THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE 
 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN
 
 
 iu.. 
 
 i.\ 
 
 *7'-.^'»J* 
 
 
 
 '.'^v^yf'uA-?
 
 A HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 AUSTRO-HUNGAR\ 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE 
 YEAR 1889 
 
 BV. ,./ ^' 
 
 LOUIS LEGER 
 
 / '/ . 
 
 HONORARY PROFESSOR IN THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES 
 
 PROFESSOR IN THE COLLEGE OF- FRANCE, IN THE SUPERIOR MILITARY SCHOOL 
 
 AND IN THE SCHOOL OF POLITICAL SCIENCES 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY 
 MRS. BIRKBECK HILL 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY 
 
 EDWARD A. FREEMAN, D.C.L. 
 
 KEGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 
 
 / 
 
 RIVINGTONS 
 WATERLOO PLACE, LQNDON 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIX

 
 PRE FACE. 
 
 I HAVE been asked to write something to introduce an 
 English translation of M. Louis Leger's " Histoire de 
 I'Autriche-Hongrie," a number of the series headed 
 " Histoire Universelle," and published under the direc- 
 tion of M. Daray. The subject is one on which English 
 readers certainly need more light than they commonly 
 have, and M. Leger's book, which I have read in the 
 original, seems by no means ill suited to supply them 
 with it. It has many merits, and it is remarkably free 
 from the usual faults of French writings. Though M. 
 Leger has to deal with the most exciting times of modern 
 French history, there is not in his book the slightest 
 sign of conventional French swagger. His story is 
 perhaps as clear as the story can be made. For it is by 
 no means an easy task to tell the story of the various 
 lands which have at different times come under the 
 dominion of Austrian princes, the story of each land by 
 itself, and the story of them all in relation to the com- 
 mon power. A continuous narrative is impossible. In 
 grouping together so many different elements, no two 
 writers would be likely to hit on exactly the same 
 arrangement, and none could altogether avoid some 
 measure of going backwards and forwards. There 
 would have been more clearness and unity of design in 
 a simple history of the growth of the Austrian power 
 which should take for granted the history of each land 
 up to the time when its connexion with the Austrian 
 power began. But this would imply the separate stud\- 
 
 b 2
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 of separate histories of Hungary, Bohemia, and some 
 smaller lands. And from this some readers might have 
 shrunk. And even after the various lands had been 
 brought under the rule of a common sovereign, it would 
 still have been hard to tell the story of all in a single 
 continuous narrative. M. Leger has not attempted to 
 do so. It is perhaps a gain that his subject and his 
 book involve a certain amount of thinking and a certain 
 amount of looking backwards and around. 
 
 M. Leger's way of speaking is on the whole accurate ; 
 he does not, after the modern fashion, use words at 
 random. He has most likely grasped the hard truth 
 that names are facts. But one strange inaccuracy runs 
 through the book, which cannot be the result of ignor- 
 ance, and which must therefore be done on some 
 principle, though it is not easy to see what the principle 
 is. M. Leger constantly speaks of an " Empereur d'Alle- 
 magne." I know not whether there are still any who 
 need to be told that no such title ever existed or could 
 exist. That it was formally used once, and I believe 
 once only, by the Emperor Francis the Second in the 
 treaty of Pressburg, proves only that that prince had 
 either forgotten who he was or else was forced to describe 
 himself in any way that his French conqueror bade him. 
 By that time the King of Germany and Emperor-elect 
 of the Romans had certainly very little Roman character 
 left about him. Still the use of the inaccurate phrase is 
 quite needless ; the usual language of the time, " the 
 Emperor," without further description, is quite enough, 
 and can lead to no confusion. But in earlier times to 
 talk of an " Ernperor of Germany " is not only inaccurate, 
 but misleading. Down at least to Charles the Fifth, the 
 Roman character of the Empire had not wholly passed 
 away, and to speak of a Frankish or Swabian Emperor 
 as " Emperor of Germany" gives a, wholly false impres- 
 sion. Those who read M. Leger will do well to read 
 Mr. Bryce's " Holy Roman Empire" as well. Otherwise 
 M. Leger is careful in these matters. He docs not, for
 
 PREFACE. \\\ 
 
 instance, create an " Austrian empire" before the time ; 
 his usual phrase for the various lands which obeyed a 
 common Austrian sovereign is "etat Autrichien." It 
 must be a misprint or a strange slip which has once 
 quartered a " grand-duke " in Austria. It is perhaps 
 to make things square that, under the guidance of a 
 later English writer, "archdukes" have made their 
 way into Russia. 
 
 There is no subject on which ordinary readers stand 
 in more need of a clear setting forth of facts than on 
 that which M. Leger has taken in hand. The facts in 
 themselves need some thought, and some clearness of 
 thought, to grasp them, and the difficulty is heightened 
 by popular confusions both of thought and of language. 
 Much mischief has been done by one small fashion of 
 modern speech. It has within my memory become 
 usual to personify nations and powers on the smallest 
 occasions in a way which was formerly done only in 
 language more or less solemn, rhetorical, or poetical. 
 We now talk every moment of England, France. 
 Germany, Russia, Italy, as if they were persons. And 
 as long as it is only England, France, Germany, Russia, 
 or Italy of which we talk in this way, no practical harm 
 is done ; the thing is a mere question of style. F"or 
 those are all national powers. If each of these powers 
 is not strictly coextensive with a nation, yet in each 
 there is a nation and a national feeling which directs 
 the action of the power. This is true even of despotic 
 powers. The Tzar himself cannot act in direct opposi- 
 tion to the known will of the Russian people. To talk 
 of " Russia's interests," " Russia's policy " and the like in 
 everyday prose sounds odd ; but it simply sounds odd ; 
 no further harm is done. But when we go on to talk in 
 this way of " Austria " or " Turkey," direct harm is done ; 
 thought is confused, and facts are misrepresented. The 
 " interests " of England or France mean the interests of 
 the English or French people. A " friend " of England 
 or France would mean a friend of the English or French
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 people. But when we hear, as we have heard, of a 
 " friend of Turkey," does that mean a friend of the 
 people of the land marked " Turkey " on the map, or a 
 friend of their foreign oppressor the Turk ? Do the 
 " interests of Turkey " mean the interests of the Turk, 
 or the exactly opposite interests of the nations which the 
 Turk holds in bondage? So with "Austria." One has 
 heard of the " interests of Austria," the " policy of 
 Austria ; " I have seen the words, " Austrian national 
 honour ; " I have come across people who believed that 
 " Austria " was one land inhabited by " Austrians," and 
 that "Austrians " spoke the "Austrian" language. All 
 such phrases are misapplied. It is to be presumed that 
 in all of them "Austria" means something more than 
 the true Austria, the archduchy ; what is commonly 
 meant by them is the whole dominions of the sovereign 
 of Austria. People fancy that the inhabitants of those 
 dominions have a common being, a common interest, like 
 that of the people of England, France, or Italy. Now 
 it is hardly needful to stop to prove that there is no 
 such thing as an Austrian language, that a whole crowd 
 of languages are spoken within the dominions of the 
 sovereign of Austria, German, Magyar, Italian, Rouman, 
 and the various dialects of the great Slavonic majority. 
 Each of these is the language of a nation, the whole or 
 part of which is under the rule of an Austrian prince ; 
 but there is no Austrian language, no Austrian nation ; 
 therefore there can be no such thing as " Austrian 
 national honour." Nor can there be an " Austrian 
 policy " in the same sense in which there is an English 
 or a French policy, that is, a policy in which the Eng- 
 lish or French governm.ent carries out the will of the 
 English or French nation. Nor can there be a common 
 " Austrian interest " for all the dominions of the 
 sovereign of Austria ; for the interests of the German 
 and the Magyar on the one hand, of the Slave and the 
 Rouman on the other, are always different, and often 
 opposed. In truth, such phrases as "Austrian interests,"
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 " Austrian policy," and the like, do not mean the 
 interests or policy of any land or nation at all. They 
 simply mean the interests and policy of a particular 
 ruling family, which may often be the same as the 
 interests and wishes of particular parts of their dominions, 
 but which can never represent any common interest or 
 common wish on the part of the whole. 
 
 It leads to confusion thus to personify "Austria" in 
 the way now so common, just as it leads to yet worse 
 confusion so to personify " Turkey." Our fathers 
 avoided such confusions. They spoke of " the Turk," 
 " the Grand Turk," " the Grand Seignior," names which 
 accurately distinguished the foreign oppressor from 
 the lands and nations which he holds in bondage. So 
 they spoke of "the House of Austria," a form which 
 accurately distinguished the ruling family from the 
 various kingdoms, duchies, counties, etc., over which the 
 head of that house bears rule. We must ever remember 
 that the dominions of the House of Austria are simply 
 a collection of kingdoms, duchies, etc., brought together by 
 various accidental causes, but which have nothing really 
 in common, no common speech, no common feeling, no 
 common interest. In one case only, that of the Magyars 
 in Hungary, does the House of Austria rule over a 
 whole nation ; the other kingdoms, duchies, etc., are 
 only parts of nations, having no tie to one another, but 
 having the closest ties to other parts of their several 
 nations which lie close to them, but which are under 
 other governments. The only bond among them all is 
 that a series of marriages, wars, treaties, and so forth, 
 have given them a common sovereign. The same person 
 is King of Hungary, Archduke of Austria, Count of 
 Tyrol, Lord of Trieste, and a hundred other things. 
 That is all. Other powers, most powers, have also been 
 enlarged by conquests and annexations of various kinds ; 
 but these conquests and annexations have commonly 
 been, sooner or later, fused into one general mass. 
 Thus modern France has been formed by the annexation
 
 X' PREFACE. 
 
 to the elder France of a great number of lands, some of 
 which had nothing whatever to do with France, while 
 others simply owed the crown of France an external 
 homage. But all the lands annexed to France have 
 sooner or later, many of them wonderfully soon, become 
 French, both formally and practically. It is therefore 
 right to speak of any one of them as French from the 
 time of its annexation to France, just as it is wrong 
 to speak of it as French before its annexation. But 
 the lands which have at sundry times and in divers 
 manners been brought under the power of the House of 
 Austria have not in this way become, cither formally 
 or practically, Austrian. The kingdom of Bohemia, 
 the kingdom of Dalmatia, the duchy of Ragusa, the 
 lordship of Cattaro, are indeed under the dominion 
 of the head of the House of Austria ; but they are not 
 parts of Austria, their people are not Austrians. They 
 are not Austria and Austrian in the same way in which 
 Normandy, Provence, Aquitaine, Lyons, Franche Comte, 
 a crowd of duchies, counties, and cities, have both 
 formally and practically become parts of France, and 
 their people French. 
 
 The growth and the abiding dominion of the House 
 of Austria is one of the most remarkable phaenomena in 
 European history. Powers of the same kind have arisen 
 twice before ; but in both cases they were very short- 
 lived, while the power of the House of Austria has 
 lasted for several centuries. The power of the House of 
 Anjou in the twelfth century, the power of the House 
 of Burgundy in the fifteenth century, were powers of 
 exactly the same kind. They too were collections 
 of scraps, with no natural connexion, brought together 
 by the accidents of warfare, marriage, or diplomacy. 
 Now why is it that both those powers broke in pieces 
 almost at once, after the reigns of two princes in each 
 case, while the power of the House of Austria has lasted 
 so long .? Two causes suggest themselves. One is the 
 long connexion between the House of Austria and the
 
 FREFACE. XI 
 
 Roman Empire and kingdom of Germany. So many 
 Austrian princes were elected Emperors as to make the 
 Austrian House seem something great and imperial in 
 itself. I believe that this cause has done a good deal 
 towards the result ; but I believe that another cause has 
 done yet more. This is that, though the Austrian 
 power is not a national power, there is, as has been 
 already noticed, a nation within it. While it contains 
 only. scraps of other nations, it contains the whole of the 
 Magyar nation. It thus gets something of the strength 
 of a national power. The possession of Hungary has 
 more than once saved the Austrian power from altogether 
 breaking in pieces. And it is certain that, at this moment, 
 the policy of the House of Austria, so far as it is anything 
 more than the mere policy of a family, is the policy of 
 the kingdom of Hungary. 
 
 One very common delusion is to look on the power 
 of the House of Austria, and even on the so-called 
 " Austrian empire," as something ancient, venerable, 
 and conservative. If we look carefully at the matter, 
 we shall find that the only thing about it which deserves 
 any of these adjectives is the kingdom of Hungary. 
 The kingdom of Hungary is an ancient kingdom, with 
 known boundaries which have changed singularly little 
 for several centuries ; and its connexion with the arch- 
 duchy of Austria and the kingdom of Bohemia is now 
 of long standing. Anything beyond this is modern and 
 shifting. The so-called " empire of Austria " dates onl}- 
 from the year 1804. This is one of the simplest matters 
 in the world, but one which is constantly forgotten. 
 I have often seen the phrase " Emperor of Austria " 
 applied to princes of the last century, sometimes to 
 much earlier princes, even to Frederick Barbarossa him- 
 self I have seen an English translation of a French 
 book of the last century which described the visit of the 
 Emperor Joseph the Second to Paris, He was naturally, 
 according to the custom of the time, spoken of simply 
 as "the Emperor;" the English translator thought it
 
 Xll PREFACE. 
 
 necessary to explain that Joseph the Second was 
 " Emperor of Austria." Most people seem to fancy- 
 that the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles the Sixth, which 
 settled the succession to the hereditary states of the 
 House of Austria, settled the succession to some 
 "empire," perhaps an "empire of Austria." The 
 position of the Empress-queen, Maria Theresa, Queen 
 of Hungary in her own right, Empress as wife of the 
 elected Emperor Francis the First, is a puzzle to many. 
 To many it seems odd that, on the death of her father, 
 she at once became a queen, but did not at once become 
 an empress. Yet surely in itself the state of the case is 
 perfectly easy to understand ; the whole difficulty arises 
 from the fact that for eighty years past the phrases 
 "emperor" and "empire of Austria" have been in 
 common use, and that people are therefore tempted to 
 carry them back into times when they had never been 
 heard of 
 
 May I venture on a very simple illustration ? Since 
 1804, and more conspicuously since 1806, the Kings of 
 Hungary and Archdukes of Austria have called them- 
 selves " Emperors of Austria ; " and they have borne as 
 the chief part of their arms the eagle of the Holy Roman 
 Empire. Their reason for so doing is obvious. As 
 simple kings and archdukes, with the lion of Austria 
 for their bearing, they could never have kept the 
 position in the world which they have kept as self- 
 styled emperors. Their attempted excuse for doing 
 so can only be that several dukes of their house were 
 Emperors by election. Four princes of the House of 
 Lorraine, besides earlier princes of the true House of 
 Habsburg, were chosen Emperors of the Romans and 
 Kings of Germany. The last of them resigned the 
 elective Empire, but went on calling himself " Emperor 
 of Austria," and bearing the imperial eagle. Now for 
 the illustration. The late Lord Auckland, an hereditary 
 baron, was also Bishop of Bath and Wells by election, 
 nomination, or whatever we call the complicated process
 
 PREFACE. xiii 
 
 by which a bishop is made. Lord Auckland resigned 
 his bishopric. If he had, after his resignation, called 
 himself Bishop of Auckland, and borne the arms of the 
 see of Bath and Wells, and if his successor in the 
 barony had gone on doing the same, we should have an 
 exact analogy to the " empire of Austria " and its eagle. 
 Or, as there was nothing in this case to create a tradition, 
 let us take another illustration where the family tradi- 
 tion comes in. Several members of the House of Beres- 
 ford have been Archbishops of Armagh, just as several 
 members of the House of Lorraine have been elective 
 Roman Emperors. What if the lay representatives of 
 those archbishops should call themselves Archbishops of 
 Beresford, and should bear the arms of the see of Armagh } 
 These illustrations are really exact. If there are any 
 minds to which they do not seem so, it is only because 
 the word " bishop " still keeps a definite meaning, while, 
 since the year 1804, the word "emperor" has lost its 
 meaning. Any ruler that chooses now calls himself 
 "emperor," simply because he thinks it sounds finer 
 than " king." But this is the result of the events of 
 the year 1804. Down to that year the title of Emperor 
 was applied only to European princes who were supposed 
 in some sort to continue the ancient Roman Empire, 
 and, by a kind of analogy, to barbarian princes, like the 
 Great Mogul, who were thought to hold in their own 
 part of the world a position answering to that of the 
 Emperor in Europe. Early in the eighteenth century 
 the princes of Russia began to call themselves emperors, 
 as they had always been Tzars or Ccesars in their own 
 tongue. The title was meant to imply a succession of 
 some kind or other from the Roman Emperors of the 
 East. But the Russian prince was emperor only with 
 a difference, "Emperor of all the Russias." The Roman 
 Emperor-elect still remained "the Emperor," without 
 further distinction. In 1804 Napoleon Buonaparte 
 called himself " Emperor of the French," and Francis 
 of Lorraine, elective Roman Emperor, called himself
 
 xiv PREFACE. 
 
 "hereditary Emperor of Austria," hereditary emperor, 
 that is, of one fief of his elective empire. Both had, 
 from their own points of view, good reasons for what 
 they did ; but from that time the word "emperor" has 
 lost the definite meaning which it held down to that 
 time. 
 
 A smaller point on which confusion also prevails is 
 this. All the members of the House of Austria are 
 commonly spoken of as archdukes and archduchesses. 
 I feel sure that many people, if asked the meaning of 
 the word ajxhdnke, would say that it was the title of the 
 children of the " Emperor of Austria," as grand-duke is 
 used in Russia, and prince in most countries. In truth, 
 archduke is the title of the sovereign of Austria. He 
 has not given it up ; for he calls himself Archduke of 
 Austria still, though he calls himself " Emperor of 
 Austria " as well. But by German custom, the children 
 of a duke or count are all called dukes and counts for 
 ever and ever. In this way the Prince of Wales is 
 called " Duke of Saxony." And in the same way all 
 the children of an Archduke of Austria are archdukes 
 and archduchesses. 
 
 Formally and historically then, the taking of an here- 
 ditary imperial title by the Archduke of Austria in 1804, 
 and the keeping of it after the prince who took it had 
 ceased in 1806 to be King of Germany and Roman 
 Emperor-elect, was a sheer and shameless imposture. 
 But it is an imposture which has thoroughly well served 
 its ends. Those ends were doubtless two. One was to 
 keep up for the hereditary " Emperor of Austria " some- 
 thing like the European position of the elective Emperor 
 of the Romans. In this the success of the Austrian 
 House has been perfect, and more than perfect. All 
 history has been confused by it. In other like cases 
 it is enough if the modern imitation is taken for the 
 thing which it imitates. Smithson is satisfied if he is 
 taken for Percy, Williams if he is taken for Wynn. 
 Nobody thinks that the old Percies were Smithsons.
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 But people do think that the old Roman Emperors were 
 Emperors of Austria. The imitation has, in most men's 
 thoughts, not only taken the place of the original ; it has 
 caused the original to be forgotten. And there can be 
 no doubt that the taking of the title was further meant 
 to help towards destroying the historic rights of Hun- 
 gary, Bohemia, and the other states of the Austrian 
 House, towards forming them into an "empire of 
 Austria." This attempt has partly succeeded, partly 
 failed. Since the Atisgkicli of 1867 it is fully under- 
 stood that the kingdom of Hungary and its partes 
 annexes are not parts of any "empire of Austria." The 
 "empire of Austria" and the kingdom of Hungary 
 together make up the " Austro-Hungarian monarchy." 
 It is not easy to make out what or where the "empire 
 of Austria " is ; but it would seem to mean all those 
 lands which are held by the King of Hungary in some 
 other character than that of King of Hungary. If so, 
 while the ancient kingdom of Hungary is one of the 
 most stable things in the world, the modern "empire of 
 Austria" is one of the most fleeting. Its boundaries are 
 always changing, because it is always winning and 
 losing territory. To say nothing of endless changes 
 before 1804, the princes of Austria have, since that year, 
 lost the Polish land of New Galicia ; they have lost and 
 gained again the Polish city of Cracow, taken at the 
 last partition in 1795. They have lost and gained again 
 a large territory in Germany, namely Tyrol and parts 
 of Carinthia and Carniola. They have lost, but not 
 gained again, Constance and some smaller outlying 
 German territories. They have gained, lost, and gained 
 again, the archbishopric of Salzburg. They have lost 
 and gained again Trent, Aquileia, Istria, Gorizia, and 
 other points on the borders of Germany, Italy, and the 
 Slavonic lands. In undoubted Italy they have gained, 
 lost, gained again, and lost again, Milan and the rest 
 of Lombardy. They have lost, gained again, lost again, 
 gained again, and lost again, Venice and the rest of
 
 XVI PREFACE. 
 
 Venetia. They have lost and gained again all Dalmatia, 
 first gained in 1797. They have gained Ragusa in 
 1 8 14, and Spizza in 1878, and they have practically 
 gained Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, though those 
 lands have not been formally annexed. What more 
 may be gained or lost in future changes we cannot say ; 
 but at any rate, those parts of the dominions of the 
 House of Austria which do not belong to the crown 
 of Hungary — those which we might conveniently call 
 Nungary — as they are many of them very modern in 
 possession, have also been shifting in possession beyond 
 everything else in Europe. A power largely so modern, 
 everywhere so shifting, which moreover has grown 
 everywhere by wiping out ancient historic rights and 
 cherished national memories, whatever else it may be, 
 can hardly be called ancient, venerable, or conservative. 
 
 I remarked some time back that the boundaries of 
 the kingdom of Hungary have hardly changed for some 
 centuries. That they have changed so little is one of 
 the most notable things in the whole story, and one 
 of the most characteristic of the ways of the House of 
 Habsburg. For the common sovereigns of Hungary and 
 Austria have twice gained territory which they claimed, 
 and could claim, in no other character than that of Kings 
 of Hungary. But when they had gained it, they did 
 not join it on to the kingdom of Hungary, but kept it 
 among those territories which were not Hungarian. 
 This happened to the so-called kingdom of Galicia and 
 Lodomeria, the share taken by Maria Theresa Queen of 
 Hungary in the first partition of Poland in 1772 ; and 
 also with the kingdom of Dalmatia, taken by Francis 
 King of Hungary in 1797. Both these lands were 
 claimed on no other ground than that they had been 
 held by Hungarian kings ages before ; but they have 
 never been restored to the Hungarian kingdom. Neither 
 were they made fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which 
 was then still in being. In what character or by what 
 right they were held, it is not easy to see.
 
 PREFACE. xvii 
 
 As things now stand in the lands of which M. Leger 
 has written the history, the first thing that strikes us is 
 that those nations which rose against the House of 
 Habsburg in 1848-9 are those which are at present 
 satisfied with its dominion, while those by which its 
 authority was restored are those which at present com- 
 plain of it. The Habsburg princes were driven out by 
 the Germans of Vienna and the Magyars of Budapest ; 
 they were brought back by Slaves and Roumans, backed 
 by the great Slavonic power of Russia. The present 
 sovereign of Hungary and Austria reigns, with the good 
 will of their inhabitants, over lands conquered for him 
 by Nicolas of Russia and Jellacic of Croatia. It is by 
 the favour of Slavonic and Rouman helpers that he was 
 able to reign over Germans and Magyars. It is now the 
 Germans and Magyars who are satisfied ; the Slaves and 
 Roumans who complain. The Atisgleich between Hun- 
 gary and Austria was made wholly in favour of the 
 dominant Magyar and German races ; they have got 
 their own rights, and their chief object now is to hinder 
 other nations from getting their rights as well. In Hun- 
 gary the common sovereign reigns as a lawful king, 
 crowned with the crown of Saint Stephen, according to 
 the law of Hungary. But the people who have thus won 
 their ancient independence are stirred to wrath when the 
 people of Bohemia demand that the common sovereign 
 shall do the same justice to Bohemia which he has done 
 to Hungary. They ask that in Bohemia too he shall 
 reign as a lawful king, crowned with the crown of Saint 
 Wenceslaf, according to the law of Bohemia. But at this 
 demand Germans and Magyars are very angr)^ The 
 Magyars too, having won its rights for the kingdom of 
 Hungary proper, refuse any like concession to iXxo: partes 
 minexcB of Croatia and Transsilvania. There is therefore of 
 course dissatisfaction at both ends of the " monarchy ; " 
 but the dissatisfaction naturally takes two forms. It 
 must be borne in mind that the irruption of the Magyars 
 split the Slavonic race asunder, parting the Czechs and
 
 xvill PREFACE. 
 
 Poles to the north of Hungary from the Serbs and 
 Croats to the south of it. The Northern Slaves stand 
 alone ; they could not form a distinct power, and there 
 is no neighbouring power of their own race to which 
 they could wish to transfer their allegiance. The Poles of 
 Galicia have assuredly no wish for annexation by Russia, 
 and the Bohemians would never wish for it unless it should 
 be the only alternative to annexation by Germany, Union 
 with Hungary and Austria is, as things now stand, de- 
 sirable for both Czechs and Poles. All that the Bohemians 
 wish is that the union should be made on lawful terms, 
 like the union between Hungary and Austria, that the 
 rights of their ancient kingdom should be respected, as 
 the rights of the kingdom of Hungary have been. They 
 wish, in short, to have a common sovereign with Austria, 
 but not to be merged in an " Austrian empire." The 
 position of the Southern Slaves and the Roumans is 
 different, and it has been altogether changed since the 
 establishment of independent Slavonic and Rouman 
 powers on the lower Danube. As long as the only 
 choice lay between Turk and Austrian, the Austrian 
 was naturally preferred as the lesser evil of the two. 
 But now that the Slavonic and Rouman subjects of the 
 Austrian have independent neighbours of their own 
 race close on their borders, a third chance, better than 
 either, offers itself. The position of these lands now is 
 exactly what that of Milan was up to 1859, and Venice 
 up to 1866, what that of the other Italian lands still 
 kept by the House of Austria still is. The Rouman 
 of Transsilvania has no tie to Hungary, whose people 
 do all that they can to wipe out his national being ; 
 his tie is to the free Rouman kingdom beyond the 
 border. The Serb in the like sort looks to the Serbian 
 kingdom and the Montenegrin principality ; there is 
 nothing to awaken in him any loyalty or affection either 
 to Vienna or to Budapest. Bosnia and Herzegovina 
 rose against the Turk ; their reward has been, not union 
 with their free neighbours, but bondage under the
 
 PREFACE. xix 
 
 Austrian. Heroic Montenegro has since, in 1814 and 
 in 1878, been actually despoiled in favour of the House 
 of Habsburg, the rich man, as usual, taking the poor 
 man's ewe lamb. And it is a very strange thing that 
 many who rejoiced each time that the Austrian was 
 driven out of Milan and Venice, look quite calmly on 
 his continued occupation of Ragusa and Cattaro, an 
 occupation equally unjust in itself and equally a thing 
 of yesterday. 
 
 Nothing is harder in England than to get real 
 knowledge as to the state of things in these lands. 
 Ordinary travellers, ordinary newspaper correspondents, 
 are constantly misled and mislead others. They see 
 only particular parts of the country or particular classes 
 of people, and from them they leap to very false conclu- 
 sions about other countries and other classes. Because 
 the ruling races in Hungary and Austria have nothing 
 to complain of, they fancy that the same must be the 
 case with those parts of the " Austro-Hungarian mon- 
 archy " which are neither Austrian nor Hungarian. 
 Very hard names are often hurled in English papers 
 at men and nations who are simply standing up for 
 their lawful and historic rights against a foreign in- 
 truder. The newspaper correspondents again find that 
 it does not do to publish news which is at all unpleasant 
 to the powers that be. So to do would cut them off from 
 any means of official information. And there is some- 
 where in the dominions of the House of Habsburg a 
 wonderful power of hiding the truth. Inconvenient 
 facts are in a strange way hindered from getting known. 
 The gallant stand made by the mountaineers of Cri- 
 voscia — cruelly parted from their brethren in Monte- 
 negro in 1 8 14 — against Austrian encroachments on their 
 chartered rights was hardly heard of in this country. 
 Yet the struggle against the oppressor was twice waged 
 — successfully in 1869, unsuccessfully in 188 1-2. The 
 former struggle comes within the range of ]\I. Leger's 
 book ; the second came later. M. Leger's book, showing,
 
 XX NOTE BY TRANSLATOR. 
 
 as it does, the way in which the various lands concerned 
 came under a common rule, and what is the real and 
 lawful position of each, ought to do something- to lessen 
 popular ignorance and indifiference about lands whose 
 people deserve English sympathy fully as much as those 
 of other lands about which there has been more talk. 
 
 EDWARD A. FREEMAN. 
 
 NOTE BY TRANSLATOR. 
 
 The following translation, made from the third edition of 
 the original work, is not meant for scholars, who will read 
 what M. Leger has to say in his own words, but rather for the 
 general public, which does not care to study the history of a 
 foreign country in a foreign language. Though pains have 
 been taken to render the author's meaning as closely as pos- 
 sible, it does not pretend to be literal, and an apology is due 
 to M. Leger for the omission of one or two short passages, and 
 some allusions which seemed especially meant for his country- 
 men. 
 
 Had it been possible for me to read Mr. Freeman's Pre- 
 face before I began my work, I should have tried to avoid the 
 use of the phrase "Austrian empire" as a translation oiTetat 
 Autrichien ; as it is, I have used it in the same way as 
 Englishmen use the expression " British empire." Students of 
 Austro-Hungarian history will find the constant use of a good 
 atlas a necessity, and it has therefore not been thought needful 
 to reproduce M. Leger's maps — only one, and that an ethno- 
 graphical map, being added to the work. 
 
 I am indebted for the list of books, and for the note on 
 the pronunciation of certain letters in the Slavonic languages, 
 to Mr. W. R. Morfill, of Oriel College, Oxford, to whom I 
 wish here to express my thanks for the kindness and patience 
 with which he has helped me throughout my work, by reading
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS, xxi 
 
 over the proofs in order to correct the spelling of the Slav- 
 names. That, in spite of all his care, I have allowed errors 
 to remain, I am only too well aware ; but that is my fault, and 
 does not lessen my debt to him. My thanks are also due to 
 Professor W. J. Ashley, of Toronto University, Canada, who 
 has read the whole of the translation, and helped me in many 
 ways ; and last, but not least, to Mr. Freeman for his 
 Preface. It only remains for me to express my regret that 
 M. Leger has not found a translator better fitted for the task 
 of arousing interest in the subject he has so closely at heart. 
 
 THE TRANSLATOR. 
 Oxford, 1889. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS. 
 
 Handbitch der Geschichte QLsterrekhs. 4 vols. Berlin. By M. Krones, 
 
 Professor of History at the University of Gratz. 1876. 
 History of the House of Austria from Rudolf of Habsburg to the Death of 
 
 Leopold II. Archdeacon Coxe. 
 Slavische Altertlmmer. Schafarik. Prague, 1862. 
 Prehistoric Boheinia (in Chekh). Wocel. Prague, 1869. 
 The First Slavonic j\lonarchies of the A'orth-West (in Russian). Uspen- 
 
 sky. St. Petersburg, 1872. 
 The Slavs of t}ie South (in Chekh). Anonymous. Prague, 1864, 
 Geschichte der Sudslavischefi Literatur. Schafarik. Prague, 1864-1865. 
 Literary History of the Slavotiic Races (in Russian). Pypine and Spaso\-itch. 
 
 St. Petersburg, 1865. 
 History of the Chekhs from their Origin to the year 1526. Palacky. 5 vols. 
 
 Prague. (This Chekh work has been translated into German.) 
 History of the Toiun of Prague (Chekh ; has been translated into German). 
 
 4 vols. Tomek. 
 Huss und Hierotiymus. Helfert. i vol. Prague, 1S63. 
 History of Bohemian Literature (Chekh). Tieftrunk. 2 vols. Prague, 
 
 1874-1876. 
 Geschichte der Bbhmische Briider. Gindely. 2 vols. Prague, 1857- 
 Geschichte des Dreiszigfiihrigen Kriegs. Gindely. 
 Manual of Hungarian Poetry (Hungarian). Toldy. 2 vols. Pesth, 
 
 1855-
 
 XXll RULES FOR PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 Geschichte der Ungrischen Dichtung von den dltesten Zeilen bis Alex. 
 
 Kisfahidy. Toldy. Pesth, 1863. 
 Rudolf II. 2md seine Zeit. Gindely. 2 vols. Prague, 1 862-1865, 
 Chants Heroiques et Chansons poptdaires des Slaves de Boherne. Louis 
 
 Leger. Paris, 1866. 
 Le Poite de la Revolution Uongroise, Alexander Pet dji. Chassin. Bruxelles, 
 
 i860. 
 Le Monde Slave. Louis Leger. Paris, 1873. 
 The Magyars. Arthur Patterson. 2 vols. London, 1869. 
 Slavonic Literature. W. R. Morfill, London, 1883. 
 CEstreich und Deutschland im Revolutions Krieg. Sybel. Dusseldorf, 
 
 1862. 
 Geschichte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts seit den Wiener Vertrdgen. Ger- 
 
 vinus. Leipzig, 1855-1866. 
 Geschichte (Esterreichs voni Ausgange des Wiener October- Aufstandes, 1848. 
 
 Helfert. Prague, 1876. 
 History of Russia from the Earliest Times. Rambaud. Translated by L. 
 
 B. Lang, 1879. 
 La Nouvelle Geographic Universelle. Vol. IIL Elisee Reclus. 
 Histoire de la Formation Territoriale des Etats de P Europe Centrale. Himly. 
 
 Paris, 1876. 
 An Historical and Geographical Atlas of the Austrian Possessions. Spriiner. 
 
 Gotha, 1866. 
 
 RULES FOR PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 The following rules for the pronunciation of some Slavonic 
 words will be found useful : — 
 
 Polish. 
 
 c = ts ; cz = ch ; sz = sh ; rz and z = zh ; the English z in 
 azure. 
 
 Croatian and Slovenish. 
 
 c = is ; c = an intermediate sound between Is and c/t ; 
 "c ■= ch ; 's = sh ; z = zh, as in Polish. 
 
 Bohemian. 
 
 c = ts ; c = ch ; r = rzh ; s = sh ; z = zh, as in Polish.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface v 
 
 Translator's Preface xx 
 
 Bibliography for the Use of Students . . . . xxi 
 
 Rules for Pronunciation xxii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Austro-Hungarian State and its Constituent 
 Elements. 
 
 How the Austro-Hungarian State was formed ..... I 
 Austro- Hungary has neither geographical nor natural unity, nor 
 
 natural frontiers .......... 3 
 
 Statistics of the various nationalities ....... 5 
 
 Preponderance falsely attributed to the Germans ; their distribution 
 
 among the various provinces ....... 6 
 
 The Magyars, the Slavs, and the Latins ..... 7 
 
 Persistency and vitality of the national languages in Bohemia and 
 
 Hungary ........... 9 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Primitive Times — The Barbarians— The Roman Rule- 
 German Invasions. 
 
 Pre-historic times — Celts and Illyrians — Conquest by Rome . . 11 
 The Dacians — The Marcomanni in Bohemia — Organization of the 
 
 Roman conquest. ... ...... 14 
 
 The Goths — Diocletian and Christianity 17 
 
 The Huns— Attila— The Lombards . . . . . . .21
 
 XXIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Migrations of the Slavs. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Origin of the Slav race — Tlie Chekhs — The Slavs of the Danube . 25 
 The Slavs and the Avars — Samo (627-662) . . . . .27 
 
 The Servians and Croatians (634-638) ...... 30 
 
 Manners, customs, and religion of the Slavs ..... 33 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Moravia and the Slav Apostles. 
 
 The Magyars — Their origin and arrival in the valley of the Danube 
 — Their invasions (892-955) ...... 
 
 Manners and religion of the Pagan Magyars .... 
 
 The first princes of the dynasty of Arpad — Christian Hungary— St 
 Stephen (997-103S) 
 
 The laws of St. Stephen ........ 
 
 39 
 
 The Chekhs, Moravians, and Carinthians — Legendary rise of Bo- 
 hemia ........... 
 
 Moravia— Rostislav (846)— Cyril and Methodius (863-885)— The 
 
 Slav Church . . . . . . . . . -41 
 
 Svatopluk — The ruin of Moravia and of the Slav Church (870-907) . 45 
 
 The Slovenes — The Croats under a national dynasty (780-1090) . 51 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Formation of the Magyar State. 
 
 57 
 61 
 
 64 
 67 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Hungary under the Successors of St. Stephen. 
 
 The first successors of St. Stephen — Ladislas the Holy (1077-1095) . 71 
 Koloman (1095-11 14) — Croatia united to Hungary (i 102) — German 
 
 colonies — Wars with Galicia and Venice . • . . . .74 
 Andrew II. (1205-1235)— The Golden Bull 79
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Struggles against the Mongols (1239-1241) and the House of Austria 
 
 — Last kings of the race of Arpad {1235-1301) .... 83 
 Progress of civilization ......... 87 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Bohemia under the Earlier Premyslides. 
 
 The first Christian princes — St. Adalbert (874-997) ... 89 
 
 Bretislav and the institution of primogeniture (1037-1055) — Vratislav 
 
 first king of Bohemia (106 1-1092) ...... 92 
 
 Premysl Otokar I., hereditary king ( II 97-1230) — Vacslav I. (1230- 
 
 1253) — Invasion by the Tartars (1242) ..... 98 
 
 Premysl Otokar II. (1250-1278) — .Struggle against Rudolf of Habs- 
 
 burg — Glory and decay of Bohemia ...... 103 
 
 Humiliation and death of Premysl Otokar II. (127S) . . . 108 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Later Premyslides. 
 
 The later Premyslides — Vacslav II. king of Bohemia and Poland 
 
 (1278-1305) — Vacslav in. { 1 305-1306) 112 
 
 Bohemia under the Premyslides — Bohemia and the Empire . . 119 
 Bohemian institutions — German colonies . . . . . .122 
 
 Relision — Arts — Civilization 124 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Early History of the Austrian Group — The 
 House of Babenberg (973-1246). 
 
 The Eastern March — The first Babenberg^ — Henry lasomirgott 
 
 (973-1177) '27 
 
 Leopold V. (1198-1230) — Frederick the Fiijhter (1230-1246) — 
 
 Acquisition of Styria and part of Carnicla . . . . .132 
 The Laws of Austria under the Babenbergs— TJie Landeshohcit — 
 
 The towns — Literature 136
 
 XXVI CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Austrian Group under the First Habsburgs 
 (1273-1493). 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Rudolf I. invests his sons with Austria and Styria (1273-1298) — 
 
 Frederick the Handsome (1330-1358) — Acquisition of Carinthia . 141 
 Rudolf IV. (1358-1365) — The Privilegium Magus — Acquisition of 
 
 Tyrol (1363) — Dismemberment of Austria (1379) . . . 145 
 
 Albertine and Leopoldine branches (1379-1457) .... 149 
 
 Frederick of the Empty Purse (1406-1439) 151 
 
 Frederick v., emperor (1440-1493) 152 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Bohemia under the House of Luxemburg — ^John Hus 
 (1310-1415). 
 
 John of Luxemburg (1310-1346) — Annexation of Lusatia and Silesia 155 
 Charles IV. (i 346-1 378) — Prosperity of the kingdom — The Golden 
 
 Bull 161 
 
 Vacslav IV. (1378-1419) — Revolts of the nobles — Religious troubles 164 
 
 John Hus (1369-1415) — The Council of Constance (1415) . . 169 
 
 CHAPTER XH. 
 
 Bohemia and the Hussite Wars. 
 
 Formation of the sects of the Utraquists and Taborites (1415-1419) . 176 
 Beginning of the struggle — Sigismund (1419-1437) — ^John Zizka 
 
 (1420) 180 
 
 Negociations with Poland — Sigismund Korybutowicz (1420) — The 
 
 Four Articles — Death of Zizka (1424) . ..... 185 
 
 Procopius the Great — Victory of Ousti (1427) — Hussite invasion of 
 
 Hungary and Germany (1424-1431) ...... 189 
 
 Council of Basle (1431) — Anarchy in Bohemia — Battle of Lipany 
 
 (1434) 194 
 
 The Compactata (1436) — The result of the Hussite wars — Death of 
 
 Sigismund (1437) 198
 
 CONTENTS. XXVU 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Bohemia under George of Podiebrad (1437-1471) — The 
 Jagellon Dynasty (1471-1526). 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Albert of Austria (1438-1439) — Vladislav the Posthumous (1439- 
 
 1447) — George of Podiebrad {1444) 203 
 
 The reign of George of Podiebrad (1457-1471) — Bohemia at peace . 207 
 
 Wladyslaw Jagiello (1471-1516) — Increased power of the nobles . 213 
 
 Louis (1516-1526) — The Reformation of Luther in Bohemia . . 215 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Hungary under the House of Anjou (1310-1388) — 
 The Elective Monarchy (1388-1444). 
 
 Charles Robert of Anjou (13 10-1342) 218 
 
 Louis the Great (1342-1382) — The Hungarians in Italy — Wars with 
 
 Venice and Naples ......... 220 
 
 State of Hungary under the House of Anjou ..... 223 
 
 Sigismund of Luxemburg (1382-1437) ...... 225 
 
 Albert of Austria — Wlaydslaw Jagiello (1438- 1444) . . . • 229 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 John Hunyady— Mathias Corvinus — The Jagellons 
 (1444-1526). 
 
 Ladislas the Posthumous — John Hunyady governor of the kingdom . 232 
 
 Mathias Corvinus (1458-1490) — War with Bohemia and Turkey . 236 
 
 Hungary under Mathias Corvinus ....... 242 
 
 Wladyslaw II. (1490-1516) — Verboczy — Revolt of the Kurucs (1514) 244 
 Louis II. (1516-1526) — Loss of Belgrade (1521) — Battle of Mohacs 
 
 (1526) 248 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Austrian Emperors. 
 
 Maximilian I. (1493-1519) — The Austrian marriages . . . 251 
 Ferdinand I. (1519-1564)— The Reformation in Austria . . , 255 
 Maximilian II. (1564-1576) ........ 259
 
 XXVlll CONTENTS, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Rudolf II. (1576-1611) — The Counter-Reformation in the Austrian 
 
 states. ........... 261 
 
 Mathias (1612-1619)— Ferdinand II. {1619-1637)— Ferdinand III 
 (1637-1657) — Influence of the Jesuits . .... 
 
 Leopold I. (1657-1705) — Siege of Vienna — Sobieski (1683) 
 
 Austria under Leopold I. — Army — Finances .... 
 
 Administration — Legislation — Literature 
 
 Joseph I. (1705-1711) — Charles VI. (1711-1740) — The Pragmatic 
 
 Sanction ........... 277 
 
 263 
 266 
 271 
 275 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Bohemia under the First Austrian Kings (1526-1620). 
 
 Ferdinand I. (1526-1564) — Growth of the royal power — The 
 
 monarchy becomes hereditary ....... 283 
 
 Revolts and persecutions of the Protestants — Destruction of the 
 
 municipal franchises ......... 286 
 
 Maximihan II. (1564-1576)— Rudolf II. (1576-16x2)— Wars with 
 
 Mathias and the Utraquists ....... 289 
 
 Mathias (1612-1619)— The defenestration at Prague (1618) . . 292 
 
 Bohemia in revolt — The Thirty Directors 296 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Bohemia Conquered (1619-1740). 
 
 Ferdinand II. (1619-1637) 298 
 
 Battle of the White Mountain (1620) — Political and religious re- 
 action (1620-1627) . . . . , , . . . 300 
 
 The Thirty Years' War — Wallenstein — The Swedes in Bohemia 
 
 (1634-1648) 306 
 
 Decay of Bohemia in the 17th and iSth centuries .... 310 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Dismemberment of Hungary (1526-1629). 
 
 Ferdinand I. and Szapolyai (1526-1540) — The Turks in Hungary 
 
 (1529-1562) 314 
 
 Martinuzzi — The Turkish rule 318 
 
 ■''". 7 "'^""■-ation in Hungary — Rudolf (1576-1612) . . . . 322 
 
 Sigismun^ . .• urinces-^Gabriel Bethlen (1613-1629) . . 325
 
 C0NTEN7S. 
 
 XXIX 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Hungary in Revolt and Hungary Reconciled (1629-1740). 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 The Rakoczy family in Transylvania — Leopold I. in Hungary (1629- 
 
 1705) 331 
 
 Expulsion of the Turks . . , . . . . . . 337 
 
 Francis Rackoczy (1700-17 II) 338 
 
 Hungary reconciled — The Treaty of Passarowitz (i 718) . . . 341 
 The Servian colonists — The military frontiers — The Treaty of 
 
 Belgrade (1739) 343 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Maria Theresa (1740-1780). 
 
 AVar of the Austrian succession — Loss of Silesia — Treaty of Aix-la- 
 
 Chapelle (1748) 348 
 
 Kaunitz — The French alliance — The Seven Years' War (1756-1763). 352 
 
 Partition of Poland — Acquisition of Galicia (1772) .... 356 
 Acquisition of Bukovina (1775) — War of the Bavarian Succession 
 
 (1779) 361 
 
 CHAPTER XXn. 
 
 Bohemia, Hungary, and Austria under Maria Theresa. 
 
 Bohemia ....... 
 
 Hungary — " Moriamur pro rege nostro" . 
 The peasant question — The military frontiers 
 Reforms in administration and education 
 Finance — Trade — The army . 
 
 364 
 366 
 
 370 
 373 
 379 
 
 CHAPTER XXin. 
 Joseph IL (17S0-1790). 
 
 Character of Joseph H 
 
 Church reforms ...... 
 
 Administrative, judicial, and economical reforms 
 
 ^S- 
 
 -35 
 259
 
 XXX CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Foreign policy — The Fiirstenbund (1785) — Revolt of the Netherlands 
 
 — War with Turkey (1788) . . 391 
 
 Hungary and Bohemia in Joseph's reign ...... 394 
 
 Leopold II. (1790-1792) 398 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Francis II. (1792-1S35) — Wars against the Revolution. 
 
 Austria in 1792 .......... 401 
 
 Loss of Belgium — Acquisition of Western Galicia (i 791-1795) . . 404 
 
 Loss of Lombardy — Acquisition of Venice and Dalmatia (1797) . 406 
 
 Marengo — Treaty of Luneville (i 801) 410 
 
 Austria after the Peace of Luneville 414 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Francis II. — Wars against Napoleon to the Treaty of 
 
 SCHONBRUNN (180I-1809). 
 
 Francis II., emperor of Austria (1804) . . . . . 
 New war against Napoleon — Treaty of Pressburg (1805) . 
 Surrender by Francis II. of the title of Roman Emperor (1806) 
 Campaign of 1809 — Insurrection in Tyrol . . . . 
 
 Aspern and Wagram — Treaty of Schonbrunn (1809). 
 The French in the Illyrian provinces . . . . . 
 
 420 
 
 423 
 428 
 
 431 
 434 
 438 
 
 CHAPTER XXVL 
 
 Francis II. — Austria after the Peace of Schonbrunn 
 (1809-1815). 
 
 Alliance with Napoleon . ........ 442 
 
 Russian campaign — Reaction against Napoleon — Austria in alliance 
 
 with his enemies (1813) . . . . . . . . 445 
 
 Campaign of 1813 451 
 
 Battle of Leipzig (1813) — The Austrians in Paris .... 454 
 
 The Congress of Vienna (1814-18 15) . . . . • . 458 
 
 Austria after the Treaty of Vienna 462
 
 CONTENTS. xxxi 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 Francis II. and Mettermch (1815-1835). 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Metternich ........... 466 
 
 Austria at the head of the reaction in Europe — Meetings of Congress 469 
 
 The Eastern Question (1820-1829) 471 
 
 Polish, Itahan, and German affairs ....... 476 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Hungary and the Slav Countries (i 790-1835). 
 
 Hungary from 1 790-1815 . . . . . . . .481 
 
 Development of public spirit in Hungary — The Diet of 1825 — Sze- 
 
 chenyi, Deak, Kossuth . . . . . . , , 491 
 
 Revival of the Slavs — Bohemia — Kollar ...... 495 
 
 The Southern Slavs — Ljudevit Gaj — Panslavism .... 500 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Ferdinand IV. — Austria on the Eve of the Revolution 
 (1835-1848). 
 
 The Staats-conferenz ......... 504 
 
 Polish affairs — Occupation of Cracow — The Galician massacres 
 
 (1846) 506 
 
 Progress of public opinion — The Bohemian Diet — Havlicek . .510 
 PubHc opinion in Hungary — The Magyars and Slavism . . .514 
 The races in Hungary . . . . . . . , '519 
 
 Public opinion in Vienna . . . , . . , , .521 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 The Revolution of 1848. 
 
 Fall of Metternich — The first Austrian constitution .... 524 
 
 Concessions to Bohemia — Palacky and the Frankfort parliament . 527 
 
 The Slav congress at Prague ........ 529 
 
 Galicia and Italy c . . 531
 
 XXXll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXr. 
 
 The Hungarian Revolution. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The first Hungarian ministry — Tiie 15th of March — The Croats and 
 
 Servians 533 
 
 Jelacic 535 
 
 The war 537 
 
 The Russian intervention 539 
 
 CHAPTER XXXH. 
 
 The Revolution in Vienna. 
 
 The parliament of Vienna — The October Days — Repression . . 542 
 The Diet of Kromerice — Abdication of Ferdinand IV. . . . 546 
 
 CHAPTER XXXni 
 
 Francis Joseph — The Reactionary Period. 
 
 The new constitution (March 4th, 1849) ...... 548 
 
 The reactionary period (1850-1860) — The Concordat (1855) . . 552 
 
 Austria and Germany — The Crimean War (1854-1855) . . . 555 
 
 The war in Italy — Loss of Lombardy (1859) ..... 55S 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Attempts at Constitutional Government — War with 
 Prussia (1860-1866). 
 
 Return to constitutional government — Patents of i860 and 1862 . 561 
 Opposition of the nationalities to the centralizing reforms — Insurrec- 
 tion in Poland (1863) 564 
 
 War against Prussia and Italy — Austria excluded from Germany — 
 
 Loss of Venetia (1866) 567
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXXlll 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 The Dual Constitution (1867). 
 
 Austria after Sadowa ...... 
 
 Agreement with Hungary — The dual government (1867) 
 
 Slav protests against the dual government. 
 
 Liberal reforms ....... 
 
 Resistance of Bohemia — Declaration of 1S6S 
 
 The Galician resolution (1S68) — Insurrection of the Bocchesi (1869) 
 
 Grievances of the Servians, Croats, and Roumanians against the 
 
 Hungarians 586 
 
 PAGE 
 
 572 
 573 
 577 
 580 
 582 
 584 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 AUSTRO-HUNGARY FROM 1867-1878. 
 
 Efforts towards federation — The Hohenwart ministry (1871) . . 589 
 
 Negociations with Bohemia — The fundamental articles . . . 590 
 
 Federation checked ........•• 593 
 
 Present state of Austro-Hungary — Economical progress and liberal 
 
 reforms ........... 594 
 
 The Eastern Question reopened — Uncertain policy of Austria (1874- 
 
 1878) 600 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVn. 
 
 AuSTRO-HUNGARY FROM 1878-1? 
 
 The occupation of Bosnia ........ 603 
 
 Political consequences of this occupation ...... 609 
 
 The Taaffe ministry and policy of conciliation towards Bohemia . 612 
 
 Hungary. ........... 614 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVni. 
 
 Organization and Statistics of Austro-Hungary. 
 
 Common affairs . .617 
 
 Organization of Cisleithania ........ 61S 
 
 Organization of Hungary . . . . . . • . .621
 
 XX XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Army and navy . , . . . . . . • • 622 
 
 Population 626 
 
 Natural resources .......... 629 
 
 Means of communication — Industry and commerce . . . .631 
 
 Finances ............ 633 
 
 Religion 634 
 
 Intellectual culture ....... .... 635 
 
 Table of Sovereigns who have reigned over the States 
 which either now compose the austro-hungarian 
 Monarchy, or have belonged to it 638 
 
 Losses and Gains of the House of Habsburg from Rudolf 
 of Habsburg to the Present Time 644 
 
 Index 649 
 
 Ethnographical Map of Austro-Hungary . . , At end 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 10, line ^,/or " form part of," read " annexed to." 
 13, line \(>,for " Marius," read " Marcus." 
 64, line 2,yi?r " France," read " Burgundy." 
 89, line 15, o»izi "or Lusatians." 
 117, 'Note, ybr " Sandomir," read " Sandomiria." 
 
 360, line 22, _/i7r " thirteen hundred square miles," read "fifteen hundred square 
 German miles." 
 
 362, line w^for " miles," read " German miles." 
 
