _Ivrea_ among the mountains to

the north-west, between them _Montferrat_, _Vasto_, and _Susa_,

whose princes, as special guardians of the passage between the two

kingdoms, bore the title of Marquess in Italy. It was in this region

that the feudal princes were strongest, and that the system of free

cities had the smallest developement. ♦The Marquesses of Montferrat,

938-1533.♦ The Savoyard power was already beginning to grow up in

the extreme north-west corner; but at this time a greater part in

strictly Italian history is played by the Marquesses of Montferrat,

who for many centuries kept their position as important feudal princes

quite apart from the lords of the cities. In the north-east corner

of the kingdom the place of the old Austria is taken by the border

principalities where the Italian, the German, and the Slave all come

in contact, and which fluctuated more than once between the Italian

and the German crowns. We have here the great march of Verona, beyond

it that of Friuli, Trent, the marchland of the marchland, between

Verona and Bavaria, and the Istrian peninsula on the Slavonic side

of the Hadriatic. Between the border districts on either side lay

the central land, Lombardy, in the narrower sense, the chosen home

of the free cities. ♦Growth of the Lombard cities.♦ Here, by the

middle of the twelfth century, every city had practically become a

separate commonwealth, owning only the most nominal superiority in

the Emperor. Guelfic cities withstood the Emperor; Ghibelin cities

welcomed him; but both were practically independent commonwealths.

♦Wars of the Swabian Emperors.♦ Hence came those long wars between

the Swabian Emperors and the Italian cities which form the chief

feature of Italian history in the second half of the twelfth century

and the first half of the thirteenth. ♦Milan and Pavia. | The other

Lombard cities. | Alessandria, 1168.♦ Round the younger and the elder

capital, round Guelfic Milan and Ghibelin Pavia, gathered a crowd of

famous names, _Como_, _Bergamo_, and _Brescia_, _Lodi_, _Crema_, and

_Cremona_, _Tortona_, _Piacenza_, and _Parma_, and _Alessandria_, the

trophy of republican and papal victory over Imperial power. ♦Verona

and Padua.♦ The Veronese march was less rich in cities of the same

historical importance; but both _Verona_ itself and _Padua_ played

a great part, as the seats first of commonwealths, then of tyrants.

Further north and east, the civic element was weaker again. ♦Trent.

| Aquileia.♦ _Trent_ gradually parted off from Italy to become an

ecclesiastical principality of the German kingdom; and the Patriarchs

of _Aquileia_ grew into powerful princes at the north-eastern corner

of the Hadriatic. ♦The lords of Romano and Este.♦ Within the Veronese

or Trevisan march itself, the lords of _Romano_ and the more important

marquesses of _Este_ also demand notice. Romano gave the Trevisan march

its famous tyrant Eccelino in the days of Frederick the Second, and the

Marquesses of Este, kinsmen of the great Saxon dukes, came in time to

rank among the chief Italian princes. ♦The north-eastern march falls

off from Italy.♦ The extreme north-eastern march so completely fell off

from Italy that it will be better treated in tracing the growth of the

powers of Venice and Austria.

♦Tuscany, Romagna, and the March of Ancona.♦

In the more central lands of the kingdom, in the old exarchate,

now known as _Romagna_, in the march variously called by the names

of _Camerino_, _Fermo_, or _Ancona_, and above all in the march of

_Tuscany_ on the southern sea, the same developement of city life also

took place, but somewhat later. North of the Apennines, along the

Hadriatic coast, arose a crowd of small commonwealths which gradually

passed into small tyrannies. ♦The Tuscan commonwealths.♦ Tuscany, on

the other hand, was parted off into a few commonwealths of illustrious

name. For a while one of these ran a course which stood rather apart

from the common run of Italian history. ♦Pisa; | her wars with the

Saracens 1005-1115.♦ _Pisa_, then one of the great maritime and

commercial states of Europe, became, early in the eleventh century,

a power which forestalled the crusades and won back lands from the

Saracen. Though she was in every sense a city of the Italian kingdom,

Pisa at this time held a position not unlike that which was afterwards

held by Venice. Like her, she was a power which colonized and conquered

beyond the seas, but which came only gradually to take a share in the

main course of Italian affairs. ♦Genoa.♦ Beyond the borders of Tuscany,

the same position was held by _Genoa_ on the Ligurian gulf. ♦Occupation

of the island of Sardinia by Pisa, and of Corsica by Genoa.♦ Pisa won

_Sardinia_ from the Saracen; Genoa, after long disputes with Pisa,

obtained a more lasting possession of _Corsica_. Returning to Tuscany,

three great commonwealths here grew up, which gradually divided the

land between them. ♦Lucca, Siena, Florence.♦ These were _Lucca_

and _Siena_, and _Florence_, the last of Italian cities to rise to

greatness, but the one which became in many ways the greatest among

her fellows. ♦Perugia.♦ In the centre of Italy, within the bounds of

old Etruria but not within those of modern Tuscany, _Perugia_, both as

commonwealth and as tyranny, held a high place among Italian cities.

♦Rome.♦ Of Rome herself it is almost impossible to speak. She has much

history, but she has little geography. Emperors were crowned there;

Popes sometimes lived there; sometimes Rome appears once more as a

single Latin city, waging war against Tusculum or some other of her

earliest fellows. ♦Claims of the Popes.♦ The claims of her Bishops

to independent temporal power, founded on a succession of real or

pretended Imperial and royal grants, lay still in the background; but

they were ready to grow into reality as occasion served.

* * * * *

♦Second stage, c. 1250-1530.♦

The next stage of Italian political geography may be dated from

the death of Frederick the Second, when all practical power of an

Imperial kingdom in Italy may be said to have passed away. ♦Growth of

tyrannies.♦ Presently begins the gradual change of the commonwealths

into tyrannies, and the grouping together of many of them into larger

states. We also see the beginning of more definite claims of temporal

dominion on behalf of the Popes. ♦Dominion of Spain, 1555-1701.♦ In

the course of the three hundred years between Frederick the Second and

Charles the Fifth, these processes gradually changed the face of the

Italian kingdom. It became in the end a collection of principalities,

broken only by the survival of a few oligarchic commonwealths and by

the anomalous dominion of Venice on the mainland. Between Frederick

the Second and Charles the Fifth, we may look on the Empire as

practically in abeyance in Italy. The coming of an Emperor always

caused a great stir for the time, but it was only for the time. ♦Grant

of Rudolf, 1278.♦ After the grant of Rudolf of Habsburg to the Popes,

a distinction was drawn between Imperial and papal territory in Italy.

♦Imperial and papal fiefs.♦ While certain princes and commonwealths

still acknowledged at least the nominal superiority of the Emperor,

others were now held to stand in the same relation of vassalage to the

Pope.

We must now trace out the growth of the chief states which were formed

by these several processes. Beginning again in the north, it must be

remembered that all this while the power of Savoy was advancing in

those north-western lands in which the influences which mainly ruled

this period had less force than elsewhere. Montferrat too kept its old

character of a feudal principality, a state whose rulers had in various

ways a singular connexion with the East. ♦Palaiologoi at Montferrat,

1306.♦ As Marquesses of Montferrat had claimed the crown of Jerusalem

and had worn the crown of Thessalonica, so, as if to keep even the

balance between East and West, in return a branch of the Imperial house

of Palaiologos came to reign at Montferrat. To the east of these more

ancient principalities, two great powers of quite different kinds grew

up in the old Neustria and Austria. ♦Duchy of Milan. Venice.♦ These

were the _Duchy of Milan_ and the land power of _Venice_. Milan, like

most other Italian cities, came under the influence of party leaders,

who grew first into tyrants and then into acknowledged sovereigns.

♦The Visconti at Milan, 1310-1447.♦ These at Milan, after the shorter

domination of the Della Torre, were the more abiding house of the

Visconti. Their dominion, after various fluctuations and revolutions,

was finally established when the coming of the Emperor Henry the

Seventh generally strengthened the rule of the Lords of the cities

throughout Italy.

♦Grant of the Duchy by King Wenceslaus, 1395.♦

At the end of the fourteenth century their informal lordship passed by

a royal grant into an acknowledged duchy of the Empire. The dominion

which they had gradually gained, and which was thus in a manner

legalized, took in all the great cities of Lombardy, those especially

which had formed the Lombard League against the Swabian Emperors.

♦County of Pavia.♦ Pavia indeed, the ancient rival of Milan, kept a

kind of separate being, and was formed into a distinct county. ♦Extent

of the duchy.♦ But the duchy granted by Wenceslaus to Gian-Galeazzo

stretched far on both sides of the lake of Garda. _Belluno_ at one end

and _Vercelli_ at the other formed part of it. It took in the mountain

lands which afterwards passed to the two Alpine Confederations; it took

in _Parma_, _Piacenza_, and _Reggio_ south of the Po, and _Verona_

and _Vicenza_ in the old Austrian or Venetian land. Besides all this,

_Padua_, _Bologna_, even _Genoa_ and _Pisa_, passed at various times

under the lordship of the Visconti. But this great power was not

lasting. The Duchy of Milan, under various lords, native and foreign,

lasted till the wars of the French Revolution; but, long before that

time, it had been cut short on every side. ♦Decrease on the death of

Gian Galeazzo, 1402.♦ The death of the first Duke was followed by a

separation of the duchy of Milan and the county of Pavia between his

sons, and the restored duchy never rose again to its former power.

