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consequent importance, found it necessary, in order to protect themselves against the violence and oppression of the princes and barons, to form confederations, and take their defense in their own hands. Thus during this anarchical period the Hanseatic League, organized about the middle of the thirteenth century, grew rapidly in strength and influence. About the same time that the Hanse Confederation was established, was formed the famous Rhenish League, which finally came to embrace more than seventy towns.

It will be well for us here to say a word about the two classes, "mediate" and "immediate," into which the towns were divided. The first depended upon some prince or lord, who was in turn dependent upon the king. The second were dependent solely upon the king, were his immediate vassals. In these latter cities the king was represented by a special officer, but during the course of the thirteenth century many of these immediate towns, through the favor of their suzerain, were relieved of the presence of the royal bailiff, and became what are known as Free Imperial Cities. They of course still acknowledged the suzerainty of the king, but were allowed to manage their local affairs to suit themselves, and thus became practically little commonwealths, somewhat like the city-republics of Italy.

A century or two after these cities had secured freedom from the royal superintendence, they acquired the right of representation in the Diet, or national legislative body. This was the natural consequence of their growing power, just as in England the increasing weight of the towns led, in the thirteenth century, to the admission of their representatives to Parliament. These deputies of the Free Cities constituted what was known as the "Third College" of the national assembly.

Germany under Different Houses.

Character of the Period (1273-1438). -The Interregnum was ended by the Electors choosing as king Rudolf (1273–1291), Count of Hapsburg, an insignificant state in Switzerland. He received the royal crown at Aachen, but did not think it worth his

while to cross the Alps that he might receive the Imperial crown at the hands of the Pope. "Rome," he said, "is like the lion's den in the fable one may see the footsteps of many who have gone there, but of none who have come back."

There is nothing to lend unity to the century and a half upon which we now enter. The Imperial crown was passed from one family to another, the House of Luxemburg, however, being four times honored by the bestowal of the dignity upon its members. The German princes were opposed to a strong, centralized government, and the chief care of the Electors seemed to be to choose for the Imperial office weak princes, in order that their own independence might not be endangered. The office was openly bought and sold, and once there were as many as three rival emperors ruling or pretending to rule at the same time.

The most noteworthy circumstances of the period are the steadily growing power of the House of Hapsburg, the wars between the princes of this family and the Swiss, whom they attempted to subjugate, the promulgation of the Golden Bull by the Luxemburg Emperor Charles IV., and the religious movement of the Hussites in Bohemia, a warning note of the approaching Reformation.

Austria becomes a Possession of the Hapsburgs. — Rudolf's rival for the Imperial dignity was Ottocar, king of Bohemia, the most powerful prince of the Empire. He was greatly disappointed in not receiving the crown, and though repeatedly summoned to do so, steadfastly refused to acknowledge Rudolf as his superior and suzerain. The result of his obstinacy was a war which resulted in his death and the acquisition by Rudolf of Austria, Styria, Carniola and Carinthia, lands which Ottocar had ruled in addition to the kingdom of Bohemia. These countries Rudolf bestowed upon his two sons, the elder of whom, Albert, took the title of "Duke of Austria." Thus was laid the basis of the power and influence of the great House of Hapsburg.

· A very con

The Swiss League and the Dukes of Austria. siderable part of the story of the Dukes of Austria is intimately connected with the rise of the Swiss Republic. Lying among the

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northeastern Alps, and embracing some of the castles and estates of the Dukes, were the cantons or districts of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden. These mountain lands formed part of the Empire, but their liberty-loving people acknowledged no man as their master save the Emperor, under whose protection they were, and to whom they yielded a nominal obedience, like that of the Free Imperial Cities. Following the example of the times, they had formed a defensive union, which came to be known as the Old League of High Germany. The attempts of the Dukes of Austria to unite these cantons to their hereditary domains led to a most protracted and memorable struggle between them and the brave mountaineers; a contest which, in many of its features, reminds us of that carried on between the United Netherlands and their Spanish sovereigns.

The contest was begun by the Duke Albert whom we mentioned in the preceding paragraph, and who was at this time the German king. He succeeded in subjugating the three cantons; but the harshness of the rule of his bailiff caused an uprising, which resulted in the expulsion of the Austrians. To this period belongs the legend of William Tell, which historical criticism now pronounces a myth, with nothing but the revolt as the nucleus of fact.

In the early part of the fourteenth century the then Duke of Austria, Leopold by name, made another determined attempt upon the liberties of the Cantons; but at the famous battle of Morgarten Pass (1315) was defeated by the brave Swiss.

Seventy years later, in 1386, a descendant of Leopold, having marched an army among the mountains, sustained a terrible defeat on the memorable field of Sempach. It was here that Arnold of Winkelried broke the ranks of the Austrians, by collecting in his arms as many of their lances as he could, and, as they pierced his breast, bearing them with him to the ground, exclaiming, "Comrades, I will open a road for you."

Shortly after the battle of Sempach, the Eidgenossen, or Confederates, as the Swiss were at this time called, gained another victory over the Austrians at Näfels, which placed on a firm basis the growing power of the League.