 363, line 12, for "miles," read " German miles." 
 399, line 2,, for " province," read " duchy." 
 473, line 5,/or " Upsilanti," read " Ypsilanti." 
 497, 'Note, /or " Chansones," read " Chansons."
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE AND ITS CONSTITUENT 
 ELEMENTS. 
 
 Holu the Austro-Hungarian Empire was formed. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great historic memories which are 
 associated with the name of the house of Austria, the Austro- 
 Hungarian empire is one of the youngest among European 
 states. It was not founded till 1804 — till the day when 
 Francis H., aware that the German crown was tottering on 
 his head, and that Napoleon was creating for his family an 
 hereditary empire, determined to secure for himself also a title 
 of equal importance, in case Germany should be lost to him. 
 Up to that time, the various elements of the Austro-Hungarian 
 state had preserved their historic individuality. This had not 
 indeed always been duly respected by the Habsburgs in 
 practice, but in principle it had never been seriously disputed. 
 It has been customary to identify the history of the various 
 states now subject to the house of Austria with the history of 
 the house of Austria itself; this is a mistake which was ex- 
 cusable at a time when the history of a people was supposed 
 to be contained in that of its sovereigns, but which can no 
 longer be pardoned. It is now known that nations have an 
 existence apart from that of reigning families, and that these 
 families, however illustrious may be their origin, are always 
 obliged at last to subordinate themselves to national aspira- 
 tions. 
 
 B 
 
 1
 
 2 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 The leaders of the French Revolution knew nothing of an 
 Austro-Hungarian state when they declared war against the 
 king of Bohemia and Hungary. When these kingdoms offered 
 their crowns to Ferdinand I. of Austria (1526), they had no 
 intention of subordinating their individuality to an artificial 
 union of alien states. After a free and glorious life under their 
 national kings, they sought in a purely personal union — by 
 taking the ruler of a neighbouring state as their sovereign 
 without any change in their constitutions — to strengthen them- 
 selves against Ottoman invasions ; they never dreamed of dis- 
 appearing, either in the unity of the Austrian monarchy, or 
 in that of the empire. Ferdinand I. brought with him only 
 his hereditary possessions, Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, 
 Carinthia, Carniola, Gorica (Gorz), Gradiska, part of Istria and 
 the Tyrol ; that is to say, a group of German and Slavonic 
 populations, the whole number of which now hardly amounts 
 to five millions, i.e. scarcely a seventh of the whole population 
 of the Austro-Hungarian empire. These states, moreover, 
 were neither great enough, famous enough, nor far enough 
 advanced in civilization to justify them in an endeavour to 
 absorb or assimilate the two kingdoms of Bohemia and 
 Hungary. 
 
 When he accepted the two crowns of St. Vacslav and St. 
 Stephen, Ferdinand undertook to respect the rights and 
 privileges which Avere attached to them, and he had made a 
 similar promise with regard to Croatia, which was dependent 
 on the Hungarian crown. Thus it was by virtue of a contract 
 freely entered into, and with mutual obligations, that Bohemia, 
 Hungary, and the hereditary provinces of Austria passed under 
 the common rule of the same sovereign. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that, at the time of which we are 
 speaking, several of the provinces which now form part of 
 Austria still belonged to neighbouring powers. Galicia, for 
 example, formed part of the kingdom of Poland, from which 
 it was not separated till 1773; Dalmatia was subject to the 
 republic of Venice down to 1797 ; though in both cases the
 
 AN EMPIRE WITHOUT UNITY. 3 
 
 house of Austria has been able to plead as a justification for 
 " re-annexation " certain ancient rights possessed by Hungary 
 and its dependent Croatia. 
 
 This rapid sketch will suffice to show that Austro-Hungary 
 is essentially an empire based on historical rights. These 
 rights owe their origin neither to conquest nor to successful 
 revolutions ; they are rights the form of which has always been 
 respected by the Government, even when it has disregarded the 
 spirit. 
 
 Austro-Hungary possesses neither Geographical Unity, 
 Natio7ial Unity, 7ior Natural Frontiers. 
 
 In the history of this complex state there is, then, to be 
 found neither the manifest development of a single great 
 nation, as in France or Germany, nor geographical unity, as 
 in Italy, nor an abiding unity of will and aspiration, as in 
 republican Switzerland. 
 
 Austria has no natural frontiers, no form determined before- 
 hand by seas, by the course of rivers, or by mountains. The 
 basin of the Danube certainly seems destined to become 
 the seat of a great empire, but only the middle portion of it 
 belongs to Austro-Hungary. Nevertheless, thanks to its posi- 
 tion on this river, Vienna has gained for itself one of the fore- 
 most places among European capitals, standing as it does 
 almost exactly in the centre of Europe, at an equal distance 
 from Madrid and Moscow, from Stockholm, London, and 
 Constantinople, from Hamburg and Bucharest. 
 
 As the geographer Reclus remarks, the Danube and its 
 tributaries do indeed create a sort of unity, from an hydro- 
 graphical point of view, by joining in the same basin the 
 mountains of Austria and the plains of Hungary ; but a large 
 part of the monarchy lies outside the Danubian regions, 
 in the valleys of the Elbe, the Vistula, the Dnieper, and the 
 Adige. 
 
 Moreover, while the sea Avashes certain parts of Austro- 
 Hungary, it does not really belong to her. The complete
 
 4 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUXGARY. 
 
 possession of the Adriatic must sooner or later be claimed by 
 Italy, or by the people who shall succeed in uniting the 
 Slavonic groups of the Balkan peninsula. 
 
 Neither do mountain ranges form for it a well-defined 
 frontier. The great chain of the Carpathians, which covers 
 the north-east and south-east, leaves the Bukovina, Galicia, and 
 Silesia outside and completely exposed on the north to the 
 attacks of Germany and Russia. Bohemia is protected by 
 the Riesengebirge, the Erzgebirge, and the Bohmerwald, but 
 then Bohemia is also girdled to the south-east by the moun- 
 tains of Moravia, so that it forms by itself a real geographical 
 whole which may easily be detached in thought from the 
 factitious unity of Austro-Hungary. Towards the south-west, 
 however, the Austrian frontier is better defined by the Alps 
 (which, however, leave Istria outside), by the Adriatic, and by 
 the parallel streams of the Save and the Drave. 
 
 If, however, this country of ill-defined boundaries belonged, 
 like her neighbour Germany, to a single race, firm, compact, 
 obedient to common traditions, ready at any sacrifice to aim 
 at a common future, the want of natural boundaries would 
 be of small importance ; but this is far from being the case. 
 Besides having no geographical unity, Austro-Hungary presents 
 to us ethnographically also a picture of the most complete 
 anarchy. 
 
 We have already pointed out what are the three primary 
 groups of the empire : the German and Slavonic lands known 
 as the Hereditary Provinces, the kingdom of Bohem.ia, and 
 the kingdom of Hungary, with its dependency the kingdom of 
 Croatia. The partition of Poland in 1772 added to these a 
 new element, Polish Galicia. But even these groups, although 
 they have historic individuality, are far from having any real 
 unity in themselves, so that we have to deal not only with 
 such contests as are produced by claims founded on written 
 law, but also with those to which, in our own century, the idea 
 of nationality has given birth.
 
 STATISTICS OF NATIONALITIES. 5 
 
 Statistics of the Various Nationalities. 
 
 It would be impossible to understand the history of these 
 various groups, their mutual relations, or the true situation of 
 Austro-Hungary, without a clear idea of the statistics of the 
 nationalities who divide the state. 
 
 They belong to four different races — the Slav, the Teutonic, 
 the Ural-x\ltaic, and the Latin, They may be divided approxi- 
 mately as follows : — 
 
 4,370,000 Chekhs. 
 
 2,753,000 Slovaks. 
 
 r., / 2,341,000 Poles. 
 
 Slav race < -n ^i. 
 
 2,774,000 Kuthenes. 
 
 1,500,000 Slovenes. 
 
 \ 3)395jOoo Servo-Croats. 
 
 Teutonic race ... 7,000,000 or 8,000,000 Germans. 
 
 600,000 Italians. 
 
 Latin race , , „ 
 
 2,640,000 Roumanians 
 
 Ural-Altaic race... 5,500,000 Magyars. 
 
 These are only approximate iigures, for the dominant races 
 take pleasure in swelling their own numbers, while they diminish 
 those of the less favoured. 
 
 To these different groups at least one million Jews must be 
 added, scattered all over the empire, and in certain districts 
 preserving all the principal characteristics of their race, even 
 the use of the Hebrew tongue. They exercise considerable 
 influence over the economic conditions of the countries in 
 which they live. 
 
 These conflicting elements have not been welded together 
 by time, as, for example, have the Celts, the Gallo-Romans, 
 the Franks, and the Iberians in modern France. They have 
 each preserved their language and their traditions ; they live 
 side by side without mingling. The life of an organic body 
 consists in the equilibrium of the simple elements of which it 
 is composed. If this equilibrium is destroyed, the body dies.
 
 6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO'HUNGARY. 
 
 In like fashion, the life of the Austro-Hungarian state depends 
 upon the unstable equilibrium of the various races which make 
 up the empire. 
 
 Preponderance mistakenly attributed to the Germans ; their dis- 
 tribution among the various Provinces. 
 
 Far too prominent a position is usually assigned to the 
 German population of Austria, and this arises from want of 
 knowledge not only of their numbers, but also of the way in 
 which they are scattered over the empire. To call Austria a 
 German state is to use a phrase which is most misleading. 
 The number of Germans is said to be seven or eight millions, 
 and this may be raised to nine millions, if we add to them 
 'those Jews to whom German is the mother tongue, and still 
 higher if we count in citizens of other German states resident 
 in the country. But these eight or nine millions are far from 
 forming a compact and homogeneous body. The only entirely 
 German provinces are the two Austrias and the duchy of Salzburg. 
 To this compact mass the Germans of Styria, Carinthia, and the 
 Tyrol, who are mixed in these provinces with Italians and 
 Slovenes, may be regarded as attached. Marburg in Styria, 
 Klagenfurt in Carinthia, and Neumarkt in the Tyrol are the last 
 German towns to the south. The group formed by these five 
 provinces comprises at the most 3,500,000 Germans, and is 
 really the only one which may be considered as belonging to 
 the Greater Germany of Pan-Germanic enthusiasts. Should 
 they one day form part of that Greater Germany in virtue of 
 the principle of nationality, that principle would not allow 
 them to drag with them either the Slavs or the Italians of the 
 Tyrol. Thirty leagues divide the Germans from Trieste, 
 which they consider as their great Adriatic port. 
 
 Next come the Germans of Bohemia. They are scarcely 
 two-fifths of the population of the kingdom. They are 
 scattered along the frontiers of Bavaria and Saxony, and the 
 towns of Budweiss (Budejovice), of Pilsen (Plzen), Leitmeritz 
 (Litomerice), and Reichenberg mark the line which separates
 
 THE GERMAN ELEMENT. 7 
 
 them from the Chekhs. In Moravia, where the majority of 
 the population (nearly 150,000) is Slav, about 50,000 Germans 
 occupy the north of the province. It must be admitted that 
 the Germans of Bohemia and Moravia are more than two 
 millions ; but this figure is small compared to that of the Chekh 
 majority, which numbers at least 4,300,000 souls. The 
 Germans of Bohemia, colonists or conquerors, separated from 
 the mother-country by a well-marked geographical boundary, 
 could never dream of attempting to force into a German union 
 that Slav majority which had created and organized the state 
 long before they came to live in it, some as gladly welcomed 
 guests, others as hated invaders. The Germans can never 
 claim Bohemia, as, for example, they claimed Alsace, by virtue 
 of the principle of nationality; and therefore they invoke a 
 pretended historic right belonging to the Holy Roman Empire. 
 In every other part of the empire the Germans are few 
 in number; they have no special political rights (except 
 among the Saxons of Transylvania, who have ancient privileges), 
 and owe the advantages they possess to the universality of 
 the German tongue, to certain political traditions, or to their 
 scientific or industrial superiority. There are about 234,300 
 Germans in Silesia, 114,000 in Galicia, 27,000 in Bukovina, 
 29,700 in Carniola, 200,000 in Transylvania, and 122,700 in 
 Hungary. There is no doubt these figures make up a respect- 
 able total, but the importance of this total is singularly 
 diminished when we remember in what fashion these numbers 
 are scattered among Slavs, Magyars, and Roumanians. 
 
 Magyar's, S/az's, and Latins. 
 
 The Hungarians, or Magyars, as they call themselves, are 
 far from occupying the whole of Hungary ; the Slavs and 
 Roumanians share it with them. The INIagyars are divided 
 into two compact bodies. The first contains about 4,400,000 
 souls; Hungarian ethnographers say 5,000,000. The towns 
 of Presburg (Pozsony), Kaschau (Kassa), and Munkacs 
 form its frontier to the north, and separate it from the Slovaks
 
 8 HISTORY OF A US TRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 and Ruthenians. To the east, a line drawn from Munkacs 
 divides them from the Ruthenians and the Roumanians ; to 
 the south they stretch as far as Arad and Szombor, and touch 
 the Servians and Croats. The reasons why these Hungarians 
 have been able to subdue the peoples round them are to be 
 found in their central position on the Danube, the unity of 
 a group which is greater than any of those that are near them, 
 and some political and military qualities of great importance. 
 The second Magyar group, that of the Szeklers, wrongly called 
 Sicules (about 500,000 souls), is surrounded by Roumanians, 
 and must doubtless some day be absorbed by them. But their 
 vitality is maintained by constant intercourse with the main 
 body, which is the true kernel of the kingdom of Hungary. 
 
 The Slavonic race occupies the north and the south-west 
 of the empire ; the Chekhs, the greater part of Bohemia, 
 Silesia, and Moravia ; the Slovaks, the north of Hungary ; the 
 Poles, the north-east of Galicia ; the Ruthenians, the rest of 
 Galicia, part of Bukovina, and some districts to the north-east 
 of Hungary. 
 
 The Slavs to the north are separated from those to the 
 south-west by the Germans, the Magyars, and the Roumanians. 
 Their geographical division, and the Slavonic dislike to a 
 firm rule, are sufficient to explain why, in spite of their 
 numerical superiority, they have never been able to conquer 
 the Germans or the Magyars, nor even to secure their own 
 admission to complete equality. The southern Slavs are 
 divided into two groups : the Servo-Croatians, who occupy 
 Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, Sirmia, the south-western portion 
 of the ancient Banate of Temesvar, and those lands which 
 used to be called, until quite recently, the Military Frontier ; 
 and the Slovenes, who inhabit Carinthia, Carniola, and part of 
 Istria and Styria. 
 
 The Roumanians are settled in the south-west of Hungary, 
 in Transylvania, and the Bukovina. The Italians form a 
 compact group in Southern Tyrol, and have colonies in all 
 the principal towns of Istria and on the Dalmatian coast.
 
 BOHEMIA AND HUNGARY. g 
 
 Penisteucy and Vitality of the National Languages in 
 Bohemia and Hungary. 
 
 The vitality and diversity of these races is proved by the 
 variety of literary languages in use among them. These are 
 not languages in such a position of inferiority as, for example, 
 the Basque, or Breton, in France, nor mere dialects such as, 
 for instance, are found in Germany and Italy ; but languages 
 complete in themselves, and fixed in their present form by 
 constant use. Austria is a real European Tower of Babel. 
 In it are published newspapers in German, Hungarian, Polish, 
 Ruthenian, Chekh, Slovak, Servo-Croatian, Slovene, Rou- 
 manian, and Italian. These newspapers, often written in a 
 tongue which is only understood by the people whose one 
 language it is, frequently represent antagonistic interests ; for, 
 in consequence of historic traditions or of the modern idea of 
 nationality, some of these populations are more or less openly 
 attracted towards centres outside the empire ; Germans 
 towards Germany, Poles towards Poland, Italians towards 
 Italy, the southern Slavs to their brethren in Turkey, the 
 Roumanians towards Wallachia. The Chekhs and Magyars 
 alone find in the empire the home of their nation and the 
 centre of their destiny. The two great moral forces which 
 keep the other nations in union A\nth the Austro-Hungarian 
 monarchy are, first, the very antagonism of the attractions 
 exercised upon them, and, secondly, a certain traditional 
 loyalty to the dynasty. To these must be added the spirit of 
 caste, which, among the servants of the State and in the army, 
 strengthens an artificial patriotism, and, at need, is made to 
 supply its place. 
 
 The Emperor of Austria in State papers takes the following 
 titles : — Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and of Bohemia, 
 of Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia, of Galicia and Lodomeria 
 (part of Galicia) ; King of Illyria, Grand-Duke of Austria, of 
 Bukovina, Styria, Carniola, and Carinthia ; Grand-Prince 
 of Silesia, Margrave of Moravia, Count of Habsburg and the 
 Tyrol, etc.
 
 lO HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Among all these titles, the only ones which represent real 
 power in the sovereign who bears them are those of Bohemia 
 and Hungary, — Bohemia including Moravia and Silesia, while 
 Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia form part of Hungary, — and 
 yet the history of the two kingdoms of St. Vacslav and St. 
 Stephen, and the ethnographical constitution of the provinces 
 v/hich are ruled by the sceptre of the Habsburgs, have been 
 almost entirely ignored both by the historians of the old school 
 and by ministers of State.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PRIMITIVE TIMES — THE BARBARIANS AND THE ROMAN RULE 
 
 GERMAN INVASIONS. 
 
 Fre-historic Times — The Celts — The Illy^-iatis—Compiest 
 by Rome. 
 
 Very little is known of the peoples who inhabited Austria and 
 Hungary before the Christian era. Their history began when 
 the Romans first came into contact with them, and even from 
 that time the information we receive is almost always vague and 
 inexact. The Romans, like the Greeks, were biased by their 
 prejudices when judging of barbarous races, and were in the 
 habit of repeating information more or less authentic without 
 caring to inquire into its truth. They cared little for the early 
 history of nations, accepted all kinds of legends no matter how 
 absurd, and paid no regard to languages which they could not 
 understand. 
 
 There is no doubt Austro-Hungary was inhabited during 
 the Stone Age ; this is proved by the wrought flints found in 
 Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Galicia, and in Upper and Lower 
 Austria. Bronze articles are also frequently found. Every one 
 has heard of the interesting discoveries made at Hallstadt in 
 the Salzkammergut, whence is derived the term " Hallstadtian 
 Age," given by anthropologists to a certain period in Alpine 
 history. x\s primitive iron utensils are also found, we may 
 suppose these various layers to indicate an uninterrupted 
 succession of inhabitants and civilizations from the first ages.
 
 12 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 But it is hard to determine what was the race which Hved in 
 these regions in those early days : were they Finns, Iberians, 
 or Aryans? No one knows. 
 
 If we set aside the Greek legends about Illyria and the shores 
 of the Adriatic, the first race on the soil of the future Austria 
 of whose existence we have certain knowledge is the Celtic. 
 After having settled themselves, at the end of the great migra- 
 tion of the peoples, in the extreme west of Europe, the Celts 
 flowed back to the centre and east. According to a tradition 
 which it is easier to record than to criticise, in the fourth 
 century B.C. they spread over the space between the Rhine and 
 the Vistula, under the leadership of a chief named Sigovesius, 
 and occupied the country of the Alps and the basin of the 
 Danube. It is known that in the year 335 B.C. Alexander the 
 Great received on the Lower Danube Celtic envoys who offered 
 him peace and friendship. What became of the inhabitants 
 who were conquered by the Celts ? Some took refuge among 
 the mountains ; others were lost among the conquering race ; 
 others (perhaps the Slavs) fled behind the Carpathians, whence 
 we shall see them return later on. 
 
 The Celts, under various names, took possession of dif- 
 ferent districts. The Boii occupied Bohemia, to which they 
 gave their name ; the Taurisci established themselves in the 
 country of Salzburg, Styria, and Carinthia ; the Scordisci in 
 Croatia and Slavonia ; the Ambrones towards the mouths of 
 the Vistula. The bronze boars which have been found in 
 Bohemia are looked upon as the remains of Celtic civilization. 
 
 On the shores of the Adriatic the tribes grouped under the 
 general name of Illyrians never blended with the Celts ; such 
 tribes as, for example, the Veneti (some have endeavoured to 
 prove that the Veneti were akin to the Slavs), the Carni, and 
 the Japydes. Their piracies attracted the attention of the 
 Romans ; and Agron, their king, and later on Teuta, his 
 widow, were conquered and forced to pay tribute. In the 
 year 180 B.C. Aquileia was founded, Istria became a Roman 
 province, and the town of Tergeste (Trieste) was built to serve
 
 THE TRIBES OF THE ADRIATIC COAST. 1 3 
 
 as a check upon the vanquished race. In the year 168 B.C. 
 Genthius, king of the Illyrians, having entered into an alUance 
 with Perseus of Macedonia, was made prisoner ; and in the 
 year 129 b.c. Illyria and Dahnatia became Roman provinces. 
 The persistency of classical culture and the use of the Italian 
 language on the Dalmatian coast down to the present time 
 are connected by unbroken tradition with this Roman 
 conquest. 
 
 Once masters of the Adriatic coast, the Romans gradually 
 made their way into the interior, and found themselves in 
 contact with the races wlio lived isolated among the mountains, 
 such as the Taurisci and the Rhaeti, who were related to the 
 Etruscans and then occupied the Tyrol of to-day. The 
 conquering and rapacious spirit of the Romans made it 
 impossible for such contact to be peaceful. In the year 
 115 B.C. the consul Marius Emilius Scaurus attacked the 
 country of the Taurisci. But as they advanced northwards 
 the Romans came across German tribes. Towards the year 
 115 B.C. the Cimbri, driven, it is said, from their Baltic home 
 by the inroads of the sea, invaded the south, but were repulsed 
 by the Boii. They then ravaged the lands of the Scordisci 
 and the Taurisci ; and when the Romans tried to withstand 
 this devastating torrent, they were defeated at Noreia (in 
 Carinthia, near Klagenfurt) by those barbarians, who were to 
 be crushed beneath the walls of Aix and Verona ten years 
 afterwards (loi B.C.). 
 
 From this time the country of the Alps, Bohemia, and the 
 lands in the basin of the Danube were continually threatened 
 by the German races. The Celts were attacked incessantly 
 by the Suevi, Marcomanni, Quadi, and Hermanduri, and 
 were thus hemmed in by the Teutons on the one side and by 
 the Romans on the other. But far from knowing how to meet 
 danger by union, they weakened themselves by endless 
 divisions.
 
 14 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 The Dacians — The Marcomanni in Bohemia — The Roma)i 
 Cotiqiiest. 
 
 "Whilst the Marcomanni were forcing their way into the 
 country of the Boii, the Dacians, a people living on the banks 
 of the Lower Danube, were forming a powerful state in the 
 country which now includes Eastern Hungary, the Banate of 
 Temesvar, Wallachia, Moldavia, the Bukovina, and Transyl- 
 vania. To what race they belonged has not yet been decided. 
 ^Ve know that they were a warlike people, agricultural and 
 skilled in working in metal, and that they were possessed by 
 an enthusiastic belief in the immortality of the soul which 
 gave them a peculiar energy. In the middle of the first 
 century B.C., these Dacians had a king called Berebistas, 
 an ambitious man, greedy of conquest, and ready to take 
 advantage of the quarrels of his neighbours in order to in- 
 terfere in their affairs. The Celts gave him a favourable oppor- 
 tunity ; war breaking out between the Boii and the Scordisci, 
 the latter begged for the help of Berebistas, marched with his 
 aid against the Boii, and defeated them in spite of their alliance 
 with the Taurisci. The Boii were forced to abandon their 
 country, which long afterwards bore the name of Boioruin 
 Deserta, though it was gradually repeopled by the Marcomanni 
 and the Quadi. Berebistas, intoxicated by triumph, was pre- 
 paring to attack Rome herself, when he was assassinated 
 (45 B.C.) during a popular rising, and the power of the Dacians 
 fell with him. 
 
 After the death of Ca?sar, the tribes on the Adriatic shores 
 imagined they might be able to recover their independence, 
 and attacked the Roman colonies ; but Octavius was not the 
 man to leave such an affront unpunished. Dalmatians, Liburni, 
 Japydes, Carni, Pannonians, Scordisci, Taurisci, one by one 
 fell under his yoke ; Siscia (now Sisek), on the Save, received 
 a Roman garrison, and was united to Aquileia by a military 
 road. Later on, Siscia became one of the great military posts 
 of the Romans, the port for their navy on tlie Save, and their
 
 THE ROMANS ON THE DANUBE. I 5 
 
 centre of action against the Pannonians dwelling in the lands 
 between the Save, the Danube, and the Alps. Shortly after 
 this, the Dalmatians also were conquered. 
 
 Rome triumphed ; but the empire could not be sure of 
 peace so long as the Alpine tribes remained independent in 
 their mountains, so long as they could give a helping hand to 
 the Germans in their attacks on the common enemy of the 
 barbarians. The Romans had in Pannonia a wide and solid 
 base of operations. The Rhaeti, the inhabitants of the present 
 Tyrol, and the Vindelici, who lived between the Inn and the 
 Lech, were attacked by two Roman armies under the leader- 
 ship of Drusus and Tiberius ; they were conquered after a 
 hard struggle, and became subjects of the empire (13 b.c), and 
 most 'of the able-bodied inhabitants were incorporated into 
 the Roman legions or transported into other countries, the 
 mountaineers being forced to cultivate the plain country. 
 To these new provinces Noricum was added without a struggle. 
 
 Henceforward the Danube became the frontier of the 
 Roman empire. Behind this frontier, Rome organized the 
 conquered territory, gave to it her laws and her language, and 
 became in time the instrument of its conversion to Christianity. 
 We cannot enter here into any complete details of this power- 
 ful organization. Pannonia was placed under the rule of a 
 " legatus consularis," Noricum under that of a procurator ; 
 later on, each of these provinces was subdivided. The present 
 district of Carniola was the point of contact between the 
 frontier of Italy, of Noricum, and of Pannonia. 
 
 Strong garrisons of from 60,000 to 70,000 men secured 
 the submission of the natives. The chief fortified towns, which 
 were at the same time the seats of government, were : in 
 Pannonia, Sirmium (now called Mitrovica), on the Save ; 
 Aquincum (Buda), on the Danube ; Siscia (Sisek), at the 
 junction of the Kulpa and the Save ; Vindomina or Vindobona 
 (Vienna), on the Danube. The future capital was held by a 
 legion, and, towards the end of the empire, by a squadron of 
 the Danubian fleet. In Noricum the towns were : Celeia
 
 1 6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 (Cilly) ; Petovio (Pettau) ; and Laureacum (Loerch). The 
 latter, which was built at the junction of the Enns and the 
 Danube, was of special importance, owing to its commanding 
 the entrance to the valleys of the Tyrolean Alps. 
 
 From a date at least as early as a.d. 51, the Save and 
 the Danube were guarded by a fleet, which in the time of 
 Vespasian was very largely increased, and put under the 
 supreme command of an officer at Vindobona. 
 
 Three main roads started from Aquileia : one ran eastwards 
 by Emona (Lubljania, Laibach), Petovio (Pettau), Sabaria 
 (Stein-am-Anger), towards Carnuntum (Hainburg); the second, 
 northwards, crossed Virunum, Noreia, Surontium, and Ovilabis 
 (Wels?) ; the third, westward, led to Aguntum (Innichen), and, 
 byway of the Pusterthal, to Veldidena (Witten, near Insbriick) ; 
 it then joined the Brenner main road which went from Verona 
 to Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg). At Laibach a great 
 number of secondary roads met. Military boundary-stones 
 can still be seen in many places at distances reckoned from 
 Aquileia, Milan, Sirmium, Bregenz, and Augsburg. 
 
 After their conquest of Pannonia, the Marcomanni found 
 themselves in immediate contact with the Romans. The 
 intercourse of the two nations was at first peaceful. The son 
 of the prince of the JNIarcomanni, Maroboduus, was even 
 educated at the court of Augustus ; but after the conquest 
 of Noricum and Rhaetia these friendly relations gave way to 
 distrust. Maroboduus determined to hold his dangerous 
 neighbours in check, and with this end in view occupied 
 Bohemia and Moravia with large bodies of troops, and formed 
 an alliance with the Quadi, a German people settled in 
 Moravia. Taught by Rome, Maroboduus used against her 
 the arts which he had learned from her. He fortified his 
 capital, Maroboduum, and it became the refuge of all who 
 conspired against the foreign rule ; and wishing to be a 
 conqueror himself, he attacked a large part of Germany. But 
 Rome would not long tolerate so restless a neighbour. She 
 declared war, and Tiberius marched against him (6 b.c.)._
 
 DACIA REDUCED TO A ROMAN PROVINCE. IJ 
 
 A revolt of the Pannonians and Dalmatians obliged Tiberius 
 to make peace and retrace his steps, and it was the Germans 
 who finally undertook the task of destroying the power of 
 Alaroboduus. After a bloody struggle he was conquered by 
 Arminius (a.d. 17). Two years afterwards, when his country 
 was invaded by the Goth Kathvalda, he sought refuge among 
 the Romans, and the emperor Tiberius appointed Ravenna 
 as his place of residence. 
 
 Up to this time the Romans had not penetrated to the 
 left bank of the Lower Rhine ; for that they waited some 
 time longer. The kingdom of Dacia had fallen into anarchy 
 on the death of Berebistas, and on the plain country of the 
 basin of the Tisza (Theiss) several wandering races had 
 appeared whose origin it is hard to determine — Sarmatae, 
 Alani, Roxolani, and Jazyges, who gradually reached the 
 shores of the Danube. Towards the end of the first century. 
 a king Decebalus united these scattered elements into a com- 
 pact federation, obtained Roman artisans and architects, built 
 fortified places, and worked the rich mines of Transylvania. 
 Emboldened by the success of some fortunate expeditions, he 
 attacked the Romans, destroyed two armies sent against him 
 by Domitian, and obliged him to conclude a shameful peace, 
 by which Rome bound herself to pay tribute to the barbarian, 
 and undertook to furnish him with the workmen of whom lie 
 should have need (a.d. 90). 
 
 The Goths — Diocletian and Christianity. 
 
 Terms such as these Trajan, Domitian's successor, was not 
 likely to fulfil. He refused to pay the tribute, threw two 
 bridges over the Danube (not far from the present town of 
 Orsova), crossed the river, and beat Decebalus on the plains 
 of Temesvar. He then pushed on into Transylvania, where 
 he forced Decebalus to fight a second time under the -walls 
 of his capital, Sarmizegethusa. The Dacian king was obliged 
 to make peace and to give up the conquered territory, which 
 included his own capital (a.d. ioi). Three years afterwards, 
 
 c
 
 1 8 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 lie tried to renew the war ; once more vanquished, he slew 
 himself, and Dacia became a Roman province. The colonists 
 whom Trajan left on the Lower Danube are believed to be the 
 forefathers of the Roumanian nation. 
 
 The conquest of Trajan marks the highest point reached 
 by the Roman power in these countries. From the beginning 
 of the second century onward, the German races, who had 
 been for a time kept back by fear of the Romans, again 
 invaded the country, and in the second half of it the waves 
 of this vast flood, which was by-and-by to cover completely 
 the whole empire, began to break down its frontiers. These 
 struggles belong to the history of the Germans, We have 
 only to do with those results which affected Austro-Hungary, 
 only to point out those events which affected the countries 
 which now occupy our attention. The Goths came down 
 from the north, bringing with them the Suevian tribes ; and 
 towards the year 165 of our era, the frontiers of the Roman 
 empire were attacked on all sides by the barbarians, who 
 invaded Noricum, Pannonia, Rhaetia, and penetrated as far 
 as Aquileia. In the year 170, the legate Vindex sustained a 
 defeat which cost him no less than 20,000 men. In 175, 
 however, Marcus Aurelius succeeded in stemming the in- 
 vading torrent, and was even able to conclude an advantageous 
 peace. 
 
 But this peace was of short duration. Two years after- 
 wards, the Marcomanni and Quadi revolted, and Marcus 
 Aurelius died at Sirmium, when on an expedition against 
 them. " Had he lived a year longer," says Marcus Capito- 
 linus, " a third campaign would probably have ended in the 
 vanquishing of the barbarians." His son Commodus allowed 
 the Vandals to settle on the banks of the Upper Danube, in 
 the lands which now form Bavaria and Upper Austria. For 
 some years the current of invasion seemed as if it were going 
 to turn back upon the Upper Danube and the Main. But 
 the prestige of Rome had suffered greatly in these endless 
 struggles, and the time had come when emperors were made
 
 DIOCLETIAN AXD CHRISTIAXITY. 1 9 
 
 and unmade by armies. Rhaetia and Noricum were again 
 attacked by the Marcomanni, and when Dacia was threatened 
 1)y the Goths the emperor Maximus tried in vain to withstand 
 them, and they took possession of some part of that country, 
 while the Gepidae and the Burgundians occupied the northern 
 parts of Hungary and Transylvania. Those Goths who were 
 settled on the shores of the Black Sea soon began to ravage 
 Maesia, Thrace, and Macedonia ; and though they were 
 defeated at Nissa (Nich) in Moesia by the emperor Claudius, 
 the empire was obliged to abandon the whole of Dacia to the 
 invaders in 274, in spite of all the efforts of Aurelian. The 
 Goths were now masters of the entire province, and pro- 
 ceeded to found a double kingdom on the shores of the Lower 
 Danube and the Black Sea. That of the Westgoths (Visi- 
 goths) included Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, and 
 Bessarabia ; that of the Eastgoths (Ostrogoths) lay between 
 the Dniester and the Dnieper, on lands which now form part 
 of Russia. It then seemed as if the German element was 
 destined to dominate in these Slav lands. 
 
 The soil of Austro-Hungary gave to Rome more than one 
 emperor. Decius was a Pannonian. Probus came from 
 Sirmium, and it was he who introduced the vine into Pannonia. 
 Diocletian was a Dalmatian. He retired to his native country, 
 to Salona, where the ruins of his palace still exist, part of the 
 modern town lying within them. The name of Spalato (Spljet 
 in Slav), derived from Palatium, even without these ruins, 
 would be enough to recall the splendours of the imperial 
 dwelling-place. His reign was marked by his persecution of 
 the Christians. From the first century onwards, fervent 
 adherents to Christianity were to be found on the shores of 
 the Adriatic, and along the Save and the Danube. According 
 to tradition, St. Mark evangelized Aquileia and consecrated as 
 its first bishop St. Hermagoras, whose name is still popular 
 among the Slovenes ; the Apostle St. Luke is said to have 
 preached in Dalmatia, and Andronicus, one of the seventy 
 disciples of Christ, to have been the first bishop of Sirmium.
 
 20 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 However that may be, at the beginning of the fourth century 
 Christian communities and an organized clergy are to be found 
 in all the larger towns of Rhaetia, Noricum, Pannonia, and 
 Dalmatia. Under Diocletian, Lauriacum, Siscia, Sabaria, 
 Petovio, and Sirmium were especially remarkable for the 
 fervour of their faith and the constancy of their martyrs. 
 
 Diocletian reorganized the government of the Alpine and 
 Danubian provinces. He divided Rhaetia into two (Rhaetia 
 Prima, Rhaetia Secunda, the latter including also Vindelicia) ; 
 Noricum into two (Noricum Ripense, Noricum Mediterraneum) ; 
 Pannonia into three, with Carnuntum, Sirmium, and Valeria as 
 their chief towns. 
 
 There is no need to relate here how the empire, after 
 having been divided between Constantine and Licinius, on 
 the death of the latter was reunited under Constantine (323). 
 By the edict of Milan, Constantine guaranteed the free exercise 
 of their religion to the Christians, and the Church was able 
 openly to organize itself In the course of the fourth century 
 Aquileia and Sirmium became the seats of archbishops, to 
 whom the neighbouring bishops were subject. At Sirmium 
 (a.d. 380) and at Aquileia (a.d. 381) were held councils in 
 which the doctrines of Arius, which had made great progress 
 in Pannonia, were condemned. 
 
 Constantine divided the empire into four prefectures : 
 those of the East, of lUyria, of Italy, and of Gaul The two 
 Rhaetias were included in that of Italy \ Dalmatia, Pannonia, 
 and Noricum in that of Illyria. The prefect resided at 
 Sirmium (Mitrovica). 
 
 During the reign of Constantine, several bands of Sarmatae, 
 led by their king Rausimond, came from the borders of the 
 Sea of Azof, settled themselves on the banks of the Lower 
 Danube, and, aided by the Jazyges, repeatedly ravaged the 
 Roman provinces (319-322). The emperor repulsed them. 
 Later on, the Sarmatae sought help from Rome, and Constan- 
 tine helped them to repulse the Goths. Later still, we find a 
 band of Jazyges, chased by the Sarmatae, crossing the Danube
 
 THE HUNS AND THE GOTHS. 21 
 
 and settling themselves as guests and colonists in Thrace and 
 Macedonia. From this time onwards the slow but steady 
 immigrations of these barbarians continued, and led up to the 
 great invasion of the Slavs, Avars, and Hungarians. Under 
 Constantius (356), the Alemanni, Quadi, and Sarmatae ravaged 
 Rhaetia and Pannonia, but were repulsed with heavy loss 
 
 (356-359)- 
 
 In 364, another Pannonian, Valentinian, was chosen 
 emperor. He divided the empire with his brotli^r Valens, 
 himself keeping the three western prefectures, with Milan 
 and Sirmium as his capitals, while Valens took the east and 
 resided at Constantinople. Valens had to beat back Athanaric, 
 the king of the Goths ; Valentinian, to repel the Quadi. 
 Goths and Quadi united to attack the Pannonian provinces, 
 and Sirmium had great difficulty in holding her own against 
 them. Valentinian was in treaty with the barbarians when he 
 suddenly died. 
 
 The Huns — Attila — The Lombards. 
 
 Thanks to the greater strength of her organization and 
 to the spread of Christianity and civilization, Rome had 
 hitherto been able to restrain and absorb the races which 
 pressed her on all sides ; but to these was now added a new 
 element, hitherto unknown in Europe, endowed with formidable 
 energy, well disciplined, and more to be dreaded than any- 
 thing which had been hitherto seen. The Huns had long 
 lived on the great plains which stretch between the Don 
 and the Caspian Sea. In 375, the year of Valentinian's 
 death, they attacked their neighbours the Ostrogoths, crossed 
 the Dniester, spread over the kingdom of the Visigoths, and 
 forced them back upon the Danube. The Visigoths begged 
 for shelter within the boundaries of the empire, and were 
 received ; but, being ill-treated by the Roman officers, they 
 repaid this hospitality by revolt, and marched against Valens, 
 who perished in the battle of Adrianople (378). Theodosius 
 put a stop to their successes, and by wily treaties incorporated
 
 22 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 some of them in the Roman army, while he scattered the rest 
 over the provinces of Thrace, Maesia, and Asia Minor. Those 
 of Thrace remained faithful and defended the empire against 
 the Huns. 
 
 After the destruction of the two kingdoms of the Goths, 
 the Huns occupied the whole of the country between the 
 Dnieper and the Danube ; they ended by crossing the latter 
 stream and taking possession of a part of Pannonia. Their 
 invasions Jiad driven away the various races whom they had 
 met on their road ; but in the perpetual changes of this epoch, 
 they had no time to form new states, and pushed on to the 
 attack of Italy. On the death of Theodosius, the empire was 
 divided between his sons Honorius and Arcadius (395), 
 and was never again united. The two rival divisions quarrelled, 
 and the Huns made use of these quarrels to offer their services 
 to the one who would pay them best. The emperor Theo- 
 dosius n. was obliged to give them an annual tribute of 
 350 pounds of gold, afterwards increased to 700 pounds. 
 
 In the year 437, on the death of their king, Ruja or 
 Roas, the command of the Huns fell to his nephew, Attila 
 or Etzel, whom the Middle Ages called, in their terror, the 
 Scourge of God. He united his people more closely, and led 
 them on terrible expeditions against Pannonia, Maesia, Thrace, 
 and Macedonia, before invading Italy and Gaul. By him 
 Sirmium was destroyed, and it has never since been able to rise 
 from its ruins. In the year 447 the empire abandoned Sirmia 
 to Attila, and undertook to pay him a heavy tribute. His two 
 expeditions into Italy and Gaul are well known. He returned 
 to die in his camp between the Danube and the Theiss 
 (Tisza). 
 
 The Hungarians, who belong to the same family of nations 
 as the Huns, see in Attila one of their most glorious ancestors. 
 Some of their historians praise him enthusiastically. In the 
 thirteenth century, the chronicler Kezai divided his Gesta 
 Uiaigaro/'um into two books : the Arrival, which is that of 
 Attila; the Return, which is that of Arpad (see chap. v.).
 
 THE EMPIRE OF ATTILA. 23 
 
 The modern historian Boldenyi exclaims : " Who does not 
 see in him a forerunner of Napoleon ? When a prince has 
 no Homer, says Fenelon, it is because he is not worthy to have 
 one. If that be true, what shall we say of Attila, who had 
 twenty Homers, who is renowned in every nation of Europe, 
 and whom Raphael himself has not disdained to paint?" To 
 this day- the "Attila" is the national dress of the Magyar 
 nobleman. By a strange freak of fortune the secretary of 
 Attila, a citizen of Petovio, was the father of the last of the 
 Caesars, Romulus Augustulus. 
 
 The empire of Attila did not outlive him ; his sons were 
 unable to defend it against the Germans, and were obliged to 
 return to the first home of their race on the shores of the 
 Black Sea. The Ostrogoths remained masters of Pannonia ; 
 the Visigoths and the Gepidae, of the basin of the Theiss and 
 of Transylvania. 
 
 The Roman empire was soon to disappear. There re- 
 mained to it outside Italy only Dalmatia, Rhaetia, and 
 Noricum ; the Alemanni and the Thuringians ravaged its 
 provinces and settled themselves beyond the Danube, while 
 the other German races continued alternately to advance and 
 retire. By this time the Marcomanni and the Quadi have 
 disappeared, and the Rugi have taken their place in JMoravia 
 and Lower Austria; the Heruli are in possession of Higher 
 Hungary; the Ostrogoths of Pannonia press on into Maesia, 
 and in 476 Odoacer destroys the Empire of the West. 
 
 Theodoric took possession of Italy and extended his rule 
 over Dalmatia, Noricum, and Rhaetia. The Germans who were 
 settled in the latter province recognized his authority ; but for 
 them the country would have contained nothing but ruiiis. 
 In the following century Justinian avenged the Western 
 Empire, and reconquered these provinces, together with Italy. 
 A new people, the Lombards, had lent him aid in these 
 expeditions, and were settled by him in Pannonia and Noricum, 
 which they had to defend against the Gepidae. Their king, 
 Alboin, sought allies in this struggle among the Avars, a
 
 24 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 people akin to the Huns (565), and with their help drove 
 out the Gepidae. Soon after, the emigration of the Lombards 
 into Italy left these Avars sole masters of the Danubian 
 territory. 
 
 This emigration of the Lombards into Italy put an end 
 to the- ceaseless wanderings of the German races over the 
 Danubian lands. Like a whirlwind, they had in turns passed 
 over them without creating either an empire or a civilization ; 
 they had entirely destroyed all trace of Roman culture, and 
 had then turned southwards to seek the country " Wo die 
 Citronen bliihn." One or two fertile districts only, such as 
 the Tyrol with its mountains, Salzburg, and Upper Austria, 
 had tempted them to remain. The Avars might have been 
 able to found something more lasting ; but as the Germans 
 retired, they were followed by a migration more important, 
 that of the Slavs, who were to bring new life to the countries 
 of the Elbe and Danube.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MIGRATIONS OF THE SLAVS. 
 
 Origin of the Slav Race — The Chekhs — The Dauubian Slavs. 
 
 Notwithstanding the numerous researches of the present 
 century, the origin of the Slav races is still wrapt in mystery. 
 Traces of them have been sought for in the basin of the Danube 
 and of the Upper Elbe, long before the time when they reall}' 
 make their appearance in history. We cannot, in a book of 
 this kind, insert a whole series of conjectures which are based 
 only on philological inductions. One fact, however, is certain, 
 and that is that when the Slavs first appear they are not a con- 
 quering race. They occupied and defended against the Finns 
 the immense plains which stretch behind the Carpathians, the 
 Vistula, and the Dnieper ; broken up into separate tribes, and 
 caring little to enter into any relations, peaceful or warlike, 
 with either Romans or Teutons, they long remained unknown. 
 They had no Caesar like the Gauls, no Tacitus like the 
 Germans, to relate their history or search their annals. Per- 
 haps they were known to the ancient world under the myste- 
 rious names of Veneti and Sarmatae ; perhaps some of them 
 might have been found among other nations of whom we do 
 possess some information more or less authentic, such as the 
 Huns, Goths, etc. We know nothing certain, owing to the 
 little attention which the ancients paid to ethnography and 
 language. All we can say is, that gradually as the Germans 
 advanced southwards and eastwards, the Slavs occupied the
 
 26 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 lands they abandoned, and the countries between the Elbe and 
 the Oder were at one time inhabited by the Slavs, who again, 
 later on, were to disappear before German reconquest. 
 
 At an unknown date, but doubtless towards the middle of 
 the fifth century, another branch of the Slavs, the Chekhs 
 (Cechy), left Galicia proper, and penetrated into the mountain 
 quadrilateral now known as Bohemia. History finds but little 
 that is true among the legends that are told of this migration. 
 But these legends are so dear to the hearts of the Chekh 
 nation, and play so great a part in the struggle for existence 
 which even now it has to carry on, that it is impossible to 
 pass them over in silence. According to these traditions, there 
 were formerly three brothers, Cech, Lech, and Rous. Lech, 
 at the head of the Slav tribe, quitted the home of his race, 
 reached Bohemia, and there gave his name to a new land. A 
 tradition, which, however, has nothing to support it, makes 
 Mount Rip, near the town of Roudnice (Roudnitz), the first 
 halting-place of the Slavs in Bohemia, Believers even point 
 out tlie very spot where the great ancestor {praotec) of the race, 
 Cech, was buried. According to the same story, Cech was a 
 native of Greater Croatia ; that is to say, of the country lying 
 at the foot of the Carpathians, towards what is now Galicia. 
 From this mythical personage is tra<]itionally derived a race- 
 name, which no one has yet been able to explain, that of 
 Cech (Chekh). Curiously enough, the Latin chroniclers of the 
 Middle Ages were altogether ignorant of this name, and per- 
 sisted in calling the people who bore it Bohemians, and thus 
 the Slavs of Bohemia inherited the name of the Boii whom 
 they had displaced.^ 
 
 The Slavs of Moravia, no doubt, soon followed in the track 
 of their kinsfolk ; then came those Slavs who had hitherto 
 remained peacefully behind the Carpathians, but who now 
 gradually invaded first Upper Hungary and Lower Austria on 
 all sides, and then Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania, 
 where they came in contact with the few remaining Dacians, 
 * Compare the use of the term Britons for Englishmen.
 
 THE SLAVS AND THE AVARS. 2/ 
 
 who had been Romanized by the Roman colonists, and blendine 
 with them formed the first elements of the Roumanian nation. 
 Although the history of these Slav migrations remains obscure, 
 they seem to have had a distinct character of their own which 
 distinguishes them from the German migrations. 
 
 The Slavs and the Avars — Samo (627-662). 
 
 The Germans had invaded countries which had been con- 
 quered by the Romans, and ruled over peoples whom they 
 had found there ; the Slavs, on the other hand, took posses- 
 sion of lands which the Germans had abandoned. They had 
 no need to do so by force of arms ; their invasion was entirely 
 peaceful. But they were not long allowed to remain in quiet 
 possession of that which they had so easily gained ; they were 
 obliged to defend it against most pitiless invaders, among 
 whom were the Avars (Obri). The Avars first conquered the 
 Slav tribe of the Dudlebes in the present Galicia, between the 
 Bug and the Styr ; then, led by their chagdn, the terrible 
 Bajan, a new Attila, they crossed the Carpathians and con- 
 quered the tribes of Moravia and Bohemia. Encouraged by 
 this success, their attacks soon reached Pannonia and the 
 Frank kingdom (563-568). During these invasions the Slavs 
 had to suffer from the Avars what the Germans had previously 
 had to bear from the Huns. The plains of Hungary lying 
 between the Danube and the Theiss became the seat of the 
 Avar power, and large fortified camps, called Hrings, sheltered 
 the invaders against all attack. The Slavs had to pay them 
 tribute, and to furnish them with soldiers, and at times were 
 transplanted by them from one district to another. 
 
 It was thus that Pannonia and Noricum were peopled by 
 Slav colonists, who became the ancestors of the Slovenes. 
 These, so to speak, Avarized Slavs came down as far as Friuli, 
 where their descendants are to be found to this day, speaking 
 a language which still bears traces of some Ural-Altaic in- 
 fluence. Those Slavs who settled in the valley of the Enns 
 and of the Mur became known as Carinthian Slavs.
 
 28 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARY. 
 
 Sure of the obedience or help of the Slavs, Bajan next 
 ventured to attack the Eastern empire, conquered Sirmia (584), 
 and made it the base of operations against Byzantium, and, 
 later on, against Dalmatia and Istria. In 599, he reached 
 Constantinople, and might have taken it had not a pestilence 
 broken out in his army. This second Attila died in 603. 
 Quarrels broke out among his heirs ; the Slavs who had been 
 conquered demanded their freedom, and prepared for revolt ; 
 and it was at this moment that a mysterious personage, named 
 Samo the Merchant, first appeared. He is said by Fredegar 
 to have been a Frank, who had come to trade among the 
 Slavs. A later writer, an anonymous historian of the con- 
 version of the Bavarians and Carinthians, calls him a Carinthian 
 Slav ; but his nationality is left uncertain by all authentic 
 documents, though, according to Fredegar, he was a native of 
 the pagus Semionagiis (the country round Soignies in Hai- 
 nault?). The most that we can guess is that he belonged to 
 some Slav tribe subject to the Franks, and mistakenly identified 
 with them, as in our day the Chekhs are often confounded 
 with the Germans of Austria, or the Croats with the Hun- 
 garians, However that may be, Samo, whether he were Slav, 
 Frank, or Roman by birth, made common cause with the 
 people who offered him their leadership ; his rule spread over 
 all the tribes of the Vends and Slavs, and, says Fredegar, 
 " for five and twenty years he governed them happily. In his 
 reign the Vends fought several battles against the Huns, and, 
 owing to his prudence and courage, were always victorious. 
 Samo had twelve wives chosen from the nation of the Vends, 
 and had twenty-two sons and fifteen daughters." Gradually 
 Samo became so dangerous a neighbour to the Franks, that 
 there could not fail to be a collision. " In the year 630, the 
 Slavs," writes Fredegar, " slew a number of Frank merchants in 
 the kingdom of Samo, and stripped them of their goods. Thus 
 began the quarrel between Dagobert and Samo. Dagobert 
 sent Sicarius to this king to ask for justice. Samo did not 
 wish to see Sicarius, and would not allow him to enter his
 
 SAJl/O, KING OF THE SLAVS. 29 
 
 presence, but he managed to get to him disguised in the dress 
 of a Slav, and delivered the message he bore from Dagobert. 
 Samo, however, would repair none of the wrong committed, 
 and said only that he intended to have the matter tried, so 
 that justice might be done both in these matters and in others 
 that had arisen about the same time. The enraged envoy had 
 recourse to threats and declared that Samo and his people 
 owed submission to the king of the Franks. Samo replied 
 angrily, ' The land we dwell in is Dagobert's, and we are his 
 men, but only so long as he lives in friendship with us.' 
 Sicarius answered, ' It is not possible for the Christian servants 
 of God to be the friends of dogs ; ' on which Samo replied, 
 ' If you are the servants of God, we are the dogs of God ; and 
 because you continually go against His will, we have received 
 permission from Him to rend you with our teeth,' and ordered 
 Sicarius to be driven from his presence." Dagobert declared 
 war on Samo, and made an alliance with the Lombards ; he 
 attacked the Chekhs, whilst the Lombards made war on the 
 Slovenes of the Julian Alps. Samo collected his forces at 
 Wogastiburg (doubtless Tugost [Taus], on the western frontier 
 of Bohemia), and there was fought a battle which lasted three 
 days, and in which, as Fredegar himself confesses, the Franks 
 were cut to pieces. They returned to their own country, leaving 
 behind them in their flight even their tents and baggage. 
 
