I have stated the difficulty, which is indeed sufficiently obvious, but I cannot claim to have found a thoroughly satisfactory solution. My endeavour has been to make the narrative as clear and intelligible as the conflicting needs of conciseness and of frequent transitions will admit. I may perhaps point out to my readers that in an age in which dynastic interests and claims become of greater and greater importance, in which royal marriages are a prominent factor in international politics and vitally affect the growth of the greatest states, a careful study of genealogy is imperatively necessary. This will explain and justify the insertion of a number of genealogical tables in the Appendix, which the student of the period may find not the least useful part of the volume.

R. Lodge.

Edinburgh, April 1901.

CONTENTS

Bibliographical Note[x]
Chronological Table[xii]
I. Germany and the Empire after the Interregnum, 1273-1313[1]
II. Italy and the Papacy, 1273-1313[20]
III. France under the later Capets, 1270-1328[43]
IV. France under the early Valois, 1328-1380[66]
V. Lewis the Bavarian and the Avignon Popes, 1314-1347[98]
VI. Charles IV. and the Golden Bull[109]
VII. Rise of the Swiss Confederation[124]
VIII. Italy in the Fourteenth Century, 1313-1402[139]
IX. The Schisms in the Papacy and Empire, 1378-1414[182]
X. The Hussite Movement and the Council of Constance, 1409-1418[206]
XI. The Hussite Wars and the Council of Basel, 1419-1449[222]
XII. Milan and Venice in the Fifteenth Century, 1402-1494[243]
XIII. Naples and the Papal States in the Fifteenth Century[265]
XIV. Florence under the Medici[288]
XV. Burgundians and Armagnacs in France, 1380-1435[315]
XVI. Revival of the French Monarchy, 1435-1494[349]
XVII. Germany and the Hapsburg Emperors, 1437-1493[394]
XVIII. The Hanseatic League and the Scandinavian Kingdom[419]
XIX. The Teutonic Order and Poland[451]
XX. The Christian States of Spain[468]
XXI. The Greek Empire and the Ottoman Turks[494]
XXII. The Renaissance in Italy[515]
Appendix—Genealogical Tables—
A—The Succession in Bohemia[535]
B—The Succession in Tyrol[535]
C—The House of Hapsburg[536]
D—The House of Wittelsbach[537]
E—The House of Luxemburg[538]
F—The Later Capets in France[539]
G—The House of Valois[540]
H—The Duchy and County of Burgundy[541]
I—The First House of Anjou in Naples and Hungary[542]
K—The Second House of Anjou in Naples[543]
L—The House of Aragon in Sicily and Naples[544]
M—The Houses of Visconti and Sforza in Milan[545]
N—The Medici in Florence[546]
O—The Union of Kalmar[546]
P—The Palæologi[547]
Q—Castile[548]
R—Aragon[549]
S—Navarre[550]
T—Some European Connections of the House of Portugal[551]
Index[553]

LIST OF MAPS

At end of Book

1. France, to show the Additionst to the Monarchy between 1273 and 1494.

2. Possessions and Claims of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, 1467-1477.

3. Italy in the Fifteenth Century.