♦The eastern cities won by Venice, 1406-1447.♦ The eastern parts,

Padua, Verona, Brescia, Bergamo, were gradually added to the dominion

of Venice. By the middle of the fifteenth century, that republic

had become the greatest power in northern Italy. ♦House of Sforza,

1450-1535. | Claims of the Kings of France, 1499-1525.♦ In the duchy of

Milan the house of Sforza succeeded that of Visconti; but the opposing

claims of the Kings of France were one chief cause of the long wars

which laid Italy waste in the latter years of the fifteenth century

and the early years of the sixteenth. The duchy was tossed to and fro

between the Emperor, the French King, and its own dukes. Meanwhile the

dominion which was thus struggled for was cut short at the two ends.

♦Cession to the Alpine Leagues, 1512-1513.♦ It was dismembered to the

north in favour of the two Alpine Leagues, as will be hereafter shown

more in detail. ♦The Popes obtain Parma and Piacenza, 1515. | Duchy

of Parma and Piacenza, 1545.♦ South of the Po, the Popes obtained

_Parma_ and _Piacenza_, which were afterwards granted as papal fiefs to

form a duchy for the house of Farnese. Thus the Duchy of Milan which

became in the end a possession of Charles the Fifth, and afterwards

of his Spanish and Austrian successors, was but a remnant of the

great dominion of the first Duke. The duchy underwent still further

dismemberments in later times.

♦Land power of Venice only.♦

With Venice we have here to deal in her somewhat unnatural position

as an Italian land power. ♦War of the League of Cambray, 1508-1517.♦

This position she took on herself in the fifteenth century; in the

sixteenth it led to the momentary overthrow and wonderful recovery of

her dominion in the war of the League of Cambray. This land power of

Venice stands quite distinct from the Venetian possessions east of

the Hadriatic. ♦Istria.♦ With this last her possession of the coast

of the _Istrian_ peninsula must be reckoned, rather than with her

Italian dominions. Between these lay Aquileia, Trieste, and the other

lands in this quarter which gradually came under the power of Austria.

♦Extent of Venetian dominion. | Ravenna, 1441-1530.♦ The continuous

Italian dominion of Venice took in _Udine_ at one end and _Bergamo_

at the other, besides _Crema_, and for a while _Ravenna_, as outlying

possessions. Thus the Byzantine city which lay anchored off the shore

of the Western Empire could for a season call the ancient seat of the

Exarchate its own. ♦Two parts of the Venetian territory.♦ But even the

continuous land territory of Venice lay in two portions. Brescia and

Bergamo were almost cut off from Verona and the other possessions to

the east by the Lake of Garda, the bishopric of Trent to the north, and

the principality of _Mantua_ to the south.

The mention of this last state leads us back again to the commonwealths

which, like Milan, changed, first into tyrannies, and then into

acknowledged principalities. It is impossible to mention all of them,

and some of those which played for a while the most brilliant part in

Italian history had no lasting effect on Italian geography. ♦Rule of

the Scala at Verona, 1260-1387; | of the Carrara at Padua, 1318-1405;♦

The rule of the house of Scala at Verona, the rule of the house of

Carrara at Padua, left no lasting trace on the map. It was otherwise

with the two states which bordered on the Venetian possessions to the

south. ♦of the Gonzaga at Mantua, 1328-1708. | Marquesses, 1433;

| Dukes, 1530.♦ The house of Gonzaga held sovereign power at _Mantua_,

first as captains, then as marquesses, then as dukes, for nearly four

hundred years. ♦House of Este.♦ Of greater fame was the power that

grew up in the house of _Este_, the Italian branch of the house of

Welf. Their position is one specially instructive, as illustrating the

various tenures by which dominion was held. ♦The lords of Ferrara and

Modena, 1264-1288.♦ The marquesses of Este, feudal lords of that small

principality, became, after some of the usual fluctuations, permanent

lords of the cities of _Ferrara_ and _Modena_. About the same time

they lost their original holding of Este, which passed to Padua, and

with Padua to Venice. Thus the nominal marquess of Este and real lord

of Ferrara was not uncommonly spoken of as Marquess of Ferrara. In the

fifteenth century these princes rose to ducal rank; but by that time

the new doctrine of the temporal dominion of the Popes had made great

advances. Modena, no man doubted, was a city of the Empire; but Ferrara

was now held to be under the supremacy of the Pope. The Marquess Borso

had thus to seek his elevation to ducal rank from two separate lords.

♦Duchy of Modena, 1453. | Duchy of Ferrara, 1471.♦ He was created Duke

of Modena and Reggio by the Emperor, and afterwards Duke of Ferrara

by the Pope. This difference of holding, as we shall presently see,

led to the destruction of the power of the house of Este. In the times

in which we are now concerned, their dominions lay in two masses. To

the west lay the duchy of Modena and Reggio; apart from it to the

east lay the duchy of Ferrara. ♦Loss of Rovigo, 1484.♦ Not long after

its creation, this last duchy was cut short by the surrender of the

border-district of _Rovigo_ to Venice.

♦Cities of Romagna.♦

Between the two great duchies of the house of Este lay _Bologna_,

gradually changed from _Romania_ in one sense into _Romagna_ in

another. Like most other Italian cities, the commonwealths of the

Exarchate and the Pentapolis changed into tyrannies, and their petty

princes were one by one overthrown by the advancing power of the

Popes. ♦Bologna, Perugia, Rimini.♦ Every city had its dynasty; but

it was only a few, like the houses of _Bentevoglio_ at _Bologna_, of

_Baglioni_ at _Perugia_, and _Malatesta_ at _Rimini_, that rose to

any historical importance. One only combined historical importance

with acknowledged princely rank. ♦The Duchy of Urbino, 1478-1631.♦ The

house of _Montefeltro_, lords of _Urbino_, became acknowledged dukes by

papal grants. From them the duchy passed to the house of La Rovere, and

it flourished under five princes of the two dynasties. ♦Expansion of

the papal dominions.♦ Gradually, by successive annexations, the papal

dominions, before the middle of the sixteenth century, stretched from

the Po to Tarracina. Ferrara and Urbino still remained distinct states,

but states which were confessedly held as fiefs of the Holy See.

♦Creation of the Tuscan cities.♦

To the west, in Tuscany, the phænomena are somewhat different. The

characteristic of this part of Italy was the grouping together of the

smaller cities under the power of the larger. Nearly all the land

came in the end under princely rule; but both acknowledged princely

rule and the tyrannies out of which it sprang came into importance in

Tuscany later than anywhere else. ♦Lucca under Castruccio Castracani,

1320-1338.♦ _Lucca_ had in the fourteenth century a short time of

greatness under her illustrious tyrant Castruccio; but, before and

after his day, she plays, as a commonwealth, only a secondary part in

Italy. Still she remained a commonwealth, though latterly an oligarchic

one, through all changes down to the general crash of the French

Revolution. ♦Pisa.♦ _Pisa_ kept for a while her maritime greatness,

and her rivalry with the Ligurian commonwealth of _Genoa_. ♦Genoa.♦

Genoa, less famous in the earliest times, proved a far more lasting

power. ♦Her rule in Corsica.♦ She established her dominion over the

coast on both sides of her, and kept her island of Corsica down to

modern times. ♦Sardinia ceded to Aragon, 1428. | Pisa subject to

Florence, 1416.♦ Physical causes caused the fall of the maritime power

of Pisa; Sardinia passed from her to become a kingdom of the House

of Aragon, and she herself passed under the dominion of _Florence_.

♦Greatness of Florence.♦ This last illustrious city, the greatest of

Tuscan and even of Italian commonwealths, begins to stand forth as

the foremost of republican states about the time when her forerunner

Milan came under the rule of tyrants. She extended her dominion over

_Volterra_, _Arezzo_, and many smaller places, till she became mistress

of all northern Tuscany. ♦Siena.♦ To the south the commonwealth of

_Siena_ also formed a large dominion. ♦Rule of the Medici. 1434-1494.

| 1512-1527.♦ In Florence the rule of the Medici grew step by step into

a hereditary tyranny; but it was an intermittent tyranny, one which was

supported only by foreign force, and which was overturned whenever

Florence had strength to act for herself. ♦Alexander, Duke of Florence,

1530.♦ It was only after her last overthrow by the combined powers of

Pope and Cæsar that she became, under Alexander, the first duke of the

house of Medici, an acknowledged principality. ♦Cosmo annexes Siena,

1557. | Elba, &c.♦ Cosmo the First, the second duke, annexed Siena,

and all the territory of that commonwealth, except the lands known as

_Stati degli Presidi_, that is the isle of _Elba_ and some points on

the coast. These became parts of the kingdom of Naples; that is, at

that time, parts of the dominion of Spain. The state thus formed by

Cosmo was one of the most considerable in Italy, taking in the whole

of Tuscany except the territory of Lucca and the lands which became

Spanish. ♦Cosmo Grand Duke of Tuscany, 1567.♦ Its ruler presently

exchanged by papal authority the title of Duke of Florence for that of

Grand Duke of Tuscany.