 This success increased the fame of Samo, and a prince of 
 the Sorabes, or Slavs of the Elbe, submitted himself and his 
 tribe to his rule. But Samo died in 658, and on his death 
 the edifice of his power crumbled to pieces ; the Slav chiefs 
 would recognize no central power, and anarchy once more 
 reigned amongst them. Modem Slav historians are inclined 
 to exaggerate the importance of this mysterious personage, 
 Samo ; they wish to see in him the first representative of that 
 Slav unity which they are only able to guess at in the past, or 
 dream of for the future. But Samo possessed true political 
 genius and a talent for organization, which appear to have 
 been foreign to the race in the earlier ages of its history, and
 
 30 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 which would seem to prove thnt he was not a Slav. He might 
 have played the same part in the history of the Chekhs and 
 the Slovenes, as the Norman Varangians in that of primitive 
 Russia. 
 
 The conquests of Samo had not, however, completely 
 destroyed the power of the Avars. Shut in by him on the 
 west, they turned with all the more vigour against the Eastern 
 empire, attacked Constantinople, ravaged Dalmatia and de- 
 stroyed its towns, and, putting all the inhabitants to death, 
 imagined themselves to be in secure possession of their new 
 lands. Heraclius, however, threatened on one side by the 
 Avars, on the other by the Mussulmans, determined to re- 
 people the desert countries of the Adriatic and the Save, by 
 settling on them new races who would have to defend the 
 lands occupied by them, and who would doubtless become 
 converts to the Christian faith. 
 
 The Serviajis and Croats (634-638). 
 
 Which race should be chosen? Naturally he turned to 
 that which had been subdued and shamefully ill-treated by 
 the Avars ; and two Slav peoples, the Croats and the Servians, 
 became the instruments of the imperial policy. They had 
 settled themselves to the north of the Carpathian mountains, 
 where they were continually menaced by the Germans and 
 the Mongols. Proposals were first made to the Croats, and 
 one tribe answered to the appeal ; Heraclius sent them to 
 attack Dalmatia. The Avars, taken by surprise, were every- 
 where forced to retreat, and a war, lasting a few years, ended 
 in the destruction of a large part of the Avar population and 
 the enslavement of the rest. Heraclius then turned to the 
 Servians, and induced one of the chiefs of that nation to bring 
 half the tribes from the north of the Danube to settle in parts 
 of Thessalonica. Discontented, however, with his lot, this 
 chief returned home ; but the prospect of a struggle with the 
 Avars made him wiser and less exacting. He implored 
 pardon, and appealed to the kindness of the emperor, who
 
 THE SERVIANS AND THE CROATS. 3 1 
 
 granted him the deserted districts of Upper Moesia, Lower 
 Dacia, and Dardania. 
 
 Thus were established on the ruins of the Avar race two 
 new nations, who founded flourishing states, which, in spite of 
 various vicissitudes, have lasted to our day. We have no 
 certain information of the date of this migration, but it appears 
 to have taken place about the year 635 or 638. The Chekhs 
 maintain that the very name of their leader is known ; while 
 the Croats, quoting Constantine Porphyrogenitus, tell us that 
 they were led by five brothers, Kluka, Lobel, Kosenec, Muhlo, 
 and Hervat, and two sisters, Tuga and Vuga. We mention 
 these names because poetry has endeared them to a nation 
 whose present is deeply rooted in tlie past. In their own 
 tongue these two races were called Serbi and Herv-ati. The 
 land they occupied was roughly marked out by the Adriatic 
 to the west, and by the three rivers, the Drin to the south, the 
 Save to the north, and the Morava to the east. The frontier 
 between the Servians and Croats was uncertain and fluctu- 
 ating, and their language was the same ; the small differences 
 which exist between them at the present day have been pro- 
 duced by historical events. To the one race Christianity 
 came from Rome, to the other from Byzantium ; Latin became 
 the language of the Church of the former, while that of the 
 latter remained faithful to the Slav idiom ; and their history 
 reflects the struggle between the two ecclesiastical capitals. 
 
 There had remained in Dalmatia a Roman element which 
 the Avars had not been able completely to destroy. This disap- 
 peared before the new colonists, and took refuge in the islands 
 and a few towns on the coast — in Ragusa (Rausium) ; in Spalato, 
 which had been built on the ruins of Salona, destroyed by the 
 Avars ; in Zara (Jadera) and Trau (Tragurium). When the 
 Croats freed themselves from the nominal suzerainty of Byzan- 
 tium, these islands and towns still remained subject to it. 
 Down to the present day, the old Roman tradition, kept alive 
 by Italian influence, survives in them, and from it have arisen 
 political and literary conflicts with the Slav race of the interior.
 
 32 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 The emperor and the pope lost no time in converting the 
 new colonists to Christianity, and were able to do so with 
 greater ease than might have been expected. In the space of 
 about five and twenty years the Croats had become Christians, 
 and, if we may believe Constantine Porphyrogenitus, had 
 entered into a solemn engagement, swearing by St. Peter 
 never to attack other men's lands, and to live at peace with 
 the peaceful ; in return the pope threatened with his curse all 
 who should attack them. Spalato was their first metropolis. 
 The Croats of the Save cannot have been converted so early 
 as those of Dalmatia; they were still occupied with their 
 struggles against the Franks and Avars, and when they accepted 
 Christianity it came to them from the distant Church of 
 Aquileia. 
 
 The series of Slav migrations into the lands now forming 
 the Austro-Hungarian state closes with the arrival of the 
 Croats and Servians. These migrations were distinguished, as 
 we have already remarked, by their peaceable character. The 
 Slavs did not rush down on the cultivated lands, attracted by 
 the riches of the soil, by the thirst for conquest, or the mildness 
 of the climate. Their advances were made peaceably, and 
 they usually took possession of those districts which had been 
 abandoned by their inhabitants. Descending from their home 
 on the further side of the Carpathians, from the valleys of the 
 Danube and the Vistula, they took the place of the Marco- 
 manni in Bohemia, of the Heruli and Gepidae in Moravia. 
 Sometimes, like the Slovenes, who peopled Carinthia and 
 Carniola, they allowed themselves to be enrolled in the armies 
 of their conquerors ; sometimes, like the Servians and Croats, 
 they simply occupied lands which had been offered to them. 
 Nowhere do we find among them the spirit of pillage, the 
 love of conquest ; nowhere, except in the case of Samo, do we 
 find any idea of a powerful organization founded either on 
 unity of race or on religious ideas. At the time we have 
 now reached, that is to say, about the middle of the seventh 
 century, they possessed almost the whole of the present Austro-
 
 MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND RELIGION. 33 
 
 Hungary — the valley of the Elbe, the central valley of the 
 Danube, and the shore of the Adriatic. These lands they had 
 to defend against the Avars and the Germans, until there 
 came, from the steppes of the Oural, that Magyar race which 
 was to introduce a new element into these regions, where it 
 was little expected. Unhappily the Slavs, far from having 
 any genius for war or organization, have a natural antipathy 
 to government. But before entering on any details of their 
 history, or of their attempts, more or less successful, to found 
 independent states, we must give a brief account of their 
 manners and customs, of their primitive constitution, and of 
 their religion. 
 
 Manners, Customs, and Religion of the Slavs. 
 
 As we have just seen, only a very small part of the present 
 Austrian dominions was at first occupied by the Slavs ; that is 
 to say, the province of Galicia, which is now divided between 
 Russians, or Ruthenes, and Poles. The valleys of the Dnieper 
 and the Vistula seem to have been the cradle of the race. 
 Haifa century before the Christian era, the geographer Pom- 
 ponius Mela observes that the Vistula was the boundary of 
 Sarmatia. The name which we now give to the Slavs was 
 not originally borne by the whole race ; it belonged only to the 
 northern tribes living in the Russia of to-day, towards the 
 Valdai plateau. Those Slavs who lived near the Carpathians 
 were called Serbs. The importance of this name will strike 
 us if we recall the frequent mention of the Sorabes in German 
 history ; it is still borne by the Servians of Turkey, and by 
 their distant kinsmen in Saxon and Prussian Lusatia. The 
 dialects spoken at Bautzen and at Belgrade are so different, 
 that two Slavs from these two towns, brought suddenly face to 
 face, would be unable to understand each other, and yet both 
 call themselves Serbi. History has preserved, more or less 
 incorrectly, the names of a large number of Slav tribes whom 
 there is no need here to enumerate. At the same time, it 
 must not be forgotten that the Germans, in the Latin chronicles, 
 
 D
 
 34 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 give to the Slavs the name of Vends (Wenden, Veneti), and 
 that they still use it to describe the Slavs of certain districts. 
 The epithet IVi/idisi:/! , ^.dded to certain names of places, recalls 
 a Slav origin. 
 
 According both to written documents and observations 
 which can still be made in certain districts, the government of 
 the family among the Slavs was entirely patriarchal. The 
 family lived in common around its chief or elder {stareshina). 
 The men cultivated the ground, the women were occupied 
 with domestic work. The elder represented all tribal interests, 
 offered sacrifices to the gods, and apportioned to each his 
 share of labour. The members of the tribe all bore the same 
 name, which was taken from that of its founder. This name 
 always ended in /V/, pronounced itsi or itchi. This termination 
 still plays a great part in the geographical names ; for example, 
 the descendants of Lobek were called Lobkovici, whence the 
 name Lobkowitz, the name of a family well known in Bohemian 
 history. Such family names sometimes became those of the 
 villages they inhabited. When a family grew too large, it sent 
 out colonies, who in their turn took the name of their leaders, 
 and founded new communities. The union of a certain 
 number of families constituted a tribe. Most usually the tribe 
 took its name from some feature of the land it lived in ; thus 
 the Poles were the dwellers on the plain {pole) ; the Rietchanes 
 were dwellers by the stream [reika) ; the Drevlianes the in- 
 habitants of the forest {drevo, wood). Occasionally it was taken 
 from some pursuit practised by the tribe, as the Roudnici, the 
 miners. The common interests of the tribe were discussed in 
 meetings held by the heads of families. The chief filled all the 
 most important offices ; he was priest, judge, and leader of the 
 armies. A few privileged chiefs (Lechs, Vladyks, etc.) formed 
 a kind of aristocracy whose right it is hard to define. Among 
 the Slavs the love of liberty seems to have been stronger than 
 any wish for law or order. Procopius says, " They are not 
 governed by a single man, but live as a democracy." "They 
 are without government and hate one another," said the
 
 LOVE OF FREEDOM AND EQUALITY. 35 
 
 emperor Maurice. The well-known saying of Tacitus may be 
 applied to them : " I love rather a dangerous freedom than a 
 peaceful slavery." How many troubles have come upon 
 Poland owing to the custom of the liberum veto, that is, the 
 necessity that every decision of the diets should be taken on a 
 unanimous vote, one single opposing voice paralyzing all legis- 
 lation ! Traces of this custom are to be found in other 
 Slavonic peoples. 
 
 Each tribe had a fortified enclosure, which was used as a 
 place of shelter, or as the basis of attack in time of war. This 
 was called grad (the strong), and this word is still to be found 
 in that of some German towns, which were at first Slavonic 
 and were then gradually Germanized, as the town of Gratz in 
 Styria. The names of towns, rivers, and tribes, and of the 
 features of the ground are almost identical in all Slavonic lands, 
 however widely separated from one another. 
 
 Gradually these tribes were united, sometimes as a means 
 of defence, sometimes as the result of intestine warfare which 
 resulted in the submission of the conquered. Thus nations 
 were formed ; thus the Chekhs took possession of the whole of 
 Bohemia ; thus the Russians of Novgorod came at last to give 
 their name to an immense empire. With the birth of nations 
 came that of monarchy, which ended by becoming the mono- 
 poly of a ruling family ; women even were admitted to the 
 honours of royalty ; national dynasties were founded. But to 
 the Slavs the idea of equality was too dear to allow monarchical 
 institutions to develop easily. The members of the royal 
 family obtained appanages, in which they tried to maintain a 
 position of the greatest independence ; hence the internal 
 wars of which the history of the early Slavonic monarchies is 
 so full. The idea of heredity and the right of primogeniture 
 had not yet appeared. 
 
 As we have already stated, the first Slavs were not con- 
 querors, but rather cultivators of the soil. The very nature of 
 the vast plains on which they dwelt directed their efforts and 
 led them to cultivate corn and raise cattle. They seem to
 
 S6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 have had little taste for life among mountains ; to have early 
 learnt the use of agricultural tools, such as the plough and 
 spade ; to have kept bees, and to have known how to make 
 beer and hydromel. 
 
 The comparative study of the Slav dialects enables us to 
 guess what degree of perfection the domestic arts had reached. 
 There is no need to prove that the words which are common 
 to these various dialects form the basis of the Slav tongue as it 
 was spoken before the separation of the tribes, that is to say, 
 in pre-historic times. They are sufficient to show that the 
 Slavs not only cultivated the ground, but that they knew how 
 to practise, no doubt in clumsy fashion, some industries which 
 are unknown to those people whom we call savages. They 
 were acquainted with iron and the commoner tools which are 
 made of it ; with gold, silver, copper, and utensils wrought 
 out of these metals ; they knew how to weave vestments of 
 linen, and even glass was to be found among them. It is 
 possible that some among them were acquainted with a rude 
 kind of writing. " They read and calculated with strokes and 
 notches," says an ancient witness. They had no share, how- 
 ever, in any literary civilization until they came under the 
 influence of Western Christianity ; nor had they any aptitude 
 for trade, but willingly left it in the hands of foreigners ; and 
 this is a noticeable feature of the race down to the present 
 time. 
 
 They knew how to make war, though they cared little for 
 fighting. We have already learnt that they built fortified 
 enclosures to defend their frontiers. They knew how to use 
 the sword, the lance, the bow, the helmet, and the shield. 
 Amongst them, conquering tribes were rare, and the old 
 historians usually paint in favourable colours the manners of 
 these peaceful folk. They tell us that they were kind, indus- 
 trious, hospitable, chaste, and passionately fond of music and 
 song. Their women were held in respect, and were chosen 
 sometimes to lead the family, the tribe, and even the nation. 
 Polygamy was met with occasionally, but it was the exception.
 
 RELIGION OF THE SLAVS. 37 
 
 They had laws, tribunals, and trials by ordeal ; at the same 
 time, private revenge, as it exists nowadays in Corsica and 
 Montenegro, appears to have had, among the early Slavs, all 
 the force of an institution sanctioned by custom. 
 
 The conversion of the Slavs of the present Austro-Hungary 
 to Christianity, as we shall see later on, was effected without any 
 struggle and almost without any difficulty. Nevertheless, they 
 had a religious system of their own considerably developed, 
 though it does not seem to have been of a kind to produce 
 fanaticism. It readily made way for Christianity, directly the 
 new faith came to them by means of friendly apostles and not 
 through conquering missionaries ; as we have already seen 
 was the case with the Croats, who were baptized as soon as 
 they had taken possession of their new country. 
 
 Among the Slavs of the Elbe and of Russia, paganism 
 developed into a complicated system, but it would take us long 
 to learn all the gods of their Pantheon, and we find hardly any 
 trace of these divinities among our Slavs of Bohemia, Moravia, 
 and Carniola. Nowhere would it seem that they worshipped 
 deified men, or recognized a blind power in Fate. 
 
 "The religion of the ancient Slavs," says M. Jirecek, "was 
 a true worship of Nature. According to them, the world was 
 peopled with superior beings, who were good {bozi') or bad 
 {biesi). The good were the most powerful, the Inesl could only 
 act by their permission. Health, happiness, and victory were 
 all the work of the good ; sickness, wretchedness, defeat were 
 due to the biesi. In the winter time, however, the biesi got the 
 upper hand. Sacrifices and vows were offered to the gods to 
 propitiate them. These beings formed a vast society like that 
 of human beings ; they were all the sons of one greater than 
 them all. The highest god was the god of heaven, Svarog ; the 
 sun and fire were his sons, and together bore the father's name, 
 and were called Svarozici. Among the other gods, the more 
 important were Veles, god of fiocks, and Vesna, called also 
 Siva or Lada, the goddess of spring and of fruitfulness. 
 Among the biesi we must mention Morana, goddess of winter
 
 38 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 and o death; Tras, demon of terror; and Stribog, demon of 
 the tempest ; and, among inferior beings, the Vilas, nymphs, and 
 the Vjedi, who dwelt in the air, and (he/ezdibaby, sorcerers who 
 dwelt on the earth, ought to be mentioned. The eclipses of 
 the sun and moon were supposed to be the work of the 
 Vjedi. 
 
 " A belief in vampires was common to all the Slavs. They 
 believed the soul to be immortal ; after having quitted the 
 body, she flew from tree to tree until the body had been 
 burned, and then she went to the Home of Shadows, which 
 the Slavs called Nav, and which they pictured to themselves 
 as a region of green fields and groves. In Nav every 
 one occupied a position similar to that which he had held 
 during his life ; if he died before the other members of his 
 family, he found himself alone and deserted. Hence arose 
 the custom of wives causing themselves to be burnt on the 
 funeral fires of their husbands. There are also indications of 
 a belief in a place of sojourn with the biesi, as well as of a 
 home with the gods." 
 
 Excepting the Slavs of the Elbe, none of the tribes had 
 temples or priests. The head of the family or of the tribe, the 
 prince, offered the sacrifices to the gods, and these consisted 
 of animals, especially oxen, which were burned ; the sacrificial 
 fire was lighted on mountain tops, or other high places. 
 Forests were the usual places of worship ; in them images of 
 the gods were raised, and objects of sacrifice were placed 
 under the trees. 
 
 The great festivals of the year were that of the winter solstice, 
 when vast sacrifices were offered to the gods of earth and 
 water ; that of the Renewal, when Morana (Winter) was burned 
 under the form of a manikin, and Vesna (Spring) was carried 
 in triumph ; and that of the summer solstice, when sacrifices 
 were off'ered to the sun and to fire. Besides these, there were 
 frequent festivals during the summer in honour of the sun 
 and fire, and in commemoration of the dead.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MORAVIA AND THE SLAV APOSTLES. 
 
 The Chekhs, Moravians, and Carlntliians— Early Legendary 
 History of BoJionia. 
 
 The long series of migrations which took place on the soil of 
 the future state of Austro-Hungary does not close with the 
 settlement of the Slavs in the valleys of the Upper Elbe, 
 Middle Danube, and Save. We shall soon have to do with 
 a new element, that of the Magyars, which had so decisive a 
 part to play in the history of these regions. Then we shall see 
 how the German race, led by able and fortunate chiefs, in 
 time gained the ascendency over Slavs and Magyars alike. 
 At the time of which we are now writing this German race 
 dwelt only in the extreme western corner of these lands, and 
 had by turns to struggle with the Slavs of Bohemia, Moravia, 
 Carinthia, and Istria, and the Avars. We shall return to its 
 history when it begins to play an important part in the 
 Danubian territories, leaving all details of German history, 
 strictly so called, on one side. The annals of the Chekhs, 
 Moravians, and their Slav relations, during the two centuries 
 which passed between the death of Samo and the Hungarian 
 invasion, contain a certain number of interesting episodes 
 which are generally but little known. These we will briefly 
 narrate. 
 
 On the death of Samo, the Slav empire, which he had so 
 quickly succeeded in founding, broke into three portions :
 
 40 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HVNGARY. 
 
 i. Bohemia, whose geographical form evidently marks her out 
 for an independent and homogeneous state ; ii. Moravia, 
 including, besides the province of that name, the country now 
 inhabited by the Slovaks and the regions of the Middle 
 Danube ; iii. the country of the Korutanian or Carinthian 
 Slavs, — Carinthia, Carniola, the north of Styria, and some 
 parts of Lower Austria on the right bank of the Danube. 
 
 The history of these various nations during the second half of 
 the seventh and the first half of the eighth centuries is exceed- 
 ingly obscure. The account of the rise of Bohemia in the Latin 
 and Chekh chronicles is fabulous, and only owes what reality 
 it possesses to that religious faith in it which patriotism and 
 poetry have inspired. It is a curious fact that Bohemian 
 legends know nothing of Samo, who played so great a part 
 in the annals of the country. The first prince mentioned by 
 them is a certain Krok, who is said to have reigned in the 
 second half of the seventh century ; this mythical personage 
 appears to offer some analogy with the Krakus of the Poles. 
 Krok had three daughters, who are still dear to popular 
 memory : Kazi, who possessed a knowledge of the secrets of 
 nature ; Teta, who was versed in the sacred rites and things 
 religious ; and Libusa (pronounced Libusha), who on the death 
 of her father was chosen to rule his lands. Notwithstanding 
 that wisdom with which tradition endows her, she felt herself 
 too weak to govern a turbulent people alone, and chose for her 
 husband the labourer Premysl of Stadice ; he accepted the 
 hand of the princess, and repaired to the castle of Vysehrad, 
 near Prague, carrying with him the rustic sandals which he 
 had worn. Tradition still points out the field where this 
 Cincinnatus of the Slavs received the invitation to leave his 
 plough, and at the beginning of our century a monument was 
 there raised to him. Premysl became the founder of a royal 
 dynasty which ruled over Bohemia down to the year 1306. 
 The chroniclers praise his wisdom and that of his wife Libusa. 
 To her they attribute the founding of Prague on the right bank 
 of the river Vltava, called the Moldau by the Germans ; they
 
 INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 4 1 
 
 also tell us the names of the first successors of Premysl, the 
 princes Nezamysl, Mnata, Vojen, Unislav, Kresomysl, Neklan, 
 and Hostivit, but they tell us nothing of the events of their 
 reigns. The German annals supply us with a few facts. In 
 the year 791 the Chekhs allied themselves with Charles the 
 Great against the Avars ; towards the year 806 the Franks 
 invaded Bohemia with three armies, and forced the inhabitants 
 to pay tribute ; in 845, fourteen Bohemian nobles were bap- 
 tized at Regensburg. But Bohemian history has no real exist- 
 ence before the reign of Borivoj, who was baptized towards 
 the end of the ninth century. Christianity entered Bohemia 
 by way of Moravia. It may seem strange that for three 
 centuries it had made no progress, but the reason of this 
 phenomenon is not far to seek. The Chekhs had had many 
 a struggle with the Germans, and would be little inclined to 
 receive kindly the gospel which came to them through the 
 hands of German apostles ; Christianity meant nothing but 
 conquest and slavery, when it came to them through such 
 missionaries. On the accession of Charles the Great, an alli- 
 ance offensive and defensive had been entered into by the 
 Papacy and the Franks ; the Frank monarch lent the pope the 
 help of his armies, the pope lent the monarch all the prestige 
 of his spiritual power; together they meant to conquer the 
 world, by the sword and by the cross. What wonder that the 
 sword roused hatred against the cross ! The example, also, of 
 the Saxons, and of the Slavs of the Elbe, was not likely to 
 encourage the Chekhs to embrace the new religion. When, 
 however, it came to them through the Slav missionaries, with- 
 out any suspicion of conquest, it was easily able to obtain over 
 them the salutary influence it had already gained over the 
 races of the west and the south. 
 
 Moravia — Rosiislav (846) — Cyril and MetJwdius (863-8S5) — 
 The Slav Church. 
 
 Less fortunate than Bohemia, her neighbour Moravia has 
 not even a legendary history. Her name appears for the first
 
 42 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 time at the beginning of the ninth century, under its Slav 
 form, Morava (German Afan/i, Moehrefi). It is used to 
 denote at the same time a tributary of the Danube and the 
 country it waters ; it is met with again in the lower valley of 
 that stream, in Servia, and appears to have a Slav origin. 
 During the seventh and eighth centuries there is no doubt 
 Moravia w'as divided among several princes, and had a hard 
 struggle against the Avars. The first prince whose name is 
 known was Moimir, who ruled at the beginning of the ninth 
 century \ like the Chekh Premysl, he gave his name to a 
 dynasty. During his reign Christianity made some progress in 
 Moravia, and Adalram, archbishop of Salzburg, who was 
 metropolitan of Passau, consecrated a church at Nitra, the 
 oldest Christian church which is heard of among the Mora- 
 vians. Moimir was at war with another Moravian prince, 
 Privina, who later on obtained a fief on lake Balaton {Blaio, 
 mud, in Slav, German Plattensee) from Louis the German. 
 Privina, apparently out of hatred to Moimir, showed great 
 sympathy with the Germans and their missionaries, and it is 
 known that he became a convert to Christianity. He was 
 assassinated in 860, and was succeeded by his son Kocel. 
 Moimir tried to withstand the Germans, but was not successful ; 
 and in 846 Louis the German invaded his country, deposed 
 him, and made his nephew Rostislav, whom the chroniclers 
 call Rastiz, ruler in his stead. 
 
 Christianity had penetrated into Moravia, but it was not 
 until it possessed a national clergy that the new religion made 
 any rapid progress. The people, as we have already said, 
 distrusted the German preachers, and, knowing nothing of 
 Latin, could neither understand the German sermons nor the 
 Roman liturgy. As late as 852, the Council of Mainz pointed 
 out Moravia as a land still knowing little of Christianity : 
 rudis adhuc christianitatis. 
 
 The new prince, Rostislav, determined to secure both the 
 political and moral freedom of his country. He fortified his 
 frontiers and then declared war against the emperor. He was
 
 CYRIL AND METHODIUS. 43 
 
 victorious, and when once peace was secured he undertook a 
 systematic conversion of his people. Thus came about one of 
 the great episodes in the history of the Slavs and their Church, 
 the mission of the apostles Cyril and Methodius. 
 
 The Slavs of the Danubian valley had already come into 
 contact with both the great centres of Christianity, Rome and 
 Constantinople; and the great schism between them had not as 
 yet taken place. But Rome, with all her zeal, could only send 
 to the Slavs foreign missionaries, who were either ignorant or 
 distrusted by the people ; Constantinople, on the contrary, was 
 surrounded by Slav Christians, who already possessed a native 
 clergy. Rostislav therefore sent to the emperor Michael III., 
 hoping perhaps to find in him an ally interested in creating some 
 counterpoise to the power of the Germans. " Our people," he 
 writes to the Byzantine Caesar, " have renounced paganism and 
 have accepted the Christian faith ; but we have no master who 
 can preach to us the Christian truths in our tongue. Send us 
 one." At that time there were living at Constantinople the 
 two brothers Constantine, two priests already celebrated for 
 their knowledge and the success of their mission work. In the 
 Church they were known by the names of Cyril and Methodius. 
 Were they Greeks or Slavs ? No one knows. They were born 
 in Thessalonica, a city of many languages, and their father 
 held there an important office in the state. They had studied 
 science and languages, and had distinguished themselves 
 among the most learned men of the court of Byzantium. The 
 one had become a monk, the other a priest, and their reputa- 
 tion had been increased by their missions to the Arabs and 
 the Khazars. It was during their stay among the Khazars 
 that they had had the good fortune to discover, at Kherson, 
 the real or reputed relics of the pope St. Clement, who had 
 suffered martyrdom in these regions. Their success as mission- 
 aries was considered miraculous, and languages of all kinds were 
 familiar to them. Cyril had been named the Philosopher; 
 Methodius had refused an archbishopric offered to him by the 
 emperor and the patriarch ; everything seemed to point them
 
 44 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 out as fit for the post. They accepted the honourable office of 
 apostles to the Moravians ; and Cyril undertook, before setting 
 out on his mission, to create for the Slav tongue that alphabet 
 which it had never yet possessed and to which his name is still 
 attached (the Cyrillic Alphabet). He also translated the New 
 Testament into Slav, and carried his translation with him into 
 the country whither he was called by his apostolic zeal. The 
 two brothers reached Moravia at the end of the year 863 or 
 the beginning of 864, and were received with great honour by 
 Rostislav. They soon gathered round them the young men 
 destined for the priesthood, to whom they taught the new 
 alphabet, while they continued their translations of the sacred 
 books and the liturgy. "Then," says a Slav legend, "accord- 
 ing to the word of the prophet, the ears of the deaf heard, 
 and the tongue of the dumb was unloosed." 
 
 The names of the new apostles and the news of their 
 success soon reached the ears of the pope. He summoned 
 them to Rome, and they responded to his call. As they 
 crossed Lower Pannonia, they visited the Slav prince Kocel, 
 who confided to their care a certain number of young eccle- 
 siastics. At Rome they were received with the highest 
 honours ; pope Adrian II. made them bishops, and consecrated 
 as priests, deacons, or sub-deacons several of the disciples 
 they had brought with them, besides authorizing them to make 
 use of the Slav liturgy, and approving their translation of the 
 Scriptures. Cyril died in Rome in February, 869, and was 
 buried there. Methodius returned alone to his work, the 
 pope assigning to him as his diocese all the Slav countries, 
 and giving him letters for prince Rostislav and his neighbours, 
 Svatopluk and Kocel. He approved of the use of the Slav 
 liturgy, but recommended that the Gospels should be read in 
 Latin, as a sign of the unity of the Church. On his return 
 from Rome Methodius again spent some time at the court of 
 Kocel in Pannonia.
 
 TRIALS OF METHODIUS. 45 
 
 Svatopluk — Fall of Moravia and of the Slaz' Clmrch (870-907). 
 
 When Methodius once more reached Moravia, Rostislav 
 was no longer there to receive him. After having struggled 
 successfully for some time against the Germans, he had been 
 betrayed by his nephew and vassal, Svatopluk, into the hands 
 of Karloman, duke of Carinthia and son of Louis the 
 German, who put out his eyes and shut him up in a monaster}'. 
 Svatopluk believed himself sure of the succession to his uncle 
 as the price of his treachery, but a very different reward fell to 
 his lot, as Karloman, trusting but little in his fidelity to the 
 Germans, threw him also into captivity. 
 
 The German yoke was, however, hateful to the Moravians ; 
 they soon rebelled, and Karloman hoped to avert the danger 
 by releasing Svatopluk and placing him at the head of an 
 army. Svatopluk marched against the Moravians, then sud- 
 denly joined his forces to theirs and attacked the Germans. 
 This time the independence of Moravia was secured, and was 
 recognized by the treaty of Forcheim (874). 
 
 The German bishops had not seen without envy the success 
 of Cyril and Methodius, and the favours bestowed on them by 
 the pope. The extent of their jurisdiction and the value of 
 their tithes had been considerably lessened by the creation of 
 the new Slav diocese. They looked upon Methodius as a 
 usurper, and as such cited him before them and imprisoned 
 him in a convent, where they kept him for two years. From 
 this time the life of Methodius was one long struggle against 
 the German clergy. They constantly intrigued against him, 
 and endeavoured to withdraw from him the favour of the 
 pontiff. He nevertheless persisted in his work, and about 
 874 baptized the prince of Bohemia, Borivoj, and by his 
 means introduced the Slav liturgy into Bohemia. Accusations 
 against him continually reached the pope ; now he was accused 
 of heresy, now he was denounced for his use of the Slav 
 liturgy ; and he was but ill supported by Svatopluk. He was 
 obliged once more to go to Rome to defend himself, but came
 
 46 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 out victorious from the trial, pope John VIII. recognizing 
 his orthodoxy, and once more confirming the privileges 
 granted to the Slav liturgy. It would take us too long to 
 relate here how the enemies of Methodius substituted false 
 documents for those which had been drawn up by the pope 
 himself. Methodius was again obliged to appeal to the 
 pontiff, who sanctioned his action in a letter which was 
 publicly read to the assembled people. He passed the last 
 years of his troubled life in completing his translation of the 
 sacred books, and died on April 6, 885. On his death his 
 disciples had no protection from the persecutions of their 
 enemies, and were forced to seek refuge among the Bulgarians, 
 by whom they were eagerly welcomed, 
 
 The departure of the disciples of Methodius completely 
 disorganized the Slav Church. The German bishops of the 
 neighbouring dioceses of Salzburg, Freisingen, Eichsstadt, 
 Ratisbon, and Passau drew up and sent to the pope, 
 John IX. (900), a. factum in which they claimed for themselves 
 jurisdiction over the country of the Moravians, " a country," 
 said they, "which has been subject to our kings and our people 
 both as regards Christian worship and the payment of tribute. 
 . . . With their will or against their will," adds this apostolic 
 factum, "they shall be subject to us : " sive velint swe nolint^ 
 regno nostra subacti eniiit. These controversies, which were so 
 little animated by the spirit of that religion which was their 
 object, were put an end to in a most unexpected and bloody 
 fashion by the invasion of the Magyars. Moravia was thrown 
 into a state of anarchy, and the Slav liturgy perished. But 
 few traces of it can be discovered in the history of those lands 
 which gave it birth. Proscribed in Moravia, it flourished for 
 a time in Bulgaria ; from thence it passed to the Servians, 
 Russians, and to the Croats, among whom it had a long battle 
 to fight against the Roman clergy ; then it gradually dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 At the present time, throughout the empire of Austria, 
 Latin is the language of the Catholic Church. The Slav
 
 SVAJOPLUK. 47 
 
 liturgy is used only by about three millions of Uniate 
 Ruthenians in Galicia, and three millions of Servians and 
 Roumanians, but none of these have directly inherited the 
 work of Cyril and Methodius. It has come to them through 
 Bulgaria and Servia, but their alphabet is still called the 
 Cyrillic Alphabet, and preserves the memory of its great in- 
 ventor. On the shores of the Adriatic, in the present diocese 
 of Veglia, Zara, Spalato, and Sebenico, about twenty-four thou- 
 sand Catholics still make use of the Slav liturgy ; but they use 
 another alphabet, which is called the Glagolica. This is no 
 place in which to discuss the various questions attached to the 
 history of these two alphabets. Though they have returned 
 more or less willingly to the use of the Latin liturgy, the Slavs 
 of the Western Rite have by no means forgotten the great 
 apostles of their race ; their millennium was celebrated in 1863 
 with imposing solemnity, and they are still considered the 
 representatives of that literary and religious unity which is the 
 dream of certain patriots for the future. Cynl and Methodius 
 deserve a far higher place in religious history than has hitherto 
 been assigned to them. Their knowledge, their zeal for the 
 Gospel, their indomitable perseverance, have nothing to fear 
 from comparison with the apostles of Germany. 
 
 But we must return to Svatopluk and his ephemeral 
 empire. The treaty of Forcheim secured the independence 
 of Moravia ; thenceforward peace reigned between Svatopluk 
 and Louis the German. Complete master of his country, 
 strong in the power of his army and of his Slav-speaking 
 clergy, Svatopluk might have put himself forward as the 
 representative and defender of the Slavs against the Germans. 
 But this was a part he only half understood. He had sym- 
 pathies for the foreigners which were to prove fatal both to 
 himself and his people ; he invited them to his court, and, 
 whilst helping to spread the use of the Slav liturgy in his 
 provinces, he himself made use of the Roman liturgy, and thus 
 opened the door to the pretensions of the German clergy. 
 He began his reign with a crime, he ended it with blunders ;
 
 48 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 he possessed great talents, but his character was not equal to 
 them, and his policy appears to have been fortunate rather 
 than able. At one time he was the most powerful monarch 
 of the Slavs ; Rome was in treaty with him, Bohemia gravi- 
 tated towards the orbit of Moravia, while Moravia held the 
 empire in check. In 883, he took advantage of the struggle 
 which was going on for the possession of the Ostmark, which 
 adjoined his own territories, to interfere in the affairs of 
 Germany. Arnulf, duke of Pannonia, took the other side, 
 and war broke out between these two neighbours, both of 
 whom were brave, powerful, and ambitious. Twice did 
 Svatopluk ravage the country of Upper Pannonia without 
 meeting with any resistance. According to the chronicle, so 
 numerous was his army that from the rising to the setting of 
 the sun it ceased not to march by. Charles the Fat himself 
 came to the Ostmark to try to put an end to the struggle, and 
 there received in 884 a visit from Svatopluk, who promised 
 to respect the lands of the empire ; and in 888 Svatopluk 
 concluded a treaty of friendship and alliance with Arnulf, 
 which was renewed in 891. At this time the kingdom of 
 Svatopluk was a powerful state ; it included, besides Moravia 
 and the present Austrian Silesia, the subject country of 
 Bohemia, the Slav tribes on the Elbe and the Vistula as far 
 as the neighbourhood of Magdeburg, part of Western Galicia, 
 the country of the Slovaks, and Lower Pannonia. But two 
 such ambitious men could not trust each other ; their friend- 
 ship was only based on natural fear ; and as soon as Arnulf 
 believed that he had secured sufficiently strong allies he once 
 more attacked Svatopluk. He entered into an alliance with 
 Braclav, a Slovene prince, sought the aid of the king of the 
 Bulgarians, and, what was of far graver importance, sum- 
 moned to his help the Magyars, who had just settled them- 
 selves on the Lower Danube. Swabians, Bavarians, Franks, 
 Magyars, and Slovenes rushed simultaneously upon Moravia. 
 Overwhelmed by numbers, Svatopluk made no attempt at 
 resistance; he shut up his troops in fortresses, and abandoned
 
 DEATH OF SVATOPLUK. 49 
 
 the open country to the enemy, who ravaged it for four whole 
 weeks. Then hostihties ceased ; but no durable peace could 
 exist between the two adversaries. War began again in the 
 following year, when death freed Arnulf from Svatopluk. The 
 populace, which loves to surround its great men with legendary 
 glory, would not believe that Svatopluk had died like any 
 ordinary mortal. From the tenth century onwards a marvel- 
 lous story has been told of him. One night the great Moravian 
 chief left his camp unobserved, mounted his faithful steed, 
 and gained the wooded sides of Mount Zobor, near Nitra, 
 where was a well-known hermitage. Here he slew his horse, 
 buried his sword in the earth, and presented himself before 
 the hermits of the mountain; he became a monk, and lived 
 long without making known his rank, which he only revealed 
 at the moment of death. Through many vicissitudes his 
 name remained popular in Moravia, and to this day the people 
 make use of a proverb, " Seek for Svatopluk," when they wish 
 to imply, " Seek for justice." We have criticised this prince 
 severely, but we must not forget that almost all we know of 
 him has reached us through his enemies. "He was a vessel 
 of treachery," say the annals of Fulda ; " he overturned the 
 countries with his greed, and thirsted for human blood." 
 " He was a man of great genius and great cleverness," writes 
 Regino. " He was valiant and strong, and dreaded by his 
 neighbours," says Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Modern 
 Slavonic historians give him a high place in the history of 
 the race, and look upon him as the successor of Samo, and 
 the second founder of Slavonic unity in the West. 
 
 At his death he left three sons ; he chose the eldest, 
 Moimir II., as his heir, and assigned appanages to each of 
 the others. On his death-bed he begged them to live at 
 peace with one another, but his advice was not followed. 
 The Moravian kingdom was far from forming a homogeneous 
 whole. Bohemia soon threw off those bonds which had attached 
 her as a vassal to Svatopluk ; the Magyars invaded Moravian 
 Pannonia, and forced Moimir into an alliance with them. 
 
 E
 
 50 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Arnulf fomented the discord between Moimir II. and Svato- 
 pluk II. ; and in the year goo the Bavarians, together with the 
 Chekhs, invaded Moravia. In 903 the name of Moimir 
 disappears. As to the cause of his death, as to how it was 
 that suddenly and for ever the kingdom of Moravia was 
 destroyed, the chronicles tell us nothing. Cosmas of Prague 
 shows us Moravia at the mercy of Germans, Chekhs, and 
 Hungarians ; then history is silent, towns and castles crumble 
 to pieces, churches are overthrown, the people are scattered. 
 " A mournful silence reigns over the universal desolation," 
 says the Chekh historian Palacky, " and we know not when 
 or how this work of horror was accomplished." The brief 
 duration of the Moravian kingdom has been justly compared 
 to that of the mounds of sand which are raised by the breath 
 of the tempest, and by the tempest dispersed. This monarchy 
 of a day has not even left ruins behind it ; we hardly know 
 the site of that capital of Svatopluk, that marvellous city of 
 Velehrad (ineffabilis fuuniHo), where Methodius baptized the 
 prince of Bohemia. The poetry of the people alone still 
 bewails the memory of a vanished world : " Hard by the 
 wide Danube, hard by the foaming waves of the Morava, ... 
 bleeds the wounded heart of the Slavs. O Fatherland of our 
 noble forefathers ! theatre which echoes to our ancient 
 struggles ! thou liest in thy vast extent entombed ; the arrow 
 of misfortune has pierced thy breast. Thy time has gone by ; 
 thy glory sleeps an eternal sleep. Thy sons now find but the 
 shadow of the glory of their forefathers. 
 
 " The sword of Moimir slumbers, the helmet of Svatopluk 
 lies buried beneath ruins. Only at times from the bosom of 
 forgetfulness a memory flies to heaven in a song. 
 
 " Nitra, dear Nitra ! great Nitra ! where are the times of thy 
 glory ? Nitra, dear Nitra ! thou mother of the Slavs, when I think 
 of thee, needs must I weep. Once thou wast the mother of all 
 the Danube, the Vistula, the Morava. Thou wast the throne 
 of Svatopluk, when his powerful hand ruled ; thou wast the 
 holy city of Methodius, when he taught our fathers the Word
 
 FALL OF THE MORA VIAN KINGDOM. 5 i 
 
 of God. Now is thy glory veiled by the shadows. Thus do 
 times change ! thus passes away the world ! " 
 
 The Slovcjics — The Croats under a National Dynasty 
 {780-1090). 
 
 The Slovenes, or Korutanian Slavs {i.e. of Carinthia and Car- 
 niola), were of but small importance during the times of which 
 we have been writing. After the death of Samo they separated 
 from the Chekhs, but were able to form neither a nation nor a 
 state. During the seventh century, when they were divided 
 into several principalities, they had many struggles with the 
 Friulans, the Bavarians, and the Avars. Borut, their first 
 prince whose name is known, sought the aid of Pepin the 
 Short against the Avars (748), and obtained it at the price of 
 almost complete submission to the Frank monarch. His 
 successor, Karat, was obliged to renew this bond of vassalage. 
 Chotimir, who was a cousin of Borut, was brought up in 
 Bavaria, and was a Christian ; he was a fervent apostle of the 
 Gospel among the Slovenes. With the help of Virgil, bishop 
 of Salzburg, he worked hard at the conversion of his people, 
 but he did not obtain his object without meeting with some 
 resistance. Their conversion was due solely to the efforts of 
 the German clergy, and its first result was the complete 
 Germanizing of the Slavs of Salzburg and the Tyrol, ^^'e are 
 told of a pagan chief, named Droh, who rose against a prince 
 Valduch. Valduch sought the protection of Tassillo, duke of 
 Bavaria, and was stripped of his lands by Charles the Great, 
 who divided the Slovene country between the duke of Bavaria 
 and the duke of Friuli. Later on, Arnulf, when he was kino- 
 of the Romans, confided a portion of Pannonia to a native 
 prince, named Braclav. The history of these Slavs belongs in 
 the main to that of the Ostmark and the empire. One thing 
 only deserves to be recorded here, and that is the curious 
 mode in which Korutanian Slavs (or Carinthians) installed 
 their princes. The ceremony took place near the town of 
 Celovec (Klagenfurt). A peasant mounted on a rock to
 
 52 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 await the coming of the new prince, who advanced clothed in 
 rustic garments. The peasant asked, " Who is this who 
 approaches?" the people answered, "It is the prince of this 
 land." The peasant then asked, " Is he a good judge ? is he 
 the friend of truth ? " and, on receiving a reply in the affirma- 
 tive, the peasant yielded his place to the new-comer, who 
 mounted the rock and, brandishing his sword, swore to 
 defend the country of the Slovenes. This custom lasted down 
 to the fifteenth century. The people who had imagined it 
 deserved a more brilliant destiny. 
 
 The historical individuality of the Croats is much more 
 clearly marked than that of the Slovenes. We have already 
 seen how, on their arrival in their new country, they adopted 
 Christianity without difficulty. It came to them from the sees 
 of Aquileia and Salona, and was accepted by the populace at 
 once. The Germans could invoke no pretence of conversion 
 to justify their attempts at conquest among the Croats, but it 
 was sufficient warranty for German ambition that the Croats 
 formed a boundary to the empire. In 796, Charles the Great 
 overthrew the Avars by the capture of their fortified camp, 
 and after the year 822, we no longer meet with their name in 
 the chronicles ; it still remains in the Slav tongue (under the 
 form of Obr) as a synonym for giant. A Russian phrase, which 
 is quoted with enjoyment by the monk Nestor, says, " disap- 
 peared like the Obrs ; " that is, gone, leaving no trace behind. 
 When Charles the Great was once master of the country 
 between the Danube and the Theiss, his dominions enclosed 
 the Croat country, although they were still independent. 
 The margrave of Friuli was appointed to attack their coast, 
 and the Croats of Dalmatia and Slavonia passed from the 
 yoke of Byzantium to that of the West. The Franks spread 
 over the country ; Frankochorion is known to have been the 
 name given by the Byzantines to Sirmia, and we meet with it 
 to-day under the form of Fronchka (Fronchka) Gora, or the 
 Mountain of the Franks, in Slavonia. 
 
 The civilization of the Croats was modelled on that of the
 
 CROATIA INDEPENDENT. 53 
 
 Latin races, and, notwithstanding their early connection with 
 Byzantium, they retained no trace of Hellenism. They did 
 not, however, willingly accept the Prankish rule. Their chief 
 Ljudevit (823) revolted against the foreign yoke, but was 
 defeated and forced to fly to Servia, where he was assassinated. 
 We cannot undertake to explain the tangled history of the 
 Croats of Dalmatia and the Save districts ; after being some- 
 times divided and sometimes united, they were finally united 
 towards the end of the ninth century. At this time the great 
 zhupan Mutimir proclaimed himself chief of the Croats by the 
 grace of God {divino nmnere Jtivatus Croatoriim dux) (892-900), 
 and organized his court on the model of the other European 
 courts. Tomislav (914-940) took the title of king, and hence- 
 forward the Croats of Dalmatia and those of the Save shared 
 the same destinies. The Byzantine emperor, Constantine, was 
 unable to prevent the independence of Tomislav, and granted 
 him the title of consul for Dalmatia. During his reign, the 
 Council of Spalato was held, at which the use of the Slav 
 liturgy was forbidden and Croatia was declared to be eccle- 
 siastically subject to the archbishop of Spalato. 
 
 In Croatia, as in Moravia, Western influences had banished 
 the Slav liturgy, and the Croats found themselves more and 
 more separated from the Servians, while the introduction of 
 the Latin language prepared the way for the Venetians, who 
 gradually took possession of the whole coast of the Adriatic. 
 Drzislav (970-1001) obliged the court of Byzantium to recog- 
 nize his title of king, and an agent {protospathare) established 
 at Zara was the only representative of Byzantine overlordship. 
 But Drzislav was less fortunate against the Venetians, who, 
 under the doge Peter Urseolus IL, conquered the towns of the 
 coast, Zara, Trogir (Trau), Spalato, etc. The Venetian doges 
 took the title of dukes of Dalmatia. King Kresimir IIL tried 
 in vain to recover the lost towns (1018); King Stephen L 
 lived in friendly relations with Venice, and even married the 
 daughter of the doge. His son Peter Kresimir, called the 
 Great, recovered the Dalmatian cities and the Isles, and took
 
 54 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 the title of king of Dalmatia ; conquered from the Bulgarians 
 the district of Sirmia which they had captured, and from the 
 Servians part of Bosnia ; he also seized part of Carniola, Styria, 
 and Istria. 
 
 During his reign, another council was held at Spalato to 
 combat the Slav liturgy, which still enjoyed the popular favour 
 in spite of all the anathemas hurled against it, and Kresimir 
 supported pope Nicholas II. in his measures for driving the 
 national tongue out of the Church. Persecuted as the means 
 of teaching heresy, it took refuge in a few isles of the Adriatic, 
 where it has lasted down to our time. 
 
 King Svinimir, or Zvonimir (1075), is known best from his 
 relations with pope Gregory VII. That pontiff, who was 
 carrying on an energetic struggle with the empire, aimed at 
 directly attaching to the Holy See those secondary states who 
 were dependants neither of Germany nor Byzantium. He sent 
 cardinal Gebizon to Croatia, bearing royal insignia to Zvonimir. 
 On the 9th of October, 1076, Zvonimir was consecrated in the 
 basilica of St. Peter in Spalato, in the name of the pope, and 
 received from the hands of his envoy the royal diadem, sword, 
 and sceptre. In return for this honour, he promised to remain 
 faithful and obedient to the Holy See, to cause tithes to be 
 paid, to oblige the clergy to live decent lives, and to prevent 
 all marriages forbidden by the laws of the church, and all 
 traffic in slaves. He also undertook to pay two hundred 
 ducats yearly to the pope. The chronicles of Croatia look 
 upon the reign of Zvonimir as the climax of the national 
 power : " Under good king Zvonimir the country lived in joy, 
 the cities were full of gold and of silver. The poor man had 
 no fear that the rich would do him wrong ; the servant 
 dreaded no wrong-doing from his master. The king defended 
 them, and they had nought to fear but the anger of God." 
 Zvonimir died without children, and the nobles of Croatia and 
 Dalmatia elected one of his relations, Stephen II., who reigned 
 but a short time, and was the last king of the line of the 
 Derzislavic. On his death, the Croats, after long discussion,
 
 KING ZVONIMIR. 55 
 
 offered their crown to Ladislas, king of Hungary, who accepted 
 it. Later on, we shall see how and under what conditions the 
 union of Croatia and Hungary was brought about. We will 
 sum up in a very few words what is known of the organization 
 of the kingdom of Croatia, and of its constitution during the 
 period of its independence. 
 
 The Croats were grouped together in families in the same 
 way as the other Slav races already described. A certain 
 number of families made up a zhupa {znpa), at the head of 
 which was a zhupan. In early times, one amongst the zhupans 
 was recognized as the head of the nation, with the title of the 
 great zhupan ; he had no absolute authority, but took counsel 
 with his colleagues. These zhupans, who are named in the 
 Latin texts zuppani, were called by foreigners duces, co mites, 
 and principes. 
 
 Around the great zhupan, or king, gathered a nobihty of 
 counts and barons. The powers of the great zhupan do not 
 seem ro have differed from those exercised later on by the 
 kings ; this supreme authority, moreover, was hereditary. At 
 the same time we find that when there was no lawful heir, 
 the people exercised the right of election : it was thus that the 
 ban Zvonimir was elected concordi totius cleri et populi electione. 
 Legislative, administrative, and judicial functions were 
 exercised by the king with the aid of a national assembly. 
 The capital was Belgrade, in Dalmatia. The court included 
 a number of dignitaries, similar to those found in western 
 kingdoms : the zhupan of the palace, called also comes curialis 
 and comes curiae regiae, the curiae regiae judex, the aulae regiae 
 cdncellarius, the cubicularius or chamberlain, the butler, the 
 pantler, the master of the horse, etc. 
 
 After the king, the most important officers of the State 
 were the bans. At first there was but one ban, who was a 
 kind of lieutenant-general ; but later on there were seven of 
 them, eacli known by the name of the province he governed, 
 as the ban of Sirmia, ban of Dalmatia, etc. To this day the 
 royal lieutenant of Croatia (or "governor-general," if that
 
 56 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 title be preferred) is called the ban. Below the bans came the 
 zkupans, the nndcx-zhupans, and the centeniers, or hundred-men. 
 All grave questions of legislation, of peace and war, and of 
 election to the throne were treated in the diets, whose 
 organization is but ill defined. The towns on the Dalmatian 
 coast had preserved municipal institutions of Roman origin, 
 which were independent of the rest of the kingdom. 
 
 According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, under the 
 great zhupan Trpimir the Croatian army already numbered 
 100,000 foot soldiers and 60,000 horsemen ; the fleet was 
 composed of 140 vessels, manned by 5000 sailors. 
 
 At the head of the Church was the archbishop of 
 Spalato, which was the metropolis of the Dalmatian bishoprics. 
 The bishopric of Nin was the metropolis of the rest of the 
 kingdom. Byzantine orthodoxy made but little progress in 
 Croatia, and we have already seen with what distrust the 
 Roman clergy and the Holy See treated the Slav liturgy, even 
 though it was Catholic. The court of Rome remained all- 
 powerful in Croatia ; the Church was rich, and the monasteries, 
 especially those of the Benedictines, very numerous. The 
 Latin language, owing to the influence of Rome, became the 
 official language of politics, literature, and religion. At the 
 same time, there remain some manuscripts which prove that 
 the national tongue was occasionally used in legal proceedings.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FORMATION OF THE MAGYAR STATE (892-IO38). 
 
 The Magyars — Their Origin — Their Arrival in the Valley of 
 the Danube — Their Invasions (892-955). 
 
 We have already spoken more than once of the Magyars. 
 This nation appears in history under a double name — that of 
 Magyars, the name they use themselves, and that of Hun- 
 garians, the one used by foreigners. The first time we hear 
 of them, they are spoken of as living by the chase near the 
 Ural Mountains and the river Volga. These nomadic tribes, 
 wandering over the immense plains of Eastern Russia, 
 gradually made their way westward, and settled first not far 
 from the shores of the Black Sea. There seven tribes are said 
 to have given the chief command to a young leader named 
 Arpad, who became the founder of a dynasty. Evidently 
 the wealth of Europe attracted these wanderers, as Italy had 
 formerly attracted the German race ; and the imprudence of 
 the Western monarchs prepared an easy path for them to the 
 very heart of its fertile lands. First, the Eastern emperor 
 implored their help against the Bulgarians, and then ArnuU" 
 sought their aid against Svatopluk. 
 
