1437.
The Emperor Sigismund, after proclaiming a general amnesty, entered Prague in 1436. He made some attempt to restore order and prosperity to the devastated country, but his measures in favor of the Church provoked a conspiracy against him, in which his second wife, the Empress Barbara, was implicated. Being warned by his son-in-law, Duke Albert of Austria, he left Prague for Hungary. On reaching Znaim, the capital of Moravia, he felt the approach of death, whereupon, after naming Albert his successor, he had himself clothed in his Imperial robes and seated in a chair, so that, after a worthless life, he was able to die in great state, on the 9th of December, 1437. With him expired the Luxemburg dynasty, after having weakened, distracted, humiliated and almost ruined Germany for exactly ninety years.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE HAPSBURG DYNASTY.
(1438—1493.)
- Albert of Austria Chosen Emperor.
- —His Short Reign.
- —Frederick III. succeeds.
- —His Character.
- —The Council of Basel.
- —The French Mercenaries and the Swiss.
- —The Suabian Cities.
- —George Podiebrad in Bohemia and John Hunyádi in Hungary.
- —Condition of the German Empire.
- —Losses of the German Order.
- —Rise of Burgundy.
- —Charles the Bold and his Plans.
- —The Battles of Grandson and Morat.
- —Death of Charles the Bold.
- —Marriage of Maximilian of Hapsburg and Mary of Burgundy.
- —Frederick III.'s Troubles.
- —Aid of the Suabian Cities.
- —Maximilian's Humiliation.
- —Frederick's Death.
- —The Fall of the Eastern Empire.
- —Gutenberg's Invention of Printing.
1438. ALBERT OF HAPSBURG EMPEROR.
The German Electors seemed to be acting contrary to their usual policy, when, on the 18th of March, 1438, they unanimously voted for Albert of Austria, who became Emperor as Albert II. With him commences the Hapsburg dynasty, which kept sole possession of the Imperial office until Francis II. gave up the title of Emperor of Germany, in 1806. Albert II. was Duke of Austria, and, as the heir of Sigismund, he was also king of Hungary and Bohemia; consequently the power of his house was much greater than that of any other German prince; but the Electors were influenced by the consideration that his territories lay mostly outside of Germany proper, that they were in a condition which would demand all his time and energy, and therefore the other States and principalities would probably be left to themselves, as they had been under Sigismund. Nothing is more evident in the history of Germany, from first to last, than the opposition of the ruling princes to any close political union of a national character, but it was seldom so selfishly and shamelessly manifested as in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
1440.
The events of Albert II.'s short reign are not important. He appears to have been a man of strong character, honest and well-meaning, but a new war with the Turks called him to Hungary soon after his accession to the throne, and he was obliged to leave the interests of the Empire in the hands of his Chancellor, Schlick, a man who shared his views but could not exercise the same authority over the princes. Before anything could be accomplished, Albert died in Hungary, in October, 1439, in the forty-second year of his age. He left one son, Ladislas, an infant, born a few days after his death.