§ 4. _The Later Geography of Italy._

♦Abeyance of the kingdom of Italy, 1530-1805.♦

Under Charles the Fifth it might have seemed that both the Roman Empire

and the kingdom of Italy had come to life again. A prince who wore

both crowns was practically master of Italy. But though the power of

the Emperor was restored, the power of the Empire was not. In truth

we may look on all notion of a kingdom of Italy in the elder sense as

having passed away with the coronation of Charles himself. The thing

had passed away long before; after the pageant at Bologna the name was

not heard for more than two centuries and a half. ♦Italy a geographical

expression.♦ Italy became truly a ‘geographical expression;’ the land

consisted of a number of principalities and a few commonwealths, all

nominally independent, some more or less practically so, but the more

part of which were under foreign influence, and some of them were

actually ruled by foreign princes. ♦Changes among the Italian states.♦

The states of Italy were united, divided, handed over from one ruler to

another, according to the fluctuations of war and diplomacy, without

any regard either to the will of the inhabitants or to the authority of

any central power. A practically dominant power there was during the

greater part of this period; but it was not the power of even a nominal

King of Italy. For a long time that dominant power was held by the

House of Austria in its two branches. The supremacy of Charles in Italy

passed, not to his Imperial brother, but to his Spanish son. ♦Dominion

of Spain, 1555-1701;♦ Then followed the long dominion of the Spanish

branch of the Austrian house; then came the less thorough dominion of

the German branch. ♦of Austria, 1713-1793.♦ This last was a dominion

strictly of the House of Austria as such, not of the Empire or of

either of the Imperial kingdoms. And now that the name of Italy means

merely a certain surface on the map, we must take some notice, so far

as they regard Italian history, at once of Savoy at one end and of the

Sicilian kingdoms at the other. From this time both of them have a more

direct bearing on Italian history.

♦Massing of Italy into larger states.♦

By the time of the coronation of Charles the Fifth, or at least within

the generation which could remember his coronation, the greater part

of Italy had been massed into a few states, which, as compared with

the earlier state of things, were of considerable size. ♦Monaco♦ A few

smaller principalities and lordships still kept their place, of which

one of the smallest, that of _Monaco_ in the extreme south-west, has

lived on to our own time. ♦San Marino♦ So has the small commonwealth of

_San Marino_, surrounded, first by the dominions of the Popes and now

by the modern kingdom. But such states as these were mere survivals.

♦Dominion of Venice on the mainland, 1406-1797.♦ In the north-east,

Venice kept her power on the mainland untouched, from the recovery

of her dominions after the league of Cambray down to her final fall.

♦She loses her outlying Italian possessions, 1530.♦ By the treaty of

Bologna she lost _Ravenna_; she lost too the towns of _Brindisi_ and

_Monopoli_ which she had gained during the wars of Naples; but her

continuous dominion, both properly Venetian and Lombard, remained.

♦Duchy of Milan: | Spanish, 1540-1706; | Austrian, 1706-1796.♦ The

duchy of _Milan_ to the west of her was held in succession by the

two branches of the House of Austria, first the Spanish and then

the German. ♦Advance of Savoy towards Milan.♦ But the duchy, as an

Austrian possession, was being constantly cut short towards the west

by the growing power of Savoy. For a while the Milanese and Savoyard

states were conterminous only during a small part of their frontier.

♦Montferrat.♦ The marquisate of _Montferrat_, as long as it remained

a separate principality, lay between the southern parts of the two

states. On the failure of the old line of marquesses, Montferrat was

disputed between the Dukes of Savoy and Mantua. ♦United to Mantua

1536, but claimed by Savoy, 1613-1631.♦ Adjudged to Mantua, and raised

into a duchy by Imperial authority, it was still claimed, and partly

conquered by, Savoy. ♦Mantua forfeited to the Empire, and Montferrat

joined to Savoy, 1708-1713.♦ At last, by one of the last exercises of

Imperial authority in Italy, the duchy of Mantua itself was held to be

forfeited to the Empire; that is, it became an Austrian possession. At

the same time the Imperial authority confirmed Montferrat to Savoy. The

Austrian dominions in Italy were thus extended to the south-east by

the accession of the Mantuan territory; but the whole western frontier

of the Milanese now lay open to Savoyard advance. ♦First dismemberment

of Milan in favour of Savoy, 1713.♦ The same treaties which confirmed

Montferrat to Savoy and Milan to Austria also dismembered Milan

in favour of Savoy. A corner of the duchy to the south-west,

_Alessandria_ and the neighbouring districts, were now given to Savoy;

the Peace of Vienna further cut off _Novara_ to the north and _Tortona_

to the south. ♦Further cessions, 1738.♦ The next peace, that of

Aix-la-Chapelle, gave up all west of the Ticino, which river became a

permanent frontier.

♦Parma and Piacenza given to the Spanish Bourbons, 1731-1749.♦

Among the other states, the duchy of _Parma_ and _Piacenza_ was,

on the extinction of the house of Farnese, handed over to princes

of the Spanish branch of the Bourbons. ♦Ferrara confiscated to the

Popes, 1598.♦ _Modena_ and _Ferrara_ remained united, till Ferrara

was annexed as an escheated fief to the dominions of its spiritual

overlord. ♦1718.♦ But the house of Este still reigned over Modena with

_Reggio_ and _Mirandola_, while its dominions were extended to the

sea by the addition of _Massa_ and other small possessions between

Lucca and Genoa. ♦1771-1803.♦ The duchy in the end passed by female

succession to the House of Austria. ♦Corsica ceded to France, 1768.♦

_Genoa_ and _Lucca_ remained aristocratic commonwealths; but Genoa

lost its island possession of _Corsica_, which passed to France.

♦Extinction of the Medici, 1737. | Francis of Lorraine Grand Duke of

Tuscany.♦ The Grand Duchy of _Tuscany_ remained in the house of Medici,

till it was assigned to Duke Francis of Lorraine, afterwards the

Emperor Francis the First, and after that it remained in the House of

Habsburg-Lorraine. ♦Urbino annexed by the Popes, 1631.♦ The States of

the Church, after the annexation of Ferrara, were in the next century

further enlarged by the annexation of the duchy of Urbino.

♦1530-1797. | Comparatively little geographical change.♦

Thus, except on the frontier of Piedmont and Milan, the whole time

from Charles the Fifth to the French Revolution was, within the old

kingdom of Italy, much less remarkable for changes in the geographical

frontiers of the several states than for the way in which they are

passed to and fro from one master to another. ♦Kingdom of the Two

Sicilies♦ This is yet more remarkable, if we look to the southern

part of the peninsula, and to the two great islands which in modern

geography we have learned to look on as attached to Italy. ♦The Norman

kingdom of Sicily.♦ The Norman kingdom which, by steps which will

be told elsewhere, grew up to the south of the Imperial Kingdom of

Italy, has hardly ever changed its boundaries, except by the various

separations and unions of the insular and the continental kingdom.

♦Benevento.♦ Even the outlying papal possession of _Benevento_ after

each war went back to its ecclesiastical master. But the shiftings,

divisions, and reunions of the Two Sicilies and of the island of

Sardinia have been endless. ♦Charles of Anjou, 1265.♦ The Sicilian

kingdom of the Norman and Swabian kings, containing both the island

and the provinces on the mainland, passed unchanged to Charles of

Anjou. ♦Revolt of the island of Sicily, 1282. | The two kingdoms.♦

The revolt of the island split the kingdom into two, one insular, one

continental, each of which called itself the _Kingdom of Sicily_,

though the continental realm was more commonly known as the _Kingdom

of Naples_. The wars of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries caused

endless changes of dynasty in the continental kingdom, but no changes

of frontier. ♦Union of Aragon, Sardinia, and continental Sicily under

Alfonso, 1442.♦ Under the famous Alfonso in the fifteenth century,

Aragon, Sardinia, and the continental Sicily were three kingdoms

under one sovereign, while the insular Sicily was ruled by another

branch of the same house. ♦Aragonese kings of the island, 1296-1442.

| 1458-1701.♦ Then continental Sicily passed to an illegitimate

branch of the House of Aragon, while Sardinia and insular Sicily

were held by the legitimate branch. ♦Wars beginning with Charles the

Eighth, 1494-1528. | Spanish, 1556-1701.♦ The French invasion under

Charles the Eighth and the long wars that followed, the conquests,

the restorations, the schemes of division, all ended in the union

of both the Sicilian kingdoms, now known as the _Kingdom of the Two

Sicilies_, along with Sardinia, as part of the great Spanish monarchy.

♦1554-1555.♦ A momentary separation of the insular kingdom, in order

to give the husband of Mary of England royal rank while his father yet

reigned, is important only as the first formal use of the title of

_King of Naples_. ♦Sardinia and Naples Austrian. | Duke of Savoy king

of Sicily, 1713.♦ In the division of the Spanish monarchy, Sardinia

and Naples fell to the lot of the Austrian House, while Sicily was

given to the Duke of Savoy, who thus gained substantial kingly rank.

♦Exchange of Sicily and Sardinia, 1718.♦ Presently the kings of the two

island kingdoms made an exchange; Sardinia passed to Savoy, and the

Emperor Charles the Sixth ruled, like Frederick the Second and Charles

the Fifth, over both Sicilies. ♦The Spanish Bourbons, 1735-1806.

| 1817-1860.♦ Lastly, the kingdom was handed over from an Austrian to a

new Spanish master, the first of the line of Neapolitan Bourbons. Thus,

at the end of the last century, the Two Sicilies formed a distinct and

united kingdom, while Sardinia formed the outlying realm of the Duke of

Savoy and Prince of Piedmont. His kingdom was of far less value than

his principality or his duchy. ♦Use of the name _Sardinia_.♦ But, as

Sardinia gave their common sovereign his highest title, the Sardinian

name often came in common speech to be extended to the continental

dominions of its king.