 The districts in which they now found themselves had 
 been ravaged and occupied by their ancestors or their kinsmen 
 for more than two centuries. The Huns of Attila had en- 
 camped there, and they had been followed by the Avars, who 
 had settled there from the end of the sixth century, down to
 
 58 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 the time when Charles the Great destroyed their great hring 
 between the Danube and the Tisza (Theiss) (796). 
 
 The first attack of the Magyars, which was directed against 
 Moravia in 892, met with but Httle success. Two years 
 later, they returned, determined this time to settle in whatever 
 part of the land they might be able to conquer. Few examples 
 of a migration so vast are to be found in the history of 
 barbarian invasions. Two hundred and sixteen thousand men 
 able to bear arms, which implies a total population of almost 
 a million, are the numbers mentioned in the national traditions, 
 where it is said that this multitude took nearly three years to 
 cross the Carpathians. We need feel no astonishment either 
 at the number of this host, when we remember the frequent 
 migrations of vast hordes in the Ural-Altaic regions, nor need 
 we be surprised at the slowness of their movements, when we 
 think of all the chariots, all the arms and tools, all the spoil 
 which this moving multitude would bear with it. 
 
 The nation was led with so exact and wise a discipline as 
 to call forth the admiration of an illustrious Byzantine critic. 
 " Their vigorous bodies," says Sayous, " used to the privations 
 of the desert, felt neither heat nor cold, neither hunger nor 
 thirst. Accustomed to all manner of hardships, no task seemed 
 impossible to them. Every kind of weapon, sword, bow, or 
 lance, was alike to them, for they knew how to fight both on 
 foot and on horseback ; but, horsemen rather than foot- 
 soldiers, they preferred to fight on their small and agile steeds, 
 who never felt fatigue, and the arrow was their favourite 
 weapon. When arrayed for battle they were divided into 
 bodies of one thousand men each, who were equally prepared 
 to form one compact mass or to pour down upon the enemy in 
 flying squadrons from every side at once. A cloud of arrows 
 was the prelude to a furious onslaught which bore all before 
 it, and often a pretended flight finished the complete rout of 
 their enemies when they were madly confident of victory." 
 
 The legends of the Magyar tell us the names of some of 
 the small Slav princes who were the first to give way before
 
 RUIN OF MORAVIA. 59 
 
 this terrible invasion, the Slovak Zalan, the Bulgarian Men- 
 marot in the east and south of the present Hungary. But 
 they tell us nothing of the manner in which the Moravian 
 kingdom was conquered. By the end of the tenth century 
 we find the ruin of that power completed, and the rule of the 
 Magyars established in the whole of the district along whose 
 centre runs the Danube, and whose north and east are 
 bounded by the Carpathian Mountains. 
 
 This invasion had the gravest consequences for the history 
 of these lands. " It was not the mere immigration of a new 
 Finnish race, destined to disappear as the Huns and Avars 
 had already disappeared, or to become absorbed like the 
 Bulgarians among the conquered race. The intellectual 
 qualities of the Magyars, the finest of the Altaic races, their 
 physical strength, their immense numbers, their keen patriotism, 
 guaranteed them against all chance of destruction, slow or 
 rapid." 
 
 The settlement of this people and the ruin of Moravia was 
 a terrible blow to the Slavs. The Chekh historian Palacky 
 says, "The invasion of the Hungarians was the gravest mis- 
 fortune that ever befell our race. From Holstein to the 
 Peloponnesus the Slav tribes extended ; they were but loosely 
 united and their customs differed, but they were all of them 
 vigorous and ready for civilization. In the centre of this long 
 line a kernel had been formed by the eftbrts of Svatopluk. 
 As in the west, under Latin influences, the Frankish monarchy 
 was in process of formation, so in the east, under Byzantine 
 influences, a Slav empire might have been formed ; but the fate 
 of Eastern Europe was changed ; the advent of the Magyars 
 into the heart of the growing organism completely destroyed 
 all these hopes." 
 
 The lands on which they had settled did not suffice for the 
 new conquerors ; the Danubian districts were to them only a 
 halting-place, a base of operations for further invasions. The 
 various hordes brought with them nomadic and warlike instincts 
 which time and the influence of the Christian religion could
 
 60 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 alone transform and make of use to civilization.^ Italy, "to 
 whom Heaven has granted the fatal gift of beauty," was the 
 first object of their desire. They invaded the Venetian 
 country ; but the City of the Lagunes beat them back, as it had 
 already beaten back the Huns. In 907, Arpad died, and, 
 according to tradition, his remains lie at the foot of the rock 
 of Buda, where he had placed his capital or camp. Under 
 his young son Zoltan the invasions continued ; the Germans 
 suffered a terrible defeat at Presburg in 907 ; then again in 
 910, near Augsburg; but they repulsed the Magyars before 
 Wels, where, if we are to believe their account, eighty-six 
 Magyars alone escaped. An old German poem proudly 
 celebrates this victory ; " They fought a terrible fight. Many 
 a Hungarian lost his life ; the Bavarians avenged their women 
 and children. So many Hungarians were killed that no one 
 could tell the number nor count the dead. They fled night 
 and day till they reached the Leitha. Yet were they not weary 
 of the fight." 
 
 Assuredly they were not weary ; their unconquerable hordes 
 pushed on to Alsace and Lorraine. In 924, it was again 
 Italy that they attacked, and even Provence and Champagne 
 saw the terrible horsemen within their borders. At last, 
 however," Henry of Saxony repulsed them before Merseburg 
 (933). But it was only for a time; their invasions continued 
 under the successor of Zoltan, and it was not until after 
 alternations of fortune too numerous to relate here, that their 
 progress was definitely stopped by the battle of Augsburg 
 (955). Thenceforward the Magyars were forced to fall back, 
 and to content themselves with those lands which they had 
 secured in the valley of the Danube. 
 
 King Geiza (972-997) was the first pacific ruler of 
 pagan Hungary. In his reign the Hungarians tried to inter- 
 
 ' It was long believed that the horror into which the nations were 
 thrown by the Hungarians was the origin of our word ogre. Unhappily, 
 Romance philology proves that this word comes from the Latin orcus. 
 See Littre's Dictionary.
 
 MAGYAR MYTHOLOGY. 6 1 
 
 fere in a quarrel between Henry of Bavaria and the emperor 
 Otto II. But Otto, detaching the frontier district of Austria 
 from Bavaria, conferred it upon Leopold of Babenberg, and the 
 new ruler succeeded in repulsing the Hungarians near Vienna. 
 Thus a new military state appeared which was destined to 
 play an important part in the history of these lands. Hungary 
 was enclosed within limits which she was never again able to 
 cross, and even within these limits the Magyars were not the 
 only inhabitants ; in almost every part they were surrounded 
 by Slavs, whose language and laws were to exercise over them 
 a lasting influence, and on the south-east they touched on that 
 Romance or Wallachian element which, from the time of the 
 Roman colonies of Trajan, had continued to develop there. 
 Numerous marriages with these neighbours gradually modified 
 the primitive type of the Magyars ; they have long ago lost 
 the high cheekbones and slanting eyes of the Mongols, and, 
 improved by the intermixture of races, they have now become 
 one of the most beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful race in 
 Europe. 
 
 Manners and Religion of the Fagati Magyars. 
 
 There are but few traces left of the religion of the pagan 
 Hungarians, and from these it is difficult to make out a system 
 of mythology. They would seem to have recognized a Supreme 
 God {Isten). He is the Father of men, and below him are a 
 certain number of secondary deities, such as the demon Ordog 
 and Afdfio, an evil spirit. Below them again are the fih/dcr, 
 fairies and apparitions who influence the destiny of man in 
 various ways. "Somewhere among the mountains of Transyl- 
 vania lies the palace of the king of the fiinder, where he dwells 
 with his queen and many beautiful maidens ; this palace is 
 built of silver and copper, and is guarded by a golden lion ; it 
 is reflected in a shining lake and surrounded by great forests, 
 where the song of birds fills the air with delightful melody. A 
 tradition of the Comitate of Houth tells how, in a spot which is 
 • See p. 6S.
 
 62 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 now deserted and covered with stones, with here and there the 
 stump of an old tree, there formerly lived fairies who at break 
 of day combed their golden locks over the country in such 
 fashion that every one was rich ; but a miser seized one of the 
 fairies, intending to cut off her hair, whereupon they all took 
 flight, and the land was filled with desolation, and poverty took 
 the place of plenty. In the town of Deva, the good fairy used 
 to appear every seven years ; while other fairies built walls for 
 men and made them rich with their treasures, till human 
 ingratitude continually disappointed them and forced them to 
 quit the place " (Sayous). Besides the fairies of the earth, 
 there were also those of the air and of the water. One of the 
 most poetical and most original fancies of the Magyar imagina- 
 tion was Delibab, the fairy of the south, the personification of 
 the mirage, who was the daughter of the plain, the sister of the 
 sea, and the beloved of the wind. Lakes and rivers were 
 peopled by mysterious spirits. The elements were the objects 
 of worsliip. 
 
 " Alone among all created things, the human soul preserved 
 an indestructible and immortal existence ; it could return 
 to earth, especially if it had been the soul of an illustrious 
 warrior. The soul passed beneath the vault of death on 
 horseback, and crossed a bridge which led to happiness in 
 another world, — a warrior's happiness, as the funeral cere- 
 monies had been those of a warrior " (Sayous). 
 
 Power was divided between the priests and the prince. The 
 priests offered songs and prayers, and even human sacrifices, 
 upon altars in the woods. 
 
 A nomadic race, such as were the Magyars before their 
 conversion to Christianity, could have but a very imperfect 
 form of government. It was military rather than political. 
 The power of the highest chief had no limits but those 
 imposed by the right of self-government possessed by each 
 tribe. He was chosen by the voice of the people, and it would 
 seem that the choice had become hereditary in the family of 
 Arpad, though without the right of primogeniture being recog-
 
 PRIMITIVE POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 6^ 
 
 nized either by custom or law. This election was confirmed 
 by the supreme judicial power, and by the general assembly of 
 chiefs, assisted by many of the free men. 
 
 All the members of a family, and even of a tribe, looked 
 upon each other as brothers; they were all free and all noble. 
 Here we find the origin of that numerous class oi petite noblesse 
 which has always been the strength of Hungary. " The head- 
 ship of the families and tribes was partly hereditary, partly 
 elective. The land assigned to the tribe or family by the duke 
 or by the national assembly was the property of all, even when 
 the various branches of the family had divided it into portions. 
 On these they might build the huts which gradually became 
 houses, and pasture their cattle until it was brought into culti- 
 vation, but still it remained the property of the tribe. The 
 chief had no peculiar domain. It was not until later, till 
 Hungary had become an agricultural country, that properties 
 were well defined, and that the chiefs became proprietors of 
 part of the land and feudal lords of the rest. In early times 
 the ducal tribe, the one which was under the immediate autho- 
 rity of the prince, settled in the centre of the country near 
 Pesth and Stuhl Weissemberg " (Szekes Fejervar). 
 
 Naturally the old Magyars had but little taste for town life ; 
 they left the towns to their old inhabitants, or else peopled 
 them with colonists from foreign countries. Their nomadic 
 life afforded but small opportunity for intellectual or artistic 
 culture ; the Magyar archseologists can find few ruins belonging 
 to this pagan time, and not a verse has reached us of the 
 rhapsodies sung by the bards to the honour of their heroes, 
 or at the great festivals and marriages. All we know is that 
 music played a large part on these solemn occasions. The 
 famous melodies of the Tsiganes (gypsies) may perhaps have 
 preserved for us some faint echo of those early songs.
 
 64 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 The First Princes of the House of Arpad — Christian Hungary — 
 St. Stephen (997-1038). 
 
 Geiza I. had married as his second wife a sister of the duke 
 of Poland, Mieczyslaw. She had been converted to Christianity, 
 and, hke Clotilde of France, this princess knew how to use her 
 influence in favour of her reUgion. She persuaded her husband 
 to receive the missionaries who came to preach the Gospel in 
 the country of the Magyars, and Pilgrim, archbishop of Lorch,^ 
 undertook the systematic conversion of the nation. The 
 mention of him in the Nibelungen Lied in connection with 
 Etzel (Attila), king of the Huns, is doubtless due to the 
 memory of this mission. He sent priests from his diocese 
 into Hungary, and in 974 he was able to announce to the 
 pope five thousand conversions. Foreigners who up to this' 
 time had practised their religion secretly began to profess it 
 openly, had their children publicly baptised, and built churches. 
 Geiza himself consented to be baptised, but long afterwards he 
 continued to mix pagan ceremonies with the Christian rites. 
 The great Chekh apostle, St. Adalbert or Vojtech, bishop of 
 Prague, continued the work begun by Pilgrim. About 994, 
 he went to Gran (Esztergom), where the duke of Hungary 
 then dwelt, and solemnly baptized the son of Geiza, to whom 
 he gave the name of Stephen. Henceforth the court of the 
 duke became the resort of knights from all the neighbouring 
 countries, but especially from Germany, and these knights, 
 entering into intimate relations with the native nobiHty, drew 
 Hungary and the empire into still closer union. Prince 
 Stephen, heir presumptive to the throne, married the princess 
 
 ' [Lorch, the Roman Laureacum, on the Danube, was destroyed by the 
 Avars in 738, and the see transferred to Passau. The bishop of Passau 
 was subject to the archbishop of Salzburg, but some of Pilgrim's prede- 
 cessors had held the title of archbishop of Lorch, and, in reward for his zeal 
 in the conversion of the Magyars, Pilgrim again received it from the pope, 
 with jurisdiction over Bavaria, Lower Pannoiiia, Moesia, and the adjoining 
 Slav countries. But the grant was not confirmed by the emperor, and 
 Pilgrim's successors remained simple bishops of Passau and suffragans of 
 Salzburg. — J. C. Robertson, History of Christian Church, bk. v. ch. vii.]
 
 REIGN OF STEPHEN. 65 
 
 Gisella, daughter of the duke of Bavaria, while one of the 
 daughters of Geiza became the wife of the Pohsh duke 
 Boleslaw, and another married Urseohis, doge of Venice. 
 Through these alliances, Hungary obtained for itself a recog- 
 nized place among European states, and the work begun so 
 well by Geiza was completed by Stephen, to whom was reserved 
 the honour of establishing the position of his kingdom in 
 Europe and of completing its conversion. When this prince 
 came to the throne (997), the countries surrounding Hungary 
 were all ruled by celebrated princes. Otto HI. governed 
 Germany ; Boleslav HI., Bohemia; Boleslau the Brave, Poland ; 
 Vladimir the Great, Russia ; and Basil, Constantinople. In 
 order to maintain the existence of Hungary in the midst of 
 these flourishing states, it was needful that it should attain the 
 same degree of civilization, and this was the work of Stephen. 
 The Hungarians honour him as the second founder of their 
 country, the first being the legendary Arpad. 
 
 In the very beginning of his reign, Stephen had to struggle 
 against the revolts of a pagan chief, Koppany, who saw in the 
 introduction of Christianity danger to the national institutions, 
 but he was at last overcome beneath the walls of Veszprim. 
 Once freed from this formidable enemy, Stephen could give 
 all his thoughts to the spread of Christianity in his territories. 
 His zeal was remarkable. " Hungary became Catholic," says a 
 Magyar historian, " not through apostolic teaching, nor 
 through the invitation of the Holy See, but through the laws 
 of king Stephen " (Verboczy). He was not always content to 
 use persuasion alone to lead his subjects to the new faith ; he 
 hesitated not to use threats also. When Hungary became 
 Catholic, there was some danger that she might become an 
 object of ambition to the German clergy. Pannonia was 
 subject to the jurisdiction of the German bishops of Lorch 
 and Salzburg, and these now laid claim to ecclesiastical 
 authority and tithes. It was needful to free Hungary from 
 their control, and to secure for her a national clergy ; it was 
 needful to remove every pretext for the intervention of the 
 
 F
 
 66 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Holy Roman empire, and every opportunity for its claiming a 
 suzerainty over the nation which would be sure to prove more 
 or less burdensome. To this end Stephen sent an ambassador 
 to Rome, to treat directly with pope Sylvester, who graciously 
 received the homage done by him for his kingdom, and, by 
 a letter dated the 27th of March, 1000, announced that he took 
 the people of Hungary under the protection of the Church. 
 By the same brief he granted the royal crown to Stephen, and 
 gave his sanction to the creation of the archbishopric of Gran, 
 and of the several bishoprics that the new king was about to 
 found. Besides this, he conferred on him the privilege of 
 having the cross always borne before him, as a symbol of the 
 apostolic power which he granted to him. The authenticity 
 of this pontifical letter has indeed been disputed ; but, however 
 that may be, the emperor of Austria, king of Hungary, still 
 bears the title of Apostolic Majesty. 
 
 On the 15 th of August in the same year the king was 
 crowned at Gran, with the crown sent to him by the pontiff. 
 The coronation of Stephen secured the continuance of power 
 to the dynasty of Arpad. He still, however, met with some 
 resistance, especially in Transylvania, where its prince, Giulay, 
 refused to admit the Christian religion into his province. 
 Stephen marched against him, defeated him, and granted 
 Transylvania to a vo'ievode ^ of the race of Arpad ; he also 
 defeated and killed a prince of the Petcheneguens, who had 
 similarly refused to embrace Christianity. He reconquered 
 part of Moravia from Bohemia, and dared even to attack 
 Germany on the side of Bavaria, but, being invaded in his 
 turn, he was obliged to make peace. The river March became 
 the north-western frontier between Hungary and Germany, 
 and remains so to this day. 
 
 ' Voievode is a word of Slav origin which means duke {dux, commander 
 of an army).
 
 HUNGARY AN INDEPENDENT KINGDOM. 6/ 
 
 The Laws of St. Stephen. 
 
 Under this great king, Hungary became a completely 
 independent kingdom between the two empires of the East 
 and West, and was probably enabled to preserve its inde- 
 pendence by that equilibrium which was now established be- 
 tween those two ambitious rivals. The state was completely 
 united, and was not divided into appanages. The king was 
 supreme, but he had a council of the old and wise men 
 continually at hand to advise him. " For," said Stephen in 
 the directions which he wrote for his son Emerich, " it is 
 right that each should busy himself with that which suits him 
 best, the young with fighting, the old with counsel." He him- 
 self calls this institution regalis senatiis, 7'cgale concilium^ 
 primatiim convetitus, commune concilium. The national his- 
 torians see in it the first elements of the national diet ; rough 
 beginnings, doubtless, and as little subject to fixed rules as 
 had formerly been the meetings of the tribes in the Puszta.^ 
 
 Ecclesiastically, the kingdom wvas divided into ten bishoprics, 
 all subject to the archbishopric of Gran (Esztergom). They 
 were fixed at Kalocsa, Veszprim, Pecs, Bacs, Raab, Erlau 
 (Agria), Csanad, Nagy-Varad, and Karlsburg in Transylvania. 
 Stephen also founded several abbeys, which were granted 
 *to the Benedictines, and in which schools were opened ; and 
 religious edifices were built by Italian or Byzantine architects. 
 
 This king delighted in pious foundations ; the booty he 
 found in the camps of the Petcheneguens he employed in 
 building the great church at Fejervar. He insisted on the 
 exact payment of tithes, and obliged villages and estates of a 
 certain size to group themselves in tens for the building of 
 churches. Those who neglected their religious duties were 
 severely punished. All property belonging to the clergy 
 was placed under the protection of the king {sub defensione 
 regis), exactly like Crown property. 
 
 Politically the nation was divided into comitats. The germ 
 
 * [The Puszta is the great Hungai'ian plain which occupies the larger 
 part of the country.]
 
 68 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 of this division had existed already among the Slavs, who had 
 had to make way for the Magyars, and the name, like most of 
 the political terms used in Hungary, was borrowed from the Slav 
 language. It was the name zhupan (head of the zhupa), which 
 became in the Magyar ispa7t, a word which plays so prominent 
 a part in the history of the nation. Each comitat possessed 
 a camp {var), and these camps formed together a complete 
 system of defence. The comitat was governed by a count 
 {ispan, whence comes the German, gespann), who exercised 
 civil and military powers in the name of the king ; he was 
 aided by a general, major exercitus, by a castellan, or governor, 
 and by centurions and decurions. 
 
 When Stephen began to reign, property was of two kinds, 
 the property of the state and the property of the tribe. 
 Individual ownership had no existence. Stephen maintained 
 the property of the state, but put an end to all tribal rights ; 
 he declared that each citizen had the right to keep and to 
 bequeath to his children the possessions he had acquired, or 
 which he had received from the king. But we must not look 
 upon these royal gifts as hereditary fiefs. The aristocracy 
 was formed of those who held high offices, and was divided 
 into two classes. The first included the counts, bishops, the 
 leaders of the army, and perhaps the descendants of the chiefs 
 of the old Magyar tribes. The second was composed more 
 especially of warriors. After these two classes came the 
 soldiers of the fortified towns and the citizens. Quite early 
 we find a large number of Germans among the inhabitants of 
 certain towns (Old Buda, Gran, Raab, Szathmar, Nemethi); 
 they are known by the name of hospites. The towns exercised 
 municipal self-government under the control of the ispan and 
 the bishop. The mass of the people did not possess land. 
 The artisans {iidvornici, from the Slav dvor, or court) were 
 the connecting link between the nobles and the serfs. Stephen 
 did not suppress slavery, but he improved the condition of the 
 slaves. 
 
 The king was supreme judge, and under some circumstances
 
 THE HUNGARIAN PENAL CODE. 6g 
 
 he administered justice in person. Bishops and abbots, civil 
 and miUtary dignitaries, could only be summoned to appear in 
 the king's court, presided over either by the sovereign himself, 
 or by the count palatine {riador, Slav tiadvor, head of the 
 court). This court acted also as a court of appeal against 
 all judgments delivered by the counts of towns, bishoprics, or 
 abbeys. Oral witness was admitted as well as trial by single 
 combat. The penal code was very severe. The right of 
 sanctuary was refused to all who conspired against the king or 
 country, and he who sowed discord among the people was 
 condemned to lose his tongue. A false witness had his arm 
 cut off; murderers had to pay a heavy fine ; at the same time, 
 the murderer of a slave was only obliged to pay the value of 
 the slave to his master. The murder of a wife w\as valued 
 according to the rank of the murderer ; a count paid to the 
 family of his wife fifty young oxen, a warrior only ten. Human 
 life was tolerably cheap. The loss of a limb cost more; it 
 could only be atoned for by the loss of the same limb, thus 
 putting in practice the old Biblical precept, " an eye for an eye, 
 a tooth for a tooth." Rape was punished by the payment of 
 ten or five oxen, according to the rank of the criminal. The 
 thief who could not restore the value of the stolen thing was 
 sold as a slave. In such fashion did this imperfect legislation 
 combine Christian principles with the customs of barbarians. 
 
 The revenue of the king was made up of the contributions 
 of the 7/dvornici and the lower classes, the taxes on towns, the 
 produce of mines and salt-works, a monopoly of the coinage, 
 and some portion of all fines. Besides this, subjects were 
 bound to maintain the royal household as the king travelled 
 from place to place. Every man had to serve as a soldier ; the 
 warriors of the nation were summoned by a bloody sword sent 
 from comitat to comitat ; and the castles were the meeting-places 
 of the nobles. The laws of Stephen are contained in fifty-six 
 articles divided into two books. His ideas on all matters of 
 government are also to be found in the counsels which he 
 wrote, or caused to be written, for his son Emerich. This
 
 JO HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 book has more than one claim on our interest. Among the 
 counsels which the sovereign gives to his son is one which 
 would seem to bear a prophetic character. He bids him to 
 treat well all foreigners and guests : nam unites linguae taiiusque 
 maris regnum imbecille est. Those Magyars of the nineteenth 
 century who wish to impose their language and their rule 
 on the various peoples of the kingdom would seem to have 
 forgotten this precept of the apostolic king.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HUNGARY UNDER THE SUCCESSORS OF ST. STEPHEN 
 (1038-I301). 
 
 The First Successors of St. Stephen — Ladislas the Holy 
 (1077-1095). 
 
 The son for whom the great king had written his maxims died 
 before his father in 1031, and is honoured as a saint by the 
 Church. The last years of king Stephen were harassed by 
 rivalries and plots. He died on the 15th of August, 1038, 
 thirty-eight years after his coronation to the very day, and was 
 buried at Szekes Fejervar (Alba regia, Stuhl Weissenburg). 
 Stephen had chosen as his successor his nephew Peter, the son 
 of the doge Urseolus. This prince, a stranger in Hungary, 
 made himself unpopular by his insolence and by the brutal 
 way in which he behaved towards the widow of his prede- 
 cessor; the Hungarians rose against him, and elected in his 
 stead Samuel Ala, the chief of one of the tribes. Peter there- 
 upon fled to Germany, and implored help from Henry HI., 
 promising to pay tribute to that prince if he would replace him 
 on his throne. The German diet declared war against Hungary ; 
 the imperial army penetrated as far as Gran, and Samuel Ala 
 was obliged to purchase peace on humiliating conditions. 
 More fortunate in a second campaign, he repulsed the Germans, 
 but his tyranny, which proved as great as that of Peter, pro- 
 voked a fresh insurrection. Peter again sought his old allies, 
 and on the occasion of a solemn festival he did homage to the
 
 72 HISTORY OF AVSTRO-HUNGARV. 
 
 emperor for the kingdom of Hungary and received investiture 
 of it. This act of humihation, however, was of no avail ; a 
 popular assembly at Csanad pronounced him dethroned, and 
 proclaimed in his stead Andrew, son of Ladislas the Bald 
 {1046). 
 
 The beginning of Andrew's reign was marked by a violent 
 reaction among the pagans against Christians and foreigners, 
 but Andrew succeeded in maintaining his position, had himself 
 consecrated, and was able at last to forbid, on pain. of death, all 
 exercise of the rites of paganism. He was attacked by the 
 emperor, but, with the help of his brother Bela, successfully 
 resisted him, and concluded an honourable peace. Soon after- 
 wards, however, he was dethroned by Eela (1061), and died 
 fighting on the banks of the Tisza. Bela, also, had to suppress 
 a new rising of the pagans against Christianity \ he was suc- 
 cessful in doing so, and endeavoured by wise economic 
 measures to remedy the disastrous condition into which Hun- 
 gary had fallen as the result of these perpetual struggles. He 
 died from an accident in 1063. According to the Asiatic 
 custom which still prevails in Turkey, he was succeeded by 
 his nephew Solomon (1063). This prince was only twelve 
 years of age, and the emperor, Henry IV., took advantage of 
 his youth to place him in a humiliating position of tutelage. 
 During his reign the kingdom was ravaged by the Polovtses or 
 Cumans, who invaded Transylvania, but were defeated at the 
 battle of Cserhalom (1067), where, according to a contem- 
 porary, the shorn heads of the Polovtses fell to the "ground 
 like pumpkins. The Petcheneguens were also defeated on the 
 banks of the Danube. But unhappily the royal house was 
 harassed by continual intrigues. The enemies of Solomon 
 accused him of being the creature of the Germans, and re- 
 proached him for having done homage to the emperor for 
 a state which belonged to St. Peter, Pope Gregory VII., 
 who was then struggling against the emperor, encouraged the 
 rebels. " The kingdom of Hungary," he said, " owes obedi- 
 ence to none but the Church." Prince Geiza was proclaimed
 
 LADISLAS THE HOLY. 73 
 
 king in the place of Solomon, but he died without having 
 reigned. 
 
 He was succeeded by Ladislas the Holy (1077), who was 
 able to make himself equally independent of emperor and 
 pope. He withstood successfully all Solomon's attempts to 
 recover the crown which had been torn from him, and managed 
 to keep on good terms with the court of Rome, which consented 
 to canonize both king Stephen and his son Emerich, He was 
 not less fortunate in his struggles against the Cumans and 
 Petcheneguens, who continued to invade Hungary. He over- 
 came them on the banks of the Temes, and then offered them 
 a permanent settlement in the country on condition that they 
 became Christians. They accepted his offer, and colonized 
 a portion of the valley of the Tisza, being bound, in return for 
 the land they received, to furnish bowmen to the royal army. 
 On the death, moreover, of the Croat king, Stephen II. (1090), 
 Ladislas obliged that country to accept as their new king the 
 Magyar prince Almos, son of Geiza I., and thus prepared 
 the way for that union of the two crowns which was soon 
 after to be effected. 
 
 Like St. Stephen, Ladislas was the law-giver of his country. 
 In a great assembly of prelates, nobles, and citizens, held at 
 Szabolcz in 1092, he promulgated laws of which the most 
 important treat of religious matters. They authorize the mar- 
 riage of priests notwithstanding the recent decisions of Gregory 
 VII. on ecclesiastical celibacy, and they carefully regulate the 
 collection of tithes. They contain penal measures against the 
 last adherents of paganism ; any one who ofters sacrifices near 
 a tree or a spring is condemned to forfeit an ox ; the Jew Avho 
 works on Sunday, the Mussulman convert who returns to 
 Mahomedanism, are both to be punished. Other laws of St. 
 Ladislas concern the administration of justice, enact penalties 
 for theft, and regulate the protection of property. They are 
 extremely severe ; the theft of a goose is punished by the loss 
 of an eye, and all acts of violence are repressed with Draconian 
 rigour. The Church has shown her gratitude to the monarch
 
 74 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 who gave her so many proofs of his attachment and submission 
 by placing him among the number of her saints. 
 
 Koloman (1095-1114) — Croatia iinited to Hungary — German 
 Colonies — Wars 7vitli Galicia and Venice. 
 
 The dying Ladislas chose his nephew Koloman as his 
 successor. This young prince, destined at first for the Church, 
 was very learned for those times, and was called by his con- 
 temporaries " The Bookman " or Scholar (Konyves). Shortly- 
 after his accession the crusaders marched through Hungary. 
 The excesses committed by these bands of enthusiastic but un- 
 disciplined men were but little likely to inspire the Magyars 
 with enthusiasm for their cause. Koloman, after having allowed 
 the first portions of the army to march through his lands, was 
 obliged to arm his subjects, not to free the Holy Sepulchre, 
 but to fight against the plunderers who were ravaging his 
 country. When Godfrey of Bouillon reached the frontier, he 
 demanded an interview with Koloman, which took place not 
 iar from Soprony, on the bank of Lake Neusiedl {Ferto tava). 
 Koloman, in order to secure good order and the peace of the 
 land, fixed the route of the crusaders and demanded hostages, 
 of whom the first was Godfrey's brother Baldwin. By these 
 means all the annoyance and disorder which had arisen from 
 the first armies were successfully avoided. 
 
 The most important act of this reign was the annexation 
 of Croatia. In 1090, St. Ladislas had been elected to the 
 throne of Croatia, and he, on his death, left the government 
 of it to his nephew Almos, who very soon made himself un- 
 popular. Koloman drove him out of Croatia, and had himself 
 proclaimed king. He next set about the conquest of Dalmatia 
 from the Venetians, seized the principal towns, Spalato (Spljet), 
 Zara (Zadir), and Trogir (Trau), and granted them full power 
 of self-government. Then (1102) he had himself crowned, at 
 Belgrade, king of Croatia and Dalmatia. From this time the 
 position of Croatia, as regarded Hungaryj was very much the 
 same as the position of Hungary in regard to Austria in later
 
 EEIGN OF KOLOMAN. 75 
 
 times. The destinies of the two kingdoms of St. Stephen and 
 Zvonimir were united, but Croatia maintained a more or less 
 definite individuah'ty, and the ban^ or viceroy, of Croatia was 
 the representative of the autonomy of a Slav state associated 
 with a Magyar state, a condition of things which has remained 
 down to the present day. At this time the Croats freely 
 chose as their king one who undertook to respect their laws. 
 They preserved the right of administering their internal affairs 
 as they chose, of electing their own bishops and zhiipans, and 
 of granting the rights of citizenship to whomsoever they would ; 
 they kept their own coinage, army, and taxes. The relations 
 between the two kingdoms are still partly regulated by this 
 old agreement, and the Croats proudly quote this maxim of 
 constitutional law ; regnuvi regno non praescribit leges. 
 
 Koloman continued the legislative work of Stephen and 
 St. Ladislas, and improved the penal laws of his predecessor, 
 making them more merciful. He was sufficiently liberal and 
 enlightened to do away with all trials for sorcery, "inasmuch 
 as there are no sorcerers " — de strigis quae nullae sunt ne ulla 
 quaestio fiat. He increased the number of the law-courts, 
 restrained judicial combats, and established a rigorous distinc- 
 tion between ecclesiastical and lay discipline. The celibacy 
 of the clergy ceased to be optional. 
 
 The end of Koloman's reign was disturbed by revolts and 
 conspiracies caused by his brother Almos, who had been de- 
 prived by him of the government of Croatia. After pardoning 
 him several times, Koloman yielded to the barbarous spirit of 
 the age, and caused the eyes, both of his brother and of his 
 little nephew of five years of age, to be put out ; but this is the 
 only act of barbarity that history records of this enlightened 
 sovereign, who enlarged the kingdom till its boundary touched 
 the sea, and finally secured its position in civilised Europe. 
 Among the kings who occupied the throne of Hungary during 
 the twelfth century, none can be compared to Koloman and 
 St. Ladislas. 
 
 Stephen H., the son of Koloman, was only thirteen years
 
 y6 HISTOR Y OF A USTRO-IIUNGAR Y. 
 
 old when he came to the throne ; he died when he was thirty, 
 without having rendered any great service to his country. He 
 appointed as his successor that son of Almos whom Koloman 
 had blinded, who reigned under the title of Bela II. the Blind 
 ( 1 1 3 1 ). Bela revenged himself cruelly on all whom he suspected 
 of having caused his misfortunes, and it is related that in one 
 single day at the diet of Arad (1132) he ordered sixty-eight 
 of his enemies to be slain. Geiza II., the son of Bela, succeeded 
 him (1141) at the age of ten. Comparatively speaking, his 
 reign was a happy one ; and it was marked by an event of 
 considerable importance in the internal history of Hungary, — 
 the arrival of Saxon colonists in Northern Hungary and Tran- 
 sylvania. Faithful to the teaching of St. Stephen, Geiza settled 
 them in the comitat of Zips (Szepes) at the foot of the Car- 
 pathians, and in the valley of the Maros, on the left bank of 
 the Lower Tisza. The Germans were easily able to reclaim the 
 forests which clothed the sides of the Tatra, and founded 
 there four and twenty towns, which had the right of electing 
 their own priests and magistrates according to statutes written 
 in their own language. Their obligations to the king were 
 light ; they had to furnish him with a certain number of troops, 
 and to recognize his supreme authority in judicial matters. 
 The Saxons of Transylvania enjoyed complete autonomy. 
 Sole proprietors of the soil, they could prevent the settlement 
 on it of any Magyar or Szekler, and their national assemblies 
 {tiniversitas natmiis Saxoiiicae) had an exclusive right to legis- 
 late for them. It is most important to observe their institutions 
 at the moment of their establishment; in such a country as Hun- 
 gary, where there are many nationalities and various historical 
 rights, they are still interesting from a political point of view. 
 
 The reign of Stephen III., son of Geiza II. (1161), was 
 disturbed by the rivalry of his two uncles, Stephen IV. and 
 Ladislas. Manuel, the Byzantine emperor, took the side of 
 Stephen IV., who was his son-in-law, and at one time hoped to 
 be able to bring Hungary under the protectorate of the eastern 
 empire. But Hungary refused to submit to the control of the
 
 STEPHEN THE THIRD. yy 
 
 foreigner, and Stephen III. died on the throne of his father 
 (1173). His brother, Bela III., had been partly educated at 
 Constantinople, and he was received with distrust by the 
 Magyars, owing to their hostility to Byzantium. The primate 
 of Hungary refused to crown him, and he was obliged to have 
 recourse to the bishop of Kalocsa. But he triumphed over 
 all ditficulties, and showed so much ability and moderation 
 that he gained the love of his subjects and the esteem of his 
 neighbours. He married the princess Margaret of France, 
 daughter of Philip Augustus and widow of prince Henry of 
 England. During the negotiations, he drew up an interesting 
 statement for the king of France of the revenues of the kingdom 
 of Hungary. 
 
 The reigns of the last three princes were signalized by wars 
 against the Russians of Galicia and against Venice, The 
 territories of Koloman had been ravaged by the Curaans, with 
 the help of Volodar, prince of Eastern Galicia, whose capital 
 was Premysl. Koloman had attacked Volodar, but had been 
 defeated while besieging Premysl. Stephen III. determined 
 to avenge his father, and conquered the city in 11 27, but he 
 was driven back by the Poles acting in alliance with the 
 Russians. Later on, Geiza lent troops to his brother-in-law, 
 the grand prince of Kiev, to help him against the princes of 
 Souzdal and Zvenigorod. In the reign of Bela III., Vladimir, 
 prince of Premysl, was forced to take refuge in Hungary, and 
 Bela took advantage of this circumstance to establish his son 
 Andrew in Galicia, from whence indeed he was soon forced 
 to fly, the Poles again aiding the Russians. Bela had, however, 
 obliged some part of Galicia to do homage to him, and on this 
 were founded the claims of Hungary to Galicia, claims to which 
 Andrew II. thought to give some colour by taking the title of 
 king of Galicia and Lodomeria, and which were revived by 
 Austria at the time of the first partition of Poland. 
 
 Meantime the republic of Venice, seeing the rule of 
 Hungary definitely established on the shores of the Adriatic, 
 took alarm at so formidable a neighbour. The doge Falieri
 
 78 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 asked for the alliance and help of Constantinople, whose power 
 was also threatened by the growth of Hungary. He then 
 equipped a fleet, and attacked the fortified towns on the coast, 
 capturing Zadar (Zara), Spljet (Spalato), Trogir (Trau), Bel- 
 grade, and Sibenico. In the war which followed, the town of 
 Belgrade, where Koloman had had himself crowned, was entirely 
 destroyed, and Zara left in the possession of the Venetians. The 
 rest of Dalmatia remained in the hands of Bela IH. ; he treated 
 the province well, and confided its defence to the family of the 
 Frangipani, or Frankopans, henceforward well known in history. 
 
 The relations of Hungary with the two empires of East and 
 West spread the renown of her power through the whole of 
 Europe. In 1147, king Louis VII. and the emperor Conrad 
 crossed Hungary on their way to the crusade, and Louis VII. 
 speaks highly in his letters to Suger of the warm welcome which 
 he received, though the German chronicler, Otto of Freisingen, 
 draws a picture of the country which is not very flattering, and 
 represents the Magyars as little more than well-disciplined 
 savages : " One might well reproach fortune, or stand amazed 
 at the long-suffering of God, when one sees so fair a country 
 in the possession of such monsters." The connection with 
 France was strengthened by the marriage of Bela with the 
 princess Margaret. Hungarian students began to find their 
 way to Paris. 
 
 In 1 1 89, the emperor Frederick Barbarossa crossed the 
 country at the head of the third crusade ; he was received 
 with great magnificence, and fetes were held in his honour. 
 At this time, Constance, the daughter of Bela, was affianced to 
 the duke of Suabia. 
 
 The relations of Hungary with Byzantium were less 
 friendly. On several occasions Constantinople endeavoured 
 to bring the country under her control ; but, with the help of 
 Vladislav king of Bohemia, the Hungarians were able to 
 maintain their independence.
 
 ANDREW THE SECOND. 79 
 
 Andrew II. (1205-12 35) — The Golden Bull. 
 
 The two sons of Bela III., Emerich (Imre) and Andrew, 
 both occupied the throne, the former from 1196 to 1204, and 
 the latter from 1205 to 1235. Bela III., who had been pre- 
 vented by death from fulfilling the vow he had taken of going to 
 Palestine, had made Andrew promise to accomplish it in his 
 stead. Andrew gathered together money and troops, and then 
 employed them against his brother, whose authority roused 
 his jealous ambition. The interference of pope Innocent III. 
 obliged him to content himself with the government of Dalmatia 
 and Croatia ; and even there he was not able to keep Zadar, 
 which was again taken by the Venetians, with the help of the 
 crusaders, in 1203. Emerich died in 1204, and his young son 
 Ladislas reigning but one year, in 1205 Andrew mounted the 
 throne which had been so long the object of his desires. The 
 beginning of his reign was not fortunate. He had married 
 Gertrude of Meran, who sent for her brother Berthold, a 
 bishop of scandalous life, and procured for him the bishopric of 
 Kalocsa. Berthold and his sister surrounded themselves with 
 favourites of infamous character. Not content with the see of 
 Kalocsa, the foreign bishop heaped upon himself all manner 
 of dignities. Ban of Slavonia and voievode of Transylvania, 
 he behaved as if he were the equal of the primate. The public 
 indignation against him reached its height when it became 
 known that he had attempted to seduce the palatine's wife. 
 The people rose against him ; Berthold was able to escape from 
 the kingdom, but queen Gertrude was slain, together with some 
 of her favourites. And yet it was this queen, so justly unpopular, 
 who gave birth to the pious princess Elizabeth of Hungary, 
 who married in 12.21 the landgrave of Thuringia, and has 
 become one of the saintly heroines of Christianity. 
 
 Andrew was in Galicia when these tragic events happened ; 
 he was vainly attempting to force upon this "orthodox" 
 Russian province the sovereignty of his house and union with 
 the Roman Church. His grief for the loss of his wife cannot
 
 8o HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 have been very great, for soon afterwards he married Yo- 
 hmde of Courtenay, who was related to the Latin emperors 
 of Constantinople. Perhaps he hoped one day himself to 
 become emperor at Byzantium, but meantime it was needful 
 for him to make himself of importance to the Latin world, and 
 to take upon himself the character of defender of the Christian 
 religion. He decided to join the crusade, and an expedition 
 was to set out from Spalato, but ships were wanting. Venice 
 consented to lend some, but, true to her motto, ^^ Siam Vene- 
 ziani, poi Cristiani" (Venetians first, and Christians second), 
 she insisted upon the cession of Zadar to her for ever, besides 
 forcing Andrew to pay considerable sums of money; so that 
 he was obliged to pledge the very treasures of the Church. He 
 set out in the month of August, 1217 ; but his health failing 
 on the expedition, he returned to his country without having 
 added to his reputation. On his return he made large grants 
 of property in Hungary to the knights hospitalers. The only 
 important results of his expedition were the alliances he formed 
 with the Christian princes. His eldest son, Bela, married the 
 daughter of the emperor Lascaris ; his younger son, the daughter 
 of king Leo of Armenia; and his daughter, Asen, king of 
 Bulgaria. 
 
 On his return, he found Hungary in the greatest disorder. 
 The royal authority had been much diminished since the days 
 of Koloman ; a feudal oligarchy had grown up, and the clergy 
 had possessed themselves of secular estates. The hereditary 
 right of the family of Arpad to the crown was still contested, 
 nor was the law of primogeniture accepted within the family 
 itself. We have already seen formidable rivals disputing the 
 throne in several of the reigns. The support of the great 
 territorial lords, lay and ecclesiastical, had become of great 
 importance to the sovereign, and to obtain it he had gradually 
 deprived himself of his domains, to divide them among a 
 powerful and greedy minority of his subjects. The smaller 
 landholders were neglected, and diets met less frequently. 
 The great dignitaries of the Church, enriched by the royal
 
 THE GOLDEN BULL. 8 1 
 
 bounty, had become a state within the state, and reh'ed upon 
 the pope for aid to resist the royal commands. The Holy 
 See, faithful to the traditions of Gregory VII., endeavoured 
 to exercise within the kingdom an authority equal, if not 
 superior, to that of the king. The clergy were scandalously 
 corrupt. The state of the whole kingdom called for prompt 
 remedies ; but, far from daring to carry out energetic measures, 
 Andrew yielded continually to the torrent which had borne 
 before it each one of his predecessors, and in 12 19 he issued 
 an edict making all gifts and honours granted by previous kings 
 irrevocable and hereditary. The result of such a measure 
 would have been to create a complete oligarchy, on which 
 thenceforth both king and populace would have been depen- 
 dent. The discontent to which it gave rise led to the meeting 
 of a diet in 1222 and the enactment of the law known as the 
 Golden Bull — the Magna Charta of Hungary. In it Andrew 
 II., calling himself hereditary king of Hungary, Dalmatia, 
 Croatia, Servia, Galicia, and Lodomeria, solemnly enumerates 
 the privileges of the people, or rather of the small landowners. 
 He promises to hold a solemn diet each year in the town of 
 Szekes Fejervar (Stuhl Weissenburg) ; to imprison no noble 
 until he had been regularly tried and sentenced ; to raise no 
 tax on the lands of either noble or priest; to summon no 
 noble to accompany the king at his own expense beyond the 
 frontiers of the kingdom ; to allow no suit which involved 
 the loss of life or property to a noble to be tried by the 
 palatine without the knowledge of the king ; to indemnify 
 the families of those nobles who lost any relations in the 
 wars ; to admit no guests or colonists on the soil of Hungary 
 to any dignity whatsoever without the consent of the diet ; no 
 longer to make hereditary the grants of comitats or offices ; 
 to allow tithes to be paid in kind and not in money ; and to 
 grant land to no foreigner. The Golden Bull contained thirty- 
 one articles, of which these are the chief, while the last or- 
 dained that seven copies should be made of it, and sent to 
 the pope, the knights hospitalers, to the Temple, to the king.
 
 82 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 to the chapter-house at Gran, to the chapter-house at Kalocsa, 
 and to the palatine, who was to see that the charter was 
 observed by the king and nobles. If the king should attempt 
 to violate it, " the bishops and nobles of the kingdom have 
 the right to remonstrate, and to resist the sovereign, sine noia 
 alicujus infidelitatis" i.e. without by so doing laying themselves 
 open to an accusation of high treason. 
 
 This last article was to play an important part in the 
 history of Hungary, as to it are due many of those rebellions 
 which give so revolutionary a character to the history of a 
 country essentially conservative. The same principle is to 
 be found later on in the " Declaration of the Rights of Man." 
 
 The constitution of Andrew II. is far from fulfilling the 
 ideal of modern times. It was, nevertheless, a great advance 
 on former ones, and maintained the unity of Hungary by 
 preventing hereditary succession to office and the consequent 
 division of the country into a number of principalities. It 
 secured to the nation — that is to say, to the nobles — the right 
 of criticising the administration, and it obliged the king to 
 respect the national rights by placing all his actions under the 
 control of the palatine. The part assigned to the palatine is 
 an anticipation of the ministerial responsibility of our own 
 times. He is indeed a prime minister. 
 
 Soon after the promulgation of the Golden Bull, a special 
 charter was granted to the Saxons of Transylvania, securing 
 their privileges. Their political and religious autonomy was 
 confirmed ; they were to be subject to no authority except 
 that of a court chosen by the king. In return they were to 
 furnish him with five hundred armed men in case of a defen- 
 sive war, one hundred for foreign expeditions. The Golden 
 Bull was again solemnly confirmed in 1231, when some new 
 clauses were added to it, which enacted that the bishops were 
 to be present at the yearly diet at Szekes Fejervar (Stuhl 
 Weissenburg) ; that if the palatine ruled badly, the states were 
 to choose one more worthy ; and also that no Jew or Mussul- 
 man was to receive government employment.
 
 STRUGGLES AGAINST THE MONGOLS. 83 
 
 Struggles against the Mongols (1239-1241) and the House of 
 Aicstria — The Last Kings of the Race of Arpad (1235-1301). 
 
 The reign of Andrew II. has become memorable in the 
 history of Hungary owing to the Golden Bull; apart from 
 that it was not fortunate. Like king John of England, his 
 name is associated with a legislative document of the highest 
 importance, but, like him, he has left behind a reputation for 
 feebleness and want of character. His son, Bela IV., began 
 his reign (1235) under the best auspices. He withstood his 
 enemies both from within and without, amongst them the 
 emperor Frederick IL, who had put forward a claim to tribute 
 from Hungary. Unfortunately he soon had to deal with a 
 more pitiless enemy than the Germans. The Tartar or 
 Mongol khan Batou, followed by a formidable army, forced 
 his way through the defiles of the Carpathians, and invaded 
 the valley of the Tisza. The Mongols belonged to the same 
 race as the Magyars, but the Magyars had become Christian 
 and European. These pagan Mongols attacked Europe with 
 a fanaticism which can be compared only with that of the 
 Saracens ; but while the Mussulmans founded new states, and 
 had in fact attained to a high degree of civilization, these 
 Mongols were nothing but destroyers. They were intrepid 
 horsemen, and brought with them fire-arms, of which they had 
 learnt the secret from the Chinese, as well as destructive 
 besieging engines, while their dauntless courage was aided by 
 inflexible discipline. 
 
 The alarm at their approach was great throughout the 
 land. The bloody sword was sent from town to town, from 
 castle to castle. The Cumans, who formed the vanguard of 
 national resistance, were unable to withstand the overwhelming 
 flood, and Vacz (Waizen) fell into the hands of the invaders. 
 In the general terror the Cumans were accused of treason, and 
 their chief and the leading men among them were put to 
 death, which so angered the tribe that they passed over to the 
 side of the Mongols. The royal army came up with the forces
 
 84 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 of Baton on the banks of the Sajo, a tributary of the Tisza, and 
 there suffered a terrible defeat in which, according to some 
 historians, a hundred thousand, according to others sixty 
 thousand, men perished. Fe)'e extinguitur militia regni Hun- 
 o-ariae, writes the emperor Frederick. Hungary as far as the 
 Danube was at the mercy of the barbarians ; Pesth was taken ; 
 Varad yielded after an heroic resistance ; Csanad was destroyed. 
 The Mongols pushed forward as far as Croatia, where the Croats 
 put a stop to their further progress by the victory of Grobnik 
 (1241). After many adventures, Bela found refuge in Austria, 
 where duke Frederick, to whose care he had confided his 
 family and treasures, took shameful advantage of his misfor- 
 tunes. In exchange for the hospitality which he granted, he 
 oblio'ed Bela to give up to him the three Hungarian comitats 
 which lay nearest to the Austrian states. Bela made his 
 escape from this treacherous neighbour and retired to Croatia. 
 At last Christendom was aroused ; king Vacslav of Bohemia 
 called upon the princes to come to the aid of Hungary, and the 
 pope ordered a crusade to be preached. With the usual dis- 
 interestedness of German sovereigns, the emperor offered to 
 save Hungary on condition that he should receive her homage. 
 Meantime, winter came on, and by freezing the rivers became 
 the ally of the invaders. The Mongols crossed the Danube 
 and took Gran, putting to death all the inhabitants ; Szekes 
 Fejervar and Nitra (the town of Svatopluk) alone resisted. The 
 Mongols were determined to get possession of the person of 
 the king. Bela fled into Dalmatia, first to Spljet, then to 
 Trogir, and was followed closely by the barbarians ; but they 
 did not succeed in seizing him, the Slavs of Dalmatia and the 
 Italian colonists repulsing them in furious conflicts. Beaten 
 back, they next penetrated as far as Ragusa, and would have 
 gone still further had not their chief Kadan received orders to 
 retrace his steps. The Asiatic hordes returned into Asia, and 
 it has never been known what led to this sudden recall. Per- 
 haps Batou had received tidings of the death of the great 
 khan Ogdai ; perhaps, finding nothing left to destroy, the
 
 END OF THE BABENBERGS. 85 
 
 invaders feared they might die of hunger in the midst of the 
 ravaged country. The most horrible cruelty marked the last 
 days of their ephemeral conquest. 
 
 Slowly Hungary recovered from the ruin they had caused ; 
 colonists from Germany filled up the gaps in the population, 
 and towns were rebuilt, surrounded by stronger fortifications, 
 and adorned with finer buildings. The Magyar nation had 
 not attained to such a height of civilization as to have lost 
 much in the whirlwind. 
 
 From this time forward they had another enemy to struggle 
 against, one perhaps more formidable, certainly more persever- 
 ing, in the house of Austria, which has always been skilful in 
 taking advantage of the misfortunes of her neighbours to 
 increase her own patrimony. We have already seen how the 
 unknightly Frederick had taken advantage of the misery of 
 Hungary to get possession of three of her comitats. As soon 
 as he was free from the Mongols, Bela set to work to recon- 
 quer them. He marched against Frederick and defeated him 
 on the banks of the Leitha, where Frederick perished in the 
 fight (1246). With this prince the house of Babenberg came 
 to an end. Bohemia and Hungary both laid claim to the 
 inheritance, and though Bela was unable to prevent the king 
 of Bohemia from gaining possession of Austria, he succeeded 
 in establishing his own son Stephen in Styria. War broke out 
 between the two kingdoms, and ended in favour of Bohemia. 
 But Premysl Otokar II. proved a generous foe ; he would not, 
 according to his own expression, " by enfeebling the great 
 kingdom of Hungary, once more open to the Tartars the road 
 to the two kingdoms." Later on, he married the daughter of 
 the king of Hungary (1270). 
 
 But there was soon to appear upon the scene a third com- 
 batant, who knew how to turn to his own advantage the rivalry 
 of the two kingdoms ; this was Rudolf of Habsburg. Rudolf 
 drew Ladislas IV. into alliance, and at the battle of Marchfeld, 
 where Premysl Otokar fell, fifty-six thousand Hungarians and 
 Cumans fought by the side of Austria. Thus Hungary, while
 
 86 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 she ruined Bohemia, founded the power of Austria, which was 
 so soon to be turned against herself. In his letters written at 
 this time, Rudolf shows the greatest tenderness for the Hun- 
 garians, " My beloved sons, bone of my bone, and flesh of my 
 flesh ; " a dozen years later, as emperor, he claimed the right to 
 dispose of the crown of Hungary as its suzerain. 
 
 The last years of king Bela IV. had been disturbed by the 
 revolts of his son Stephen. In fact, this prince was the real 
 king, and it was to him that the envoys of the duke of Anjou 
 applied, when they came to negotiate the marriages which were 
 to secure Hungary to the Angevin house. He gained little by 
 his intrigues, for he reigned but two years, during which a 
 war again broke out between Bohemia and Hungary, and was 
 brought to an end without any advantage to either side. His 
 young son, Ladislas, succeeded him (1272), a foolish and 
 dissipated prince who earned the hatred of his people by his 
 avowed partiality for the Cumans. This wandering and half- 
 pagan race was still looked upon as almost foreigners by the 
 rest of the nation. Ladislas determined to convert them to 
 Christianity and to a settled mode of life, and assigned to 
 them that district between the Danube and the Theiss (Tisza), 
 which is called to this day Greater and Lesser Cumania; but 
 for some time yet they remained barbarians. Ladislas, who 
 betrayed a partiality for their women that was unworthy of 
 his position, was assassinated by the Cumans in 1290. He 
 left no son, but he had adopted the grandson of Andrew IL, 
 and this prince was crowned under the name of Andrew III. 
 Andrew energetically resisted the claims of the Habsburgs 
 and of the Holy See, repulsed the invasion of Albert of 
 Austria, and laid siege to Vienna. The court of Rome, which 
 was favourable to the Neapolitan princes of the house of 
 Anjou, would never recognize Andrew III., and during his 
 reign Charles Robert of Anjou forced his way into Croatia, 
 and had himself crowned at Zagreb (Agram) by the papal 
 legate.^ The death of Andrew in 1301 put an end to these 
 rivalries. He was the last prince of the house of Arpad. 
 ' See infra, p. 217.
 
 FMOGJiESS OF CIVILIZATION. 8/ 
 
 Progress of Civilization. 
 
 Hungary is still grateful to those monarchs of the transition 
 period who laid down the lines along which the Magyar race 
 was to travel. On various occasions they had tried to extend 
 their rule over the neighbouring countries, but the titles of king 
 of Servia, of Rama (Bosnia), of Galicia and Lodomeria, and of 
 Bulgaria, had never represented any real authority, and at most 
 recall a momentary occupation or an ephemeral protection. 
 The only important acquisition of the dynasty of Arpad was 
 the voluntary union of Croatia, which gave Hungary a sea- 
 board. We have already described how Croatia preserved her 
 autonomy. Transylvania also, at the other extremity of the 
 kingdom, had her own peculiar constitution. The Transylva- 
 nian diet was divided into three nations^ the Hungarians, the 
 Szeklers, and the Saxons. The old inhabitants of the country, 
 the Wallachians, who had been conquered by the Magyars or by 
 the Saxon colonists, were only peasants and counted for nothing. 
 The Szeklers, who were all freemen and noble, formed a special 
 body of horsemen, to whom was entrusted the defence of the 
 frontier, and in return for this service they were exempted 
 from taxation. 
 
 We have seen how the constitution of Andrew H. had 
 placed. obstacles in the way of the increase of power among the 
 oligarchical aristocracy and territorial lords, and had aimed at 
 preventing the partition of the kingdom. The lesser nobles 
 were always on the watch to maintain their own privileges and 
 to prevent encroachments on the part of the great lords. About 
 this time we first see a distinction growing up between mag- 
 nates and simple deputies. The assemblies of the comitats 
 became periodical, and formed the best guarantees of public- 
 liberty. The citizen class was without political influence, 
 and was largely composed of foreigners, Jews, Germans, and 
 Italians. Considerable privileges were accorded to the Jews, 
 who were so much ill-treated in other parts of Europe. The 
 less aptitude a nation has for commerce the more it feels the
 
 88 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 need of attracting this race of clever traders. Amines began to 
 be cultivated and produced wine of good quality. 
 
 The Hungarian nobles gradually imitated the nobles of the 
 rest of Europe, introducing into the country knightly manners 
 and usages. They began to take an hereditary name from their 
 estates, and to use coats-of-arms, and trials by combat became 
 the fashion. 
 
 Those arts which are the most delicate expression of civili- 
 zation had made much less progress in Hungary than elsewhere. 
 The Gothic style of architecture had, however, penetrated into 
 the country, and French architects were employed there at this 
 time. A Frenchman, Villard de Hannecourt, built the Gothic 
 church at Kassa (Kaschau), and Mathias of Arras the cathedral 
 of Prague. The clergy distinguished themselves rather by their 
 courage in battle, or their ardour in fighting heresy, than by 
 their learning. In 1279, the synod of Buda, alarmed doubdess 
 at the progress of the Patarine heresy, placed a limit on the 
 knowledge which monks were to be allowed to acquire, and 
 forbade them to study in foreign schools. The most important 
 school in the kingdom was the studium generale at Veszprim, 
 which conferred no degrees, but which paid for its best scholars 
 to go to the university of Paris. Latin was universally known 
 and studied among the upper classes, but at the same time 
 books were so rare that a complete copy of the Bible cost half 
 a village. The Magyar tongue tended to give way before 
 Latin, which was the organ of the Church and of government ; 
 it was, however, still used, though very few fragments have 
 come down to us from these primitive times : only a funeral 
 oration and a legend of St. Margaret.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BOHEMIA UNDER THE EARLIER PREMYSLIDES, 
 
 The First Christian Pn'jices — St. Adalbert. 
 
 BoRivoj was the first Christian prince of Bohemia, and 
 with his name both history and legend associate that of his 
 wife, St. Ludmila. He built the first Bohemian church, and 
 dedicated it to St. Clement, no doubt in memory of the 
 finding of the rehcs of St. Clement by the apostles Cyril and 
 Methodius. His son Spytihnev (894-912) put an end to the 
 connection of Bohemia with IMoravia, and went to Regensburg 
 (Ratisbon) to ask for the protection of Arnulf and the empire, 
 in the belief that by so doing he made the independence of 
 his kingdom more secure. In consequence of this step, 
 Bohemia was attached to the bishopric of Ratisbon, and the 
 Latin took the place of the Slav liturgy, of which but few traces 
 now remain in the country. Vratislav (912-925) succeeded his 
 brother Spytihnev. He married a Slav princess, Drahomira, 
 daughter of a prince of the Lutices, or Lusatians, who were 
 still pagans. Quarrels arose between the ambitious Dra- 
 homira, and her mother-in-law, Ludmila, and in 921 Ludmila 
 was murdered. She and her grandson, the prince or voievode 
 Vacslav (925-934), were both subsequently canonized. 
 
 At this period Bohemia was far from being a united 
 kingdom. Like France in the Middle Ages, it consisted of 
 a number of small states, which were often at war with one 
 another, and against which the prince of Prague had occasion-
 
 90 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 ally to go to war. The members of the ruling families obtained 
 appanages which were practically independent, and the rivalries 
 which resulted proved most favourable to the ambition of 
 Germany. 
 
 In 928, Henry the Fowler, in alliance with Arnulf of 
 Bavaria, entered Bohemia and obliged St. Vacslav to pay him 
 an annual tribute of five hundred pieces of gold, and one 
 hundred and twenty oxen. It was St. Vacslav who founded 
 the cathedral of St. Vit at Prague. He was assassinated by 
 his brother Boleslav, who was the prince of the town of the 
 same name, Boleslava (Alt Bunzlau). 
 
 Legends have surrounded the name of St. Vacslav with 
 a halo of tender memories. Like Robert the Pious and St. 
 Louis, he has become the typical example of a devout and 
 charitable prince. During his life, as well as after his death, 
 he was able to work miracles. When engaged in single 
 combat against a prince of the Chekhs, an angel from heaven 
 bore him company and terrified his adversary by the wondrous 
 sight When they took his body from Boleslava to Prague, 
 the car which bore it crossed by itself a river over which there 
 was no bridge. On arriving before the court of justice, it 
 stopped suddenly and could not be moved ; it was discovered 
 that an innocent man was unjustly imprisoned in the building, 
 and, as soon as he was set at liberty, the car went on. The 
 name of Vacslav, under its Latin form of Venceslas, Wen- 
 ceslaus, or the German form Wenzel,^ became popular through- 
 out Europe, and Bohemians still sing the old canticle of the 
 Middle Ages : " Svaty Vacslave, vevodo ceske zeme." " St. 
 Vacslav, voievode of the land of the Chekhs, our prince ' 
 pray for us to God ahd the Holy Spirit, kyrie eleison." His 
 portrait long adorned the standards and the coins of Bohemia. 
 
 Some historians have endeavoured to justify the crime of 
 Boleslav by reasons of patriotism ; according to them, he only 
 assassinated his brother in order to free Bohemia from the 
 
 ' The Chekhs are often called by this name by the Germans {Das ist 
 ein IVeiizel).
 
 BOLESLAV II. 91 
 
 suzerainty of Germany. However that may be, as soon as Bole- 
 slav became king, he was attacked by the Germans, and two 
 armies entered his kingdom by way of Thuringia and Saxony 
 (936) The war lasted long with little advantage to either side, 
 till at last (950) Boleslav was obliged to submit to the emperor 
 Otto, and to promise to pay the usual tribute. He afterwards 
 became the ally of Otto, and sent a thousand Chekhs to help 
 him against the Magyars ; he himself fought against them suc- 
 cessfully, and took possession of part of Moravia and the land 
 of the Slovaks, while his conquests on the banks of the Vistula 
 brought him in close neighbourhood to the Poles. The Polish 
 prince, Mieczyslaw, became his ally, and married his daughter 
 Dubravka. This princess converted her husband to Christianity, 
 and brought Poland into the bosom of the Church (966). 
 After having done somewhat towards lessening the power of 
 the Chekh princes, Boleslav died in 967, and was succeeded 
 by his son Boleslav II. (967-999). 
 
 Boleslav II. continued his father's conquests towards the 
 East, and took possession of Galicia, but that province was 
 recovered later on by the Russian prince, Vladimir the Great 
 (981). At this period the power of Bohemia was considerable, 
 and Boleslav was able to interfere as umpire in the conflicts 
 which took place between the German margraves and the 
 duke of Poland. He obtained permission from the emperor 
 and the bishop of Ratisbon to found a see at Prague, to be 
 subject to the archbishop of Mainz ; the bishop to be chosen 
 by the prince and the people, but to receive investiture from 
 the emperor. The first bishop was a Saxon priest called 
 Thietmar, and his successor was the celebrated Chekh saint 
 Vojtech, better known under the name of St. Adalbert, one 
 of the great figures in the religious history of the Middle 
 Ages. 
 
 After having organized the Church of Bohemia, St. Adalbert 
 was invited into Hungary by Geiza I., whose son, the future 
 king St. Stephen, he baptized ; and thus Bohemia was the 
 means of spreading the Christian religion in all the neighbour-
 
 92 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 ing lands. Later on, he gave up his bishopric, and after being 
 for a time the confessor of Otto III., he travelled into Poland, 
 whose king, Boleslaw the Brave, sent him to convert the 
 heathen on the shores of the Baltic. In these distant lands 
 he was murdered by the Prussians (997). Boleslaw the Brave 
 caused him to be buried in the church at Gniezno, whither, 
 three years later, the emperor Otto came to worship at his 
 grave. The Poles ascribe to him the first of their rehgious 
 songs, the most ancient monument of their language, the hymn 
 to the Virgin beginning " Boga rodzica."^ Prince Boleslav II. 
 had to defend his country from the attacks of the Germans and 
 Poles, but was able to maintain his position against them. 
 Bohemia also suffered in his reign from civil wars, which are, 
 however, of no general interest. In his time monasteries were 
 first founded, schools arose around the churches, and Latin 
 civilization spread more and more throughout the land. 
 
 Bretislav (1037-1055) and the Institution of Pj-iinogetiiture — 
 Vratislav First King of Bohemia (1061-1092). 
 
 Under the successors of Boleslav IL, Bohemia fell into a 
 state of deplorable anarchy, and became alternately the tool 
 of Germany and Poland. A powerful sovereign, Boleslaw the 
 Brave, reigned at this time in Poland, and he obliged Bohemia 
 to accept as her ruler a Polish prince named Vladivoj, who, 
 however, afterwards recognized the suzerainty of the empire, 
 and acknowledged himself its vassal. Thereupon Boleslaw the 
 Brave (1002) tried to conquer Bohemia for himself; he did 
 not succeed, but it was not until after the death of this for- 
 midable neighbour (1025) that Bohemia could once more take 
 breath. Almost immediately afterwards she was attacked by 
 Stephen of Hungary, but her independence was finally secured 
 by Bretislav (1037-1055), whose reign proved a time of renewed 
 vigour for Bohemia. On the death of Boleslaw the Brave, 
 Poland was left without a ruler, and Bretislav took advantage 
 of this to conquer Silesia and Lesser Poland and to take 
 ' See Morfill, Slavonic Literature, p. iSo.
 
 REIGN OF BRETISLAV. 93 
 
 Cracow by assault. He next entered Greater Poland, and 
 pushed on his way to Gniezno, where was the tomb of the 
 national apostle, St. Adalbert. The Chekhs took possession of 
 his remains, and, after a propitiatory fast of three days, bore 
 them off to their own country. The emperor Henry H. inter- 
 fered to stop the further progress of Bretislav, who returned 
 to Prague, bearing with him in his triumphal entry the trea- 
 sures of his enemies and the holy body of the martyr. But 
 when the emperor proceeded to demand from him the restitu- 
 tion of all his Polish conquests, war again broke out ; the 
 German troops were given possession of the passes by treason, 
 forced their way into the kingdom, and obliged Bretislav to 
 make peace. Of all his conquests he was only able to retain part 
 of Silesia, with the see of Vratislav, since called by the Germans 
 Breslau, and in 1054 he gave up this district to the Polish 
 prince Kazimir for the annual payment of thirty pieces of gold 
 and five hundred pieces of silver. He was accused before the 
 pope of sacrilege, for having carried off from Gniezno the relics 
 and sacred vessels, but obtained absolution on condition of 
 founding a collegiate church in the town of Stara Boleslava 
 •(Alt Bunzlav). The Poles, however, affirm that the true relics 
 are still in their possession, and that a pious fraud had substi- 
 tuted for the bones of the saint those of some other person. 
 However that may be, the tomb of St. Adalbert is the object of 
 popular devotion both at Gniezno and at Prague. 
 
 Bretislav had five sons. Fearful of the disputes which might 
 arise among them, he ordained that henceforward succession 
 to the throne should be determined by primogeniture, while 
 younger sons were to receive dependent appanages, a settlement 
 known as the seniorate. This wise arrangement was, however, 
 but little respected. Spytihnev H., the successor of Bretislav, 
 had immediately after his accession to fight for his throne 
 against one of his brothers, who was prince of Moravia. The 
 reign of this Spytihnev was of little importance. He drove 
 out of Bohemia some Slav monks who still used in their 
 monastery the liturgy of Cyril and Methodius, and he thus
 
 94 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 secured the definite triumph of Latin Christianity in that 
 country. He died without children (1061). 
 
 Vratislav II. (1061-1092) was the first king of Bohemia. 
 He divided Moravia between his two brothers, giving to the 
 one Olomouc (Ohnutz), and to the other Brno. He also 
 founded a bishopric at Olomouc. The beginning of his reign 
 was marked by an incident which throws some light on the 
 relations then existing between the Germans and the Chekhs. 
 Even at this remote period Germans were gradually obtaining 
 high civil and ecclesiastical office, partly owing to princely 
 marriages, which had drawn Bohemia closer to Germany, partly 
 to ecclesiastical organization, which included this country in 
 the province of Ratisbon. Since the foundation of the 
 bishopric of Prague, out of seventeen bishops who had obtained 
 the see, seven had been Germans. We must not forget that 
 national differences must have been far less striking at a time 
 when Latin was the universal language of educated men, but, 
 nevertheless, the people began to murmur, and grew weary of 
 having to obey foreigners. Vratislav found this out when, in 
 1068, lie wished to nominate as bishop of Prague a German 
 named Lanzon. The nobles and military chiefs who were 
 assembled round his camp near Nachod, however, demanded 
 the bishopric for the prince Jaromir, who in the end succeeded 
 in obtaining it, though, according to custom, he was obliged to 
 go to Mainz to receive investiture from the archbishop. 
 
 Vratislav lent the aid of his troops to the emperor Henry IV. 
 in his struggles against the Saxons, and in return for this he 
 obtained possession of Lusatia, a Slav district, which was thus 
 united to Bohemia. Later on, he again helped the emperor 
 in his expeditions against Italy, three hundred Chekh warriors 
 taking part in the siege of Rome, and as a reward for this 
 service the emperor granted him the title of king (1086). He 
 also gave up the tribute hitherto paid to the empire by 
 Bohemia in exchange for a loan of four thousand marks of 
 silver. Henceforward Bohemia was only bound to furnish to 
 the emperor three hundred armed knights, well equipped, for
 
 VRATISLAV, FIRST KING OF BOHEMIA. 95 
 
 expeditions into Italy. On the 15th of June, 1086, Vratislav 
 and his wife Svatova were solemnly crowned at Prague, in the 
 cathedral of St. Vit, by the archbishop Egilbert. Thus was 
 constituted that kingdom of Bohemia which, with the king- 
 dom of Hungary, was one day to form the principal part of 
 the Austrian empire. In order to understand the struggles of 
 modern politics, it is needful to recall the double origin of the 
 two kingdoms, the one founded by the Holy See, the other by 
 the empire. Hence have arisen those retrospective claims on 
 Bohemia which Germany has since put forward. The title of 
 king bestowed on Vratislav was, however, purely personal, and 
 was not transmitted to his successors. It was, perhaps, in ex- 
 change for the crown he had received that this prince granted 
 certain privileges to the Germans in Bohemia. 
 
 The reigns of the immediate successors of Vratislav offer 
 but few points of interest. Bretislav II. (1092-1 1 1 1) abolished 
 the wise law which had established primogeniture in the family 
 of the Premyslides. He even asked the emperor Henry IV. 
 to grant the investiture to his brother Borivo'i, and by so doing 
 recognized the imperial right to treat Bohemia as a fief of the 
 empire, threw her provinces into their old state of anarchy, 
 and strengthened the claims which Germany was continually 
 advancing on the neighbouring countries. Hence arose a 
 long series of conflicts between the princes of Prague, Olomouc, 
 and Brno, conflicts during which 'the empire took occasion 
 more than once to intefere, selling its protection to one or 
 other of the combatants. It was during these troubles that the 
 great and turbulent family of the Vrsovici, whose ambition had 
 so often troubled the land and made its princes to tremble, 
 was massacred (1108). We will pass rapidly over this time of 
 incessant struggle, which has but little interest for us, and during 
 which Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, and Poland were per- 
 petually at war with one another, and the emperor claimed the 
 right to dispose of Bohemia as a fief 
 
 More than once these pretensions met with energetic resist- 
 ance. Thus (11 25-1 148) prince Sobeslav I. did not hesitate
 
 96 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 to declare war against Lothar, who had claimed the right of 
 giving Bohemia to whom he -pleased, and had bestowed it on 
 prince Otto of Olomouc. Sobeslav refused to appear before 
 the tribunal before which he was cited by the emperor, and 
 replied in these proud words : "My hope is in the mercy of 
 God and in the help of St. Vacslav and St. Vojtech, who will 
 not see this country delivered into the hands of foreigners." 
 The Bohemians all rallied round the standard of St. Vacslav, 
 and the emperor, vanquished at Chlumec, was obliged to re- 
 nounce his claims and to recognize Sobeslav as prince of 
 Bohemia (1126). He even conferred on him the title of high 
 cup-bearer of the empire. Later on, Sobeslav became the ally 
 of Lothar in his struggles against the Hohenstaufen, but on the 
 death of Lothar he took the side of Conrad IIL of Hohen- 
 staufen. He concluded an alliance with Leopold IV., duke of 
 Austria, to whom he gave his daughter in marriage (1138). 
 
 During the reign of Sobeslav, in consequence of the increase 
 in the number of the various branches of the Premyslide family, 
 Bohemia and Moravia were broken up into a large number of 
 appanages, which led to internal conflicts and revolts that had 
 to be suppressed by the prince by force of arms. He en- 
 deavoured to secure the crown for his son, and to this end had 
 him elected by the diet of Sadzko. But immediately after his 
 death the zhupans offered the throne to his nephew Vladislav IL, 
 whom they believed they could direct as they wished. Vladislav 
 IL (1140-1173) did not fulfil their hopes, and had, in conse- 
 quence, more than one conspiracy to put down. The Moravian 
 princes and the great nobles entered into an alliance against 
 him, raised an army, and obliged him to ask for help from the 
 emperor. He defeated them, forced them to retreat to Moravia, 
 and took from them the principalities of Znoim, Brno, and 
 Olomouc. 
 
 During his reign, a papal legate, cardinal Guido, was sent to 
 Bohemia to supervise the organization of the Catholic Church ; 
 celibacy was imposed upon the clergy who had not previously 
 observed such a rule ; and the legate reconciled Vladislav with
 
 VLADISLA V II. 97 
 
 the Moravian princes, obtaining for them the restitution of their 
 estates, Vladislav was the first Chekh prince who went on the 
 crusades. He left the government in the hands of his brother 
 Diepolt (1147), ^^d followed the emperor Conrad to Jerusalem. 
 This crusade had, however, but little success, and after many 
 Chekhs had perished, Vladislav returned home by way of 
 Constantinople, Kiev, and Cracow. He was soon after at 
 war with Frederick Barbarossa. Frederick had seized Silesia, 
 which was a Bohemian fief, and in consequence of this act the 
 prince of Bohemia refused the three hundred armed men for 
 the expedition against Rome that Bohemia was bound by old 
 treaties to furnish. In 1156, Silesia was restored to Bohemia, 
 and finally Frederick granted Vladislav the title of king for 
 himself and his successors. As the seal of their reconciliation, 
 the new king offered his aid to the emperor in the expedition 
 he was about to undertake against Milan, but he was obliged 
 to raise the troops at his own expense, as the diet refused to 
 admit his right to levy an army for so distant and useless an 
 expedition. He assembled ten thousand men, and with them 
 crossed the Alps, The Chekhs signalized themselves by their 
 bravery, especially at the siege of Milan, and there is still to be 
 seen in the cathedral at Prague one of the trophies of this war. 
 Later on, Vladislav went to the aid of the king of Hungary, 
 Stephen HI., whose two daughters his sons had married. Again 
 the diet refused to grant him an army, but he set out with 
 volunteers and fought with some success against the Eastern 
 emperor. These victories, which spread his fame abroad in 
 foreign lands, did not, however, prevent the revolt of the princes 
 at home, and the emperor Frederick, with but little gratitude 
 for old services, favoured their attempts. In 1178, Vladislav, 
 weary of power, abdicated and retired to a convent. Several 
 rivals contended for the supreme power, and they were all 
 cited to appear before the tribunal of Barbarossa at Nuremberg, 
 the emperor claiming the right of deciding the succession 
 at the same time that he suppressed the title of king which 
 he had previously granted to Vladislav. 
 
 H
 
 98 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUXGARY. 
 
 Again Bohemia fell into anarchy, and the emperor interfered 
 continually in its affairs. Space fails us to give any details of 
 these inglorious struggles, in which blood was shed on more 
 than one field of battle, and in which even ecclesiastics took 
 part. We find the bishop of Prague, in 1187, declaring that 
 his position as prince of the Holy Empire gave him the right to 
 refuse obedience to the prince of Bohemia. It was only on 
 the accession of Premysl Otokar I. (1197) that the country 
 began once more to breathe freely. 
 
 Premysl Otokar I., Hereditary King (i 197-1230) — Vacslav I. 
 (1230-1253) — Invasion of the Tartars (1242). 
 
 This time of anarchy proved fatal to Bohemia. The quarrels 
 among the princes increased the power of the nobles, who 
 believed they had the right to decide the election to the throne, 
 while they also made the interference of the empire in the in- 
 ternal affairs of the nation increasingly easy. The great lords took 
 advantage of the opportunities such a time gave them to oppress 
 the people and to exact from them heavy taxes and enforced 
 labour. To escape from these exactions, the small proprietors 
 found themselves obliged to seek the protection of the more 
 powerful lords, and this enabled the nobles to form bodies of 
 vassals dependent on them. Magnates who had supported the 
 prince at the time of his election claimed a right to be repaid 
 for such support by gifts of land. Gradually, by these means, an 
 hereditary nobility was created, whose power no longer depended 
 on the office they held in the household or army of the prince, 
 but on the possession of large estates ; and the owners of these 
 large estates claimed all the rights of sovereigns, the administra- 
 tion of justice, the levying of troops, and the power of leading 
 them to battle under standards of their own. This hereditary 
 great nobility begins to take form towards the end of the twelfth 
 century. It was naturally much more independent of the prince 
 than an aristocracy of officials, and its assemblies were real diets 
 in which the will of the prince was discussed and controlled. 
 As early as the twelfth century it was a generally admitted,
 
 CONDITION OF BOHEMIA. 99 
 
 though unwritten, principle that the prince had no right, except 
 in case of invasion, to summon the national army without the 
 consent of the diet ; and laws could only be passed with its 
 help. It was only under extraordinary circumstances that the 
 king might levy taxes, as he possessed large estates which amply 
 sufficed for his own requirements. As was the case throughout 
 Europe, the Church had acquired considerable influence. There 
 were six cathedral chapters in Bohemia and nine Benedictine 
 monasteries, besides convents belonging to the Premonstraten- 
 sians, Cistercians, and Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Since 
 the time of Gregory VII. papal legates had frequently visited 
 the country. Almost all the peasants were serfs of the soil, 
 some privileges and a certain amount of freedom being granted, 
 however, to those who had cleared the ground of forests. There 
 was but little commerce, and what there was had fallen mainly 
 into the hands of Jews and foreigners, especially Germans. 
 Ever since the time of Vratislav there had been a German 
 colony in Prague, and this colony was subject to a special 
 tribunal. Germans also obtained many of the more important 
 positions in State and Church, owing to the close relations 
 which were continually kept up with the empire, the princes 
 usually marrying German princesses who used their influence 
 in favour of their countrymen. We often find the heir to the 
 throne bearing two names, one Slav, the other German, such as 
 Premysl Otokar, Vladislav Heinrich, and the policy of such 
 monarchs, who were half Slav and half German, was dynastic 
 rather than national. 
 
 On the death of the emperor Henry IV, (1197) Philip of 
 Swabia was elected emperor, but his rights were disputed by 
 Otto of Brunswick. Premysl took the side of Philip, and ob- 
 tained important advantages for his country in exchange for 
 his services. The emperor undertook to interfere no more in 
 the internal affairs of Bohemia, but simply to confirm her 
 own choice of a prince ; he restored the royal title, and he 
 renounced all right to the investiture of the bishop of Prague. 
 Premysl had himself solemnly crowned, and in 1204 Innocent
 
 100 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 III., by a special bull, confirmed the royal title granted to the 
 princes of Bohemia. 
 
 The friendship of the emperor and the new king lasted but 
 a short time. It was soon disturbed by a war which ended in 
 a treaty, followed by the betrothal of the emperor's daughter 
 Cunegunda to the heir of the king of Bohemia (1206). 
 Later on, Premysl lent his aid to Frederick II. to ensure 
 his election to the empire, and again obtained payment for 
 his services by important concessions from the emperor. The 
 kings of Bohemia were no longer to be obliged to furnish 
 three hundred men for expeditions to Rome, this tribute being 
 replaced by the payment of three hundred marks in gold ; 
 they were no longer to be required to attend the diets of the 
 empire, unless they were held in towns near their frontiers, 
 such as Bamburg, Nuremberg, or Merseburg, Besides this, 
 Frederick gave Premysl several towns in Misnia (Meissen) 
 (12 16); and when Premysl caused his son Vacslav to be 
 elected and proclaimed by the national diet, this election was 
 immediately recognized by the emperor. The succession to 
 the throne by the law of primogeniture in the direct line thus 
 became finally the law of the kingdom. Premysl more than 
 once used his power with an energy which had never been 
 shown by any of his predecessors ; on the death of Vladislav, 
 margrave of Moravia, he assigned that province as an ap- 
 panage to his two younger sons, and in his own lifetime he 
 had his son Vacslav crowned king of Bohemia. At this 
 coronation was omitted for the first time the ceremony of 
 showing to the new prince the sandals and wallet of the 
 labourer Premysl, the founder of the dynasty ; no doubt the 
 Bohemians were ashamed of this old national custom, and did 
 not care to make use of it before the foreign princess. But the 
 populace saw in this omission an irritating sign of the increasing 
 ascendency of the foreigner in their land. The number of 
 Germans in the capital was growing rapidly ; while in the pro- 
 vinces they had colonized certain towns, and had even begun 
 to found whole villages on the north-west frontier of Bohemia.
 
 VACSLAV THE ONE-EYED. 1 01 
 
 The emperor Frederick had chosen the daughter of 
 Premysl Otokar as the future bride of his first-born son, but, 
 faithless to his promise, he had afterwards affianced him to 
 the daughter of Leopold II. of Austria. This led to another 
 fruitless war between Bohemia and Austria. 
 
 Vacslav, called the One-eyed, peacefully succeeded his 
 father (1230-1253). His education had been entirely German, 
 and his reign proved a golden age for the Germans. They 
 obtained leave to fortify the towns they dwelt in, and at this 
 time the native nobility began to build for themselves strong 
 castles, to which they usually gave German names, such as 
 Steinberg, Lichtenburg, etc. The knightly orders, such as the 
 Hospitalers and Templars, also established " commanderies " 
 in the country, while the Dominicans and begging friars 
 multiplied greatly. Luxury increased, and knightly habits and 
 customs became the fashion. King Vacslav was one of the 
 most brilliant sovereigns in Europe ; he invited minnesingers 
 to his court, and himself composed love-songs after their 
 fashion. 
 
 His reign, however, was not peaceful. The growing enmity 
 of the house of the Premyslides and the house of Austria led 
 to continual wars between them, in which Bavaria and Hungary 
 took the side of Bohemia. They ended, however, fortunately 
 for Vacslav. Frederick of Austria was obliged to give up to 
 him some of his lands to the north of the Danube, and the 
 Austrian princess Gertrude, the heiress of the duke of Austria, 
 was affianced to Vladislav, the heir-apparent of Bohemia. 
 This marriage prepared the way for the annexation of Austria 
 and Styria to the crown of Bohemia. 
 
 A more serious event was the invasion of Moravia by the 
 Tartars, or Mongols. We have already seen how these dreaded 
 hordes rushed down upon Europe. One of them at this time 
 invaded Silesia, and the whole of Christendom took fright. 
 Pope Gregory IX. caused a crusade to be preached against 
 them, but the quarrels then going on between the Holy See 
 and the empire made any united effort impossible, and the
 
 102 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 threatened lands were obliged to depend upon themselves for 
 their defence. King Vacslav manfully withstood the storm, 
 and assembled under his banner forty thousand foot soldiers 
 and SIX thousand horsemen. The enemy had already pene- 
 trated into Moravia, where they pillaged, ravaged, and burnt 
 towns, castles, and monasteries. The inhabitants fled to the 
 woods. The fortified towns of Olomouc and Brno alone resisted 
 this torrent of invaders, who overthrew everything in their 
 course. The Chekhs met the Tartars beneath the walls of 
 Olomouc, where, according to tradition, they were commanded 
 by a brave leader named Jaroslav, of the family of Sternberg. 
 They were victorious, and the Tartars, either in consequence 
 of the terror inspired by this defeat, or as the result of that 
 capricious restlessness which has always distinguished Asiatic 
 invaders, suddenly turned aside and threw themselves upon 
 Hungary (1242).^ 
 
 A common danger had drawn the houses of Austria and 
 Bohemia together, but when it had passed their alliance came 
 to an end. Frederick even wished to give up the marriage 
 proposed between the princess Gertrude and prince Vladislav, 
 and a war between the two countries was needed before he 
 could be induced to keep his word (1246). The young prince 
 received Moravia as a marriage gift from his father, this province 
 having been in the hands of the king since the year 1239 ; and 
 soon afterwards, on the death of Frederick, the last of the Baben- 
 bergs, in spite of the emperor's opposition, he obtained posses- 
 sion of Austria and Styria. But Vladislav himself died the 
 following year, and the emperor hastened to place a lieutenant 
 of his own over these two provinces. Vacslav dared not 
 interfere at that time, as his own throne was menaced by 
 dangerous conspiracies. The greater part of the nobles had 
 been irritated by his amours, his excessive prodigality, and his 
 favouritism. The malcontents insisted that Premysl Otokar, 
 the son of Vacslav, should share the government with his 
 father. War broke out between the father and son, and 
 ' See p. 83.
 
 PREMYSL OTOKAR II. IO3 
 
 Vacslav was obliged to beg for assistance from the German 
 princes. It was only with great difficulty, and after employing 
 by turns force and cunning, that he was able at last to put 
 down this insurrection, which had so inconveniently disturbed 
 his wonted life of love and the chase. 
 
 In 1 25 1, the states of Austria invited Premysl Otokar to 
 become their ruler. Bela, king of Hungary, in alliance with 
 Daniel, grand prince of Galicia, disputed the possession of 
 Styria with him ; but in spite of this Premysl was able to retain 
 the larger part of his new territory. Vacslav the One-eyed, 
 who had rendered his son no assistance whatever in these 
 difficult circumstances, died in 1253. It was in the reign of 
 this knightly prince that Bohemia adopted the arms which she 
 bears to this day, a crowned lion with two tails, argent, on a 
 field gules. 
 
 Premysl Otokar IT. (1250-12 78) — Struggle agabist Rudolf of 
 Habsbiirg — Glory and Decay of Bohemia. 
 
 On his accession to the throne of Bohemia, Premysl 
 Otokar II. was one of the most powerful monarchs of Europe, 
 Bohemia, Moravia, Upper Lusatia, and Upper and Lower 
 Austria being united under his rule. The character of the new 
 king was equal to his high position. He had apparently done 
 wrong in taking up arms against his father, but the conduct of 
 Vacslav and the interests of the kingdom had justified his 
 rebellion. Just, hard-working, and valiant in war, he was both 
 a wise ruler and an able leader. National historians accuse 
 him of having, like his father and his uncle, too much 
 encouraged foreign manners and customs, and consequently 
 of having helped to increase the influence of the Germans in 
 Bohemia. The rhymed chronicle of Dalemil exclaims, " How 
 sad to think that so noble a king should not have remained true 
 to his native tongue ! What glory he would have acquired, and 
 what riches, by its help ! He would have destroyed all his 
 enemies." Premysl Otokar's first care was the royal domain, 
 which had been impoverished and dismembered by the careless
 
 104 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 liberality of his father and by civil war. He obliged all estates 
 held illegally to be given up to him, and built fortresses on his 
 lands, which he placed in the hands of royal burgraves, whose 
 business it was to check all possible risings of the nobles, and 
 to maintain order and public security. He increased the 
 number of German colonies in Bohemia and Moravia, and 
 created a certain number of royal towns, which paid taxes directly 
 to the king and had the right of self-government, subject only 
 to the royal control ; some of these even observed the Mag- 
 deburg code. Some of the forests on the frontier, moreover, 
 were reclaimed by German colonists, which explains the pre- 
 sence of Germans in such large numbers in these districts. 
 Owing to these measures, the riches both of the kingdom 
 and the royal domain increased considerably during the reign 
 of Premysl Otokar II. ; but, at the same time, the increasing 
 number of foreigners and the introduction of a new system 
 of law prepared the way for numerous disputes in the future. 
 No prince had ever ascended the throne under such favourable 
 circumstances. Frederick II. had just died in Italy, and the 
 long interregnum in the empire had begun, during which the 
 electors offered the crown to the highest bidder. Otokar was 
 either the relative or the friend of almost all his more powerful 
 neighbours. In Bavaria alone he had enemies, who envied him 
 the possession of Upper Austria, while the king of Hungary, 
 supported by the princes of Cracow and Galicia, was the only 
 neighbour he need dread. Pope Innocent IV, was favourable 
 to him, and in the beginning of his reign invited him to 
 undertake a crusade against the pagan Prussians on the shores 
 of the Baltic, whom the Teutonic Knights had not yet been 
 able either to conquer or to convert. Such an enterprise had 
 almost a national interest for Bohemia, for it was in these 
 distant lands that the great apostle of the Chekhs, St. Vojtech, 
 had been martyred. Under the command of Premysl Otokar 
 and the margraves of Brandenburg and Misnia, sixty thousand 
 men marched to the north and crossed the rivers on ice; 
 they made their way into the country of the pagans, burned
 
 BATTLE OF CRESSENNBRUNN. IO5 
 
 the sacred trees and the images of their gods, and defeated the 
 Prussians, of whom a large number were baptized. Otokar 
 founded the city of Kralovec (Konigsburg) in the conquered 
 land. Thus, by a strange freak of fortune, a king of Bohemia 
 founded in a pagan land the town where, in later times, the 
 sovereigns of German Prussia were to be crowned. 
 
 These exploits spread the fame of Premysl Otokar through- 
 out Europe, and in 1256 the archbishop of Cologne came to 
 Prague to offer him the imperial crown. He refused it, and 
 the electors then bestowed it on Richard of Cornwall, brother 
 of the king of England, a prince who possessed but little power, 
 and not an inch of land in Germany. Premysl Otokar, how- 
 ever, was far from taking no interest in the affairs of the 
 neighbouring lands. Soon after this, we find him interfering 
 in favour of the archbishop of Salzburg, his relative, whom 
 the princes of Bavaria wished to deprive of his see. This act 
 of interference brought him into conflict with Hungary, as 
 Styria took advantage of it to free herself from the suzerainty 
 of Hungary, and Otokar settled one of his lieutenants at 
 Gratz. The struggle between Bohemia and Hungary began 
 to take formidable proportions, for we find that Bela IV, 
 and his allies set on foot an army of one hundred and forty 
 thousand men, a considerable number for those times, while 
 Otokar marched against them, aided by the margraves of 
 Brandenburg and Misnia and the princes of Silesia and 
 Carniola. 
 
 The two adversaries met in the plains of Austria, on the 
 two banks of the Morava, near the juncture of that river with 
 the Danube. Neither army dared cross the stream to begin 
 the attack. According to the knightly custom of the time, 
 Otokar sent a messenger to the king of Hungary to demand 
 either that he should cross the river, or that he should allow 
 the army of the Chekhs to cross, in order that the battle 
 should begin in proper form. Bela chose to cross himself, 
 and Otokar withdrew his troops in order to leave him a clear 
 field. The battle took place near the village of Cressenn-
 
 Io6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARY. 
 
 briinn. The heavy Bohemian cavalry, clad in armour, re- 
 pulsed the impetuous attack of the Hungarians, the Cumans 
 fled, and Prince Stephen, heir presumptive to the crown of 
 Hungary, was seriously wounded. Soon the rout of the 
 Hungarians became general ; eighteen thousand men were 
 slain, and it is said that fourteen thousand were drowned in 
 the Morava. The Chekhs pursued the enemy as far as 
 Poszony (Presburg). Bela sued for peace, abandoning all 
 claims on Styria, and shortly after, Richard of Cornwall 
 granted the investiture of this Austrian province to Premysl 
 Otokar. 
 
 This success increased the fame of Otokar. The Tartars 
 named him the Iron King, because of the heavily armed 
 knights whom he led to war ; the Christian princes called 
 him the Golden King, because of the magnificence of his 
 court. But this mighty monarch had no heir. He therefore 
 obtained permission from the pope to divorce his wife, Margaret 
 of Austria, widow of the last of the Babenbergs, whom he had 
 married from ambition, and sought the hand of the princess 
 Cunegunda, daughter of the Russian prince, Michael Vsevolo- 
 dovitch, who had taken refuge in Hungary at the time of the 
 Tartar invasion. She was grand-daughter of Bela, and this 
 marriage strengthened the alliance which had been concluded 
 between the two kingdoms. It was celebrated with great 
 pomp on that plain of the Morava which had so lately been 
 the scene of the struggle between their armies. 
 
 Soon after this, a successful expedition against Bavaria, 
 undertaken on behalf of the archbishop of Salzburg, enabled 
 Bohemia to acquire some new territories ; amongst ethers, 
 Cheb or Eger, where Wallenstein was assassinated in later 
 times. Otokar was now more powerful than any of the 
 German princes, and, finding himself in a position to dictate 
 to them, he resolved to free his country from the spiritual 
 suzerainty of the archbishopric of Maintz and to create an 
 archbishopric at Olomouc ; but he was not able to carry out 
 his intention.
 
 RUDOLF OF HABSBVRG ELECTED EMPEROR. 10/ 
 
 In 1269, Ulric, duke of Carinthia and Carniola, dying with- 
 out children, left his lands to the king of Bohemia, who took 
 possession of them, in spite of the resistance offered by the 
 patriarch of Aquileia, Philip, and the king of Hungary, Stephen 
 V. (1269). The kingdom of Bohemia now extended from the 
 Riesengebirge to the Adriatic. 
 
 Soon after this, war broke out once more between Bohemia 
 and Hungary, during which the Magyars ravaged Austria and 
 carried off sixteen thousand persons into captivity. Otokar, 
 in return, invaded Hungary, captured Poszony and Nitra, 
 crossed the Danube, and defied the Hungarians on the banks 
 of the Leitha. Want of provisions and an unexpected attack 
 from duke Henry of Bavaria obliged him, however, to make 
 peace. Again, in 1271, the archbishop of Cologne came in 
 the name of several of the German princes to offer him the 
 imperial crown, and again Otokar deemed it prudent to refuse. 
 No doubt the crown of St. Vacslav, though it might be less 
 brilliant, appeared to him far more secure than that of the 
 empire. 
 
 This was, however, a fatal resolution for Bohemia and her 
 king, as Rudolf of Habsburg was elected in his stead, and 
 Rudolf soon found it impossible to maintain his position with 
 dignity while so powerful a rival as the king of Bohemia stood 
 by his side. The election had taken place without Otokar's con- 
 sent, and in defiance of his rights as an elector, and no sooner 
 did he hear of the accession of the new sovereign, than he hastily 
 concluded a peace with Hungary, against which country he had 
 again taken up arms in consequence of the assassination of his 
 father-in-law, Bela. He protested against the election of his rival, 
 and appealed to the pope, Gregory X. ; but in 1274 the sovereign 
 pontiff recognized the new emperor. Rudolf prepared for the 
 struggle with his formidable adversary, calling to his aid both 
 the power of the law and of arms. He persuaded the assembly 
 of princes, in a meeting held at Nuremberg, to decide that all 
 fiefs of the empire which had become vacant since the excom- 
 munication of Frederick H. ought to belong to the king of the
 
 Io8 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARY. 
 
 Romans, and that every vassal who should not receive investi- 
 ture in the space of a year and a day should forfeit his fiefs. 
 This was to demand from Otokar all that he had inherited 
 from the houses of Carinthia and Austria. The count palatine 
 Ludwig cited Otokar to appear before the tribunal of the 
 empire, on the ground that he had not, during a year and a 
 day, done homage for his dominions. Besides this, Rudolf 
 excited the subjects of Otokar in Austria, Carinthia, and 
 Styria to revolt, and invited the archbishop of Salzburg and 
 the bishop of Prague to assist the rebels, while, at the same 
 time, he entered into a secret understanding with some of 
 those nobles in Bohemia who could not forgive the king for 
 having deprived them of the crown-lands which they had 
 unjustly appropriated. 
 
 All the enemies of Otokar rallied round the emperor, but 
 the king of Bohemia believed himself sufficiently powerful to 
 hold his own against them. He subdued the revolts in Austria 
 and Styria, and even invaded the domains of the Church in 
 Salzburg. Rudolf, on his side, prepared for the war by enter- 
 ing into alliance with Frederick, burgrave of Nuremburg, 
 Menhardt, the count of Tyrol, and Ludwig of Bavaria. 
 
 Humiliation and Death of Premysl Otokar II. (1278). 
 
 On the 15th of May, 1275, Otokar was placed under the 
 ban of the empire, and all his lands and offices declared 
 forfeited if within a year he should not give in his submission. 
 At the expiration of that time a German army assembled at 
 Nuremberg, ready to invade Bohemia, while the count of 
 Tyrol prepared to attack Carinthia and Styria. The duke of 
 Bavaria, who had at first taken the side of Otokar, also 
 abandoned him, and the Hungarians, gained over by Rudolf, 
 undertook to march against Austria and Moravia ; blind to 
 their own interests in so doing, they were weakening the only 
 state which stood between them and the greed of Germany. 
 Success crowned the efforts of the allies. Carinthia and 
 Styria fell into the hands of Menhardt of Tyrol, while Rudolf,
 
 BOHEMIA SUES FOR PEACE. IO9 
 
 suddenly throwing himself upon Austria, captured Vienna. 
 This town had been devoted to Otokar, but yielded before 
 the threat of Rudolf to tear up all the vines which had been 
 planted round the city. 
 
 Otokar had concentrated his army on the frontiers of 
 Bavaria, on which side he expected the enemy. Surprised 
 by these unforeseen attacks, he now made a forced march on 
 Austria, but at this critical moment the family of the Vitkovici, 
 one of the most powerful in his kingdom, whose chief then 
 was Zavisa of Falkenstein, abandoned the cause of Premysl 
 Otokar, and set to work to ravage the royal domain. It 
 seemed impossible to withstand so many enemies at once ; the 
 army of Otokar was reduced to twenty thousand men, while 
 the forces of his adversary were far more considerable. The 
 king of Bohemia found himself forced to sue for peace, and to 
 gain it, he was obliged to sacrifice to Rudolf those countries 
 which, together with the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, 
 were in time to form the larger part of the Austrian empire, 
 namely, Carinthia, Carniola, Austria, and Styria, together with 
 the territory of Cheb (Eger). His only son, Vacslav, was to 
 marry the daughter of Rudolf, and Hartmann, the son of 
 Rudolf, the daughter of Otokar. The first of the Habsburgs 
 thus entered upon that " policy of marriages " which was one 
 day to establish the fortunes of his house ; ^ and, not content 
 with having impoverished and humiliated the king of Bohemia, 
 he secured for his race the inheritance of the crown of St. 
 Vacslav, in case of the extinction of that of the Premyslides. 
 Rudolf gave his daughter as her dowry Lower Austria and 
 forty thousand golden ducats, and the same sum of money to 
 the daughter of Otokar. The king of Hungary was a third 
 party to the treaty, and Bohemia was forced to restore all the 
 lands she had taken from him in the last war. 
 
 By the terms of this treaty Otokar recognized Rudolf as 
 emperor, and accepted from his hands investiture for the 
 
 ' " Bella gerant alii ; tu, felix Austria, nube ; 
 Quae dat Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Veuus."
 
 1 1 inSTOR Y OF A USTRO-HUNGAR Y. 
 
 kingdom of Bohemia and the landgraviate of Moravia. As it 
 was understood by the king of Bohemia, this clause neither 
 interfered with the independence of the reahii nor with its 
 internal government, Rudolf, however, insisted on regarding 
 Bohemia as an integral part of the empire, and claimed the 
 right to interfere in those disputes which arose between Otokar 
 and the Bohemian nobles who had deserted his cause ; in a 
 word, he meant to reduce Bohemia to a state of complete 
 vassalage. Otokar resisted, and long negotiations were 
 entered into by the two kings, but they came to nothing. Two 
 such rivals could not be reconciled, and it was inevitable that 
 one of them should be forced to submit to the other. Otokar 
 had but a small army of thirty thousand men with which to 
 fight the empire^ and no other allies than the princes of Silesia. 
 Nevertheless, he began a fresh campaign, and during the 
 summer of 1278 he made his way into Lower Austria by the 
 Morava and reached INIarchegg, close to the glorious battle- 
 field of Cressennbriinn, on the right bank of the stream. Rudolf, 
 who, since his last victories, had established his seat of govern- 
 ment at Vienna, marched to meet him, and soon forced him to 
 retreat, and on the 26th of August, 1278, a battle took place 
 between them, which was one of the most terrible of the Middle 
 Ages, and one of the most important in its results. 
 
 Rudolf had secured the alliance of the king of Hungary, 
 and the battle began with a furious attack on the flanks of the 
 Bohemian army by the Cuman horsemen on their swift steeds. 
 The two kings themselves more than once took part in the 
 fight. The fortunes of the day remained for some time doubt- 
 ful, but suddenly the rear-guard of the Bohemian army, at the 
 moment of their advance, took to flight, and from this time 
 the day was lost. Otokar rushed into the midst of his enemies, 
 and gave himself up as prisoner, but he was slain by two 
 Austrian knights, and his body, stripped of its armour, was 
 shamefully outraged. Rudolf, who arrived too late to save his 
 life, caused his remains to be gathered together and carried to 
 Vienna, where they were clothed in the royal purple and
 
 DEATH OF PREMYSL OTOKAR II. Ill 
 
 exposed for four and twenty days. The court of Rome, which 
 was one of the many allies of Rudolf, had placed the king of 
 Bohemia under an interdict, and his body was in consequence 
 refused Christian burial. But Bohemia took no heed of the 
 interdict. Both the Church and the nation mourned for the 
 sovereign who, notwithstanding his faults, had gained so much 
 glory for his kingdom. There were some who regretted him 
 even in Germany. " Virtue and honour," says Henry of 
 Heinburg, " weep for the king of Bohemia ; his hand was 
 liberal ; he was the rampart of Christendom against the 
 Cumans ; he was a lion of courage, an eagle of goodness."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE LATER PREMYSLIDES. 
 
 The Last Premyslides — Vdcslav II. King of Bohemia and 
 Poland {12"] ^-i 2,°^) — Vacslav III. (1305-1306). 
 
 Rudolf did not lay down his arms on the death of the king of 
 Bohemia, but at the head of his victorious army he made his 
 way into Moravia. The towns here were mostly inhabited by 
 German colonists, by whom he was gladly welcomed, but he 
 allowed the country districts to be horribly ravaged, and 
 treated the whole land as conquered territory and a fief of the 
 empire. To some of the towns he granted important privileges, 
 making Brno (Briinn) one of the free cities of the empire. The 
 nobles submitted, and Cunegunda, the widow of Otokar, threw 
 herself and her son on the mercy of the conqueror. In 
 Bohemia meanwhile the greatest confusion prevailed. Those 
 nobles who had been faithless to Otokar, and whom he had 
 banished from the kingdom, returned and prepared to offer the 
 crown to Rudolf, while the patriots who wished to maintain 
 the independence of their country made ready to defend it. 
 Young Vacslav, the heir of Otokar, was only seven years of 
 age. Two princes were eager to become his guardians — Henry 
 of Vratislav (Breslau) and Otto, margrave of Brandenburg; the 
 latter was nephew of the late king, and was able to furnish 
 some troops for the defence of Bohemia. Meantime Rudolf 
 had invaded and ravaged the country as far as Czaslaw (Caslav) 
 and Kutna Hora (Kuttenberg), and the Bohemian nobles, with
 
 A US TRIA N MA RRIA GES. 1 1 3 
 
 an army, marched to Kolin, on the Elbe, to await his coming, 
 prepared to fight for their independence. Rudolf, however, 
 did not yet feel himself sufficiently strong to complete the 
 conquest of the country, and therefore determined to conclude 
 such a treaty as should leave him full opportunity for doing so 
 in the future. Accordingly an agreement was entered into by 
 which he was to be allowed to keep Moravia in his power for 
 five years, during which time the government of Bohemia was 
 to be left in the hands of Otto of Brandenburg. The old 
 arrangements regarding marriages between the families of the 
 Habsburgs and the Premyslides were renewed at the same 
 time, and it was decided that Vacslav should marry the 
 princess Guta, who was the daughter of Rudolf, and the 
 emperor's son, Rudolf, Aneska, the daughter of Otokar. The 
 oldest of these children who were thus sacrificed to the ambi- 
 tion of their father was only ten years of age. But Rudolf was 
 not satisfied with a simple promise; he insisted that these 
 absurd unions should receive the sanction of the Church, and 
 the double marriage was celebrated on the same day in the 
 town of Jihlava (Iglau) in Moravia. After the ceremony the 
 children returned to the care of their parents, that their educa- 
 tion, which had scarcely been begun, might be completed. 
 The queen-mother of Bohemia and the new regent established 
 themselves at Prague, and Rudolf returned to Austria, after 
 having confided the temporary government of Moravia to the 
 bishop of Olomouc, who had formerly been one of the devoted 
 adherents of Otokar, and was now the no less zealous supporter 
 of his successful adversary. 
 