* * * * *

♦Time of the Revolution, 1797-1814.♦

This period, a period of change, but of comparatively slight

geographical change, was followed by a time when, in Italy as in

Germany, boundaries were changed, new names were invented or forgotten

names revived, when old land-marks were rooted up, and thrones were

set up and cast down, with a speed which baffles the chronicler. The

first strictly geographical change which was wrought in Italy by the

revolutionary wars was a characteristic one. ♦Cispadane Republic,

1796.♦ A _Cispadane Republic_, the first of a number of momentary

commonwealths bearing names dug up from the recesses of bygone times,

took in the duchy of Modena and the Papal Legations of Romagna. Without

exactly following the same boundaries, it answered roughly to the old

Exarchate. ♦Transpadane Republic, 1797.♦ Then the French victories

over Austria caused the Austrian duchies of Milan and Mantua to become

a _Transpadane Republic_. ♦Treaty of Campo Formio, 1797. | Cisalpine

Republic.♦ Then Venice was wiped out at Campo Formio, and her Lombard

possessions were joined together with the two newly made commonwealths,

to form a _Cisalpine Republic_. But the same treaty wrought another

change which was more distinctly geographical. ♦Venice surrendered

to Austria.♦ Venice and the eastern part of her possessions on the

mainland, the old Venetia, the Lombard _Austria_, was now handed over

to the modern state which bore the latter name. This change may be

looked on as distinctly cutting short the boundaries of Italy. The

duchy of Milan in Austrian hands had been an outlying part of the

Austrian dominions; but Venetia marches on the older territory of

the Austrian house, and was thus more completely severed from Italy.

The whole north of the Hadriatic coast thus became Austrian in the

modern sense. One Italian commonwealth—for Venice had long counted as

Italian—was thus wiped out, and handed over to a foreign king. But

elsewhere, at this stage of revolutionary progress, the fashion ran

in favour of the creation of local commonwealths. ♦Ligurian Republic,

1797. | Parthenopæan Republic. | Tiberine Republic, 1798-1801.♦ The

dominions of Genoa became a _Ligurian Republic_; Naples became a

_Parthenopæan Republic_; Rome herself exchanged for a moment the

memories of kings, consuls, emperors, and pontiffs to become the head

of a _Tiberine Republic_. ♦Piedmont joined to France, 1798-1800.♦

Piedmont was overwhelmed; the greater part was incorporated with

France. Some small parts were added to the neighbouring republics, and

the king of Sardinia withdrew to his island kingdom. Amid this crowd

of new-fangled states and new-fangled names, ancient San Marino still

lived on.

Thus far revolutionary Italy followed the example of revolutionary

France, and the new states were all at least nominal commonwealths. In

the next stage, when France came under the rule of a single man, above

all when that single ruler took on him the Imperial title, the tide

turned in favour of monarchy. In Rome and Naples it had already turned

so in another way. ♦Restoration of the Pope and the King of the Two

Sicilies, 1801.♦ By help of the Czar and the Sultan, the new republics

vanished, and the old rulers, Pope and King, came back again. And now

France herself began to create kingdoms instead of commonwealths.

♦Kingdom of Etruria, 1801-1808.♦ Parma was annexed to France, and its

Duke was sent to rule in Tuscany by the title of _King of Etruria_.

Presently Italy herself gave her name to a kingdom. ♦Kingdom of Italy,

1805-1814.♦ The Cisalpine republic, further enlarged by Venice and

the other territory ceded to Austria at Campo Formio, enlarged also

by the _Valtellina_ and the former bishopric of _Trent_ at one end

and by the march of _Ancona_ at the other, became the _Kingdom of

Italy_. ♦Buonaparte king of Italy.♦ Its King, the first since Charles

the Fifth who had worn the Italian crown, was no other than the new

ruler of France, the self-styled ‘Emperor.’ But, in Buonaparte’s later

distributions of Italian territory, it was not his Italian kingdom,

but his French ‘empire’ whose frontiers were extended. ♦Annexation

of Liguria, 1805; | of Etruria, 1808. | Grand duchy of Lucca.♦ The

Ligurian Republic was annexed; so before long was the new kingdom

of Etruria; _Lucca_ meanwhile was made into a grand duchy for the

conqueror’s sister. ♦Incorporation of Rome and France, 1809.♦ Lastly,

Rome itself, with what was left of the papal dominions, was also

incorporated with the French dominion. The work alike of Cæsar and of

Charles was wiped out from the Eternal City. The Empire of the Gauls,

which Civilis had dreamed of more than seventeen centuries before, had

come at last.

The fate of the remainder of the peninsula had been already sealed

before Rome became French. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies fell

asunder. The Bourbon king kept his island, as the Savoyard king kept

his. ♦Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, 1806. | 1809. | _Stati degli

Presidi._♦ The continental kingdom passed, as a _Kingdom of Naples_,

first to Joseph Buonaparte, and then to Joachim Murat. ♦Benevento.♦

But the outlying Tuscan possessions of the Sicilian crown had already

passed to France, and _Benevento_, the outlying papal possession in the

heart of the kingdom, became a separate principality.

♦Italy under French dominion.♦

Thus all Italy—unless we count the island kingdoms of Sardinia and

Sicily as parts of Italy—was brought under French dominion in one form

or another. But of that dominion there were three varieties. ♦Part

incorporated with France.♦ The whole western part of the land, from

Aosta to Tarracina—unless it is worth while to except the new Lucchese

duchy—was formally incorporated with France. ♦Extent of the kingdom of

Italy.♦ The north-eastern side, from Bözen to Ascoli, formed a Kingdom

of Italy, distinct from France, but held by the same sovereign. And

this Kingdom of Italy was further increased to the north by part of

those Italian lands which had become Swiss and German. ♦Kingdom of

Naples.♦ Southern Italy, the Kingdom of Naples, remained in form an

independent kingdom; but it was held by princes who could not be looked

on as anything but the humble vassals of their mighty kinsman. Never

had Italy been brought more completely under foreign dominion. ♦Revival

of the Italian name.♦ Still, in a part at least of the land, the name

of Italy, and the shadow of a Kingdom of Italy, had been revived. ♦Its

effects.♦ And, as names and shadows are not without influence in human

affairs, the mere existence of an Italian state, called by the Italian

name, did something. The creation of a sham Italy was no unimportant

step towards the creation of a real one.

* * * * *

♦Settlement of, 1814-1815.♦

The settlement of Italy after the fall of Buonaparte was far more

strictly a return to the old state of things than the contemporary

settlement of Germany. Italy remained a geographical expression. Its

states were, as before, independent of one another. ♦No tie between the

Italian states.♦ They were practically dependent on a foreign power:

but they were in no way bound together, even by the laxest federal tie.

♦The princes restored, but not the commonwealths.♦ The main principle

of settlement was that the princes who had lost their dominions should

be restored, but that the commonwealths which had been overthrown

should not be restored. Only harmless San Marino was allowed to live

on. Venice, Lucca, and Genoa remained possessions of princes. ♦Kingdom

of Lombardy and Venice.♦ The sovereign of Hungary and Austria, now

calling himself ‘Emperor’ of his archduchy, carved out for himself

an Italian kingdom which bore the name of the _Kingdom of Lombardy

and Venice_. On the strength of this, the Austrian, like his French

predecessor, took upon him to wear the Italian crown. ♦Its extent.♦ The

new kingdom consisted of the former Italian possessions of Austria,

the duchies of Milan and Mantua, enlarged by the former possessions

of Venice, which had become Austrian at Campoformio. The old boundary

between Germany and Italy was restored. Trent, Aquileia, Trieste, were

again severed from Italy. They remained possessions of the same prince

as Milan and Venice, but they formed no part of his Lombardo-Venetian

kingdom. On another frontier, where restoration would have had to be

made to a commonwealth, the arrangements were less conservative, and

the _Valtellina_ remained part of the new kingdom. The Ticino formed,

as before, the boundary towards Piedmont. ♦Genoa annexed to Piedmont.♦

The King of Sardinia came again into possession of this last country,

enlarged by the former dominions of _Genoa_. ♦Monaco.♦ This gave him

the whole Ligurian seaboard, except where the little principality of

_Monaco_ still went on. ♦Tuscany, Parma, Modena, Lucca.♦ _Parma_,

_Modena_, and _Tuscany_ again became separate duchies. _Lucca_ remained

a duchy alongside of them. ♦Lucca annexed to Tuscany.♦ The family

arrangements by which these states were handed about to this and that

widow do not concern geography; all that need be marked is that, by

virtue of one of these compacts, Lucca was in the end added to Tuscany.

That grand-duchy was further increased by the addition of the former

outlying possessions of the Sicilian crown, including Elba, the island

which for a moment was an Empire. ♦The Papal states.♦ The Pope came

back to all his old Italian possessions, outlying Benevento included.

♦The Two Sicilies.♦ The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was formed again

by the restoration of the Kingdom of Naples to the Bourbon king. Thus

was formed the Italy of 1815, an Italy which, save in the sweeping away

of its commonwealths, and the consequent extension of Sardinian and

Austrian territory, differed geographically but little from the Italy

of 1748. But in 1815 there were hopes which had had no being in 1748.