 It was no spirit of self-sacrifice which led the margrave 
 of Brandenburg to undertake the guardianship of his young 
 cousin. No sooner was he settled at Prague, than he set 
 himself industriously to work to plunder the country which he 
 had been appointed to rule. He made friends with the 
 chief members of the German colony, seized the revenues, and 
 shut up the queen-mother and her son in a castle in a distant 
 part of the country. He even sent the treasures of the cathedral 
 
 I
 
 114 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 of Prague to Brandenburg. Riots soon broke out, and fights 
 took pkxce between the Germans and the Chekhs, and between 
 the royal towns and the nobles. The diet of the kingdom 
 tried in vain to obtain the freedom of the king and his mother. 
 The queen managed to escape, and took refuge in Moravia ; 
 but the young prince remained a prisoner, and was treated 
 very harshly. At last the Chekh nobles grew tired of the 
 insolence of Otto, and became indignant at the insults inflicted 
 on the heir of their kings, and Otto was obliged to quit 
 Bohemia and return to his own country. He carried off the 
 young prince, however, with him, and left the government in 
 the hands of Eberhardt, bishop of Brandenburg. An insurrec- 
 tion broke out, which was suppressed by bishop Eberhardt, 
 with the help not only of the Germans already settled in 
 Bohemia, but of adventurers of all kinds who had come out of 
 Saxony prepared to take possession of the country as their prey, 
 and Bohemia became the scene of the most furious struggles. 
 But this new invasion of the Germans had at least the merit of 
 arousing once more the sentiment of nationality among the 
 nobles, who had hitherto too readily submitted to the attraction 
 of foreign manners. At last Rudolf, who had for some time 
 taken but little interest in the fate of his son-in-law, interfered ; 
 he began to see that if Otto were to get rid of prince Vacslav 
 and keep Bohemia for- himself, the hopes with which he had 
 concluded the double marriage of Jihlava would be seriously 
 endangered. In the month of September, 1280, he entered 
 Bohemia, and brought about a truce by which the nobles and 
 the representatives of the towns agreed to maintain the regency 
 of Otto of Brandenburg, provided that he would not leave the 
 government in the hands of foreigners during his frequent 
 absences from the country; that he would send all the foreign 
 troops back into Brandenburg ; oblige all Germans who were 
 not settled in the land- to leave it within three days on pain of 
 death ; and that, on the payment of fifteen thousand marks of 
 gold, he would bring back the young prince Vacslav to his 
 capital. But, notwithstanding this agreement, Otto managed to
 
 ZA VISA OF FALKENSTEIN. 1 1 5 
 
 keep Vacslav in his power for three years longer, badly fed and 
 badly clothed, and only finally agreed to give him up to his 
 people on condition of their paying an additional ransom of 
 twenty thousand marks of gold, or, should they fail to produce 
 the sum required, the surrender of a certain number of the 
 most important strongholds in the kingdom. 
 
 At last, in 1283, after a delay of five years, Vacslav came 
 out of prison and ascended the throne. Rudolf, true to his 
 engagements, gave up Moravia to him, and later on interfered 
 to prevent the payment of the twenty thousand marks which the 
 margrave of Brandenburg tried to extort. The Bohemians had 
 looked forward with impatience to the accession of a prince 
 who symbolized to them the awakening of the spirit of 
 nationality and the new life which animated the kingdom. 
 But Vacslav was too young to govern alone, and his mother, 
 Cunegunda, came with him to Prague. During her exile in 
 Moravia she had married Zavisa de Falkenstein, a Chekh 
 nobleman, who was an elegant soldier and a poet of some 
 talent. He had won the love of the royal widow by his 
 brilliant qualities, and obtained great influence over Vacslav. 
 This influence continued even after the death of Cunegunda, 
 and enabled him to enrich himself at the expense of the state, 
 while he encouraged Vacslav in his love of pleasure. When 
 the young queen Guta was sent to Prague, Rudolf insisted on 
 his removal from the court, and Zavisa was forced to retire to 
 his estates on the confines of Bohemia and Moravia. Still 
 powerful and still ambitious, he married the sister of Ladislas, 
 king of Hungary, and was accused of endeavouring to make 
 his lands an independent principality. Such a subject was too 
 formidable not to be an object of fear to the king. Vacslav 
 invited him to visit him at Prague, and then threw him into 
 prison. He amused himself during his captivity by the com- 
 position of songs in the Bohemian tongue, which have now 
 entirely disappeared, but which continued popular for a long 
 time. The friends of the prisoner rose in arms, and help was 
 sent to them by the king of Hungary, while Rudolf interfered
 
 Il6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 also and furnished troops to his son-in-law. The rebels held 
 out for some time, and it was necessary to besiege them one by 
 one in their castles. Rudolf gave Vacslav one piece of advice 
 which was rather politic than Christian, when he suggested 
 that he should take his prisoner Zavisa on all his expeditions, 
 and summon each burgrave to surrender, telling him that, in 
 case of refusal, the head of Zavisa would be cut off. This 
 advice was followed, and several of the rebels submitted in 
 consequence. At last the king arrived before the castle of 
 Hluboka, not far from Budejovice (Budweiss), which was 
 commanded by Vitek, the brother of Zavisa. The dreadful 
 summons was proclaimed, but Vitek did not believe the threat 
 of the king and would not yield, whereupon the head of his 
 brother was cut off before his eyes in front of the castle ditch. 
 The tragic end of Zavisa, his brilliant qualities, and his poetic 
 talents have secured for his name great popularity, which has 
 been revived in the present century by those interested in the 
 national literature. At this time Vacslav was nineteen. This 
 act of severity startled the rebels, and thenceforward the royal 
 authority was recognized throughout the land. 
 
 Vacslav increased the revenues of the crown, and worked 
 on a large scale the silver mines of Bohemia, which were then 
 extremely rich, especially that of Kutna Hora, "the mountain 
 of mines." He kept up a luxurious court, which enriched the 
 town of Prague and made it the favourite abode of foreigners. 
 That city became in his day the seat of several renowned 
 schools. 
 
 The series of fortunate events which placed the crown of 
 Poland on the head of Vacslav helped to make him one of the 
 most powerful monarchs of Christendom. 
 
 For some time past the custom of creating appanages had 
 seriously weakened Poland. It was now more or less equally 
 divided among all the princes who were descended from the 
 dynasty of the Piasts ; the one who ruled over Lesser Poland, 
 and whose seat of government was at Cracow, being the over- 
 lord. His power, however, had become almost nominal, for
 
 VACSLAV II. IN POLAND. 11/ 
 
 the right of primogeniture was but Uttle respected, and 
 Mazovia, Silesia, and Greater Poland had each in turn en- 
 deavoured to get possession of Cracow and Lesser Poland. 
 Even the lesser principalities themselves began to split up, and 
 in Silesia alone we hear of no less than ten princes. Some 
 of these smaller princes endeavoured to strengthen their 
 position by foreign alliances, and with this object in view we 
 find, in 1288, a prince of Vratislav (Breslau) doing homage to 
 the emperor for his principality. In the following year another 
 Silesian prince, Kazimir of Bytom, placed himself under 
 Vacslav, and in 1291 three others followed his example. This 
 event was soon followed by the formation of a party in Cracow 
 which, taking advantage of the confusion then prevailing, 
 offered the province of Lesser Poland to the Bohemian king. 
 Vacslav accepted the offer, proceeded to Cracow, and took 
 possession of that town and of the duchy of Sandomir.-^ 
 
 Troubles continued to increase, and a few years later the 
 nobles of Greater Poland offered their province also to Vacslav. 
 He caused himself to be crowned at Gniezno, obliged the 
 princes of Mazovia ^ to I'ecognize his suzerainty, and thus 
 united the kingdom of the Piasts to that of the Premyslides. 
 This union, which might have proved so advantageous for the 
 two countries, was unfortunately of very short duration, and 
 did not last beyond the life of Vacslav. The time had not 
 yet come for the Slav nations to understand the duties which 
 their common origin imposed upon them, and the need there 
 was for common action against the Germans. Only a short 
 time before, Premysl Otakar had invited the Poles to help him 
 in his struggles against the insatiable ambition of the Germans, 
 and had received but little assistance. In years to come the 
 two crowns of Bohemia and Poland were once more to be 
 united on the same head ; but the two countries were never 
 able to form a powerful or permanent state. 
 
 ' Sandomir was the province east of Cracovia ; its chief town, Sandomir, 
 is on the Vistula, about midway between Cracow and Warsaw. 
 * The duchy of Mazovia was north of Sandomiria.
 
 1 1 8 HISTOR Y OF A USTRO-HUNGAR Y. 
 
 Another crown was soon offered to Vacslav. The race of 
 Arpad had become extinct in 1301, and although the pope, 
 Boniface VIII., had chosen Robert of Anjou to be king of 
 Hungary, some of the nobles revolted against the papal 
 pretensions, and offered the throne to Vacslav. He dared not 
 accept it for himself, but he suggested to the Magyars the 
 choice of his son of twelve years of age, who was accordingly 
 crowned at Szekes Fejervar (Stuhl Weissenburg) in 1301. 
 The emperor Albert and the sovereign pontiff refused to 
 sanction this election, and entered into an alliance against 
 Bohemia, the pope persisting in recognizing the count of 
 Anjou as king of Hungary and offering the crown of Poland to 
 Wladislaw Lokietek. The emperor called upon Vacslav to 
 renounce the crown which he had accepted without the 
 imperial consent, and demanded the cession of the province 
 of Misnia and the country of Eger (Cheb) ; he also claimed 
 the payment of all the arrears of the tenths due to the empire 
 from the mines of Kutna Hora (1303). Vacslav was not 
 afraid of the struggle. He quickly assembled an army, 
 marched into Hungary as far as Buda, carried off the young 
 king, together with the crown and royal insignia, and brought 
 them into Bohemia, and then made ready to meet the imperial 
 forces. Albert I. entered Bohemia by way of Budejovice, and 
 marched upon Kutna Hora, the rich mines there having 
 especially excited his greed. But this town defended itself 
 bravely, and when the emperor saw the royal troops arrive he 
 quitted Bohemia in haste. Vacslav was preparing to invade 
 Austria in his turn, when he died, after a short illness (1305). 
 
 Albert hastily concluded a peace with his successor, 
 Vacslav III., on terms most unfavourable to Bohemia, as 
 they obliged him to give up to the emperor Misnia and the 
 country of Cheb. Albert, on his side, renounced all inter- 
 ference in the disputes between Bohemia, Hungary, and 
 Poland. Vacslav III. was a frivolous and debauched prince, 
 who knew not how to make the most of the situation. He 
 gave up his rights to the crown of Hungary to his friend
 
 ASSASSINATION OF VACSLAV III I19 
 
 Otto of Bavaria, and allowed Wladislaw Lokietek to establish 
 himself on the throne of Poland, though when he was remon- 
 strated with by the abbot Conrad of Zbraslav, one of his 
 councillors, he took up arms to defend his rights to the latter 
 kingdom. Upon his march he stopped at Olomouc, and there 
 he was treacherously assassinated by a Thuringian knight 
 (1306). The man was immediately slain by the Bohemian 
 courtiers, and died without naming his accomplices — without 
 any one even thinking of asking him if he had any accomplices. 
 Rumour said that he had been employed by the emperor 
 Albert, but, in the entire absence of documentary evidence, it 
 would be rash to credit this assertion. At the same time, 
 when we remember the plans formed by the emperor Rudolf 
 after the death of Otokar, and the intrigues which followed on 
 the death of Vacslav III., it is difficult not to apply to this 
 murder the legal maxim, Is fecit cui prodest. The patriot 
 Dalimil, in spite of his ambiguous language, allows us to guess 
 with tolerable ease on whom his suspicions fell. " Ah ! 
 Thuringian, evil man, what hast thou done ? " wTites the 
 chronicler poet. "Was it perchance after the manner of thy 
 race thus to slay the last of our kings? Rather would I say 
 . . . But let us leave the guilty to the judgment of God."" 
 
 Vacslav left no son, and with him the dynasty of the 
 Premyslides, who had reigned over Bohemia since mythical 
 times, became extinct. It came to an end in 1306. The race 
 of Arpad disappeared in 1301. There is something curious in 
 this coincidence. 
 
 Bohania under the Premyslides — Bohemia and the Empire. 
 
 The death of the last of the Premyslides marks an important 
 date in the history of Bohemia. Up to this time, notwithstand- 
 ing some periods of anarchy, the country had recognized the 
 hereditary authority of a national dynasty. On the death of 
 Vacslav without heirs, it was suddenly left to itself, an easy prey 
 to the greed of its neighbours, and from this time we rarely 
 find it governed by a national king. The foreign elements
 
 I20 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARY. 
 
 which had been allowed to settle within it continued to increase 
 in power, and caused complications, disturbances, and even at 
 times catastrophes, which would have completely annihilated 
 any people less vigorous than the Chekhs. Before we turn our 
 attention to this new period, it will not be without interest to 
 look back and to study, on the one hand, the position of Bo- 
 hemia in its international relations with the emperor and 
 empire; on the other, the internal condition of the country and 
 the development of its civilization. 
 
 The neighbourhood of Germany has always been dangerous 
 for non-German nations, and Bohemia has felt this more than 
 most countries. Since the time when Charles the Great, with 
 the help of the pope, restored the empire of the West, the 
 emperor had looked upon himself as the temporal head of 
 Christendom. Even those states which had no immediate 
 relations with him, such as England and Spain, admitted this 
 claim in theory, " Semper Augustus^' the epithet added to the 
 title of emperor, came to be translated " Immer Mehrer dcs 
 Reichs" i.e. "He who continually increases the empire." 
 Those lands which the emperor did not attempt to conquer 
 were considered as owing that privilege to the imperial 
 generosity. At times it was necessary to purchase this pri- 
 vilege by the payment of tribute, and thus, according to the 
 somewhat doubtful testimony of Eginhard, Bohemia paid 
 tribute to Charles the Great. In a document of the year 817, 
 Louis the Pious represents Bohemia, and also the country of 
 the Avars, and the Slavs to the west of Bavaria, as all forming 
 part of the empire. At the end of the ninth century, as we 
 have already seen, Bohemia was paying to the emperor a 
 tribute of one hundred and twenty oxen and five hundred marks 
 of silver. In 895, the two princes, Spytihnev and Vratislav, 
 tired of the authority of Svatopluk, did homage for their states 
 to the emperor. In 928, prince Vacslav I. renewed the engage- 
 ment to pay the tribute of oxen and silver. In 1081, this was 
 changed into one which bound Bohemia to furnish three 
 hundred knights to accompany the emperor to Rome for his
 
 BOHEMIA'S POSITION TOWARDS THE EMPIRE. 121 
 
 coronation. At the same time, we do not hear of the princes 
 of Bohemia doing homage or claiming investiture at the acces- 
 sion of each German sovereign, and the payment of tribute 
 proves nothing more than that there was an international treaty 
 between them. Vassals, indeed, did not pay tribute. Louis 
 the Child and Henry the Fowler paid tribute to Hungary, but 
 they were not the vassals of Hungary ; Poland at one time 
 paid tribute to Bohemia in the same way, but she was not her 
 vassal. The emperor never exercised any right of sovereignty 
 over Bohemia ; he never levied troops, he exercised no judicial 
 authority, nor could he bind Bohemia by the treaties which he 
 entered into with the court of Rome. The interference of the 
 empire in the disputes of the princes of Bohemia (as, for 
 example, in the matter of inheritance) was exactly the same in 
 character as the interference of the Chekhs themselves in the 
 affairs of Poland and Hungary. The emperor Lothar failed in 
 his attempts to impose a king on Bohemia in 1126. At the 
 beginning of the twelfth century a Bohemian prince received 
 the honorary title of cup-bearer as a reward for services rendered 
 to the empire. Later on, Otokar I. and Vacslav L took part 
 in the election of the emperor, but this title of elector was a 
 purely personal one, and involved no sort of obligation on the 
 part of Bohemia itself Just as, at the present time, the 
 sovereigns of Europe exchange orders of knighthood, and all 
 the members, for example, of the order of the Golden Fleece 
 "recognize the king of Spain as their grand-master, so in the 
 same way the acceptance of the title of king from the emperor 
 implied, according to the notions of the time, no sort of feudal 
 obligation. As time went on, the German emperors took 
 advantage of the rivalries and quarrels of the Bohemian 
 princes, just as the Tartars profited by the anarchy caused in 
 Russia by the quarrels of the princes of the house of Rurik. 
 They tried more than once to get possession of certain por- 
 tions of Bohemia, such as the bishopric of Prague and the 
 margraviate of Moravia, but after each attempt the unity of 
 the kingdom was quickly restored. When once the pope had
 
 122 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 given his sanction to the adoption of the royal title, any 
 special connection between the prince of Bohemia and the 
 emperor resting on the imperial grant must have disappeared. 
 After the election of Rudolf, Premysl Otokar II. was called 
 upon to do homage for Bohemia and Moravia, and we have 
 seen to what a struggle this claim gave rise. Albert I., in his 
 treaty with Vacslav, renounced this claim, but we shall soon 
 see how it was revived during the time of anarchy which 
 followed the tragic death of the last of the Premyslides. 
 
 Thus the claim of the empire was never clearly defined. 
 The power and individual pretensions of each sovereign 
 differed, and history can only state the facts without being able 
 to lay dow^n any definite rule. But, at the same time, we can 
 understand the conclusions arrived at by Pan-Germanic jurists 
 who dream of the reconstruction of an ideal Holy Empire. 
 
 Bohcmiaji Institutions — German Colonies. 
 
 The doctrine which maintains that all power proceeds from 
 the people is confirmed by the history of Bohemia. The crown 
 was elective before it became hereditary, and the prince was 
 assisted by a diet which was at first composed of the chiefs of 
 tribes, the heads of families, and the representatives of the free 
 cities. Later on, the earlier Premyslides convoked diets in 
 which we find the princes of the royal family, the higher clergy, 
 twelve judges chosen by the sovereign, and the representatives 
 of the nobles. The powers of this diet were mainly judicial and 
 deliberative ; by it the prince, who could only be chosen from 
 the ruling family, was elected ; the national militia was called 
 out ; and in exceptional cases taxes were levied. This diet also 
 elected the bishop of Prague. But its powers were never very 
 clearly defined, and the prince often governed without its aid. 
 From the end of the twelfth century the power of the diets in- 
 creased, and we often find them refusing their permission to 
 the sovereign to levy troops and extraordinary taxes. The diet 
 was also the highest court of justice. The earliest authentic 
 documents dealing with the relations between the prince and
 
 EXTENT OF BOHEMIA. 1 23 
 
 the diet bear date 13 10. The nobiHty was at first formed 
 of the chiefs of the tribes, and later on of officials chosen by 
 the prince, but the whole order of nobility was gradually 
 modified by the feudal ideas which prevailed in Germany. 
 
 The territory of the kingdom of Bohemia during this period 
 repeatedly extended beyond the present limits of Bohemia and 
 Moravia. At various periods the frontier included portions 
 of the present Saxony, Poland, Bavaria, Austria, Styria, 
 Carinthia, and Carniola, but all these outlying districts, most 
 of which were occupied by inhabitants not belonging to the 
 Chekh race, were gradually lost. Their loss would have been 
 of but slight importance if the Chekhs had been a strong and 
 united nation within the quadrilateral formed by the mountains 
 of Bohemia and Moravia. Unfortunately this was not the 
 case. They allowed themselves to be not only weakened 
 externally, but also internally, by the constant infiltration of a 
 German element, which, from many points of view, was far 
 more dangerous than ten serious defeats in the field. The 
 time came when Bohemia had to struggle not only with 
 enemies from without, but also with enemies from within. 
 The Chekhs had found Bohemia deserted, and they had 
 occupied only the centre of the country ; the Germans had 
 gradually taken possession of the mountainous districts and the 
 frontiers, which had at first remained uncultivated and unin- 
 habited. The Christian princes of Bohemia, unhappily, sought 
 their wives among the Germans, and these foreign princesses 
 brought to the court a large number of their countrymen, while 
 a great many German priests and monks found their way into 
 the churches and monasteries. German merchants, who were 
 allowed to settle in the vicics Teutonlconuii in Prague, ended by 
 getting possession of an entire district of the town. From 
 the twelfth century onward whole towns and villages of 
 Germans were to be found along the frontiers, where the soil 
 had been lately reclaimed, and many royal and baronial towns 
 which were built by the king, nobles, and abbots, were occu- 
 pied by German settlers. The celebrated poets of Germany,
 
 124 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Ulric of Turlin, Ulric of Eschenbach, and Henry of Freiburg, 
 appeared at the Bohemian court, and renowned soldiers filled 
 their estates with Germans, as was the case, for example, at 
 Komotau. A popular proverb says, " There are men every- 
 where, but there are Germans at Komotau." The mines of 
 Kutna Hora and Nemecky Brod (the "German Ford") also 
 attracted many foreigners. 
 
 The Slav agriculturists gladly left all tr'^de and commerce 
 in the hands of foreigners; in Poland the Jews, and in Bohemia 
 the Germans, got possession of it. Some far-seeing patriots 
 became alarmed at the growth of German influence. The 
 Chekh chronicle of Dalemil, compiled probably in the four- 
 teenth century, expresses, sometimes in very outspoken fashion, 
 the grief and anger of a Slav who sees his native tongue and 
 his fatherland threatened. The following words are put into 
 the mouth of the princess Libusa : — " If a foreigner comes to 
 rule you, your nation will not last. A wise man does not 
 consult foreigners. A foreigner will employ the people of his 
 own tongue and will seek to do you evil. He will divide your 
 inheritance among his own people. Look well that you trust 
 not your fortune to the stranger, O Bohemian chief ! There, 
 where but one language is spoken, there glory is to be found." 
 But these warnings of some unknown patriot were to remain 
 without any echo till the days when the Hussites unfurled the 
 standard alike of religious reform and of national unity. 
 
 Religion — A rts — Cii nlization . 
 
 When the Catholic Church introduced the Roman liturgy 
 into Bohemia, she did much to clear the way for German 
 influences. Bohemia had been Christianized by Moravia and 
 German}^ but, in consequence of the destruction of the arch- 
 bishopric of the Moravians, she had been placed under the 
 jurisdiction of Ratisbon, and remained so until the creation of 
 the episcopal see of Prague, which was attached to the arch- 
 bishopric of Mainz. The pope, when he -made Bohemia into 
 a bishopric, insisted that the Roman liturgy alone should be 
 employed. The bishop was usually elected by the diet and
 
 RELIGION— A RTS. 1 2 5 
 
 the prince together; after the middle of the twelfth century 
 he was chosen by the chapter, whose choice was ratified by the 
 prince. Notwithstanding the papal decrees, the Slav liturgy 
 continued to find some adherents. In 1032, prince Oldric 
 founded the monastery of Sazava, in which it was used, but 
 the Slav monks were soon exiled into Hungary in consequence 
 of the protests of the Latin clergy. They were recalled in 
 1068, but disappear entirely in 1096. 
 
 Most of the foreign orders flourished in Bohemia. We 
 find Benedictines, Premonstratensians, Cistercians, Johannites, 
 Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, and Carthusians. The 
 only schools in the country belonged to them. In the thir- 
 teenth century the most celebrated school was the Studium 
 Generale established in the castle at Prague, where grammar 
 and logic were taught by eminent masters. The clergy pos- 
 sessed considerable influence, and Bohemia remained faithful 
 to Catholic unity down to the fourteenth century; the first 
 heresies make their appearance in the beginning of that century. 
 
 Though the literature of that time was but little developed, 
 it had produced some works of interest. The Latin tongue, 
 so dear to the priests, had not entirely put an end to national 
 culture. Cosmos, dean of the chapter of Prague, wrote a 
 chronicle of Bohemia at the beginning of the eleventh century, 
 which now, in spite of the pseudo-classical style of the author, 
 is extremely valuable. We find religious hymns, sacred texts, 
 lyric and heroic poems in the language of the Chekhs — some 
 describing the life of the nation and of great poetic value ; 
 others, imitations of Christian or romantic legends of the Middle 
 Ages, such as the legends of St. Catherine, St. Dorothy, and 
 Alexander the Great. 
 
 Neither were the fine arts neglected. The Church inte- 
 rested itself in their development and employed them for 
 religious purposes. At the end of the eleventh century, Boze- 
 tech, abbot of the Slav monastery of Sazava, is spoken of as 
 a clever painter and a skilful carver in wood and stone. The 
 chronicle relates how the bishop of Prague, jealous of his 
 powers, imposed upon him a singular penance ; he ordered
 
 126 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 him to carve a Christ in wood of the size of hfe, and to bear 
 it to Rome on his shoulders. 
 
 The two styles of art, the Byzantine and the Italian, may 
 be said to have met in Bohemia, but the triumph of the 
 Roman Church carried with it that of Italian art. A large 
 number of churches were built in the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries, among them the Roman basilica of St. Vit at Prague. 
 About one hundred and fifty churches built in the Roman 
 style are known to exist in Bohemia. Gothic art made its 
 appearance there in the thirteenth century, and reached its 
 highest point of delicacy in the fourteenth. 
 
 We have already seen how Prague became the seat of a 
 brilliant and knightly court under the last Premsylides. The 
 coronation of Vacslav II., in 1297, was one of the most 
 brilliant ceremonies of the Middle Ages. " It was," says a 
 German chronicle, '•' such a festival as had never been cele- 
 brated, neither by a king of Assyria, nor by Solomon himself" 
 The number of strangers who flocked to it was so vast that, 
 according to contemporary accounts, food had to be found 
 for nineteen thousand horses. There came to it not less than 
 twenty-eight princes, lay and ecclesiastic j the archbishops of 
 Mainz and Magdeburg, the bishops of Prague, Olomouc, 
 Cracow, Basel, and Constance; the archduke Albert of 
 Austria, with a suite of seven thousand knights ; the princes 
 of Saxony, Brandenburg, and of Misnia. The town of Prague 
 was not large enough to hold the crowd of visitors, and a vast 
 palace of wood, decorated with valuable tapestry, was built on 
 the neighbouring plain, and there the guests of high rank were 
 entertained magnificently. In the public squares the foun- 
 tains flowed with wine. The coronation took place in the 
 cathedral of St. Vit. The royal crown was worth two thou- 
 sand marks of silver ; the sword and buckler, three thousand ; 
 the mantle, four thousand ; and no one dared to say what was 
 the worth of the girdle, the rings, and the royal cap. Such 
 unheard-of splendour awaited the strangers who then visited 
 the town of Prague !
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE AUSTRIAN GROUP — THE HOUSE 
 OF BABENBERG, 973-I246. 
 
 The Eastern March — The First jBal>e?ibergs — Henry 
 lasomirgott (973-1 1 77). 
 
 Austria, as is well known, is but the Latin form of the 
 German Oesterreich, the kingdom of the east. This celebrated 
 historical name appears for the first time in 996, in a docu- 
 ment signed by the emperor Otto III. {in regione vidgari 
 nomine Osterrichi)} The land to which it is there applied 
 was created a march after the destruction of the Avar empire, 
 and was governed like all the other German marches. Politi- 
 cally it was divided into two margraviates : '^ that of Friuli 
 including Friuli properly so called, Lower Pannonia to the 
 south of the Drave, Carinthia, Istria, and the interior of 
 Dalmatia — the sea-coast having been ceded to the Eastern 
 emperor; — the eastern margraviate comprising Lower Pan- 
 nonia to the north of the Drave, Upper Pannonia, and the 
 Ostmark properly so called. The Ostmark included the 
 Traungau^ to the east of the Enns, which was completely 
 German, and the Grunzvittigau. The ecclesiastical govern- 
 
 ' In other documents we find a Latin translation of the word — oricittale 
 regniim, orieiitalis provincia. 
 
 - Mark graf, count of the frontier. 
 
 ^ The Traungau is the district between the two tributaries of the 
 Danube, the Enns and the Traun.
 
 128 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 ment of these lands was divided between the bishops of Salz- 
 burg and Aquileia. The bishopric of Salzburg had been 
 founded in 710 by St. Emeran of Poictiers ; that of Aquileia 
 presumed to date its foundation from the time of the apostle 
 St. Mark. The population was principally composed of 
 Germans and Slavs, but except in Dalmatia, these Slavs gradu- 
 ally lost their individuality, and could not be distinguished from 
 the rest of the inhabitants. The early history of these coun- 
 tries lacks the unity of interest which the fate of a dynasty or 
 a nation gives to those of the Magyar and the Chekh. They 
 form but a portion of the German kingdom, and have no 
 strongly marked life of their own. 
 
 The march, with its varying frontier, had not even a 
 geographical unity. In 876, it was enlarged by the addition 
 of Bavaria ; in 890, it lost Pannonia, which was given to 
 Bracislav, the Croat prince, in return for his help against the 
 Magyars, and in 93 7; it was destroyed and absorbed by the Mag- 
 yars, who extended their frontier to the river Enns. After the 
 battle of Lechfeld or Augsburg (955), Germany and Italy being 
 no longer exposed to Hungarian invasions, the march was re- 
 constituted and granted to the margrave Burkhard, the brother- 
 in-law of Henry of Bavaria, Leopold of Babenberg succeeded 
 him (973), and with him begins the dynasty of Babenberg, 
 which ruled the country during the time of the Premyslides 
 and the house of Arpad. 
 
 The Babenbergs derived their name from the castle of 
 Babenberg, built by Henry, margrave of Nordgau, in honour 
 of his wife, Baba, sister of Henry the Fowler. It reappears 
 in the name of the town of Bamberg, which now forms part 
 of the kingdom of Bavaria. 
 
 Leopold, on whom the chroniclers bestow the title of 
 Illustrious, was already count of the Donaugau, the district 
 in which lies the town of Ratisbon, and of the Traungau, while 
 his father, Berthold, was count of the Nordgau, the land lying 
 north of Ratisbon. In his time, the town of Moellk, on the 
 Danube above Vienna, was captured from the Magyars. His
 
 THE MARCH OF AUSTRIA. I 29 
 
 successor, Henry, resided there, and it was there, according 
 to tradition, that Leopold founded a monastery for twelve 
 secular priests. He perished at 'Wiirzburg, struck by an arrow 
 aimed at his nephew, Henry of Schweinfurt, to avenge the 
 blinding of one of the knights of that town. His eldest son, 
 Henry I. (994-1018), received investiture for the margraviate 
 from Otto III. Though not of right an hereditary office, the 
 margraviate soon became so, and remained in the family of 
 the Babenbergs ; the march was so important a part of the 
 empire that no doubt the emperor was glad to make the 
 defence of this exposed district the especial interest of one 
 family. The other sons of Leopold were equally well pro- 
 vided for. Ernest obtained the duchy of Swabia, and Poppo 
 the bishopric which had been recently founded at Bamberg, and 
 afterwards that of Trieste, The emperor also granted a large 
 number of hereditary domains along the shores of the Danube 
 to the margrave Henry. The conversion of the ISIagyars to 
 Christianity had softened the manners of this conquering race, 
 and made Henry's task of protecting Germany comparatively 
 easy, but Adalbert the Victorious (10 18-1056) had a hard 
 struggle against them, and owes his name of the Victorious to 
 the successes he gained. He extended the march of Austria 
 as far as the banks of the Leitha. He also helped the emperor 
 considerably against Hungary, and received in return fresh 
 grants to himself and his heirs of estates within the march. 
 
 The Ostmark was almost doubled in size under the rule 
 of Adalbert, who chose the town of TuUn, on the Danube, 
 between Vienna and Moelk, as his place of residence. His 
 son, Ernest the Valiant (1056-1075), gave a fresh proof of the 
 loyalty of the Babenbergs to the emperor and empire by his 
 death in battle against the Saxons at Unstrut. But Leopold 
 the Handsome (1075-1096) proved faithless to the traditions 
 of the family, and took the side of Gregory VH. against the 
 emperor Henry IV. in the quarrel about investitures. He was 
 defeated by the imperial forces and reduced to submission, but 
 soon after took up the cause of the anti-king, Hermann of 
 
 K
 
 130 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUKGARY. 
 
 Luxemburg. Henry IV. thereupon granted investiture for 
 the march of Austria to Vratislav, duke of Bohemia, but 
 Vratislav was never able to gain possession of the land, and, 
 in spite of the disloyalty of Leopold the Handsome, his son, 
 Leopold IIL, succeeded him in the government of the march. 
 This prince, who proudly styled himself margrave of Austria 
 by the grace of God, entered into an alliance with the king of 
 the Romans, Henry V., who had revolted against his f.ither. 
 Henry V. rewarded him for this valuable assistance by giving 
 him his sister Agnes in marriage. She was the widow of 
 Frederick of Swabia, so that the marriage allied the house of 
 Austria with the future dynasty of the Hohenstaufen. Agnes 
 had eighteen children, of whom two, Leopold and Henry, 
 succeeded their father. One of these eighteen children was 
 the celebrated annalist. Otto of Freisingen, bishop of that 
 town. By their marriages the daughters of Leopold allied the 
 house of Babenberg with the ruling families of Thuringia and 
 Montferrat, with the Piasts of Poland and the Premyslides of 
 Bohemia, When the Salic dynasty became extinct in the 
 person of Henry V., Leopold IH. was proposed as emperor, 
 together with Frederick of Swabia and Lothar of Saxony; a 
 strong proof of the importance which had been acquired b}^ 
 the march of Austria and the family which governed it. 
 Leopold retired in favour of Frederick, but the princes chose 
 Lothar of Saxony. 
 
 In the fifteenth century, Leopold was canonized by pope 
 Innocent VIIL, and, indeed, his generosity to the Church de- 
 served its gratitude. He founded new monasteries, and enriched 
 those which already existed. He gave Klosterneuburg to the 
 Benedictines, and Heiligenkreuz to tlie Cistercians ; he also 
 richly endowed Kremmunster and St. Florian. On his death, 
 the emperor Lothar granted investiture to one of his younger 
 sons, Leopold IV. (1136-1141). The marriages of the Baben- 
 bergs were fortunate; in 11 38, the brother-in-law of Leopold, 
 Conrad of Hohenstaufen, duke of Franconia, was made 
 emperor. It was now that the struggle began between the
 
 FIRST DUKE OF AUSTRIA. I3I 
 
 liouse of Hohenstaufen and the great house of Welf, whose 
 representative was Henry the Proud, duke of Saxony and 
 Bavaria. Henry was defeated in the unequal strife, and was 
 placed under the ban of the empire, while the duchy of Saxony 
 was awarded to Albert the Bear of Brandenburg, and the 
 duchy of Bavaria fell to the share of Leopold IV. (1138). 
 Henry the Proud died in the following year, leaving behind 
 him a son under age, who was known later on as Henry 
 the Lion. His uncle Welf would not submit to the forfeiture 
 by his house of their old dominions, and marched against 
 Leopold to reconquer Bavaria, but he was defeated by Conrad 
 at the battle of Weinsberg (1140). Leopold died shortly after 
 this victory, and was succeeded both in the duchy of Bavaria 
 and in the margraviate of Austria by his brother, Henry H. 
 This prince was surnamed lasomirgott from his favourite 
 motto {Inch sam viir Gott helfe — So God be my aid). He was 
 the first hereditary duke of Austria. 
 
 Henry II., lasomirgott (1141-1177), endeavoured to 
 strengthen himself in Bavaria by marrying Gertrude, widow of 
 Henry the Proud, and forcing her to obtain from her son, 
 Henry the Lion, a renunciation of all his rights in favour of 
 her new husband. But after the death of his mother, Henry 
 declared this renunciation null and void, on the plea that it 
 had been extorted from him when he was young and in- 
 experienced. This marriage, which had been entered into 
 solely on grounds of expediency, was speedily dissolved, and 
 soon after we find Henry lasomirgott taking part in one of 
 the crusades and marrying, at Constantinople, the daughter of 
 the Byzantine emperor, Theodore Comnenus. The emperor 
 Frederick I. of Swabia, who was allied both to the family 
 of the Welfs and that of the Babenbergs, either dared not 
 or would not interfere to put an end to the quarrel. He left 
 it to be decided by the German princes, and, in 1156, the 
 diet decreed that Bavaria should be restored to Henry the 
 Lion. It was owing to the wise counsel of his relation, Otto 
 of Freisingen, that Henry lasomirgott finally gave up Bavaria,
 
 132 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUXGARY. 
 
 and he lost nothing by this unwilHng act of disinterestedness, 
 for he secured from the emperor considerable compensation. 
 
 From this time forward, Austria, whicli had been largely 
 increased by the addition of the greater part of the lands lying 
 between the Enns and the Inn, was removed from its almost 
 nominal subjection to Bavaria and became a separate duchy. 
 An imperial edict, dated the 21st of September, 1156, declares 
 the new duchy hereditary even in the female line, and authorizes 
 the dukes to absent themselves from all diets except those 
 which were held in Bavarian territory. It also permits them, 
 in case of a threatened extinction of their dynasty, to propose 
 a successor {jus affectandi). This edict has been named the 
 privilegium minus, to distinguish it from another but apocryphal 
 document called the privilegium inajus, which was manu- 
 factured in the fourteenth century, and of which we shall 
 speak later on. 
 
 Henry 11. was one of the founders of Vienna. He con- 
 structed a fortress there, and, in order to civilize the surround- 
 ing country, sent for some Scotch monks, of Avhom there were 
 many at this time in Germany. 
 
 Leopold V. (1T98-1230) — Frederick the Fighter (i 230-1 246) 
 — AcquisitioJi of Styria ajid part of Carniola. 
 
 Ill 1177^ Leopold v., called the Virtuous, succeeded Henry 
 lasomirgott. In his reign the duchy of Austria gained Styria, 
 an important addition to its territory. This province was 
 inhabited by Slovenes and Germans, and took its name from 
 the castle of Steyer, built in 980 by Otokar III., count of the 
 Traungau. In 1056, it was created a margraviate, and in 11 50 
 it was enlarged by the addition of the counties of Maribor 
 (Marburg) and Cilly. In 11 80, Otokar "\T. of Styria (1164- 
 1192) obtained the hereditary title of duke from the emperor 
 in return for his help against Henry the Lion. The imperial 
 gift came just at the right moment for Austria, for Otokar 
 dying without children and making Leopold his heir, Styria 
 was annexed to Austria in 11 92, and has remained so ever
 
 LEO FOLD ]'. 133 
 
 since. The emperor Henry VI. ratified its annexation at 
 "Worms, 
 
 Leopold V. is the first of the Austrian princes whose name 
 is known in Western Europe. He joined the third crusade, 
 and thus came in contact with most of the CathoUc kings of 
 the time. He first visited the Holy Land in 1182; on his 
 return thither in 1191 he met Philip Augustus and Richard 
 Coeur de Lion, and at the siege of St. Jean d'Acre quarrelled 
 with the turbulent king of England. In 1192, he returned to 
 his own land. Shortly after, Richard Coeur de Lion was over- 
 taken by a storm between Venice and Aquileia, and determined 
 to cross Europe incognito in order to regain England. Leopold 
 heard of his presence in his territories, and was not slow to 
 seize the opportunity to revenge himself on his detested 
 rival. He had him made prisoner and confined in the castle 
 of Diirrenstein, near Krems on the Danube, and afterwards 
 sold his prisoner to the emperor for twenty thousand marks. 
 While Richard was still in his power he had extracted from 
 him the promise of a marriage between the houses of Baben- 
 berg and Plantagenet. These incidents would seem to show 
 that he had but little claim to his surname of the Virtuous. 
 
 The successor of Leopold V. was Frederick I. Like his 
 father, he was an ardent crusader, and only returned from 
 Palestine to die. During his absence, his brother Leopold, 
 surnamed the Proud, who had been made duke of Styria by 
 his father, was entrusted with the regency in Austria. He 
 succeeded Frederick (1198-1230), and played an important 
 part in the affairs of Germany, attaching himself to the cause 
 of Philip of Hohenstaufen, and helping him to defeat the anti- 
 king Otto IV., who had been recognized by the pope. Inno- 
 cent III. On the death of Philip, Leopold VL was politic 
 enough to keep on fair terms with his rival, and kept out of 
 the way when Frederic 11. was chosen emperor. A crusade 
 in Spain furnished him with a good excuse for leaving Austria. 
 He reached Spain, however, too late to be of use, for when he 
 met the kings of Castile and Aragon at Calatrava they had
 
 134 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 already defeated the ]\Ioors at Tolosa. In 121 7, he again 
 took the cross, set out for Palestine accompanied by Andrew II., 
 king of Hungary, and played a distinguished part in the 
 expedition against Damietta. 
 
 The emperor Frederick II. took every possible means of 
 assuring the fidelity of so powerful a vassal and so valiant a 
 knight. On the death of the archbishop of Cologne, he 
 appointed him Reichsverwese/; or vicar of the empire, and he 
 gave his daughter in marriage to Leopold's son Henry. This 
 alliance v/ith the imperial house, and the important position in 
 Christendom which Leopold had acquired, enabled him to plav 
 the part of mediator in the quarrels which arose between 
 Frederick and the pope, Honorius III. With this end in view 
 lie undertook a journey into Italy in 1229, where, with the 
 help of the patriarch of Aquileia and the archbishop of Salz- 
 burg, he was able to bring about an agreement between the 
 emperor and the pontiff, which was concluded at San Germano. 
 He did not survive this peaceful triumph, but died at San 
 Germano, and was buried at Monte Cassino (1230). 
 
 At home, \.g.o\)o\<1 endeavoured to develop the commerce 
 and trade of his country. He made Vienna the staple town, 
 and lent a sum of thirty thousand marks of silver to the city 
 to enable it to increase its trade. He adorned it with many 
 new buildings, among them the Neue Burg. He strengthened 
 the defences of the frontiers, founded new monasteries, and 
 granted municipal institutions to Enns, Krems, and Vienna. 
 But while busy with the interests of the state, Leopold did not 
 forget those of his private domains, which he increased by the 
 acquisition of various allodial estates within his duchy. Besides 
 these, he purchased lands in Carniola from bishop Gerald of 
 Freisingen, and this led the way to the future annexation of 
 Carniola to Austria. The revenue of the state in his time 
 rose to about sixty thousand marks of silver. 
 
 Leopold the Proud was succeeded by his son Frederick 
 the Fighter (1230-1246). The short reign of this prince was 
 one continued struggle against his neighbours. With the
 
 FREDERICK THE FIGHTER. I 35 
 
 emperor Frederic II. he fought against Hungary and against 
 Bohemia, and then he turned against Frederick to assist the 
 Lombard cities, and to support the emperor's rival, Henry of 
 Thuringia, who had married his sister Margaret. His aim 
 seemed to be complete independence, and it was not long 
 before he was placed under the ban of the empire, and 
 Bohemia, Bavaria, Brandenburg, and Hungary all took up 
 arms against him. The celebrated chancellor, Peter de Vinea, 
 was called upon to write a violent pamphlet against him, in 
 which he was represented as a treacherous member of the 
 empire and a monster of iniquity who had forfeited the 
 imperial clemency. It was impossible to withstand so many 
 enemies. The lands on the Upper Enns as far as Linz fell 
 into the hands of Otto of Bavaria, while A^'ienna was declared 
 an imperial city, and a lieutenant was sent by the emperor to 
 govern the conquered Austrian territory. But the Fighter 
 defended himself with vigour, and in the end reconquered 
 part of his land, and became reconciled with the empeior 
 (1240). Frederick annulled the privileges recently given to 
 Vienna, and at the diet of Verona (1245) confirmed the powers 
 which had been granted to the dukes of Austria in 1156. 
 Thus the very revolts of Austria against the empire turned to 
 her advantage, while the misfortunes which now burst over her 
 neighbours were of equal benefit to her. 
 
 The Mongols had invaded Hungary. King Bela applied 
 for help to Austria, and offered in exchange for her assistance 
 to pledge to Frederick the Fighter three of his coi/iiiafs. 
 Frederick, who was as little generous towards Bela as his pre- 
 decessor had been towards Richard Coeur de Lion, demanded 
 their entire surrender, and then declared war against Hungary. 
 He died on the 15th of June, 1246, on the banks of the Leitha, 
 slain, according to some, by the Hungarians ; according to 
 others, by one of his own followers. He was hated even by 
 many of his own subjects. " A hard man," one of the 
 chroniclers calls him ; "cruel in his judgments, brave in fight, 
 greedy, . and rapacious. He had filled with terror both his
 
 136 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUXGARY. 
 
 friends and his neighbours. No man loved him ; all feared 
 him." Ulric of Lichtenstein, the knightly poet of Styria. is 
 more tender of his memory : " He is dead ... he has left 
 great woe behind him in Styria and in Austria. . . . Many 
 are now poor who were rich. . . . His soul must be in 
 heaven, for he was kind to the brave." With him the dynasty 
 of Babenberg came to an end (1246). Their remains lie in 
 the church of the little town of Molk, which has long since 
 been eclipsed by the splendour of Vienna. 
 
 The Laws of Austria under the Babenhcrgs — The 
 Landeshohcit — The Tmviis — Literature. 
 
 The immediate authority of the princes of the empire 
 over the lands which had been entrusted to them had been 
 greatly increased by the right of inheritance, conferred in the 
 first instance upon the margraves, and afterwards upon the 
 dukes, while the quan-els with the popes had helped to 
 weaken the authority of the emperors. Crradually corpora- 
 tions, lay and ecclesiastical, monasteries, towns, and citizen.s 
 were freed from dependence on the emperors, and placed 
 under the authority of the princes. This authority is called 
 by German historians la?ideshoheit, i.e. lordship over a par- 
 ticular district. We find this spirit of "particularism" espe- 
 cially strong in Southern Germany. Thus, as early as 1184, 
 Otokar, duke of Styria, called \\\msQ\( landesherr, lord of the 
 land ; and the annexation of Styria to Austria must have 
 strengthened in the latter the feeling of local independence. 
 
 ^^'ith the development of the landeshoheit the old nobility 
 declined, and its place was filled by an official nobilit}-, 
 composed of the followers of the prince who bore office about 
 his person ; and very soon the difference between these two 
 classes of nobles disappeared, as both became equally de- 
 pendent on the prince. In this matter, again, Styria set the 
 example to Austria, the dukes of Austria having promised the 
 miuisteriales of Styria that they would observe those privileges 
 which had been granted to them by their earlier princes.
 
 LAWS OF STYRI.l. I 37 
 
 As regards municipal law also Styria was ahead of Austria. 
 As early as 12 12, the towns of Enns obtained from the em- 
 peror a muncipal code, or stadtrccht, the text of which is 
 preserved to this day among its archives. According to this 
 code, the lord of the land is the archduke, and for him is 
 reserved the punishment of certain crimes ; his will is law. 
 Under him judicial authority is exercised by a town judge, 
 assisted by an inferior magistrate {nachrichter) and by police 
 {sche)-gen), who are paid officials. The stadtrecht is mainly 
 a code of criminal law founded on the principle of ivehrgeld; 
 in all cases of pecuniary compensation, a third of the fine is 
 allotted to the judge. Trials by ordeal are allowed. The law 
 of inheritance permits the wife or child to inherit, or the 
 nearest relations, if they reside on the land of the duchy ; if 
 not, they are only to have half. The foreigner who dies in the 
 land is allowed to leave his property to whomsoever he likes ; 
 if he dies without a will, for a year and a day it is held in 
 trust for his heirs; if no one then claims it, it is to become the 
 property of the duke. A municipal council is formed by six 
 of the highest burgesses, whose business it is to control the 
 markets and to watch over the interests of the town. The 
 legal maxim of England, " Every man's house is his castle," is 
 well known. The stadrecht maintains the inviolability of the 
 household in almost the same words : " Wo. will that for 
 each citizen his house shall be a fortress {pro muiiitione) for 
 himself, his family, and whomsoever may enter his door." 
 Every violation of the hearth is punished by a fine of five 
 marks or the loss of a hand. The citizens are to have the 
 right of keeping horses, both for their business and amusement. 
 
 Leopold VI. took this code as his model for the one he 
 granted to Vienna in 1221, wherein, indeed, he carried its 
 principles even further. Thus, to the laws concerning the 
 inviolability of the household, it is added that no one shall 
 enter a house with a bow or a quiver ; that no one shall walk 
 about the town with a poignard at his girdle under penalty of 
 the payment of a talent and the forfeiture of the weapon ; that
 
 138 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUXGARY. 
 
 he who shall conceal a weapon in his boot shall pay ten talents 
 or lose his hand. The chief citizens of each district of the 
 town are ordered to exercise supervision over all business 
 transactions to the amount of two talents. A striking analogy 
 is to be found between the municipal laws of the Babenbergs 
 and those of the Flemish and Picard towns, Ghent, Bruges, 
 Ypres, Arras, Furnes, and Laon. This is explained by the large 
 trade which the Flemings carried on in the Danubian countries, 
 especially in Hungary. Flemish merchants resided in Vienna, 
 and as early as 1208 we find them in possession of several 
 privileges. Other towns also received municipal laws, but 
 these we cannot here examine. 
 
 The laws concerning the Jews deserve special notice, as 
 they are singularly liberal for the time. They have their 
 synagogues in Vienna from 1200 onward. The coining of 
 money is entrusted to them with the title of "counts of the 
 chamber." Some of the laws show remarkable tolerance, 
 especially if we consider the prejudices of the Middle Ages ; 
 for example, if a stolen article is found in the house of a Jew, 
 it is enough for him to swear that he has purchased it, and he 
 has only to restore it in return for what he gave for it. The 
 laws of Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, and Thuringia concerning 
 Jews, were all copied from those of Austria. 
 
 Under the protection of peaceful laws, the trade and 
 industry of Austria developed rapidly. The situation of the 
 country -was especially fortunate as regards commerce, placed 
 as she was on the frontiers of Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, 
 and with the Danube as her riven A rhymed chronicler en- 
 thusiastically celebrates her splendour and prosperity : " This 
 land has ever}'thing in abundance — cattle and wine, corn 
 and other fruits ; all that is needed for the food of man — 
 game and fish and excellent bread. The Danube, with her 
 clear waters, adorns the landscape, and brings day and night 
 without pause, all that is needed to the towns and the villages." 
 This joyous and fruitful land may be called the Italy of 
 Germany.
 
 TRADE REGULATIOXS. I 39 
 
 We very early find commercial relations established between 
 Styria and Italy. To increase them Leopold built a bridge of 
 stone over the Save, at the spot called to this day Steinbruck. 
 But trade in those days was far from being free. For example, 
 the town of Gratz had the rights of a staple-town ; all foreign 
 goods had to be brought there to be weighed on the town 
 scales, and could only be carried by the town waggons. The 
 rules of the staple in some other towns contained still more 
 irksome regulations. All goods sent through the town of 
 Bruck, on the river ]\Iur, had to be exposed in the public 
 square and put up to auction, and only that portion which had 
 found no purchaser among the citizens was allowed to leave 
 the place. 
 
 Enns was the great commercial city on the way from 
 Ratisbon to Vienna. It was the great warehouse of the 
 Augsburg merchants, who went to buy furs at the fair of 
 Kiev, and carried western wares into Russia. Along the 
 same road were jSIedlich, St. Polten, Tulnn, Stein, and 
 Mauthausen. Along it travelled the merchants of Burgundy, 
 Lorraine, Cologne, and INIaestricht ; the woven stuffs of the 
 East, the furs of Hungary, the silks of Venice, found their 
 way by it to the north and w^est. Purchase and sale were 
 carried on partly by money, partly by barter. The money of 
 the Babenbergs was coined at Venice and Neustadt ; few 
 of these coins remain. For those times the riches of Austria 
 were great, and manners improved in consequence of this 
 prosperity. The monasteries furnished a large number of 
 chroniclers, and schools were opened by the monks. The 
 theatre seems to have been unknown ; we meet with but one 
 mention of an Easter mystery {(Jsiersjyiel) ; this was at the 
 monastery of St. Florian. Poetry, however, was cultivated 
 with ardour in the court of the Babenbergs, and, according 
 to tradition, Leopold VI. was a poet, and Frederick the 
 Fighter wrote love-songs. Three of the most celebrated of 
 the minnesingers, Reinar von Hagenau, Walter von der Vogel- 
 weide, and Reinar von Zweter, passed part of their lives
 
 140 HISTORY OF AUSTKO-HUXGARY. 
 
 llicre. AV'alter called Austria his second fatherland ; " it was 
 there," he said, "that he had learnt to sing and to relate 
 stories." Several tinaes he celebrates the names of Leopold 
 VI. and Frederick the Fighter. Tannhaiiser praised Frederick 
 II. during his life, and mourned for him after his death. 
 '•'With him," he says, "all joy is dead." Another poet. 
 Nidhart of Reuenthal, the Bavarian, also dwelt for some time 
 in Austria, and his poems very pleasantly describe the dances 
 and rustic games of the country. 
 
 But the minnesingers did not flourish in Austria onl)-. We 
 find them also in Styria, where lived Rudolf van Stadek, and 
 where may still be seen the castle of Ulric von lichtenstein, on 
 the banks of the Mur. He was cup-bearer {iruchsess) to duke 
 Frederick. This singer of the most tender sentiments and 
 most refined gallantry never knew how to read or write. At 
 the famous poetical tournament of Wartburg, at the court of 
 Thuringia, where the seven greatest singers then living rivalled 
 one another in singing the praises of their masters, it was to the 
 sun itself, says the legend, that Henry of Ofterdingen compared 
 the duke of Austria. 
 
 Thus we find, under the princes of the house of Babenberg, 
 a German literature forcing its way between a Slavonic Bohemia 
 and a Magyar Hungary.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE AUSTRIAN GROUP UNDER THE FIRST HABSBURGS 
 (1273-1493). 
 
 Rudolf I. invests his Sons ivitJi Austria and Styria (1273-1298) 
 — FndericJz the Handsome (1330-1358) — Acquisition of 
 Carinthia. 
 
 Historians have given the name of "the Austrian Interregnum" 
 to the period which elapsed between the death of the last of the 
 Babenbergs and the accession of the first prince of the house 
 of Habsburg. We have already seen in the history of Bohemia 
 how the inheritance of the former was for a time united to tlie 
 kingdom of St. Vacslav; thirty years elapsed after the death of 
 Frederick the Fighter before it fell into the hands of the family 
 which now holds possession of it. The origin of this family 
 has been a constant puzzle to the fertile imaginations of genea- 
 logists. Some among them trace it back to the Merovingians ; 
 others to the Caroliugians ; others, again, to that duke Ethico 
 of Alamania who is supposed to have been the common stock 
 from which sprang the houses of Habsburg, Lorraine, and 
 Baden. What is quite certain is that the house of Habsburg 
 is of Alamannic origin. The first domains held by it were in 
 the present Alsace and Switzerland, and in Swabia. It took 
 its name from the castle of Habsburg, which was built in the 
 year 1027, by Werner, bishop of Strasburg, on the heights of 
 Windisch, near the river Aar, in what is now the canton of 
 Aargau. The first mention of the castle of Habsburg {Habichts-
 
 142 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUXGARY. 
 
 burg, the castle of vultures, the ruins of which still remain) 
 occurs in a document of the year 1099. 
 
 We have nothing to do here with the deeds of Rudolf^ as 
 emperor, and we have already narrated in the history of Bohemia 
 the manner in which he conquered the Austrian territories. 
 His exploits and his triumphs spread far and wide the terror of 
 his name. " O Lord God," exclaims a contemporary, "keep a 
 firm seat on Thy throne, else will Rudolf overthrow Thee also." 
 When once he was established on the Danube, he kej^t Bohemia 
 and Hungary well in check, and was able to maintain a watch 
 upon their actions far more efficient than could have been that 
 of the emperors who were settled on the Rhine. But the 
 empire was elective, and Rudolf could not feel sure that it 
 would remain in his family ; he therefore saw the need of 
 doing all he could to secure to his children the lands he had 
 conquered. After obtaining the sanction of the electors, he 
 solemnly invested (1282) his two sons, Albert and Rudolf, with 
 Austria, Styria, and Carniola; and a few years later (1286) 
 he assigned Carinthia to Meinhard of Tyrol, to reward him for 
 the help he had received from him in his war against Premysl 
 Otokar. But the states of Austria and Styria were but little 
 satisfied with their new master; they disliked the Swabian 
 counsellors whom Albert brought with him, and before long a 
 revolution broke out in Austria. The town of Vienna, which, 
 during the struggle with Otokar, Rudolf had made into a fief 
 directly dependent upon himself, revolted, and was only 
 subdued by force of arms. Rudolf died on the 15th of July, 
 1291, and his son Albert was not chosen emperor till 1298. 
 After the murder of the last of the Prcmyslides at Olomouc, 
 Albert succeeded in gaining for his son Rudolf the crown of 
 Bohemia, a crown, however, which he was not able long to 
 retain ; two centuries had yet to elapse before the house 
 
 ^ The Austrian genealogists, who liavc taken indefatigable but in- 
 effectual pains to trace (Rudolf's) illustrious descent from the Normans, 
 carry it with great probability to Ethico, duke of Alsace in the seventh 
 century, and unquestionably to Gontram the Rich, count of Alsace and 
 Ereisgau, who flourished in the tentli. — Co\e, House of Austria.
 
 BATTLE OF MCHLDORF. 1 43 
 
 of Habsburg obtained possession of the kingdom of St. 
 Vacslav. 
 
 We shall say nothing of the domains of the Habsburgs in 
 Swabia and in what are now Alsace and Switzerland, as their 
 history forms part of that of German}^ In Austria, Albert's 
 reign was disturbed, as we have seen, by troubles with the 
 town of Vienna and also with the archbishops of Salzburg; he 
 was assassinated in Switzerland by John tlie Parricide (1308). 
 His son Frederick the Handsome vainly tried to obtain the 
 imperial crown ; together with that of Bohemia it passed to the 
 house of Luxemburg, Henry VII. being chosen emperor, and 
 his son John becoming king of Bohemia. On the death of 
 Henry (1313), leaving John still too young for election to 
 the empire, the Luxemburg party proposed Louis, duke of 
 Bavaria, as their candidate, while the Austrian party elected 
 Frederick. This led to a war, which lasted eight years, and 
 was only ended by the battle of Miihldorf and the defeat of 
 Frederick (1322). He was taken prisoner, and only released 
 on the understanding that he should abandon all claim to the 
 empire ; but, in spite of this, a treaty was concluded later on 
 between the rivals, which secured to them a condonilnium. 
 Frederick took the title of king of the Romans, but he had 
 hardly any of the power usually attached to the name. He 
 died in 1330. His two brothers, Albert the Wise and Otto 
 the Gay, threatened to renew the war with the emperor, and 
 entered into an alliance with king John of Bohemia, but the 
 ambition of this latter prince made of him rather a rival than a 
 useful ally. He had married his second son, John Henry, at 
 the age of eight, to the celebrated INIargaret Maultasche (Pouch- 
 mouth), daughter of the duke of Tyrol and Carinthia, who was 
 then twelve years old, hoping by thus reuniting these two 
 provinces to Bohemia to regain the power which had once 
 belonged to Premysl Otokar, to hold the empire in check, and 
 to destroy the power of Austria, 
 
 A common danger once more united the emperor and the 
 Austrian princes. By the treaty of Hagenau (1330), it was
 
 144 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-nUNGARY. 
 
 arranged that on the death of duke Henry, who had no male 
 heirs, Carinthia should become the property of Austria, and 
 Tyrol that of the emperor. Henry died in 1335, whereupon 
 the emperor, Louis of Bavaria, declared that Margaret Maul- 
 tasche had forfeited all rights of inheritance, and proceeded 
 to assign the two provinces to the Austrian princes, with the 
 exception of some portion of the Tyrol which devolved on 
 the house of Wittelsbach. Carinthia alone, however, obeyed 
 the emperor ; the Tyrolese nobles declared for Margaret, and, 
 with the help of John of Bohemia, this princess was able to 
 keep possession of this part of her inheritance. Thus early 
 did Tyrol display that loyalty for which she afterwards became 
 so famous.^ 
 
 Carinthia also did not long remain in the undisputed pos- 
 session of Austria. Margaret was soon divorced from her very 
 youthful husband (1342), and shortly after married the son of 
 the emperor Louis of Bavaria, who hoped to be able to invest 
 his son, not only with Tyrol, but also with Carinthia, and once 
 more we find the houses of Habsburg and Luxemburg united 
 by a common interest. During the whole of this time Bohemia 
 and Austria were in a perpetual state of oscillation and unstable 
 equilibrium. When, hov/ever, Charles IV. of Bohemia was 
 chosen emperor, he consented to leave Carinthia in the pos- 
 session of Austria. Albert did homage for it, and rejoiced all 
 the more at the restoration of peace with the empire because 
 just then his struggle with Ziirich and Glarus claimed all his 
 attention. (Defeat of Nofels, 1352.) 
 
 This prince not only increased the territories of Austria, 
 
 ' Tyrol freed herself from the suzerainty of Bavaria in very early times. 
 She was divided among a number of princes, lay and ecclesiastical. The 
 principal of these were the counts of the Adige or of the Tyrol and the 
 counts of Andechs, who obtained the title of duke from Frederick I., and 
 called themselves dukes of Meran. Their race came to an end in 1248, and 
 their domains were united to those of the counts of Tyrol, who thus became 
 jiossessed of the larger part of the lands Ijetween the Inn and the Adige. 
 Tyrol takes its name from the castle of Tirol, which was built on the site of 
 the Roman station Teriolis, not far from Meran, on the upper waters of the 
 Adige.
 
 RUDOLF IV. 145 
 
 his home pohcy was also extremely able, and his good govern- 
 ment earned for him the surname of the Wise. He gave 
 Vienna a new municipal code, and one also to Klagenfurt, the 
 capital of Carinthia, and he also put an end to trial by combat 
 in the latter country. The chroniclers tell us of his great 
 popularity. According to a story of the fifteenth century, one 
 day, when he was giving audience to his subjects, a poor 
 peasant entered the hall and remained long with his eyes fixed 
 upon the prince. Albert, thinking he was some petitioner, 
 invited him to approach and tell him what was his request. 
 "My lord," answered the peasant, "I ask for nothing but to 
 be allowed to see you, and to know that you are well." A few 
 years before his death, he published certain directions for his 
 family, in which he exhorted his sons to reign together in love 
 and virtue, honouring one another ; and the elder to claim no 
 superiority over his younger brothers. He died on the 20th 
 of July, 1358, at the age of sixty-nine. " He was," says a 
 contemporary, " a man beloved of God, honoured in many 
 lands, and a generous father to many kings and princes." 
 
 Rudolf IV. (13 5 8-1 36 5)— 77/^ Privilegiuin Ma jus — Acquisition 
 of Tyrol ( 1 363) — Austria divided (1379). 
 
 According to the wish of their father, the four sons of Albert 
 reigned after him ; but the eldest, Rudolf IV., exercised execu- 
 tive authority in the name of the others. This prince was 
 called by four several surnames — the Silent, the Magnificent, 
 the Learned, and the Founder. " Each one, ' says Mr. Krones, 
 " characterized one of his qualities. He always preserved the 
 greatest secrecy about his plans. He surrounded himself by a 
 magnificent court and loved high-sounding titles, not from 
 liildish vanity, but because he knew how much importance 
 '.he world attaches to such things. He was in all things the 
 rival of his father-in-law, Charles IV., but more especially in 
 that which concerned foundations in favour of the Church, and 
 of science and art : he was learned in the knowledge of history,
 
 146 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUXGARV. 
 
 a knowledge rare among his contemporaries. We are even 
 told that he had a secret method of writing, which was 
 no doubt the art of writing in cypher." He was only nine- 
 teen when he came to the throne, but he had already married 
 one of the daughters of the emperor Charles IV. Not- 
 withstanding this family alliance, Charles had not given 
 Austria such a place in the Golden Bull as seemed likely to 
 secure either her territorial importance or a proper position for 
 her princes. They had not been admitted into the electoral 
 college of the empire, and yet their scattered possessions 
 stretched from the banks of the Lcitha to the Rhine; three 
 dukes of Austria had filled the highest place in the empire,, 
 and yet they were excluded from its council, and were thrown 
 into the shade by their old rival, the house of Luxemburg. 
 These grievances were enhanced by their feeling of envy 
 towards Bohemia, which had attained great prosperity under 
 Charles IV. It was at this time that, in order to increase the 
 importance of his house, Rudolf or his officers of state had 
 recourse to a measure which was often employed in that age by 
 princes, religious bodies, and even by the Holy See. It was pre- 
 tended that there were in existence a whole series of charters 
 which had been granted to the house of Austria by various 
 kings and emperors, and which secured to their princes a 
 position entirely independent of both empire and emperor. 
 According to these documents, and more especially the one 
 called \\-\Q. privilegiiim majus, the duke of Austria owed no kind 
 of service to the empire, which was, however, bound to protect 
 liim ; only in case of an expedition against Hungary was he 
 bound to furnish troops, and then only twehe knights ; he 
 was to appear at the diets with the title of archduke, awd was 
 to have the first place among the electors ; the prince might 
 dispose of the state as he wished without even consulting the 
 emperor; he need not go outside his dominions to seek for 
 investiture, but was to receive it on his own land, and on 
 horseback; no fief in his lands could be held by the emperor. 
 All these privileges were secured not only to the dominions of
 
 AUSTRIA GAIXS TYROL. lA^J 
 
 Austria at that time, but to all lands they might become 
 possessed of in the future. Rudolf pretended that these 
 documents had just come to light, and demanded their con- 
 firmation from Charles IV., who refused it. Nevertheless, on 
 the strength of these lying charters, he took the title of 
 palatine archduke, without waiting to ask the leave of Charles, 
 and used the royal insignia. 
 
 Charles IV. who could not fail to be irritated by these pre- 
 tensions, in his turn revived the claims which he had inherited 
 from Premysl Otokar II. to the lands of Austria, Styria, 
 Carinthia, and Carniola. These claims, however, were simply 
 theoretical, and no attempt was made to enforce them, and the 
 mediation of Louis the Great, king of Hungary, finally led to a 
 treaty between the two princes, which satisfied the ambition of 
 the Habsburgs (1364). By this treaty, the houses of Habsburg 
 in Austria and of Luxemburg in Bohemia each guaranteed the 
 inheritance of their lands to the other, in case of the extinction 
 of either of the two families, and the estates of Bohemia and 
 Austria ratified this agreement. A similar compact was con- 
 cluded between Austria and Hungary, and thus the boundaries 
 of the future Austrian state were for the first time marked out. 
 
 Rudolf himself gained little by these long and intricate 
 negotiations, Tyrol being all he added to his territory. Mar- 
 garet Maultasche had married her son INIeinhard to the 
 daughter of Albert the Wise, at the same time declaring that, 
 in default of heirs male to her son, Tyrol should once more 
 become the possession of Austria, and it did so in 1363. 
 Rudolf immediately set out for Botzen, and there received the 
 homage of the Tyrolese nobles. He persuaded Margaret Maul- 
 tasche to take up her residence in Vienna, in order to secure 
 himself against any possible caprice on the part of that 
 princess. 
 
 The acquisition of Tyrol was most important to Austria. It 
 united Austria Proper with the old possessions of the Habs- 
 burgs in Western Germany, and opened the way to Italy. 
 Margaret Maultasche died at Vienna in 1369. The memory of
 
 148 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUXGARY. 
 
 this restless and dissolute princess still survives among the 
 Tyrolese. Femina inexhausta Ubidmis et aiidax, writes a con- 
 temporary. She is one of the strange creatures of the Middle 
 Ages, and plays a part in the national legends, somewhat 
 similar to that of Margaret of Burgundy. The Tyrolese 
 peasant still believes that, on the nights following the fasts of 
 the four seasons, the phantom of the base gret, the wicked and 
 voluptuous princess, may be seen among the ruins of the old 
 castle of Neuhaus. 
 
 The reign of Rudolf IV., though so full of events, was but 
 short. He endeavoured to rival his father-in-law Charles W. 
 in everything, and loved to say that in his own lands he would 
 be pope, emperor, bishop, and dean. His home government 
 was as able as his foreign policy. Though he had falsified 
 charters, he never falsified the coinage, a financial expedient 
 which was but too much in fashion in the Middle Ages. He 
 imposed a tax on wine and beer, and encouraged trade and 
 manufactures. On the 7th of April, 1356, he laid the founda- 
 tions of the cathedral of St. Stephen at Vienna, one of the 
 noblest monuments of Gothic art in Germany. Charles IV, 
 had founded the university of Prague ; Rudolf instituted the 
 university of Vienna on the model of that of Paris, and 
 endowed it with large estates and numerous privileges. This 
 university was divided into four nations, the Austrian, Rhenish, 
 Hungarian, and Saxon, and from the first had teachers of 
 renown, such as the theologians Henry of Langenstein and 
 Henry of Ayota. 
 
 Rudolf died, in 1365, at Milan, whither he had gone to 
 marry his young brother Leopold to the sister of Bernabo 
 Visconti. He had reigned but seven years — one of the shortest 
 reigns of his dynasty, but also the one most filled with events 
 of importance. "Of this prince," says Cox, "it was justly 
 observed that, had he enjoyed a longer life, his splendid 
 talents and aspiring mind would have either occasioned the 
 ruin of his family or have raised the house of Austria to a 
 greater height than it had ever before attained." By a deed
 
 ALBERT 11'. 149 
 
 of inheritance between himself and count Albert of Gorica he 
 had prepared the vv'ay for the annexation of the possessions of 
 that family in Carniola and the march of the A^'ends. 
 
 Rudolf IV'. left no children. His two brothers, Albert with 
 the Plaited Hair {a la fresse) and Leopold IH., called the 
 Pious, succeeded him. Their tempers were so different that 
 they could not reign together, and, breaking through all the 
 traditions of their family, they divided the hereditary estates 
 (1379). Albert kept Austria, and left Styria, Carinthia, the 
 Tyrol, and the old possessions of the Habsburgs in Swabia 
 and Alsace to Leopold. The emperor Charles IV. was only 
 too glad to ratify a division which could not fail to weaken 
 a formidable power. "We have long laboured," he said, 
 " to humiliate the house of Austria, and, behold now, it humbles 
 itself!" 
 
 The reign of the first prince of the Albertine branch presents 
 no feature of importance. In that of his son, Albert IV. (1395- 
 1404), ^Villiam, the eldest son of Leopold III., laid claim to 
 the administration of all the Habsburg domains, notwithstanding 
 the agreement between their fathers, and after a long struggle 
 a new compact was entered into by the cousins, by which 
 Albert kept Austria and even Carniola, recognizing William 
 as co-regent. Under Albert IV. the sect of the ^\audois made 
 considerable progress in Austria, in spite of the strong 
 measures he took against them. He was a man of great 
 piety, and liked to spend much of his time among the monks 
 of Marbach. Some of his contemporaries give him the name of 
 The Patient. In 1400, he undertook a dangerous pilgrimage 
 to Palestine, the fame of which was much noised abroad, 
 and earned for him the fanciful title of Mirabilia Miiiidi. 
 He took the part of Vacslac IV., king of Bohemia, in his 
 struggles against his enemies, and in return for his help re- 
 ceived from that prince a ratification of the treaty of suc- 
 cession entered into by Bohemia and Austria in the time of 
 Rudolf. He was equally successful in his dealings witii 
 Hungary, from whose king he obtained a similar convention.
 
 150 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 He died when on an expedition against INIoravia, to punish 
 certain Moravian lords who had ravaged Austrian territory. 
 
 His son, Albert V., was only seven years old at the time of 
 his father's death ; during his minority the princes of the Leo- 
 poldine branch were his guardians. Their brutal government 
 provoked serious discontent in Austria, and the nobles pro- 
 claimed the prince of age when he was only fourteen. Albert V. 
 was a wise administrator. Moreover, his marriage with Eliza- 
 beth, daughter of the emperor Sigismund, king of Bohemia and 
 Hungary (1422), secured to him the possession of Moravia, 
 which was the dowry of that princess, and the probable suc- 
 cession to the thrones of both those kingdoms. In 1437, after 
 the pacification of Bohemia, Sigismund assembled the estates of 
 Bohemia and Hungary and proposed duke Albert as his suc- 
 cessor, and he was accepted by the Hungarians and by the 
 Catholics of Bohemia. On the death of his father-in-law he 
 was chosen emperor under the name of Albert II., and thus 
 united the three crowns which had been so much coveted by 
 his family (1438). Thenceforth the dynasty of the Habsburgs 
 was to keep uninterrupted possession of the imperial throne. 
 The Albertine branch became extinct on the death of Albert's 
 son, Ladislav the Posthumous, duke of Austria, king of Bo- 
 hemia and of Hungary, in 1457. 
 
 Leopold the Pious (1379-1386), as we have seen, had 
 obtained, in the division of the Austrian dominions, Styria, 
 Carinthia, Carniola, and the Tyrol, together with the old family 
 possessions in Swabia and Alsace. He rounded his domains 
 by several acquisitions, only one of which, the town of Trieste, 
 is of any importance to Austrian history. Weary of the 
 double rule of the Venetian republic and the patriarch of 
 Aquileia, this town voluntarily sought the protection of 
 Leopold (1382), only stipulating that he should confirm their 
 privileges and their municipal liberty. This acquisition was 
 of great importance to Austria, as it gave her access to the 
 sea and brought her nearer to North Italy, where she interfered 
 repeatedly in the struggles between the towns and the princes.
 
 FREDERICK OF THE EMPTY PURSE. 1 5 I 
 
 All the lands she was able to gain which were grouped round 
 the Alps and the Danube were destined to add to her great- 
 ness; while, on the contrary, those which were far from this 
 double centre she was not long able to retain. Leopold had 
 some experience of this. The Swiss rose against him, and he 
 lost both victory and life at the battle of Sempach, which led 
 to the independence of the Confederation (1386). 
 
 After the death of this prince there was a pause in the 
 development of the power of Austria. The reigns of his 
 immediate successors, 'William (i 386-1404) and Leopold IV. 
 (1386-1411), have no interest for us. On the accession of 
 Frederick IV. of the Empty Purse {jnit der leeren Tasche) the 
 dominions of the Leopoldine branch, after several divisions, 
 were formed into two groups — one including Tyrol and the 
 Vorlcinde (those, namely, in South-Western Germany) ; the 
 other, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. Frederick settled him- 
 self at Innsbruck, and his brother Ernest, the Alan of I/-o?i, at 
 Gratz. Ernest married Cymburga, daughter of the Polish duke 
 of Mazovia. It is said to be from her that the Habsburgs have 
 inherited the thick protruding lip, which is as characteristic of 
 them as the Bourbon nose is of another family. She was the 
 mother of the emperor Frederick IV. and grandmother of 
 Maximilian. 
 
 Frederick of the Empty Purse (1406-1439) — Frederick V., 
 Einferor (i 440-1493). 
 
 Frederick IV. (1406-1439) had to maintain a struggle 
 against the nobles of the Tyrol, who formed a strong league 
 against him under the leadership of the lord of Wolkenstein. 
 He sought aid against them among the citizens and peasants. 
 He did his best to remain at peace with the Swiss, but they 
 managed to profit by his troubles. On his way to the Council 
 of Constance, pope John XXIII. had met Frederick at Meran, 
 and had then conferred on him the title of gonfalonier of the 
 Church. In return for this honour Frederick helped the pope 
 in his flight from Constance, and even offered him an asylum
 
 152 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 in his dominions. For this he was i:)laccd under the ban of 
 the empire and excommunicated, and the Swiss, rising in 
 revolt, destroyed the castle of Habsburg. Frederick was 
 obhged to yield. He gave up John XXIII. to his enemies,, 
 and was forced to surrender all his domains and to receive in 
 return from the emperor, as an act of grace, just what he chose 
 to restore to him. "You know the power of the dukes of 
 Austria," Sigismund is said to have exclaimed. '' Judge, then, 
 from what you have seen what an emperor can do." This 
 saying may be coupled with that attributed to Frnest, the Man 
 of Iron : " God be with you, Habsburg," said the emperor to 
 him in a contemptuous tone. " Thanks, Luxemburg," replied 
 the Man of Iron. That Frederick was not deprived of the 
 Tyrol was due to his brother Ernest, and yet he had more than 
 once to contend against Ernest, as the latter was both ambitious 
 and turbulent. On his death, in i4'34, Frederick became the 
 guardian of his two sons, Frederick and Albert, who were 
 minors and who reigned together. Frederick of the Empty 
 Purse died in 1439. The citizens and peasants of the Tyrol;, 
 to whom he had granted many privileges, still reverence his 
 memory. His son Sigismund (1439-1496) succeeded to his 
 Austrian possessions, and his nephew Frederick V. became 
 emperor in 1440, under the name of Frederick IV. (1440-1493). 
 Frederick V. was the father of Maximilian and the grand- 
 father of Charles V. and of Ferdinand of Austria. It is well 
 known to what a height of glory the house of Austria, ruler of 
 Europe and of the New World, attained under these princes. 
 ^^'e shall only notice here those facts in the reign of Frederick 
 which belong to the history of the hereditary states. He 
 created Austria an archduchy ; he obtained possession of the 
 county of Cilly on the death of its count, Ulric ; and he gained 
 the right of succession to the territories of his house in Alsace 
 and Swabia, as well as the Tyrol, for his son Maximilian, 
 stipulating to pay in return an annual sum to Sigismund, the 
 son of Frederick of the Empty Purse. Sigismund had assigned 
 these lands to the house of Bavaria, but Frederick was able to
 
 FREDERICK V. I 53 
 
 interfere in time. Besides this, he acquired the town of Rieka 
 (Fiunie), which was one day to rival Trieste on the Adriatic. 
 "Possessed of no genius whatever, but endowed with extra- 
 ordinary tenacity of purpose, Frederick knew how to wait, and 
 also how to outlive all his neighbours and all his enemies. It 
 was thus he was able laboriously to unite the whole of the 
 territories of the house of Habsburg and to secure to his own 
 line the almost unbroken succession to the imperial crown " 
 (Himly), In his reign we first meet with the famous mono- 
 gram A.E.I.O.U. It is to be found on his pottery, on the 
 books of his library, and on his tomb in the church of St. 
 Stephen. It has been explained as standing for the proud 
 phrases, " Aquila Electa Juste Omnia Vincit," and also "Aus- 
 triae Est Imperare Orbi Universo," " Alles Erdreich 1st Oes- 
 terreich Unterthan" (All the earth is subject to Austria), and yet 
 again, " Aller Ehren 1st Oesterreich VoU " (Austria is full of all 
 honour). The enemies of the house of Austria have in later 
 times interpreted it as '-Austria Erit In Orbe Ultima." 
 
 The reign of Frederick was, however, not free from trouble. 
 Sigismund of Tyrol and Albert VI. of Styria (i 435-1 463) 
 disputed with him the possession of all or part of the Austrian 
 domains. The citizens of Vienna allied themselves with his 
 enemies and besieged him in his own castle, whence he was 
 only freed by the help of the king of Bohemia, and after he 
 had undertaken to give up Austria to Albert VI. in return for 
 a yearly sum of four thousand ducats. He did not keep his 
 engagements, and the quarrel broke out again, Avhereupon 
 Frederick, as emperor, placed Vienna under the ban of the 
 empire, and the pope issued an interdict against it. Notwith- 
 standing the efforts of the pontifical legate and of George 
 Podiebrad, this struggle went on till the death of Albert VI. 
 (1463). The insurrection in Vienna was led by a strange 
 personage, the catde-merchant Flolzer, who claimed to treat 
 with the emperor as an equal power. Holzer was in the end 
 betrayed, and died under frightful tortures. 
 
 Later on, Frederick saw his dominions ravaged by the
 
 1 5 4 ins 1 OR V OF A USTRO-HUNGA R V. 
 
 Turks, who invaded Carinthia and Carniola, and penetrated 
 into Southern Styria (1472, 1473, 1493). These new enemies 
 i:)roved, without knowing it, the best alUes possible for the 
 house of Austria, as it was mainly owing to the dread of their 
 invasions that the Slavs and Magyars eventually submitted to 
 the common rule of an hereditary monarchy.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BOHEMIA UNDER THE HOUSE OF LUXEMBURG — JOHN HUS 
 (1310-1415). 
 
 Jolui of Luxemburg (1310-1346) — Annexation of Lusatia 
 and Silesia. 
 
 When Vacslav III. was assassinated at Olomouc, the family of 
 the Premyshdes became extinct, and Bohemia has never since 
 been ruled by a really national dynasty. It would be rash to 
 affirm that his assassination had been prompted by the house 
 •of Austria, but it is certain that its representative neglected 
 nothing which could help it to profit by the crime. The 
 emperor Albert I. took upon himself at once to treat Bohemia 
 as a mere fief of the empire, or rather as a family estate, and 
 called upon the nobles to elect his eldest son Rudolf as king. 
 He supported his claims by force of arms, entering Bohemia 
 by way of Thuringia, while Rudolf attacked it from the side of 
 Moravia, and the nobles found themselves obliged to elect 
 Rudolf, and even to promise (1307) the succession to his 
 brothers in the event of his dying without children. The 
 emperor granted to him and to his brothers an investiture 
 which made all election unnecessary, and which seemed 
 formally to deny the right of the nobles to dispose of the 
 crown. A minority of them, however, refused to recognize the 
 new king, and he was obliged to take up arms against them, 
 and was killed while besieging the town of Horazdovice(i3o7).
 
 I 5 6 IIISTOR Y OF A USTRO-IIUXGAR \ '. 
 
 On this they refused to proclaim liis brother as his successor;, 
 and chose instead Henry, duke of Carinthia and count of the 
 Tyrol, who had married Anna, daughter of Vasclav III., and 
 so was allied to the dynasty of the Premyslides, whereupon the 
 emperor Albert once more invaded Bohemia, but was obliged 
 to retreat after being forced to raise the siege of Kutna Hora 
 (Kuttenberg), and his brother Frederick finally concluded a 
 peace with the king of Bohemia. 
 
 Henry of Carinthia did not long remain in power ; he proved 
 himself an incapable ruler, who favoured the Germans to the 
 detriment of the nation and provoked revolts. The house of 
 Luxemburg had lately attained the imperial power in the person 
 of Henry of Luxemburg (1308), and the Bohemian nobles pro- 
 ceeded to offer the crown to his son John on condition that he 
 should marry Elizabeth, the last of king Vacslav's daughters. 
 The marriage was celebrated at Speier in 13 10, and the emperor 
 sent the royal standard of Bohemia to John as a token of in- 
 vestiture. Henry of Carinthia, dethroned by his brother-in-law, 
 tried to resist with the help of some of the German towns, but 
 the surrender of Prague was soon followed by the submission 
 of the whole kingdom to John. The house of Luxemburg re- 
 tained possession of the Bohemian crown for one hundred and 
 twenty-seven years, and did much during this period to bind 
 that country to Germany. It favoured the German element 
 within the land, and gave it a dangerous preponderance in the 
 political life of the state. We shall have occasion to record 
 later on how the Hussites tried to free Bohemia from their 
 hated rule by means of a formidable revolt. 
 
 For the whole of his life John was a stranger in the land 
 of his adoption ; he learned to speak the Chekh language most 
 unwillingly, and only looked upon Bohemia as a place out of 
 which he could get money. Passionately fond of gallantry and 
 adventures, he was rather a knight-errant than a king, and was 
 attracted alternately by France and Germany, according to the 
 caprice of the moment. His reign may be divided into two 
 parts; the first in which he reigned alone from 1310 to 1333,
 
 JOHN OF LUXEMBURG. I 57 
 
 and the second from 1333 to 1346, when he reigned together 
 with his son Charles. During the first period the power of 
 Bohemia made rapid progress abroad, while it decHned at 
 home ; the second repaired all the mistakes of the first. 
 
 John of Luxemburg was only fourteen years old when he 
 began to reign, and he was at first assisted by his father and 
 by Peter d'Aichspalter, archbishop of jNIaintz. The beginning 
 of his reign was fortunate, for he reunited Moravia to Bohemia, 
 the house of Austria having previously separated it from that 
 country, as well as Lusatia and the country of Goerlitz ; and 
 he secured the suzerainty of Bohemia over the greater part of 
 Silesia, including the principalities of Breslau, Kozel, Tesin, 
 etc. Thus the kingdom gained in power abroad, but in- 
 ternally it suffered from the prodigality of the king, and from 
 the constant disputes between the queen, Elizabeth, the last 
 of the Premyslides, and the queen dowager, Eliza, the Polish 
 princess, who was the widow of two kings. 
 
 The favour granted to the Germans also led to revolts, 
 especially about the year 13 18, when a report was spread 
 abroad that the king intended to drive all the Chekhs out of 
 the kingdom, and to people it only with foreigners. John, 
 discouraged by these various troubles, offered to exchange his 
 crown with Louis of Bavaria for that of the Palatinate, and 
 was only prevented from carrying out this project by the 
 energetic resistance of Queen Eliza. Kept within narrow 
 bounds at home, John liked to interfere with all that was going 
 on in other countries ; it was considered a good thing to ba 
 one of his friends, since it was a common saying of the time 
 that nothing could succeed without the help of God and of 
 the king of Bohemia. But his great deeds were of little use 
 to the country, and she had to pay dearly for them ; the visits 
 of the sovereign to his kingdom being invariably the signal for 
 new taxes, new loans, or for fresh debasement of the coinage. 
 Especially interesting is John's extraordinary fondness for 
 France. He married his sister Maria to Charles IV. of France 
 in 1322; he wished his son Vacslav (known in history by the
 
 1 5 8 HIS TOR Y OF A USTRO-IIUNGAR ) : 
 
 name of Charles) to be educated in Paris ; and he married 
 his daughter Guta to John, the dauphin of France (1342). 
 The French chronicler Guillaume de Machaut, who was king- 
 John's clerk, celebrates him as the type of a perfect knight : 
 
 " II n'y eut paieil roi, ni due, ni comte ; 
 Ni dcpiiis le temps de Charlemainc 
 Ne flit horn, — c'est chose certaine 
 (^)ni fut en tout cas plus parfait, 
 En honneur, en dit, en fait." 
 
 The list of his expeditions is a long one. He helped 
 Louis of Bavaria in his struggles against the Habsburgs ; took 
 part in the battle of INIuhldorf, and captured Frederick, duke 
 of Austria (1322), with whom, later on, he became reconciled; 
 and he tried to secure the inheritance of tlie 'J'yrol to his son 
 John Henry by marrying him to Marguerite Maultasche 
 (1330). While he was staying in the Tyrol, the envoys of 
 ihe Lombard towns implored his protection against Martin 
 della Scala, and John, in consequence, entered Lombardy and 
 subdued the greater part of Northern Italy. This success 
 raised up enemies against him on all sides. Among them 
 were the emperor, who considered the imperial rights over 
 Italy attacked, the pope, and the king of Naples his vicar in 
 Italy ; indeed, the whole of Central Europe, the king of the 
 Romans, Louis of Bavaria, the princes of Austria, the king of 
 Hungary, and the king of Poland, all united against the king 
 of Bohemia. But John was able to withstand all his enemies. 
 He disarmed the emperor by undertaking to administer the 
 affairs of Lombardy as the imperial vicar. He invaded Poland, 
 and, with the help of the Teutonic knights, besieged Posnan 
 (Posen). In his struggle in Austria, however, his army was 
 defeated at Mailberg, and he was obliged to purchase an 
 armistice (1332). 
 
 He was still less fortunate in Ital}'. Milan, Mantua, 
 Florence, and Naples entered into a league against him, and, 
 notwithstanding the victory gained by his son Charles at San 
 Felice, he was obliged completely to evacuate the peninsula.
 
 MISERABLE STATE OF BOHEMIA. I 59 
 
 after ruling over Lombardy for three years (1333). He 
 recalled his son and conferred upon him the margraviate of 
 Moravia. 
 
 In 1335, the death of duke Henry of Carinthia gave rise 
 to fresh complications, as the emperor Louis proceeded to 
 divide his domains, the Tyrol, Carinthia, and Carniola, between 
 himself and the duke of Austria. King John thereupon sent 
 his son Charles to the help of Margaret ISIaultasche, who 
 had married his younger son, John Henry ; and the Tyrol was 
 saved from the imperial ambition, though only for a short 
 time, as Marguerite soon after repudiated her marriage with 
 the son of the king of Bohemia. 
 
 ' A it"^ years after this, John was obliged to conclude a 
 treaty with Kazimir, king of Poland, in order to secure the 
 neutrality of that monarch. By it he renounced all claim to 
 the title of king of Poland, while Kazimir gave up his to the 
 suzerainty of Silesia (1335). 
 
 John's various expeditions were, however, worse than use- 
 less to Bohemia. To carry them on he not only exhausted 
 the revenues of the crown, but was forced to pledge his 
 estates, till at last, of all the royal castles, that of Prague was 
 the only one which he had not mortgaged to his creditors. 
 The royal authority fell into discredit, and the judicial power 
 of his burgraves, or governors of castles, came to an end : 
 they were no longer obeyed, and faiistrcciif, the reign of force, 
 prevailed. But John cared little for this. "When he was not 
 fighting he was losing his time over tournaments. He usually 
 lived on his hereditary domain of Luxemburg, or else at the 
 court of Paris, where he wasted the money which he extorted 
 from his subjects. During his absence the country was 
 governed by captains, who farmed the crown revenues. The 
 queen Elizabeth never accompanied her husband, but lived 
 in a solitude that was worse than widowhood. 
 
 On the death of Elizabeth (1330) the hereditary prince 
 Charles came to reside in Bohemia. He had been educated 
 at the court of France, and brought from tliat country ideas
 
 l6o HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 of economy and good government. He at once set himself to 
 work to restore order in the finances, and succeeded so well 
 that, at the close of 1333, John associated him with himself in 
 the government with the title of co-regent. At this moment, 
 the war for the domains of Henry of Carinthia broke out, and 
 Margaret Maultasche, at the instigation of the emperor, 
 repudiated her husband, John Henry, who was Charles's 
 brother, in order to marry the margrave of Brandenburg. In 
 consequence of this, king John declared war against the 
 emperor. He was at first supported both by the kings of 
 Poland and Hungar}', and also by the duke of Austria, but the 
 emperor soon deprived him of his allies. Silesia was next 
 invaded by Kazimir of Poland. It was at about this time that 
 John was attacked by blindness j but, in spite of that, he 
 pursued Kazimir, even to the walls of Cracow, where he 
 forced him to make peace. Pope Clement VI. now interfered, 
 and, as the avenger of the Church, whose laws had been 
 broken by the unlawful divorce of Margaret Maultasche, called 
 upon the electors to choose a new emperor. The three 
 ecclesiastical electors, the duke of Saxony, and the king of 
 Bohemia thereupon chose the young prince Charles, who is 
 known in German history as Charles IV., but in Bohemia bore 
 the title of Charles I. (1346). 
 
 John II. survived this unlooked-for triumph of his policy 
 but a short time. In the year 1337, when on an expedition 
 against the i:)agans of Lithuania, he had lost an eye, and in 
 1339 he lost the other, through the unskilfulness of the 
 physicians of Montpellier. But his blindness abated nothing 
 of his warlike ardour. Hearing of the invasion of France by 
 the English, he hastened to offer his help to his friend and 
 relative, Philip of Valois, and his death at the battle of Crecy 
 (1346) is known to everybody. French historians put into his 
 mouth the following words, which he is said to have spoken to 
 his companions-in-arms : — '' I beg and earnestly entreat that you 
 will lead me so far forward that I may strike one blow with my 
 sword." The Chekh historians quote other words which, how-
 
 CHARLES IV. l6l 
 
 •ever, in no wise contradict these. His companions-in-arms, 
 seeing that the day was lost, wished to lead him from the field 
 of battle. " Please God, a king of Bohemia shall never take 
 to flight," the knightly king cried out. His son Charles was 
 also wounded in the fight. John died on the 26th of August, 
 1346, the same day of the month on which Premysl Otokar II. 
 had perished on the field of ]\Iarchfeld. A Chekh poem of the 
 fourteenth century celebrates the battle of Crecy (Krescak), 
 but in vague terms, which add nothing to our previous know- 
 ledge. The story which connects the arms and motto of the 
 princes of \Vales with the blind king of Bohemia is altogether 
 without foundation. 
 
 Charles IV. (1346-1378) — Prosperity of the Kingdom — The 
 Golden Bull. 
 
 ■ On the election of Charles IV. the centre of gravity of the 
 Holy Empire was again to be found in Central Europe, and 
 thenceforth remained there, first in Bohemia and then in 
 Austria, until these two states became united under the 
 common rule of the same sovereign. German historians 
 judge Charles IV. harshly, but those of Bohemia are full of 
 enthusiasm for him, and call him the father of his country. 
 John of Luxemburg had left him plenty to do, and Charles 
 applied himself energetically to do it. It was first needful to 
 put in order the crown revenues and release the domains from 
 mortgage. This done, he reorganized the administration of 
 justice, suppressed brigandage, improved trade and commerce, 
 and divided his kingdom into twelve circles. The beginning of 
 his reign was marked by the foundation of the university of 
 Prague (1348), the first in Central Europe, and second only to 
 that of Paris in the whole of Europe. Its first chancellor was 
 Ernest of Pardubitz (Pardubice), the celebrated archbishop. 
 According to the custom of the time, it was divided into four 
 nations — the Chekh, Polish, Bavarian, and Saxon. A large 
 number of Germans were attracted to Prague by it, and they 
 gradually gained more than their due share of influence in it,
 
 1 62 HISTORY OF AUSTRO- HUN GARY. 
 
 especially after the foundation of the university of Cracow, since 
 from that time onward the Polish 7iation was composed entirely 
 of Germans from Silesia. Thus the Chekhs were outweighed 
 by foreigners from an early date. At the same time, it is a 
 remarkable fact that, though the fourteenth century was a 
 golden age for the Germans in Bohemia, they made little use 
 of it for the improvement of their own literature ; they pro- 
 duced no original works, and very little more than translations 
 from the Chekh. Thanks to this foundation of the university, 
 Prague became an intellectual centre, not only for Bohemia, 
 but also for Germany, Hungary, and Poland, the universities 
 of Vienna and Cracow not being yet in existence. 
 
 Charles IV. was an enlightened protector of the fine arts^ 
 and adorned Prague with buildings which are its pride to this 
 day. He rebuilt the cathedral of St. Vit after the pattern of 
 the Gothic buildings of France ; its first architect was Mathias 
 of Arras, a Frenchman. He also built the celebrated stone 
 bridge of Prague, one of the finest, perhaps the finest, in 
 Europe ; the royal castle of Prague, " with the roofs of gold," 
 on the model of the old castle of the Louvre ; and the castle 
 of Karlstein, in the environs of Beroun, in which were to be 
 kept the royal insignia and the crown of St. Vacslav. The first 
 school of painting which we hear of in the Middle Ages 
 flourished in the Bohemian capital in this reign ; some works 
 of this school still remain. Charles paid equal attention to the 
 police of his kingdom, and drew up, under the title oi Majesios 
 Carolina, a kind of code, which he submitted to the diet of the 
 nobles (1355). But this diet, little anxious to restrain abuses 
 by which its members profited, refused to adopt the Majestas. 
 It consented, however, to some important reforms — among 
 others, to the abolition of trials by ordeal ; and it recognized 
 the right of the peasant to summon his lord before a court of 
 justice. In other respects, Charles made important improve- 
 ments in the administration of justice. He made special laws 
 for the relations between vassals and lords, and increased the 
 privileges of the townsfolk, giving them the right, independent
 
 THE GOLDEN BULL. 163 
 
 of the diet, of making regulations for their internal government, 
 in some cases each town for itself, in others in assemblies of 
 town deputies. At the same time the inhabitants of Chekli 
 towns were admitted by him to those privileges which had 
 hitherto been conferred only on German colonists. 
 
 The same diet which had rejected the Majestas Carolina 
 joined Charles in fixing the order of succession in the dynasty 
 of Luxemburg, and in definitely establishing that principle of 
 primogeniture which had already been the custom in the 
 Premyslide dynasty. Moravia, Silesia, Upper Lusatia, Bran- 
 denburg which had been acquired from the margrave Otto,^ 
 and the county of Glatz (Kladsko), with the consent of the 
 diets of these provinces, were declared integral and inalienable 
 portions of the kingdom of Bohemia. The see of Prague was 
 created an archbishopric, and thus made independent of the 
 foreign diocese of Maintz. At the same time a monastery 
 was established at Prague, at which a Slavonic liturgy was to 
 be regularly used. From this monastery came the celebrated 
 manuscript w^hich was carried to Rheims, and known there as 
 the Consecration Gospel, being the one on which for two 
 centuries the kings of France took the coronation oath. 
 
 By the Golden Bull, Charles IV. established the public law 
 of Germany. He did not forget the interests of Bohemia in 
 this celebrated act. In it the king of Bohemia is spoken of as 
 one of the seven electors of the Holy Empire, but it is stated 
 the kingdom is in no wise to be considered as a fief of the 
 empire. It goes on to declare that the king of Bohemia can 
 only be chosen by the nobles of the country, and not by the 
 emperor, and that his subjects are free from all foreign juris- 
 diction, and even forbids them to appeal to any foreign 
 authority. One passage in the bull, which is but little known, 
 shows how much importance Charles attached to the Slav 
 nationality and language of Bohemia. It is as follows : — " It 
 is right that the majesty of the Holy Roman Empire should 
 
 ' For Brandenburg during this perioil, sec Carlylc, Frederick, bk. ii. 
 chs. 12, 13.
 
 1 64 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUXGAIiY. 
 
 ordain laws and govern people of divers nations and of different 
 manners and tongues. It is right that the prince electors, Avho 
 are the pillars of the empire, should have a knowledge of 
 different languages, their business being to support the emperor 
 in weightier matters. Therefore we order that the daughters 
 and the heirs of the king of Bohemia, the count-palatine of the 
 Rhine, the duke of Saxony, and the margrave of Brandenburg, 
 who must know German from having learned it in their 
 infancy, shall, from the age of seven, learn the Latin, Italian, 
 and Slav tongues, in such a manner as that by the age of 
 fourteen they shall have mastered them." 
 
 Chekh literature flourished as we might expect under the 
 reign of Charles iV. It produced knightly romances, satirical 
 and elegiac poems, chronicles, and some dramatic attempts. 
 
 Charles had concluded in 1366 a treaty of inheritance with 
 Austria, in virtue of which that one of the houses of Luxemburg 
 and Habsburg which survived the other was to take possession 
 of both Austria and Bohemia. In order to secure the 
 inheritance of Bohemia and the empire to his own family, he 
 had had his eldest son Vacslav crowned king of Bohemia in 
 1363, and obtained his election as king of the Romans in 
 1376. Before his death he divided his possessions among his 
 four sons. To the eldest, he gave Bohemia, Silesia, and the 
 domains in Bavaria, Saxony, and Germany ; to the others, 
 Brandenburg, the country of Gorlitz, and part of Moravia. 
 He died in 1378, on the eve of the religious movement of 
 which he must have seen the first symptoms, and which was 
 destined to have so great an effect on Bohemian history. 
 
 Vacslav IV. (1378 — 14 19) — Revolts of the Arables — Religions 
 Troubles. 
 
 The glory of the reign of Charles was heightened by the 
 fact that those of his predecessor and his successor were both 
 unhappy reigns for Bohemia. His father was a crowned 
 adventurer; his son, Vacslav IV. (1378 — .1419), has received 
 the names of the Sluggard and the Drunkard. This young
 
 VACSL.ir //'. 165 
 
 prince was endowed with some good qualities, and his accession 
 had filled both the empire and Bohemia with the brightest 
 hopes. But he was weak and yet violent, and his lot was 
 cast in critical times ; an epoch when the old institutions of 
 Christianity began to crumble to pieces, and when the thoughts 
 of men were in a state of fermentation which threatened the 
 destruction of the old bonds which had hitherto enchained 
 them. This reign coincides with two great events in religious 
 history — the great schism, and the reform of John Hus. 
 
 Vacslav was only seventeen when he succeeded his father. 
 At this time he was very far from being such a monster as he 
 is represented in legendary history. His education had been 
 much neglected. Pie was a drunkard, and he had an extrava- 
 gant fondness for the chase and for dogs. His first wife, they 
 say, was torn to pieces by one of his dogs, and this terrible 
 accident gave Vacslav a reputation for pitiless ferocity. He 
 was also careless in his behaviour towards the nobles and 
 clergy, and often bestowed the offices of his court on citizens 
 or on simple knights, or even on servants of his household or 
 stables, and this it is which explains the animosity of the clergy 
 and nobles against him, while it also was the cause of a certain 
 amount of popularity which he had among the lower classes. 
 In his time Bohemia, owing to her family alliances, might have 
 played a most important part in Europe. His brother Sigis- 
 mund was elected king of Hungary (1387); his sister Anne 
 married king Richard of England, and he himself was in 
 friendly alliance with the court of France. His reign, however, 
 began badly. He excited the clergy against him by his violent 
 behaviour towards some of the highest ecclesiastics in his 
 kingdom, the most noteworthy example being his attack in 
 1393 upon the archbishop of Prague, John of Janstein (from 
 whom he demanded the surrender of one of his castles), and 
 upon the archbishop's vicars-general, Puchnik and John of 
 Pomuk. The latter he caused to be tortured and thrown into 
 the Mtava, though his only crime was that he had resisted 
 the royal will in an ecclesiastical matter. In the seventeenth
 
 1 66 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-JWNGARY. 
 
 century, v.'hen Bohemia had been crushed and the CathoUc 
 faith restored, a myth concerning this St. John Nepomucen 
 was concocted, in which he was said to have been martyred 
 rather than betray the secrets of the confessional, and his 
 name and worship were substituted for those of John Hus, in 
 an attempt to drive the latter from the memory of the people. 
 Modern criticism has, however, completely destroyed this 
 legend, and it can no longer hold its ground. 
 
 Many of the nobles, irritated by the violence of Vacslav, 
 and by the influence possessed by his unworthy favourites 
 {g>-atiarii), entered into a league against him. They said they 
 united to restore the constitution of the land, which had been 
 violated by the king and his counsellors, but their real aim 
 was the augmentation, or, at any rate, the maintenance, of the 
 privileges of their order. One of their demands was that 
 certain offices should only be confided to persons of the rank 
 of lord, unless a special agreement should be entered into by 
 the king, the lords, and the knights. They secured the assist- 
 ance of the king of Hungary and the margrave Jost of 
 Moravia, and when Vacslav resisted their demands they made 
 him a prisoner in his royal castle at Prague (1394), and forced 
 him to sign what amounted to an act of abdication, by which 
 his cousin Jost was appointed regent, or staroste, of the king- 
 dom. But Vacslav's brother John, duke of Gorlitz, soon came 
 to his assistance, and, with the help of the small landowners and 
 the inhabitants of the towns, resisted the rebels with energy, 
 whereupon these latter fled with their prisoner to the south of 
 Bohemia, and even carried him into Austria. He did not 
 obtain his freedom till the following year, and in the interval 
 both the king of Hungary and the margrave of Moravia inter- 
 fered in the affairs of the kingdom, the latter becoming its real 
 ruler in 1396. 
 
 The year following, he was driven away, and Vacslav, who 
 had obtained his freedom, began again to reign with the 
 help of another of his cousins, Procopius of Moravia. In 
 1398, he went to France, where he had an interview with
 
 RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT AMONG THE CHEKHS. 1 6/ 
 
 Charles VI., king of P'rance, at Rheims, to consider the great 
 schism which then divided Rome and Avignon. On his 
 return to Germany, he found that, on the instigation of pope 
 Benedict IX., the electors had risen against him. In '1400, 
 Rupert, the elector palatine, was chosen emperor by the three 
 ecclesiastical electors. He proceeded to declare war against 
 Bohemia, and German troops penetrated to the very walls 
 of Prague. The city defended itself bravely, and Vacslav was 
 able at least to keep his kingdom, though, truth to tell, he had 
 nothing but the title of king. Incapable himself of governing, 
 he had been obliged to seek help from his brother Sigismund, 
 king of Hungary, who treated him in no very brotherly fashion, 
 for he kept him a prisoner in his palace at Prague, and with 
 him the margrave Procopius, who sought to defend the rights of 
 Vacslav. Later on, he carried them both to Vienna, where he 
 confided them to the keeping of the Austrian princes. Part of 
 Bohemia, however, refused to obey a foreign king, and Vacslav 
 managed to escape from his Austrian prison, and in 1402 
 again returned to his capital. 
 