Italy was divided on the map; but she had made up her mind to be one.

* * * * *

♦The union of Italy comes from Piedmont.♦

The union of Italy was at last to come from one of those corners which

in earlier history we have looked on as being hardly Italian at all.

It was not Milan or Florence or Rome which was to grow into the new

Italy. That function was reserved for a princely house whose beginnings

had been Burgundian rather than Italian, whose chief territories had

long lain on the Burgundian side of the Alps, but which had gradually

put on an Italian character, and which had now become the one national

Italian dynasty. The Italian possessions of the Savoyard house,

Piedmont, Genoa, and the island of Sardinia, now formed one of the

chief Italian states, and the only one whose rule, if still despotic,

was not foreign. Savoy, by ceasing to be Savoy, was to become Italy.

♦Movements of 1848.♦ The movements of 1848 in Italy, like those in

Germany, led to no lasting changes on the map: but they do so far

affect geography that new states were actually founded, if only for a

moment. ♦Momentary commonwealths.♦ Rome, Venice, Milan, were actually

for a while republics, and the Two Sicilies were for a while separated.

In the next year all came back as before. The next lasting change

on the map was that which at last restored a real Kingdom of Italy.

♦Campaign of 1859.♦ The joint campaign of France and Sardinia won

_Lombardy_ for the Sardinian kingdom. Lombardy was now defined as that

part of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom which lay west of the Mincio,

except that Mantua was left out. She was left to Austria. A French

scheme for an Italian confederation came to nothing. ♦Union of the

smaller states, 1860.♦ Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and Romagna voted their

own annexation to Piedmont. The Two Sicilies were won by Garibaldi,

and the kingly title of Sardinia was merged in that of the restored

Kingdom of Italy. ♦Addition of the Sicilies.♦ This new Italian kingdom

was, by the addition of the Sicilies, extended over lands which had

never been part of the elder Italian kingdom. But Venetia was still

cut off; the Pope kept the lands on each side of Rome, the so-called

_Patrimony_ and the _Campagna_. ♦Cession of Savoy and Nizza to France.♦

But France annexed the lands, strictly Burgundian rather than Italian,

of _Savoy_ and _Nizza_. The Italian kingdom was thus again called into

being; but it had not yet come to perfection. Italy had ceased to be a

geographical expression; but the Italian frontier still presented some

geographical anomalies.

♦Recovery of Venetia, 1866; | of Rome, 1870.♦

The war between Prussia and Austria gave Venetia to Italy; the war

between Germany and France allowed Italy to recover Rome. ♦Part of the

old kingdom not yet recovered.♦ The two great gaps in her frontier

were thus made good; but, to say nothing of the annexations made by

France, a large Italian-speaking population, lying within the bounds

of the old Italian kingdom, still remains outside its modern revival.

Trent, Aquileia, Trieste, Istria, are still parts, not of an Italian

kingdom, not of a German kingdom, confederation, or empire, but of an

Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Otherwise the Italian kingdom has formed

itself, and it has taken its place among the great powers of Europe.

Yet the whole peninsula does not form part of the Italian kingdom. ♦San

Marino remains free.♦ Surrounded on every side by that kingdom, the

commonwealth of _San Marino_, like Rhodes or Byzantium under the early

Cæsars, still keeps its ancient freedom.

§ 5. _The Kingdom of Burgundy._

♦Union of Burgundy with Germany and Italy, 1032.♦

The Burgundian Kingdom, which was united with those of Germany and

Italy after the death of its last separate king Rudolf the Third,

has had a fate unlike that of any other part of Europe. ♦Dying out

of the kingdom.♦ Its memory, as a separate state, has gradually died

out. ♦Chiefly annexed by France;♦ The greater part of its territory

has been swallowed up bit by bit by a neighbouring power, and the

small part which has escaped that fate has long lost all trace of

its original name or its original political relations. By a long

series of annexations, spreading over more than five hundred years,

the greater part of the kingdom has gradually been incorporated with

France. ♦part Italian; | part Swiss.♦ Of what remains, a small corner

forms part of the modern kingdom of Italy, while the rest still keeps

its independence in the form of the commonwealths which make up the

western cantons of Switzerland. ♦Burgundy represented by Switzerland.♦

These cantons, in fact, are the truest modern representatives of the

Burgundian kingdom. ♦Neutrality of Switzerland and Belgium.♦ And it is

on the Confederation of which they form a part, interposed as it is

between France, Italy, the new German Empire, and the modern Austrian

monarchy, as a central state with a guaranteed neutrality, that some

trace of the old function of Burgundy, as the middle kingdom, is

thrown. This function it shares with the Lotharingian lands at the

other end of the Empire, which now form part of the equally neutral

kingdom of Belgium, lands which, oddly enough, themselves became

Burgundian in another sense.

The Burgundian Kingdom, lying between the Alps, the Saône and the

Rhone, and the Mediterranean, might be thought to have a fair natural

boundary. ♦Boundaries of the kingdom.♦ And, while it kept any shadow of

separate being, its boundaries did not greatly change. ♦Fluctuation of

its frontier.♦ They were however somewhat fluctuating on the side of

the Western kingdom, being sometimes bounded by the Rhone and sometimes

reaching to the line of hills to the west of it. They were also, as

we have seen, somewhat fluctuating on the side of Germany. ♦Chiefly

Romance speaking.♦ At this end the kingdom took in some German-speaking

districts; otherwise the language was Romance, including several

dialects of the tongue of _Oc_.

♦County Palatine. | Lesser Burgundy.♦

The northern part of the kingdom, answering to the former Transjurane

kingdom—the _Regnum Jurense_—formed two chief states, the _County

Palatine of Burgundy_—the modern _Franche Comté_—and the _Lesser

Burgundy_, roughly taking in western Switzerland and northern Savoy.

♦Provence.♦ On the Mediterranean lay the great county of _Provence_,

with a number of smaller counties lying between it and the two northern

principalities. ♦The Free Cities.♦ But the great characteristic of

the land was that, next to Italy, no part of Europe contained so many

considerable cities lying near together. Many of these at different

times strove more or less successfully after a republican independence,

and a few have kept it to our own day.

♦Little real unity in the kingdom.♦

But, though the Burgundian kingdom might be thought to have, on three

sides at least, a good natural frontier, it had but little real unity.

The northern part naturally clave to its connexion with the Empire much

longer than the southern. ♦The Burgundian Palatinate.♦ The _County

Palatine_ of Burgundy often passed from one dynasty to another, and it

is remarkable for the number of times that it was held as a separate

state by several of the great princes of Europe. ♦Held by the Emperor

Frederick, 1156-1189; | by Philip of France, 1315-1330.♦ It was held by

the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in right of his wife; the marriage of

one of his female descendants carried it to Philip the Fifth of France.

♦United with the French Duchy.♦ Then it became united with the French

duchy of Burgundy under the dukes of the House of Valois. ♦1477. | Held

by the House of Austria, Charles the Fifth Count of Burgundy.♦ Saving

a momentary French occupation after the death of Charles the Bold, it

remained with them and their Austrian and Spanish representatives.

Among these it had a second Imperial Count in the person of Charles

the Fifth. ♦Annexed to France, 1674.♦ But, through all these changes

of dynasty, it remained an acknowledged fief of the Empire, till its

annexation to France under Lewis the Fourteenth. ♦Dole the capital of

the county.♦ The capital of this county, it must be remembered, was

_Dole_. ♦Besançon a Free Imperial city. 1189-1651.♦ The ecclesiastical

metropolis of _Besançon_, though surrounded by the county, remained a

free city of the Empire from the days of Frederick Barbarossa to those

of Ferdinand the Third. ♦United to France.♦ It was then merged in the

county, and along with the county it passed to France. ♦Montbeilliard.♦

And it should be noticed that a small Burgundian land in this quarter,

the county of _Montbeilliard_ or _Mümpelgard_, first as a separate

state, then in union with the duchy of Württemberg, kept its allegiance

to the Empire till the wars of the French Revolution, when it was

annexed to France and was never restored.

♦The Lesser Burgundy.♦

While the Burgundian Palatinate thus kept its history as an unit in

European geography, the _Lesser Burgundy_ to the south-west of it had

a different history. The geography here gets somewhat confused through

the fact that this Lesser Burgundy, which in the twelfth century passed

under the power of the _Dukes of Zähringen_ in Swabia as _Rectors_,

took in some districts which were not parts of the Burgundian kingdom.

♦The eastern part German.♦ The eastern part of the kingdom itself

was of German speech, and its frontier towards the German duchy of

Alemannia or Swabia was somewhat fluctuating. The Aar may be taken

as the boundary of the kingdom, while the Lesser Burgundy, as an

administrative division, stretched somewhat further to the East.

♦Cities of the Lesser Burgundy.♦ Thus Basel, as well the foundations

of the House of Zähringen at Bern and Freiburg, stood on strictly

Burgundian ground, while the city of Luzern and the land of Unterwalden

come under the head of the Lesser Burgundy, without forming part of the

Burgundian kingdom. These lands long kept up their connexion with the

Empire, though the Lesser Burgundy did not long remain as a separate

unit. ♦Dukes of Zähringen. | End of their house, 1218.♦ When the House

of Zähringen came to an end, the country began to split up into small

principalities and free cities which gradually grew into independent

commonwealths. ♦Break-up of the duchy. | Savoyard territory.♦ The

counts of Savoy, of whom more presently, acquired a large territory on

both sides of the Lake of Geneva. ♦Bishops, Counts, and Free Cities.♦

Other considerable princes were the bishops of _Basel_, _Lausanne_,

_Geneva_, and _Sitten_, the counts of _Geneva_, _Kyburg_, _Gruyères_,

and _Neufchâtel_. ♦The Free Lands.♦ _Basel_, _Solothurn_, and _Bern_

were Imperial cities. The complicated relations between the Bishops

and the city of Geneva hindered that city from having a strict right

to that title. In Unterwalden and in _Wallis_, notwithstanding the

possessions and claims of various spiritual and temporal lords, the

most marked feature was the retention of the old rural independence.

♦The Old League of High Germany.♦ Of the cities in this region, Luzern,

Bern, Freiburg, Solothurn, and Basel, all gradually became members of

the _Old League of High Germany_, the ground-work of the modern Swiss

Confederation. ♦Conquests of Bern and Freiburg from Savoy, 1536.♦ The

Savoyard lands north of the lake were conquered by Bern and Freiburg in

the sixteenth century, a conquest which also secured the independence

of Geneva. ♦The Burgundian cantons of Switzerland.♦ All these lands,

after going through the intermediate stage of allies or subjects

of some or other of the confederate cantons, have in modern times

become independent cantons themselves. This process of annexation and

liberation will be traced more fully when we come to the history of the

Swiss Confederation.

To the south of this group of states, and partly intermingled with

them, lay another group, lying partly within the Cisjurane and partly

within the Transjurane kingdom, which gradually grew into a great

power. ♦Growth of Savoy.♦ These were the states which were united step

by step under the Counts of _Maurienne_, afterwards Counts of _Savoy_.

♦Burgundian possession of its county.♦ When their dominions were at

their greatest extent, they held south of the Lake of Geneva, besides

Maurienne and Savoy strictly so called, the districts of _Aosta_,

_Tarantaise_, the _Genevois_, _Chablais_, and _Faucigny_, together with

_Vaud_ and _Gex_ north of the lake. Thus grew up the power of Savoy,

which has already been noticed in its purely Italian aspect, but which

must receive fuller separate treatment in a section of its own.

♦States between the Palatinate and the Mediterranean.♦

The remainder of the Burgundian Kingdom consisted of a number of small

states stretching from the southern boundary of the Burgundian county

to the Mediterranean. ♦Bresse and Bugey become Savoyard. | Bugey,

1137-1344; | Bresse, 1272-1402.♦ North of the Rhone lay the districts

of _Bresse_ and _Bugey_, which passed at various times to the House

of Savoy. ♦Lyons, Vienne, Orange, &c. | Provence.♦ Southwards on the

Rhone lay a number of small states, among which the most important

in history are the archbishopric, the county, and the free city of

_Lyons_, the county or _Dauphiny_ of _Vienne_ and the city of _Vienne_,

the county or principality _of Orange_, the city of _Avignon_, the

county of _Venaissin_, the free city of _Arles_, the capital of the

kingdom, the free city of _Massalia_ or _Marseilles_, the county of

_Nizza_ or _Nice_, and the great county or marquisate of _Provence_.

In this last power lay the first element of danger, especially to the

republican independence of the free cities. ♦Changes of dynasty. | The

Angevins, 1246.♦ After being held by separate princes of its own, as

well as by the Aragonese kings, it passed by marriage into the hands

of a French prince, Charles of Anjou, the conqueror of Sicily, and

also the destroyer of the second freedom of Massalia. ♦Growing French

connexion.♦ The possession of the greatest member of the kingdom by

a French ruler, though it made no immediate change in the formal

state of things, gave fresh strength to every tendency which tended to

withdraw the Burgundian lands from their allegiance to the Empire and

to bring them, first into connexion with France, and then into actual

incorporation with the French kingdom.

♦Process of French annexation.♦

Step by step, though by a process which was spread over many centuries,

all the principalities and commonwealths of the Burgundian kingdom,

save the lands which have been Swiss and the single valley which is

now Italian, have come into the hands of France. The tendency shows

itself early. ♦Avignon first seized, 1226. | Annexation of Lyons,

1310.♦ _Avignon_ was seized for a moment during the Albigensian wars;

but the permanent process of French annexation began when Philip the

Fair took advantage of the disputes between the archbishops and the

citizens of _Lyons_, to join that Imperial city to his dominions. The

head of all the Gauls, the seat of the Primate of all the Gauls, thus

passed into the hands of the new monarchy of Paris, the first-fruits of

French aggrandizement at the cost of the Middle Kingdom. ♦Purchase of

the Dauphiny of Vienne, 1343.♦ Later in the same century, the Dauphiny

of _Vienne_ was acquired by a bargain with its last independent

prince. This land also passed, through the intermediate stage of an

Imperial fief held by the heir-apparent of the French crown, into a

mere province of France. ♦The city of Vienne annexed, 1448.♦ But the

acquisition of the Dauphiny did not carry with it that of the city

of _Vienne_, which escaped for more than a century. ♦Valence, 1446.♦

Between the acquisition of the Dauphiny and the acquisition of the

city, the county of _Valence_ was annexed to the Dauphiny. ♦Provence,

1481.♦ Later in the same century followed the great annexation of

_Provence_ itself. The rule of French princes in that county for two

centuries had doubtless paved the way for this annexation. And the

acquisition of Provence carried with it the acquisition of the cities

of _Arles_ and _Marseilles_, which the counts of Provence had deprived

of their freedom. By this time the whole of the land between the Rhone

and the sea had been swallowed up, save one state at the extreme

south-east corner of the kingdom, and a group of small states which

were now quite hemmed in by French territory. ♦Nizza passes to Savoy,

1388.♦ The first was the county of _Nizza_ or Nice, which had passed

away from Provence to Savoy before the French annexation of Provence.

But by this time Savoy had become an Italian power, and Nizza was

from henceforth looked on as Italian rather than Burgundian. Between

Provence and the Dauphiny lay the city of _Avignon_, the county of

_Venaissin_, and the principality of _Orange_. ♦Avignon and Venaissin

become Papal, 1348. | Annexed to France, 1791.♦ Avignon and Venaissin

became papal possessions by purchase from the sovereign of Provence;

and, though they were at last quite surrounded by French territory,

they remained papal possessions till they were annexed in the course of

the great Revolution. These outlying possessions of the Popes perhaps

did somewhat towards preserving the independence of a more interesting

fragment of the ancient kingdom. ♦Orange.♦ This was the Principality

of _Orange_, which the neighbourhood of the Pope hindered from being

altogether surrounded by French territory. This little state, whose

name has become so much more famous than itself, passed through several

dynasties, and for a long time it was regularly seized by France in the

course of every war. ♦Its annexation to France, 1714-1771.♦ But it was

as regularly restored to independence at every peace, and its final

annexation did not happen till the eighteenth century. The acquisition

of Orange, Avignon, and Venaissin, completed the process of French

aggrandizement in the lands between the Rhone and the Var. The stages

of the same process as applied to the Savoyard lands will be best told

in another section.

* * * * *

♦Modern states which have split off from the three kingdoms.♦

We have thus traced the geographical history of the three Imperial

kingdoms themselves. It now follows to trace in the like sort the

origin and growth of certain of the modern powers of Europe which

have grown out of one or more of those kingdoms. Certain parts of

the German, Italian, and Burgundian kingdoms have split off from

these kingdoms, so as to form new political units, distinct from

any of them. Five states of no small importance in later European

history have thus been formed. ♦Their character as middle states.♦

Most of them partake more or less of the character of middle states,

interposed between France and one or more of the Imperial kingdoms.

♦Switzerland.♦ First, there is the Confederation of _Switzerland_,

which arose by certain German districts and cities forming so close

an union among themselves that their common allegiance to the Empire

gradually died out. The Confederation grew into its present form by the

addition to these German districts of certain Italian and Burgundian

districts. ♦Savoy.♦ Secondly, there are, or rather were, the dominions

of the Dukes of _Savoy_, formed by the union of various Italian and

Burgundian districts. This however, as a middle power, has ceased

to exist; nearly all its Burgundian possessions have been joined to

France, while its Italian possessions have grown into a new Italy. ♦The

Dukes of Burgundy.♦ Thirdly, there were the dominions of the Dukes of

_Burgundy_, forming a middle power between France and Germany, and

made up by the union of French and Imperial fiefs. ♦Represented by the

kingdoms of the Low Countries.♦ These are represented on the modern

maps by the kingdoms of the _Netherlands_ and _Belgium_, the greater

part of both of which belonged to the Burgundian dukes. Of these

kingdoms much the greater part had split off from the old kingdom of

Germany. Certain parts were once French fiefs, but had ceased to be

so. ♦Recognized neutrality of Belgium, Switzerland, and once of part

of Savoy.♦ The position of three out of these four states as middle

powers, and their importance in that character, has been acknowledged

even by modern diplomacy in the neutrality which is still guaranteed

to Belgium and Switzerland, and which was formerly extended to certain

districts of Savoy.

Of these four states, Switzerland, Savoy, and the duchy of Burgundy as

represented by the two kingdoms of the Low Countries, some have been

merged in other powers, and those which still remain count only among

the secondary states of Europe. But a fifth power has also broken off

from Germany which still ranks among the greatest in Europe. ♦The

Austrian dominions.♦ This is the power which, starting from a small

German mark on the Danube, has, by the gradual union of various lands,

German and non-German, grown into something distinct from Germany,

first under the name of the _Austrian ‘Empire’_ and more latterly

under that of the _Austro-Hungarian Monarchy_. This power differs

from the other states of which we have been just speaking, not only

in its vastly greater extent, but also in its position. ♦Position of

the Austrian dominion as a marchland.♦ It is a marchland, a middle

kingdom, but in a different sense from Burgundy, Switzerland, Savoy,

or Belgium. ♦Comparison with the western marchlands.♦ All these were

marchlands between Christian states, between states all of which had

formed part of the Carolingian Empire. All lie on the western side of

the German and Italian kingdoms. Austria, on the other hand, as its

name implies, arose on the eastern side of the German kingdom, as

a mark against Turanian and heathen invaders. ♦Austria as the march

against the Magyar.♦ The first mission of Austria was to guard Germany

against the Magyar. When the Magyar was admitted into the fellowship of

Europe and Christendom—when, after a while, his realm was united under

a single sovereign with Austria—the same duty was continued in another

form. ♦Austria and Hungary the mark of Christendom against the Turk.♦

The power formed by the union of Hungary and Austria was one of the

chief among those which had to guard Christendom against the Turk. Its

history therefore forms one of the connecting links between Eastern and

Western Europe. In this chapter it will be dealt with chiefly on its

Western side, with regard to its relations towards Germany and Italy.

The Eastern aspect of the Austro-Hungarian power has more to do with

the states which arose out of the break up of the Eastern Empire.

These states then, Switzerland, Savoy, the Duchy of Burgundy, the

Netherlands, and Austria, form a proper addition to the sections given

to the three Imperial kingdoms. I will now go on to deal with them in

order.

§ 6. _The Swiss Confederation._

♦The original Confederation practically German,♦

I have just spoken of the Swiss Confederation as being in its origin

purely German. This statement is practically correct, as all the

original cantons were German in speech and feeling, and the formal

style of their union was _the Old League of High Germany_. But in

strict geographical accuracy there was, as we have seen in the last

section, a small Burgundian element in the Confederation, if not from

the beginning, at least from its aggrandizement in the thirteenth and

fourteenth centuries. ♦though part of it geographically Burgundian.♦

That is to say, part of the territory of the states which formed the

old Confederation lay geographically within the kingdom of Burgundy,

and a further part lay within the Lesser Burgundy of the Dukes of

Zähringen. But, by the time when the history of the Confederation

begins, the kingdom of Burgundy was pretty well forgotten, and the

small German-speaking territory which it took in at its extreme

north-east corner may be looked on as practically German ground. ♦All

the old Cantons German in speech.♦ A more practical division than the

old boundaries of the kingdoms is the boundary of the Teutonic and

Romance speech; in this sense all the cantons of the old Confederation,

except part of Freiburg, are German. ♦The later Romance Cantons.♦

The Romance cantons are those which were formed in modern times

out of the allied and subject states. ♦Many popular errors.♦ It is

specially needful to bear in mind, first, that, till the last years of

the thirteenth century, not even the germ of modern Switzerland had

appeared on the map of Europe; secondly, that the Confederation did

not formally become an independent power till the seventeenth century;

lastly, that, though the _Swiss_ name had been in common use for ages,

it did not become the formal style of the Confederation till the

nineteenth century. Nothing in the whole study of historical geography

is more necessary than to root out the notion that there has always

been a country of Switzerland, as there has always been a country of

Germany, Gaul, or Italy. ♦The Swiss do not represent the Helvetii.♦

And it is no less needful to root out the notion that the Swiss of

the original cantons in any way represent the Helvetii of Cæsar.

♦Summary of Swiss history. | A German League having become more united

and independent than others, annexes Romance allies and subjects.♦

The points to be borne in mind are that the Swiss Confederation is

simply one of many German Leagues, which was more lasting and became

more closely united than other German Leagues—that it gradually split

off from the German Kingdom—that in the course of this process, the

League and its members obtained a large body of Italian and Burgundian

allies and subjects—lastly, that these allies and subjects have in

modern times been joined into one Federal body with the original German

Confederates.

♦The Three Lands on the boundary of the three kingdoms.♦

The three Swabian lands which formed the kernel of the Old League lay

at the point of union of the three Imperial kingdoms, parts of all of

which were to become members of the Confederation in its later form.

♦First known document of union, 1291.♦ The first known document of

confederation between the three lands dates from the last years of the

thirteenth century. But that document is likely to have been rather

the confirmation than the actual beginning of their union. They had

for their neighbours several ecclesiastical and temporal lords, some

other Imperial lands and towns, and far greater than all, the Counts

of the house of _Kyburg_ and _Habsburg_, who had lately grown into the

more dangerous character of Dukes of Austria. ♦Growth of the League.♦

The Confederation grew for a while by the admission of neighbouring

lands and cities as members of a free German Confederation, owning no

superior but the Emperor. ♦Luzern, 1332.♦ First of all, the city of

_Luzern_ joined the League. ♦Zürich, 1351.♦ Then came the Imperial

city of _Zürich_, which had already begun to form a little dominion

in the adjoining lands. ♦Glarus and Zug, 1352.♦ Then came the land

of _Glarus_ and the town of _Zug_ with its small territory. ♦Bern,

1353.♦ And lastly came the great city of _Bern_, which had already won

a dominion over a considerable body of detached and outlying allies

and subjects. ♦The Eight Ancient Cantons.♦ These confederate lands and

towns formed the _Eight Ancient Cantons_. Their close alliance with

each other helped the growth of each canton separately, as well as

that of the League as a whole. ♦Their growth.♦ Those cantons whose

geographical position allowed them to do so, were thus able to extend

their power, in the form of various shades of dominion and alliance,

over the smaller lands and towns in their neighbourhood. These lesser

changes and annexations cannot all be recorded here; but it must be

carefully borne in mind that the process was constantly going on.

♦Dominion of Zürich and Bern.♦ Zürich, and yet more Bern, each formed,

after the manner of an ancient Greek city, what in ancient Greece

would have passed for an empire. ♦Conquests from Austria, 1415-1460.♦

In the fifteenth century, large conquests were made at the expense of

the House of Austria, of which the earlier ones were made by direct

Imperial sanction. The Confederation, or some or other of its members,

had now extended its territory to the Rhine and the Lake of Constanz.

♦Aargau, Thurgau, &c.♦ The lands thus won, _Aargau_, _Thurgau_, and

some other districts, were held as subject territories in the hands of

some or other of the Confederate states.

♦No new canton formed for a long time.♦

It is a fact to be specially noticed in the history of the

Confederation, that, for nearly a hundred and thirty years, though

the territory and the power of the Confederation were constantly

increasing, no new states were admitted to the rank of confederate

cantons. Before the next group of cantons was admitted, the general

state of the Confederation and its European position had greatly

changed. It had ceased to be a purely German power. ♦Beginning of

Italian dominions.♦ The first extension beyond the original German

lands and those Burgundian lands which were practically German began in

the direction of Italy. ♦Uri obtains Val Levantina, 1441.♦ Uri had, by

the annexation of Urseren, become the neighbour of the Duchy of Milan,

and in the middle of the fifteenth century, this canton acquired some

rights in the _Val Levantina_ on the Italian side of the Alps. This

was the beginning of the extension of the Confederation on Italian

ground. But far more important than this was the advance of the

Confederates over the Burgundian lands to the west. ♦First Savoyard

conquest of Bern. | 1475.♦ The war with Charles of Burgundy enabled

Bern to win several detached possessions in the Savoyard lands north

and east of the lake, and even on the lower course of the Rhone.

♦Savoyard conquests of Freiburg and Wallis.♦ And, while Bern advanced,

some points in the same direction were gained by her allies who are not

yet members of the Confederation, by the city of _Freiburg_ and the

League of _Wallis_. ♦Growth of Wallis.♦ This last confederation had

grown up on the upper course of the Rhone, where the small free lands

had gradually displaced the territorial lords. ♦Freiburg and Solothurn

become Cantons, 1481.♦ Soon after this came the next admission of

new cantons, those of the cities of _Freiburg_ and _Solothurn_, each

of them bringing with it its small following of allied and subject

territory. ♦Basel and Schaffhausen, 1501.♦ Twenty years later, _Basel_

and _Schaffhausen_, the latter being the only canton north of the

Rhine, were admitted with their following of the like kind. ♦Appenzell,

1513.♦ Twelve years later, _Appenzell_, a little land which had set

itself free from the rule of the abbots of _Saint Gallen_, after having

long been in alliance with the Confederates, was admitted to the rank

of a canton. ♦The Thirteen Cantons, 1513-1798.♦ Thus was made up the

full number of Thirteen Cantons, which remained unchanged down to the

wars of the French Revolution.

But the time when the Confederation was finally settled as regards

the number of cantons was also a time of great extension of territory

on the part both of the Confederation and of several of its members.

♦Graubünden.♦ At the south-east corner of the Confederate territory, on

the borders of the duchy of Milan and the county of Tyrol, the League

of _Graubünden_ or the _Grey Leagues_ had gradually arisen. A number

of communities, as in Wallis, had got rid of the neighbouring lords,

and had formed themselves into three leagues, the _Grey League_ proper,

the _Gotteshausbund_, and the League of _Ten Jurisdictions_, which

three were again united by a further federal tie. ♦Their alliance with

the Confederates.♦ At the end of the fifteenth century, the Leagues so

formed entered into an alliance with the Confederates. ♦1495-1567.♦

Then began a great accession of territory towards the south on the part

both of the Confederates and of their new allies. ♦Italian dominion

of the Confederation, 1512;♦ The Confederates received a considerable

territory within the duchy of Milan, including _Bellinzona_, _Locarno_,

and _Lugano_, as the reward of services done to the House of Sforza.

♦of the Grey Leagues, 1513.♦ The next year their new allies of the

Grey Leagues also won some Italian territory, the _Valtellina_ and the

districts of _Chiavenna_ and _Bormio_. ♦Early Savoyard conquests of

Bern, Freiburg, and Wallis, 1536.♦ Next came the conquest of a large

part of the Savoyard lands, of all north of the Lake and a good deal to

the south, by the arms of Bern, Freiburg, and Wallis. ♦Vaud.♦ Bern and

Freiburg divided _Vaud_ in very unequal proportions. ♦Lausanne.♦ Bern

and Wallis divided _Chablais_ on the south side of the lake, and Bern

annexed the bishopric of _Lausanne_ on the north. ♦Geneva in alliance

with Bern and Freiburg.♦ _Geneva_, the ally of Bern and Freiburg,

with her little territory of detached scraps, was now surrounded by

the dominion of her most powerful allies at Bern. ♦Territory restored

to Savoy, 1567.♦ But by a later treaty Bern and Wallis gave back to

Savoy all that they had won south of the Lake, with the territory of

_Gex_ to the west of it. Geneva thus again had Savoy for a neighbour,

a neighbour at whose expense she even made some conquests—Gex among

them—conquests which the French ally of the free city would not allow

her to keep. Later changes gave her a neighbour yet more dangerous than

Savoy in the shape of France itself. ♦Gruyères divided between Bern and

Freiburg, 1554.♦ Before these changes, Bern and Freiburg divided the

county of _Gruyères_ between them, the last important instance of that

kind of process.

♦The Allies.♦

The Confederation was thus fully formed, with its Thirteen Cantons and

their allied states. ♦Saint Gallen. | Bienne.♦ Of these the _Abbot of

Saint Gallen_, the _town of Saint Gallen_, and the town of _Biel_ or

_Bienne_, were so closely allied with the Confederates as to have a

place in their Diets. Besides relations of less close alliance which

the Confederates had with various Alsatian cities, several other states

had a connexion so close and lasting with the Confederation or with

some of its members, as to form part of the same political system.

♦_Bischofbasel._ | Mühlhausen and Rottweil. | Neufchâtel passes to

Prussia, 1707.♦ Such were the Leagues of Wallis and Graubünden, the

Bishop of _Basel_, the outlying town of _Mühlhausen_ in Elsass, and

for a while that of _Rottweil_. Bern too, and sometimes other cantons,

had relations both with the town and with the princes of _Neufchâtel_,

which, after passing through several dynasties, was at last inherited

by the Kings of Prussia. ♦Constanz.♦ _Constanz_, at the other end of

the Confederate land, was refused admission as a canton, but for a

while it was in alliance with some of the cantons. ♦Passes to Austria,

1548.♦ But this connexion was severed when Constanz, instead of a free

Imperial city, became a possession of Austria. ♦The Confederation

released from the allegiance to the Empire, 1658.♦ The power thus

formed, a power in which a body of German Confederates was surrounded

by a body of allies and subjects, German, Italian, and Burgundian, all

of them originally members of the Empire, was by the Peace of Westfalia

formally released from all allegiance to the Empire and its chief.

♦Date of the practical separation, 1495.♦ Their practical separation

may be dated much earlier, from the time when the Confederates refused

to accept the legislation of Maximilian.

♦Geographical position of the League.♦

The growth of the League into an independent power was doubtless

greatly promoted by its geographical position, as occupying the

natural citadel of Europe. ♦Its anomalous frontier.♦ But the piecemeal

way in which it grew up was marked by the anomalous nature of its

frontier on several points. On the north the Rhine would seem to be a

natural boundary, but Schaffhausen beyond the Rhine formed part of the

Confederation, while Constanz and other points within it did not. To

the south the possession of territory on the Italian side of the Alps

seems an anomaly, an anomaly which is brought out more strongly by a

singularly irregular and arbitrary frontier. ♦The Confederation as a

middle state.♦ But looking on the Confederation as the middle state,

arising at the point of junction of the three Imperial kingdoms, it was

in a manner fitting that it should spread itself into all three.

* * * * *

♦Wars of the French Revolution.♦

The form which the Confederation thus took in the sixteenth

century remained untouched till the wars of the French Revolution.

♦Dismemberment of the Grey Leagues, 1797.♦ The beginning of change was

when the Italian districts subject to the Grey Leagues were transferred

to the newly formed _Cisalpine Republic_. In the next year the whole

existing system was destroyed. ♦Abolition of the Federal system, 1798.

| The Helvetic Republic.♦ The Federal system was abolished; instead of

the Old League of High Germany, there arose, after the new fashion

of nomenclature, a _Helvetic Republic_, in which the word _canton_

meant no more than _department_. Yet even by such a revolution as

this some good was done. ♦Freedom of the subject districts.♦ The

subject districts were freed from the yoke of their masters, whether

those masters were the whole Confederation or one or more of its

several cantons. ♦Freedom of Vaud.♦ Thus, above all, the Romance land

of _Vaud_ was freed from subjection to its German masters at Bern.

♦Annexation of _Bischofbasel_ and Geneva to France.♦ Some of the

allied districts, as the bishopric of Basel and the city of Geneva,

were annexed to France. But the Leagues of Wallis and Graubünden

were incorporated with the Helvetic Republic. ♦Act of Mediation,

1803.♦ In 1803 the Federal system was restored by Buonaparte’s _Act

of Mediation_, which formed a Federal republic of nineteen cantons.

♦The nineteen cantons.♦ These were the original thirteen, with the

addition of _Aargau_, _Graubünden_, _St. Gallen_, _Ticino_, _Thurgau_,

and _Vaud_, which were formed out of the formerly allied and subject

lands. ♦Wallis incorporated with France.♦ _Wallis_ was separated from

the Confederation, and became, first a nominally distinct republic,

and afterwards a French department. ♦Neufchâtel. | 1806.♦ _Neufchâtel_

was, in the course of Buonaparte’s wars with Prussia, detached from

that power, to form a principality under his General Berthier. ♦The

Swiss Confederation of twenty-two cantons. 1815.♦ At last, in 1815, the

present _Swiss Confederation_ was established, consisting of twenty-two

cantons, the number being made up by the addition of _Neufchâtel_,

_Wallis_, and _Geneva_. ♦_Bischofbasel_ added to Bern.♦ The bishopric

of Basel was also again detached from France, and added to the canton

of Bern, a canton differing in language and religion, and cut off

by a mountain range. ♦Neufchâtel separated from Prussia, 1848.♦ The

great constitutional changes which have been made since that time

have not affected geography, unless we count the division of the city

and district of Basel, _Baselstadt_ and _Baselland_, into distinct

half-cantons, and the surrender of all rights over Neufchâtel by the

King of Prussia. But this last was not strictly a geographical change;

it was rather a change from a _quasi_ monarchic to a purely republican

government in that particular canton.

§ 7. _The State of Savoy._

♦Position and growth of Savoy.♦

The growth of the power of Savoy, the border state of Burgundy and

Italy, has necessarily been spoken of more than once in earlier

sections; but it seems needful to give a short connected account of its

progress, and to mark the way in which a power originally Burgundian

gradually lost on the side of Burgundy and grew on the side of Italy,

till it has in the end itself grown into a new Italy. ♦Geographical

position of the Savoyard lands.♦ The lands which have at different

times passed under the rule of the House of Savoy lie continuously,

though with an irregular frontier, and though divided by the great

barrier of the Alps. ♦Their three divisions.♦ They fall however into

three main geographical divisions, which at one time became also

political divisions, being held by different branches of the Savoyard

House. ♦Italian.♦ There are the Italian possessions of that House,

which have grown into the modern Italian kingdom. ♦Burgundian south of

the lake.♦ There are the more strictly Savoyard lands south of the Lake

of Geneva, and the other lands south of the Rhone after it issues from

that lake, all of which have passed away under the power of France.

♦Burgundian north of the lake.♦ And there are the lands north of the

Lake and of the Rhone, part of which have also become French, while

others have become part of the Swiss Confederation. Both these last lay

within the kingdom of Burgundy, and stretched into both its divisions,

Transjurane and Cisjurane. In no part of our story is it more necessary

to avoid language which forestalls the arrangements of later times.

♦Popular confusions.♦ A wholly false impression is given by the use

of language such as commonly is used. We often hear of the princes of

Savoy holding lands ‘in France’ and ‘in Switzerland. They held lands

which by virtue of later changes have severally become French and

Swiss; but those lands became French and Swiss only by ceasing to be

Savoyard. On the other hand, to speak of them from the beginning as

holding lands in Italy is perfectly accurate. The Savoyard states

were a large and fluctuating assemblage of lands on both sides of the

Alps, lying partly within the Italian and partly within the Burgundian

kingdom. These last have shared the fate of the other fiefs of that

crown.

♦The Savoyard state originally Burgundian.♦