 Respect for authority must have been much diminished 
 among the people by the sight of these perpetual struggles 
 between the royal families and the indignities suffered by 
 crowned heads. At the same time their faith in the authority 
 of the church had been seriously shaken by the scandal 
 created in the whole Christian world by the existence of the 
 two popes, one at Rome and one at Avignon. The corrup- 
 tion among the clergy was frightful. " Among the priests," 
 says Andrew de Cesky Brod, a contemporary, " there is no 
 discipline ; among the bishops there is open simony ; among 
 the monks countless disorders ; and among the laymen there 
 is no abuse in practice which has not been the habit of the 
 clergy before them." Besides all this, the Chekhs were in- 
 dignant at the influence which the Germans continued to gain 
 in the kingdom. The peasants began to find the weight of 
 servitude too heavy to be borne, especially when it was im- 
 posed upon them by foreign masters, and the disturbance in
 
 1 68 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARV. 
 
 all men's minds Avas heightened by the feebleness of the 
 monarch. A revolution was inevitable. In the Middle Ages, 
 religion was the strongest interest. The revolution broke out 
 in the world of religious ideas, and John Hus was its hero. 
 
 The great preachers, Conrad "Waldhauser and Milic of 
 Moravia, in the reign of Charles IV., had prepared the way for 
 the religious movement to which the name of Hus is attached. 
 Both these men had preached reform of manners and of the 
 church. Conrad had attacked the monks and their super- 
 stitious practices. Among other things he had said, " Give 
 to the poor, and not to the monks ; they are well off, big 
 and fat, and have more than they need for their wants.'^ 
 Milic had dared even to attack the pope and the cardinals. 
 The priests, whose scandalous lives they reproved, replied 
 with accusations of heresy. Milic was obliged to go to 
 Avignon to clear himself, and died there in 1374. One of 
 his most remarkable pupils was the theologian Mathias of 
 Janov, who also endeavoured to bring the clergy back to a 
 sense of their duty, and attacked as Antichrist those who 
 brought lying fables into the church — " Antichristus est omnis 
 c[ui mentitur et fabulas in sanctam ecclesiam introducit." He 
 accused the pope and the bishops of having broken through 
 the traditions of the primitive church, and of thinking only of 
 temporal advantages. The austere morality of these preachers 
 is also to be found in the writings of some of the laymen ; 
 as, for example, in those of the knight Thomas of Stitny, 
 especially in his book called " The Christian Republic ; " and 
 even in the didactic poems of Flaska of Pardubice. Numerous 
 passages from the Bible had also by this time been translated 
 into the Chekh language, and had helped the people to begin 
 to reason for themselves in religious matters. 
 
 The development of the national literature had roused in 
 men's minds a wish to throw off the supremacy which the 
 Cermans had acquired throughout the country. The towns 
 were full of these foreigners. In the churches and schools their 
 language took the place of the national tongue ; and there were
 
 JOIIX HI'S. 169 
 
 even cases ^vhere ecclesiastical functions were entrusted to 
 Germans, who did not understand the language of their flocks. 
 John Hus gave utterance to all the moral needs of his time : 
 as priest, he brought the Divine words home to the people in 
 their own language, and preached the reform of the church ; as 
 patriot, he aimed at freeing the Bohemian nation from the 
 intellectual oppression of a German minority. Till the time of 
 Luther no reformer ever again exercised so great an influence 
 over a nation. 
 
 John jT/z^ (1369-1415) — The Council of Consfa?ice {ij^is). 
 
 John Hus was born in 1369, at Husinec, in the south 
 of Bohemia. He Avas a Master of Arts and Bachelor of 
 Theology. He had deeply studied the writings of John 
 Wycliffe, the Englishman who had been condemned by the 
 court of Rome, and who aimed at restoring to the church the 
 purity of her early days. He was one of the professors in the 
 university of Prague, where in 1402 he became dean, and 
 preacher in the chapel of Bethlehem, where the sermons were 
 always preached in Chekh. An upright man, and zealous in the 
 performance of his duties, he stood so high in public estima- 
 tion, and even in that of the court, that queen Sophia, the 
 second wife of king Vacslav, appointed him her confessor. 
 His sermons on the abuses of the church found an echo in the 
 hearts of the numerous listeners who thronged to them. His 
 adversaries were unable to refute his charges, but accused him 
 of the Wycliflite heresies. By attacking them they hoped to 
 attack him, and in 1403, at the request of the chapter of 
 Prague, forty-five propositions, taken from the works of Wycliffe, 
 were condemned by the university of Prague. 
 
 John Hus and his followers would not agree to this 
 decision. They maintained that the errors attributed to 
 Wycliffe either did not exist in his writings, or else had re- 
 ceived a ^wrong interpretation. In 140S, at their suggestion, 
 a meeting was held of the Bohemian nation of the university
 
 I/O HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 of Prague, at which the forty-five articles were discussed, and, 
 notwithstanding the previous decision in the assembly of the 
 four nations, the Chekh nation then declared that the state- 
 ments in question were to be found in Wycliffe's writings, but 
 that they need not be interpreted in any heretical sense. This 
 declaration was considered by archbishop Zbynek as an act 
 of formal disobedience ; he ordered that all the known copies 
 of Wycliffe's works should be submitted to a fresh examina- 
 tion, and, soon after, had a large number of them burnt. About 
 the same time Hus was denounced before the archbishop on 
 account of the vehemence of his preaching. 
 
 In the year 1409, a general council was held at Pisa in 
 order to put an end to the schism of Avignon. Those 
 cardinals who had been most active in obtaining this council 
 hoped not only to restore unity in the church, but also to bring 
 about reforms "in head and in members." In obedience to 
 the decision of the council, king Vacslav called upon the clergy 
 of his kingdom to acknowledge the Roman pontiff, Gregory XII., 
 and when archbishop Zbynek, together with the higher clergy, 
 refused to obey, Vacslav consulted the university on this grave 
 question. The university was divided, the Chekh nation alone 
 deciding in favour of the king and the cardinals, John Hus and 
 his friends having a majority among them. Thus we see the 
 arch-heretic Hus on the side of the Roman church, while her 
 own representative, the archbishop, declared against her. It 
 was not only with the people that John Hus had acquired 
 influence, but also with the king and court. Vacslav had never 
 been on very good terms with the higher clergy of his kingdom, 
 and the greater number of his favourites from interested 
 motives looked upon the proposed reforms with favour. The 
 reformers declared that it would be necessary to deprive the 
 church of the greater part of her possessions in order to restore 
 to the clergy the purity of primitive times, and it was supposed 
 that when once these possessions were secularized the king 
 would be able to divide them among his followers. In this 
 way, passions which were most foreign to the religious ideal
 
 INFLUENCE OF HUS. IJI 
 
 he aimed at secured for Hus and his party the support of the 
 court and sovereign. 
 
 He seized this favourable opportunity to restore to the 
 Chekh nation the position which was due to it in the uni- 
 versity. He represented to the king the injustice of giving to 
 foreigners influence which entirely crushed that of the natives 
 — influence which made itself felt not only on doctrinal 
 questions, but also in all university appointments and offices. 
 '•' The Chekhs," he said, " ought to be first in the kingdom of 
 Bohemia, as the French are in France and the Germans in 
 Germany. The laws of the land, the will of God, and natural 
 instinct demand that they should receive all the highest offices.'' 
 Vacslav listened to his advice, and decreed that in future the 
 Chekh nation should have three votes and the foreigners only 
 one in all councils and elections. The German masters and 
 students in consequence quitted the town of Prague in a body 
 (1409), and proceeded to found the university of Leipsic. 
 They considered themselves injured in their lawful rights 
 directly they were no longer permitted to be masters in a 
 country which belonged to others. They have since had their 
 revenge on the university of Prague, for at the present time 
 they have again taken almost complete possession of it, not- 
 withstanding the protests of the Chekhs. 
 
 This energetic measure on the part of king \'acslav rendered 
 obedience to the decrees of the council of Pisa much more easy 
 throughout the kingdom, and the council in return recognized 
 Vacslav as king of the Romans. This proved, however, but 
 an idle compliment, as the electors, taking no heed of the 
 action of the council, proceeded to choose Sigismund king of 
 Hungary (1410). Meantime archbishop Zbynek, in no wise 
 discouraged by the triumph of John Hus, who had been 
 appointed rector of the reformed university, placed him under 
 an interdict, and the city of Prague with him. Hus thereupon 
 appealed to the Holy See, and the pope suspended the inter- 
 dict until Hus should have had time to defend himself against 
 the charges brought against him. Zbynek, dreading the anger
 
 172 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARY. 
 
 of Vacslav, fled to his rival, Sigisinund of Hungary, and, falling 
 ill on the way, died at Poszony (Presburg) in 141 1. 
 
 The council of Pisa, in order to put an end to the schism, 
 had set aside both the pope at Rome and the one at Avignon, 
 and had chosen a new pontiff, Alexander V. Thus, for a short 
 time, there were three popes all reigning at once. Alexander Y. 
 might have been the restorer of the church, but he lived but a 
 very short time, and his successor, John XXIII., had neither 
 the qualities nor the virtues necessary for a reforming pope. 
 Hus continued to preach with all his accustomed ardour, and, 
 hopeless of accomplishing the reform of the whole church, he 
 turned all his efforts towards the church of Bohemia. Although 
 he had been forbidden to preach in the Bethlehem chapel, he 
 held his ground against not only the bishop, but the pope 
 himself, and, developing the theories of Wyclifife, he denied 
 the right attributed to the pope as the visible head of the 
 church. Just at this time the papacy supplied him Avith arms 
 against itself. In 1412, pope John XXIII., attacked by the 
 king of Naples, who had embraced the cause of his dethroned 
 predecessor, Gregory XII,, caused a crusade to be preached 
 for the defence of the Holy See, and promised plenary indul- 
 gence to all those believers who should come to his aid either 
 with arms or money. Hus and his adherents loudly denounced 
 this trade in indulgences both in public discussions and from 
 the pulpit, and the excited people violently attacked even 
 priests of the highest rank. The preachers of indulgences 
 were interrupted in the church itself by the (questions of their 
 hearers. Three of the rioters were seized by the consuls of 
 the old town and beheaded, but far from being terrified by this 
 severe measure, the jDopulace got possession of their bodies, 
 and placed them, as the relics of martyrs, in the chapel of 
 Bethlehem. John XXIII. now pronounced an anathema 
 against Hus, and placed any town in which he might reside 
 under an interdict, and the king, alarmed, himself besought 
 Hus to leave Prague. But, welcomed in the castles of the 
 national nobility, the INIaster found among the country folk
 
 COUXCIL OF COySTAXCE. 173 
 
 <i docile and enthusiastic audience ; and from the depths of 
 his seckision he pul^Hshed controversial works which were all 
 the more eagerly read because he was a master of the Slav 
 tongue, as well as a thorough reformer. It was not without 
 terror that king Yacslav saw his doctrines spreading through- 
 out Bohemia, which was at this time described by the pope 
 and the Holy See as the hot-bed of heresy. He made great 
 but unavailing efforts to restrain the ardour of John Hus, and 
 to bring about a reconciliation between him and Albic, the 
 new archbishop of Prague." 
 
 Meantime the sale of indulgences had not procured for the 
 pope the wished-for assistance. Driven from Rome by the king 
 of Naples, he had been obliged to take refuge at Bologna, and 
 in this critical situation of affairs he comforted himself with the 
 idea of a general council, which should come to the help of 
 the ills of the church and the needs of the Holy See. In an 
 interview which he had with the emperor Sigismund at Lodi, it 
 was decided such a council should be summoned, and that the 
 place of meeting should be the town of Constance. King 
 Vacslav thought he saw in this council the only means of 
 putting an end to the religious troubles of Bohemia, which were 
 causing the greatest embarrassment to his vacillating mind. The 
 emperor invited John Hus to come to Constance, under the 
 protection of an imperial safe-conduct, to defend his doctrines. 
 The Master, as he was called by his countrymen, was not the 
 man to draw back from such an invitation ; he believed him- 
 self so surely in the possession of the truth that he must be 
 able to convert his adversaries, and in his enthusiasm he was 
 ready to defend it to the death. He arrived, accompanied by 
 an escort of Bohemian knights granted to him by king Vacslav, 
 expecting to find in the council a fair field, where he would 
 be allowed to fight his opponents with equal weapons. He 
 believed in the imperial safe-conduct. The council cared 
 nothing for it, looking upon it as an illegal encroachment by the 
 temporal on the spiritual power, and the emperor Sigismund 
 protested but feebly against its violation.
 
 1/4 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 It was not long after his arrival at Constance that Has was 
 thrown into prison, in order that he might be tried as a heretic 
 and a disturber of the discipline of the church. The first steps 
 of the trial were taken secretly, but Hus was afterwards allowed 
 to defend himself before the council. Many of the charges 
 brought against him were false. In his defence he did not 
 break openly with Catholicism, though he defended principles 
 which led him to deny the authority of the pope, and placed 
 that of the Scriptures above that of the church. On hearing 
 this, the council refused to listen further, and called upon him 
 for a complete retractation. This he refused, whereupon at 
 a sitting, held on July 6, 141 5, it declared him a heretic, and 
 delivered him over to the secular arm, by which he was con- 
 demned to be burnt alive. He walked to the stake with 
 heroic courage. A year later, the council caused Jerome of 
 Prague also to be burnt ; he was one of the most faithful 
 adherents of Hus, and his stormy eloquence had spread the 
 doctrines of the Master even as far as Poland and Lithuania. 
 
 John Hus is only known to foreigners as a celebrated 
 heretic, and is admired by some and hated by others, according 
 to the religious opinions that they hold. The Slav race, especi- 
 ally in Bohemia, honours him as a writer of genius, the intrepid 
 defender of the Chekhs, and the purifier of their language. 
 There is more than one analogy to be found between Hus 
 and Luther. What Luther did for German prose, Hus had 
 done a century earlier for the Bohemian language. Not con- 
 tent with making his works models of excellent style, he set 
 himself also to fix the national orthography. He Avas at great 
 pains to adapt the Latin alphabet to the soft and sibilant 
 sounds of the Slav tongue, and he banished Germanisms from 
 the language as he had banished Germans from the university. 
 He wrote : " As Nehemiah chastised the Jewish children when 
 they knew not Hebrew and he heard them speak the jargon 
 of Ashdod, so must the men of Prague be chastised, and all 
 those Chekhs whose language is half Chekh, half German. 
 We hear them, and verily we know not what they say." His.
 
 CHARACTER OF HUS. 1 75 
 
 controversial and religious writings, as well as his letters written 
 from Constance, are to this day considered as models of style. 
 As a poet, he composed some hymns, for which he also wrote 
 the harmonies, and critics declare that he introduced some 
 improvements in religious music. 
 
 But what most struck his contemporaries was, not the 
 genius of the Master, but the purity of his life, the gentleness 
 of his character, the heroism of his martyrdom. The council 
 desired that there should remain on earth nothing that had 
 belonged to him ; they had burnt his clothing, and thrown his 
 ashes into the Rhine. They believed that they had got rid of 
 the spirit of reform and subdued Bohemia. Miserable de- 
 lusion ! From the flames of the stake of John Hus a great 
 fire was set alight, which desolated Bohemia and Germany, and 
 was only extinguished in the blood of countless victims.
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 BOHEMIA AND THE HUSSITE WARS. 
 
 Formation of the Sects of tlie Utraquists and Taborites 
 (1415-1419). 
 
 The death of Hus in no wise lessened the rehgious excitement 
 in Bohemia, but, deprived of the guidance of the Master, his 
 followers proceeded to push his doctrines to consequences 
 which had never been foreseen by him. He had never 
 refused obedience to the visible church, but had only pro- 
 claimed the right of appealing to Holy Scripture in cases 
 where the church seemed to contradict the Divine law. He 
 was not one of those who aimed at the alteration of dogmas 
 and rites to suit their own fancy, but when the religious 
 imagination of the Middle Ages was once roused, it could not 
 stop half-way. A dogma without either practical consequence 
 or moral application was enough to excite the enthusiasm of 
 the masses, who at that time found the strongest interests of 
 their lives in religious dreams and fancies. Not long after Hus 
 had left Bohemia, one of his disciples, Jakoubek Stribrsky or 
 de Stribro, began to teach that the communion ought to be 
 administered under both forms, both bread and wine, to people 
 and priests alike. Perhaps the doctrine had an especial 
 attraction for the people from its treating all men as equals. 
 Besides being in conformity with the traditions of the primitive 
 church, and the practice until late in the Middle Ages, it 
 made no difference between the pastor and his flock, and
 
 RISE OF THE UTRAQUISTS. \J7 
 
 diminished the prestige of the priests. However that may 
 l)e, it was adopted with enthusiasm and introduced into every 
 parish where John Hus had adherents. The Cup became the 
 symbol of his disciples, and was to be found on the bells of 
 the churches and on all public buildings. An epigram of the 
 time says — 
 
 "Tot pingit calices Boemorum turba per urbes, 
 Ut credas Bacchi numina sola coli." 
 
 The council of Constance lost no time in condemning this 
 innovation of the Utraquists/ or Calixtins, as they were 
 afterwards called, as opposed to the unvarying authority of the 
 church. But the sentence which this stormy assembly had 
 just pronounced against Hus was not likely to increase the 
 obedience or the sympathy of Bohemia. When the news of 
 his death reached Prague, and the excited people listened to 
 the account given of him by his faithful friend Peter of Mlade- 
 novic, who represented him as a second Christ, their wrath 
 broke out in violent disturbances. The mob attacked the 
 orthodox priests, w^hom they accused of complicity in the 
 judicial murder of the Master; some of them were mobbed, 
 others driven from their homes, some few were murdered. 
 An earthquake and an eclipse of the sun which occurred in 
 1 41 5 w^ere looked upon as direct evidence of the wrath of 
 Heaven against the deed. In the rural districts the lords and 
 knights who were patrons of livings took advantage of the 
 prevalent disorder and drove away the priests they disliked, 
 and replaced them with others, paying no regard to the autho- 
 rity of bishops or archbishops. But it was not religious zeal 
 alone which prompted these acts of violence, since some of the 
 lords stripped the clergy of their benefices only in order to 
 keep them for themselves. 
 
 Four hundred and fifty-two lords and knights of Bohemia 
 and Moravia met in council in Prague and drew up a letter 
 addressed to the council of Constance, in which they repre- 
 * Utraquist, i.e. those who communicate sub uiraquc specie.
 
 1/8 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUXGARY. 
 
 sented the murder of Hus as an affront to the whole Boliemian 
 nobility. They proceeded to form themselves into a kind of 
 league, refusing obedience to foreign priests, and recognizing 
 only the bishops of the national Church, and them only so 
 long as their doctrines were in conformity with those of the 
 Bible. They made the same conditions as to their obedience 
 to the pope whom the council were about to elect ; while they 
 declared also that they would only recognize in matters of 
 faith the authority of the council of professors in the university 
 of Prague. Thus the Hussites, or, to use the right term, the 
 Utraquists, formed themselves into a large party within the 
 bosom of the Catholic Church, while they formed also a 
 party within Bohemia itself; for there was still a conservative 
 minority there, who, cither from conviction or interest, re- 
 mained faithfully attached to the Roman Catholic faith. This 
 minority was mainly composed of Germans, and thus the 
 rivalry between the two nations was continued in religious 
 matters. The important part in all the events of this time 
 played by the patriotism of the Chekhs in its struggle against 
 Geniianism must never be forgotten. 
 
 The council of Constance took energetic measures against 
 the Utraquists. Jacob de Stribro and those who had signed 
 the Declaration were summoned to appear before it, and the 
 university of Prague, as' the seat of heresy, was declared sup- 
 pressed and deprived of all the privileges conferred upon it by 
 the pope. King Vacslav, (]ueen Sophia, and Conrad, the new 
 archbishop of Prague, were threatened with ecclesiastical 
 penalties if they did not openly renounce the new heresies. 
 But little heed was paid to these threats. The news of the 
 execution of Jerome of Prague heightened the exasperation of 
 the nation, and the university, far from submitting to the 
 council, constituted itself a court of appeal in matters of 
 doctrine, and declared in a solemn manifesto that communion 
 under both forms was indispensable to the salvation of souls. 
 They also proclaimed John Hus a saint and martyr, and fixed 
 his festival on the 6th of July, the day of his execution. The
 
 DIVISION AMOXG THE HUSSITES. 1 79 
 
 day was observed in Bohemia down to the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 But it was not long before anarchy, the plague of all 
 independent sects, appeared among the Hussites. The masters 
 of the university of Prague had declare.d that nothing was to 
 be believed which was not to be found in Holy Scripture ; but 
 the Scriptures are not always clear, and when once texts are 
 submitted to individual criticism, or to men's fancy, they may 
 be made to mean almost anything. And so it was that new 
 sects made their appearance who rejected all sacraments 
 except Baptism and the Supper of our Lord, who would have 
 neither the Mass, the worship of saints, the doctrine of pur- 
 gatory, fasts, nor an ecclesiastical hierarchy. It was in the 
 rural districts that these doctrines spread most widely. 
 
 The principal centre of the new teachers was the little town 
 of Ousti, not far from the spot where later on stood the town 
 of Tabor. When the university of Prague refused obedience 
 to the council of Constance it had no intention of separating 
 itself from the main body of the Church for ever. When 
 therefore the innovators of Ousti drew up a new form of creed, 
 it played the part of an orthodox body, and declared them 
 heretics. The new sect refused obedience to their decisions, 
 and then the Hussites proved faithless to their principles. 
 Instead of spending all their strength on the reform of the 
 Church, they lost themselves in the boundless field of dog- 
 matic theories. In this first period of excitement a constant 
 struggle went on between the most peaceful and the most 
 revolutionary ideas, between the aristocracy and the demo- 
 cracy, socialism and communism, between obedience to tra- 
 dition and rationalism, between the doctrines of the Picards 
 and those of the Adamites. Unbridled fancy gave birth some- 
 times to the most absurd excesses, sometimes to the most 
 generous impulses. 
 
 The council of Constance broke up in 14 iS, without 
 having succeeded in the re-establishment of ecclesiastical 
 authority in Bohemia, and the pope, Martin \., on whom this
 
 I So HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HVXGARY. 
 
 difficult task next devolved, was hardly more fortunate. King 
 Vacslav, at his request, tried to reinstate the priests who had been 
 driven from their parishes, but the people rose up against the 
 pastors thus thrust upon them. Rather than enter the churches 
 of the intruders, the peasants, under the guidance of their 
 priests, assembled in the open country, usually near mountains 
 to which they gave Biblical names, such as Tabor, near Ousti 
 on the Elbe, and Oreb near the town of Trebechovice. 
 Mount Tabor became the home of the most ardent preachers 
 of the new sect of Ousti. There they formed themselves into 
 a new body which aimed at the restoration of primitive Chris- 
 tianity and maintained the principle of community of goods. 
 Its members called themselves brothers and sisters, rejected 
 the priestly dress and all ritual in worship, and conducted 
 their services in the national tongue. These communities who 
 thus separated themselves both from the general faith and 
 ordinary life, needed only some brave leaders to enable them 
 to withstand, not only the Church, but the secular power also, 
 if it interfered with them ; and these were not long wanting. 
 We find them in Nicholas of Hus at Tabor, and at Prague 
 in the priest Procopius called the Shaven, and the old knight 
 John Zizka of Trocnov, who had learned the military art, 
 together with hatred of the Germans, while fighting against the 
 Teutonic knights in the ranks of the Poles. An enthusiastic 
 faith made of these improvised soldiers the most terrible 
 warriors known to the Middle Ages. 
 
 Beginning of the Struggle — Sigismund (141 9- 1437 ) — 
 John Zizka (1420). 
 
 The struggle first began at Prague. On the renewal of the 
 city council in July, 141 9, king Vacslav appointed some 
 sheriffs who were hostile to the Hussites. Upon this, the 
 populace, led on by Zizka and fired by the preaching of the 
 priest John of Zeliv, attacked the town hall, took possession 
 of the building, seized the sheriffs, and threw them out of the 
 windows on to the pikes and lances of the crowd below. They
 
 ACCESSIOy OF SIGISMC'XD. l8l 
 
 then obliged the kuig to choose magistrates who were favour- 
 able to their party. This ferocious deed was the precedent 
 for that defe7iesti-ation (pitching out of window) which was the 
 signal for the beginning of the Thirty Years' War two centuries 
 later. Vacslav was obliged to submit to this humiliation ; he 
 died a few days afterwards, of rage and vexation according to 
 some, of poison if we are to believe others. Crowned king of 
 Bohemia when only three years of age, chosen king of the 
 Romans when he was but fifteen, and succeeding to his father's 
 throne at seventeen, Vacslav had exhausted all worldly greatness 
 could give him before he was a man. He was ignorant how 
 to support so great a burden. First a prisoner in the hands 
 of his nobles, and next in those of his own brother Sigismund, 
 perpetually wavering between the Holy See and the Hussites, 
 he was alternately the tool of men, of circumstance, and of his 
 own passions, and never learned how to govern any of them. 
 His reign marks the beginning of the decay of Bohemia's 
 political power, but the Chekhs had reached that period in the 
 history of a nation when the people are of more importance 
 than the sovereign, and, notwithstanding those excesses which 
 were inseparable from a still half-barbarous age, we shall see 
 them accomplish great things, and leave for future ages a still 
 more glorious and enduring story than that of Charles IV. or 
 Premysl Otokar. 
 
 The death of Vacslav set free all those passions which 
 respect for the majesty of the king had hitherto held in check. 
 The churches and monasteries were attacked and pillaged, and 
 the Catholic priests driven from the town and replaced by 
 Hussites. The archbishop and chapter took to flight, and 
 their example was followed by many of the rich burghers, 
 especially among the Germans. According to the arrange- 
 ments made by Charles IV., the successor of Vacslav was Sigis- 
 mund, emperor and king of Hungary, and the very man who 
 had allowed John Hus to be burned at Constance. Notwith- 
 standing this, the estates of Bohemia, the lords and knights, at 
 once sent ambassadors to him, begging him to come to Prague ;
 
 1 8 2 HIS TOR Y OF A USTR 0-IIUNGA R Y. 
 
 but at the same time they insisted on their right to communi- 
 cate in both kinds. To allow this would have been to place 
 himself at once in opposition to the council and the pope j 
 Sigismund, therefore, returned an evasive answer, and meantime 
 entrusted the government of Bohemia to the queen dowager, 
 Sophia, until he should be able to come. The regent found 
 herself supported by the nobles, who began to be alarmed at 
 the popular gatherings which were held under pretence of reli- 
 gion. She attempted to disperse some of these by force, but 
 Zizka and Nicholas of Hus roused the people of Prague, 
 attempted to take the royal castle by assault, burned part of 
 the city, and obliged Sophia to permit communion in both 
 kinds, and also popular assemblies. 
 
 King Sigismund, on the receipt of this news, hastened 
 towards his new kingdom. He first received the homage of the 
 states of Moravia and Silesia, and then began to make such 
 preparations within these two provinces as should enable him 
 to enter Bohemia without difficulty, and restore temporal and 
 spiritual order within her borders. Distrusting, however, his 
 own power to raise sufficient forces, his next step was to beg 
 the pope to allow a crusade against the Hussites to be preached, 
 and Martin V. sent a special legate to Vratislav (Breslau) to 
 consult with Sigismund about this matter. At the same time 
 he summoned the princes of the empire also to give their aid. 
 
 These circumstances restored courage to the Catholics and 
 Germans of Bohemia, and the Germans of Kutna Hora 
 (Kuttenberg) began to persecute the heterodox in their neigh- 
 bourhood. They seized four hundred persons, either in the 
 0])en country or in their own houses, and threw them into the 
 mines. A cry of liorror arose from the entire country, and 
 Zizka hastened to Mount Tabor, where he organized the 
 brotherhood living on the mountain into a military force, and 
 transformed the settlement into a fortified town in such fashion 
 that it became the strongest military position of the Hussites, 
 From this time the word tahor (under the form of tobor), be- 
 came, even in the neighbouring countries, the synonym for
 
 JOHN ZIZKA. 183 
 
 a warlike place or forufied camp. A number of other Chekh 
 ■words also made their way, during the Hussite wars, into the 
 military language of the Germans. 
 
 Zizka's extemporized army required new tactics and new 
 -arms ; it could not drag about with it all the knightly armour 
 •of the Middle Ages. Flails weighted with iron and the heavy 
 hammer of the blacksmith were its weapons, and clumsy 
 waggons served as shelter to the combatants and a refuge 
 for the wounded. The strictest discipline secured unity of 
 action. Even the more moderate reformers, the Utraquists 
 of Prague, when they learned that the emperor was taking the 
 cross against them, prepared to defend their faith, and Cenek 
 of Wartenburg, the grand-burgrave of Prague, addressed a 
 proclamation to the whole people of Bohemia, calling upon 
 them to arm themselves against the common enemy. 
 
 In the spring of 1420, the emperor Sigismund, at the head 
 of his army, invaded Bohemia, entering it by Kralove-Hradec 
 iind by Kutna Hora, and penetrated as far as Hradcany, one 
 of the districts of Prague itself, where he had himself crowned 
 in the cathedral of St. Vit on the 28th of July. He then 
 besieged the rest of Prague. John Zizka, at the head of the 
 Taborites, marched to the relief of the city just at the moment 
 "when the army of the crusaders entered Bohemia. It was 
 commanded by the most powerful princes of (Germany, and 
 numbered about one hundred thousand men. The fall of 
 Prague would have brought with it the immediate ruin of 
 Bohemia and the annihilation of the Chekh nation. But the 
 genius of Zizka rose to the occasion ; he took possession of 
 Mount Vitkov, near Prague, repulsed the assaults of the Ger- 
 man army, and obliged them to raise the siege of the city. 
 The mount has ever since borne his name, Zizkov (Zizkaberg). 
 
 The presence of Sigismund in Bohemia was still, however, 
 fraught with danger to the Hussites. He had in his power 
 almost all the royal towns and villages, and even the royal 
 castle and the Vysehrad which commands Prague from the 
 right bank of the river Ultava. His army was composed of
 
 1 84 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUXGARY. 
 
 Bohemian Catholics, and also of some of the Utraquist nobles. 
 But his treasure was exhausted, and in order to meet the 
 expenses of the war he was obliged to pledge some of the 
 estates of the clergy. Prague gave no sign of yielding ; instead, 
 the besieged became in their turn besiegers, and blockaded the 
 castle of Vysehrad, and it was in vain that Sigismund tried to 
 relieve it ; he was forced to abandon this strong position. It 
 was just at this moment that he was recalled to Hungary by 
 the affairs of that nation, and had to quit Bohemia, though not 
 until he had organized a provisional government, by which the 
 lords, knights, and citizens of each circle were entrusted with 
 the task of restoring order, Avith the help of the burgraves and 
 the garrisons of the royal castles. 
 
 The departure of the king increased the courage of the in- 
 surgents, who felt also that they were secretly supported by the 
 sympathies of the larger part of the nation. The city of Prague 
 issued a decree of banishment and confiscation against all those 
 who had joined king Sigismund, or who had refused to acknow- 
 ledge the necessity for communion in both kinds. Part of the 
 property of the Catholic clergy was also confiscated. Thus was 
 destroyed that preponderance of the German element which 
 had so long prevailed in the town of Prague. Those Germans 
 who remained became converts to the Hussite doctrines. The 
 men of Prague next undertook, with the help of Zizka and the 
 Taborites, to reconquer the whole country, and before long they 
 were able to occupy all the towns, with the exception of Plzen 
 (Pilsen) and Budejovice, though some of them not until after 
 energetic resistance. The castle of Prague was the last to- 
 yield. When the towns fell into the hands of the Chekhs, their 
 German inhabitants for the most part quitted them, and they 
 have never since recovered their position. " Thus," according 
 to Pelzel, " the Hussites overthrew that monument which it had 
 taken the Germans five centuries to raise to themselves and 
 their language." Many churches, monasteries, and religious 
 buildings were destroyed during the struggle. The Taborites 
 showed no mercy j but violence had become necessary to save
 
 NEGOCJATIONS WITH POLAXD. 1 85 
 
 the Bohemia of the Slavs from being completely Germanized. 
 Terrified by this success, the Utraquist nobles who had joined 
 the party of the king soon abandoned his cause and embraced 
 that of the people ; and even the archbishop of Prague made 
 terms' with them, consecrated their priests, and placed some of 
 the ecclesiastical benefices at their disposal. 
 
 Negociations with Poland — Sigisimind Korybuto-ivicz (1420) — 
 The Four Articles — Death of Zizka (1424), 
 
 •The Hussites were triumphant. Their next step was to 
 meet in a diet at Caslav, to decide on a form of creed and to 
 settle the constitution of the kingdom. This creed was drawn 
 up by the masters of the university of Prague ; it was to be 
 found at the head of all Zizka's proclamations, and contained 
 four articles : communion under both kinds ; freedom of 
 preaching ; secularisation of Church property ; while the fourth 
 article ordained that mortal sins and offences against ecclesi- 
 astical law, whether committed by priests or laymen, should be 
 punishable by temporal penalties. The diet next proceeded to 
 declare Sigismund the enemy of the Bohemian people, and to 
 deprive him of his title of king. A solemn embassy was sent 
 into Poland to offer the crown of Vacslav to Wladislaw, and it 
 was decided that in the meantime the country should be 
 governed by a committee of twenty persons, half of them 
 chosen from the representatives of the lords and knights, and 
 half from those of the towns and the Taborites. The effort at 
 reform was completed by the decisions of a synod which met 
 at Prague, and which occupied itself principally in the amend- 
 ment of church discipline, under the guidance of the university. 
 It obliged the archbishop Conrad to associate with himself four 
 councillors, whose business it was to help him to maintain this 
 discipline. 
 
 But the nation was as far as ever from real unity. The 
 Taborites, who meant to have a Church of their own, had 
 already (1420) chosen a bishop to consecrate their priests, 
 thus separating themselves from the rest of the Bohemian
 
 I 86 inSJ'ORV OF AUSTRO-IWNGARY. 
 
 Church, while tlie national Church itself no longer formed part 
 of the Catholic Church, since the pope had forbidden the arch- 
 bishop to exercise his functions and had declared his diocese 
 vacant. 
 
 The Chekhs believed themselves able to count on the help 
 of Wladislaw, because some of the Polish nobility had em- 
 braced the Hussite doctrines, and also because an increase of 
 territory at this moment would have been of great use to the 
 Polish king, who w-as engaged in a dispute with Sigismund for 
 the possession of Galicia. But the Polish clergy feared that a 
 close union between Poland and Bohemia would hasten the 
 spread of the Hussite doctrine, and the representative of pope 
 Martin V. induced Wladislaw to decline the crown that v/as 
 offered him. The Chekhs then offered it to Prince Vitold, 
 grand-duke of Lithuania. Knowing how disastrous to their 
 interests had been their connection with German dynasties, 
 they were anxious to bring about a closer union with their Slav 
 relations. 
 
 The moment was one of great danger, for Sigismund had 
 arranged with the German princes to prepare a new crusade 
 against Bohemia. Happily for the Chekhs, the German army 
 entered Bohemia before Sigismund was ready to come to its 
 assistance. It numbered about two hundred thousand men, 
 and had five electors among its leaders. Zatec (Saatz), now 
 a German, but then a Chekh town, was first of all besieged, 
 but it defended itself bravely, and meantime the crusaders 
 proceeded to ravage the country round and to massacre the 
 peasants, every one who could not speak German being put to 
 death. Zizka hurried forward with the Taborites and the men 
 of Prague. He had lost one eye early in life, and the other 
 at the siege of the castle of Rabi; but his blindness never 
 lessened his military skill, and his very name was a terror to 
 his enemies. The Germans immediately raised the siege of 
 Zatec, and retired. Sigismund had been detained on the 
 Danube by the incursions of the Turks, but at this moment 
 he arrived with an army of eighty thousand men, commanded
 
 SL'CC£SS OF THE TABORITES. I 8/ 
 
 by the celebrated condottiere, Pipa the Florentine. JMora^ ia 
 yielded at once ; she had none of the natural defences of 
 Bohemia, and was occupied by a less vigorous and less obsti- 
 nate race. Her nobles swore obedience to Sigismund, and 
 renounced communion under both kinds, and their example 
 was followed by some of the Utraquist nobles of Bohemia, 
 who laid down their arms. Sigismund next pushed forward to 
 Kutna Hora, and seized it ; but Zizka suddenly attacked and 
 repulsed him, drove him back to Nemecky Brod (the Ford of 
 the Germans), and then inflicted on him a terrible defeat on 
 the banks of the river Sazava (January 8, 1422). 
 
 This victory freed Bohemia from German invasions, and 
 for several years the Chekhs were masters of their own land, 
 only disturbed by some slight attacks on the frontiers on the 
 side of Moravia and Silesia. Unfortunately, peace was very 
 far from reigning within their borders. Questions of dogma 
 divided the Taborites and the men of Prague, and the 
 Taborites themselves split into several sects. The strangest 
 theories arose. Some amongst them preached the com- 
 munity of goods and even of marriage ; others (the Adamites) 
 returned to a state of nature, to primitive nudity and uncon- 
 trolled bestiality. John Zizka was obliged to fight these 
 insubordinate disciples, and burned alive some of those who 
 fell into his hands. In Prague, where the party of the 
 Taborites had been strengthened by a large number of 
 recruits, it threatened to take possession of the city. It was 
 led by John de Zeliv, the monk, whose burning eloquence 
 exercised so great an influence over the populace, that for 
 nearly two years he was the real sovereign of Prague, but after 
 that time the rich citizens succeeded in getting him into their 
 power by stratagem, and cut off his head. His death was 
 followed by a riot, in which the conservative Utraquists who 
 were on the town council were expelled and their places filled 
 by the followers of the new martyr. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these disorders, the grand-duke of 
 Lithuania decided to accept the crown of Bohemia. He chose
 
 1 88 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUXGARY. 
 
 for his provisional lieutenant Prince Sigismund Korybutowicz^ 
 wlio was the nephew of the king of Poland. The new regent 
 assembled an army at Cracow, at the head of which he entered 
 the kingdom by way of Silesia and Moravia. But this pre- 
 caution was needless, as he met with no resistance ; the 
 Bohemians, who were so divided among themselves, and so 
 jealous of their complete freedom, even in matters of slight 
 importance, were ready enough to obey a king of their own 
 choosing. The regent succeeded in putting an end to the 
 disorders in Prague and the other royal cities, and gave the 
 administration of those towns back into the hands of the lords 
 and knights. Unfortunately for Bohemia, prince Sigismund 
 Korybutowicz did not long remain to act as peacemaker. In 
 consequence of a treaty entered into by the kings of Hungary 
 and Poland, prince Vitold renounced the crown of Bohemia in 
 1422, and recalled his Avise lieutenant. 
 
 The Utraquist nobles, with the help of the Catholics, now 
 attempted to place Bohemia once more in the hands of king 
 Sigismund, but Zizka undertook a vigorous campaign against 
 them, and, as usual, the Taborites were triumphant. Sigismund 
 Korybutowicz once more returned (1424) to mediate between 
 the two parties. He appears to have come on his own account, 
 and in opposition to the will of his uncle, who does not seem 
 ever to have regretted his refusal of the crown, and his 
 popularity was so great that the two parties agreed to recognize 
 him once more as regent of the country. 
 
 Zizka died shortly at'ter these events. The few documents 
 written by him which remain prove his sincere faith and deep 
 religious feeding, which were united with the most ardent 
 patriotism. He declares in one of his manifestoes that he 
 takes up arms for the defence of the Chekh and Slav races. 
 Elsewhere he says, "We must live good lives, live as Christians, 
 in love and in the fear of God. We must place in His hands our 
 wishes, our needs, and our hopes, and wait always upon Him." 
 In a hymn, which is both religious and warlike, he says to his 
 soldiers, "You are the champions of God and of His law —
 
 DEATH OF ZIZKA. ] 89 
 
 Ask God for His iiid — And hope in Him.— In the end by His 
 help — You must always conquer. — The Lord commands you 
 to have no fear — Of what man can do. — He commands us to 
 lay down our lives for the love of our neighbours. — Wherefore 
 be of good courage ! — Happy is he who can die for the truth 1 
 — Let comrade help comrade — Watch and be still — Each man 
 at his post — And utter joyfully the war-cry, 'Forward!"'' 
 yEneas Sylvius, the elegant but somewhat untrustworthy historian 
 of this period of Bohemian history, has helped to spread two 
 mistakes about Zizka, which it may not be useless to correct 
 here. He wrongly states that the word Zizka means blind ; and 
 he has invented the childish story that after his death the skin 
 of the warrior was used by his followers as a covering for their 
 drum. 
 
 Procopius the Great — Victory of Ousti (1427) — Hussite 
 Invasion of Hungary and Germany (1424-143 1). 
 
 The death of Zizka was a serious loss to his party. His 
 courage had enabled the Taborites to resist their enemies 
 within the kingdom ; his authority had kept them as far as 
 possible in the paths of reason and moderation. On his death, 
 his party broke up, the extreme body keeping tlie name of 
 Taborites, the more moderate taking that of Orphans (Sirotcij. 
 But both, notwithstanding their intestine struggles, were always 
 ready to unite against the Catholics, and by the treaty of 
 Voszice they were able to obtain the separation of most of the 
 royal towns from Prague (1425), and their formation into an 
 independent confederacy, under the management of the 
 Taborites and the Calixtins. After a time, the Catholics 
 themselves agreed to a truce, and the lords undertook to 
 tolerate the communion sub ntraque on their estates. The 
 town of Pilsen alone refused to enter into this agreement. 
 
 Moravia had remained more faithful to the Catholic Church. 
 Orthodox opinions reigned almost undisturbed throughout the 
 vast domains of the bishop of Olomouc and in the royal towns 
 whicli were mainly peopled by Germans, and which had for the
 
 190 HISIORY OF AUSTRO-IIUXGARY. 
 
 most part been pledged by king Sigismund to his son-in-law, 
 the duke of Austria. It was only by the help and through the 
 close neighbourhood of Bohemia that the Moravian Hussites 
 could hold their own. In the other provinces of the kingdom 
 of St. Vacslav, in Silesia and Lusatia, the German majority, 
 who later on were so ready to embrace the doctrines of Luther, 
 from national rather than religious motives were hostile to the 
 Hussite movement. Brandenburg had long ceased to belong 
 to Bohemia, king Sigismund, who was always in want of money, 
 having sold it in 141 6 to Frederick of HohenzoUern. 
 
 Sigismund still hoped to be able to recover his kingdom. 
 After having in vain begged for help from the empire, he 
 entered into an alliance with his son-in-law, Albert V., duke of 
 Austria, and the margrave of Misnia ; to the latter he pro- 
 mised some towns to the north of Bohemia, amongst them 
 Brux and Ousti (Aussig), on the Elbe, as the price of his assist- 
 ance, and these places were at once occupied by that prince. 
 This time the Chekhs did not wait till their country was 
 invaded ; they at once took the offensive, both on the north 
 and south, entered Austria, and sent an army to besiege Ousti. 
 They were led by Sigismund Korybutowicz, who was always 
 true to the cause of Bohemia, and Prokop Holy (Procopius 
 the Shaven, also called Procopius the Great). This man was 
 a married priest, who had been made a soldier by circum- 
 stances, and who believed himself to be the heir of Zizka's 
 genius. A bloody battle took place under the walls of Ousti, 
 in which the Saxons and Misnians were completely defeated, 
 and forced to retreat beyond the frontiers (1426), Albert of 
 Austria flying first into IMoravia and then into his own duchy. 
 The Hussites in their turn became invaders, and the emperor 
 Sigismund, whose efforts were paralysed by the attacks of the 
 Turks in other parts of his dominions, was unable to with- 
 stand them. 
 
 But while victorious over their adversaries in the field, 
 the Hussites continued to break up into numerous sects. 
 We have already mentioned the divisions among the Taborites:.
 
 SJGISMC/ND KORYBUTOWICZ. I9I 
 
 these were now followed by a great split in the sect of the 
 Utraquists. Two parties Avere formed among them, one of 
 whicli, under the leadership of Master John of Pribram, endea- 
 voured to become reconciled to the Catholic Church. They 
 stipulated that they should keep the right to communicate 
 under both kinds, and demanded the restitution of Church 
 property, but were ready to renounce the doctrines of Wyclifte. 
 The other party adhered to the doctrines of Wycliffe, and 
 demanded the abolition of certain Catholic rites and the use 
 of the national language during Mass for the reading of the 
 Epistle and Gospel. Their leaders were Jacob of Stribro, John 
 of Rokycana, an able preacher, and Procopius the Less 
 (Prokopek). 
 
 Prince Sigismund inclined towards the party of John of 
 Pribram, which seemed to him likely to reconcile Bohemia 
 with the Catholic Church. He entered into secret negociations 
 with pope ]\Iartin V., but on this the adherents of Rokycana 
 rose against him, took him prisoner, and drove him out of 
 Bohemia (1427). The democratic party triumphed ; the men 
 of Prague entered into closer alliance than ever with the 
 Taborites, and Procopius the Great became sole leader of the 
 Hussites, with powers even more considerable than those once 
 l)Ossessed by Zizka. 
 
 The Holy See, however, continued to preach the crusade 
 against Bohemia ; and the German princes once more entered 
 the country, this time by way of Plzen (Pilsen), the town 
 which had remained faithful to the Catholic Church. On 
 the arrival of Procopius the Great, however, their army was 
 seized by a panic and withdrew to Tachov, where the Chekhs 
 overtook them and defeated them comi)letely. Procopius 
 then took the offensive both in those Bohemian provinces 
 where the Hussite doctrines did not prevail and in the neigh- 
 bouring countries. He invaded and ravaged Hungary as far 
 as Poszony (Presburg) ; entered Moravia, where the Hussites 
 had been lately regaining lost ground, and in the beginning of 
 1428 reached Silesia. Here the Chekhs captured a large
 
 192 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 number of fortresses and garrisoned them, defeated and broke 
 up the army of the bishop of Kreslau, and brought part of 
 Silesia into submission, Tliey also entered Bavaria an4 
 Austria, everywhere driving before them the troops sent against 
 them, and ravaging the country. There was no doubt they 
 were invincible, and the emperor Sigismund felt that there was 
 nothing left to be done but to treat with them. Negociations 
 to this end were begun, and Procopius the Great, accompanied 
 by the leaders of the Utraquist and Catholic parties, went to 
 Poszony, where it was proposed by Sigismund that a council 
 should meet in Basle in two years' time to decide all religious 
 questions, and that meantime there should be a truce. But 
 Bohemia had not forgotten the fate of John Hus, and had but 
 small confidence in the result of any council, while a truce 
 would only give their enemies time to grow stronger. They 
 refused to accept these proposals, the meeting at Poszony came 
 to nothing, and hostilities began again. 
 
 Procopius next invaded and conquered Lusatia, He then 
 undertook a great expedition against Germany, attacking it on 
 the side of Misnia and Saxony (1430). The army of the elector 
 of Saxony fled before the Hussites ; Misnia, Saxony, Thuringia, 
 and Franconia were each in turn invaded, and some historians 
 say that seventy towns and some thousands of villages were 
 burned or laid waste. The Hussites became the terror of 
 Germany ; Rome and Italy had never trembled before the 
 tiimnltus gaUiciis of earlier times as Germany did now before 
 them. The duke of Bavaria, the margrave of Nuremburg, and 
 many of the towns purchased peace from the invaders, and the 
 town of Homburg-on-the-Saale sent a deputation of children 
 to Procopius to beg for pity from the fierce conqueror. An 
 apocryphal letter from Joan of Arc was circulated throughout 
 the empire, in which she threatened to march against the 
 Hussites as soon as she had driven away the English. 
 
 The exploits of the Chekhs filled all Europe with admiration 
 as well as with terror. The Church and Holy See felt the 
 alarm all the more because the Hussite doctrines began to
 
 COUXCIL OF BASLli. I93 
 
 spread outside Bohemia, not only in Poland and Hungar)-, 
 but in Germany, and even in France. The inhabitants of 
 Dauphiny sent voluntary contributions to the Chekhs ; the 
 Bishop of Arras wrote that he dare not leave his diocese, 
 because "he was obliged to watch over his flock to preserve 
 them from the contagion of the Bohemian heresy." Chris- 
 tendom believed that the only remedy for so many evils lay 
 in the convocation of a council, and the clergy of Germany 
 and France threatened to meet without the consent of the 
 pope, if they could not do so with it. The pope, however, 
 had more faith in the force of arms than in the decisions of 
 an assembly of theologians. He believed that if Bohemia 
 could only be subdued, everything would be easy, and the 
 most rebellious spirits would then have to submit to the au- 
 thority of the dogmas of the Church. At the diet of Nurem- 
 burg (1431), therefore, the papal legate Cesarini and the 
 emperor decided that there must be a new crusade, and, shortly 
 after, an army entered Bohemia on the Avest, near the town oi 
 Domazlice (Taus). Here Procopius awaited them with forty 
 thousand foot soldiers, three thousand five hundred horsemen, 
 and two thousand five hundred war-chariots, and once more 
 the Germans took to flight, were pursued, and suffered terrible 
 loss, and again the Hussites invaded Austria and Hungary. 
 
 Meantime a council met at Basle. It had a glorious task 
 before it, that of restoring peace to Europe. The whole world 
 longed for peace ; it was sorely needed by Germany, but still 
 more by Bohemia, for she was becoming exhausted in the 
 endless struggle. War outside the frontiers did not cost the 
 country much, because the Hussite army lived at the expense 
 of the foreigner ; but the soldiers were learning habits of 
 rapine, which they brought back home with them • they were 
 joined by needy adventurers of all kinds, Poles, Ruthenians, 
 even Germans, and had lost the old characteristics of religious 
 gravity and incorruptible morality which had distinguished the 
 comrades of Zizka. Besides all this, since the departure of 
 Sigismund Korybutowicz, there had been no real government 
 
 o
 
 194 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 in the country : a committee of twelve, composed of lords^ 
 knights, and citizens, had indeed been formed in 143 1, but its 
 authority was little respected. 
 
 The Council of Basic (1431) — Anarchy in Bohemia — Batik of 
 Lipany (i434)- 
 
 The council was opened at Basle in 1431, and in the begin- 
 ning of October a conciliatory letter was sent to the Hussites. 
 Conrad, the Utraquist bishop, had died in the month of 
 December of the previous year, and, if Bohemia was to continue 
 to have a clergy, it had become necessary for her either to 
 break finally with apostolic tradition, or else to become recon- 
 ciled with the Church Catholic. This letter from the council, 
 therefore, proposing, as it did, that the Hussites should send 
 an embassy to Basle, was received with joy by the Estates and 
 the more peaceable inhabitants of the country. In a diet held 
 at Prague in the month of January, 1432, it was decided by 
 the Utraquists and Orphans that negociations should be entered 
 into with the council, in order to find out in what manner their 
 envoys would be received. They had not forgotten John 
 Hus and the safe-conduct which saved him neither from a 
 prison nor the stake, and the Taborites only agreed to 
 negociate on condition that the war should be continued till 
 all was settled. Procopius continued to push on his invasion 
 of Germany, and ravaged Brandenburg as far as Berlin and 
 Frankfort-on-the-Oder. He then turned towards Hungar}-, 
 where he took the town of Nagy Szombat (Tyrnau), and forced 
 Silesia to buy peace from him on exceedingly hard terms. 
 
 In the year 1432, the Hussites had sent an embassy to the 
 court of king Wladislaw, which succeeded in concluding a 
 treaty between Poland and the Chekhs, by which it was 
 arranged that the young Polish prince Wladislaw Jagellon 
 should receive the crown of Bohemia in exchange for the help 
 of Poland. But in spite of this, and notwithstanding the 
 opposition of pope Eugenius IV,, who deemed all negociations 
 with heretics hurtful to the authority of the Church, the council
 
 HUSSITE DEMANDS AT BASLE. ]rj^ 
 
 of Basle sent a deputation to the Bohemians to arrange the 
 manner in which their envoys should be received. It was 
 agreed that they . should appear before the council, not as 
 accused persons before a judge, but as free men, with leave 
 to defend their doctrines on the authority of Holy Scripture 
 and the Fathers. On this, the Hussites sent a large embassy 
 to Basle, among whom were many eminent persons, both 
 laymen and priests. Distinguislied among them all were 
 Procopius the Bald, ]\Iaster John of Rokycana, and Peter 
 Payne, the Englishman. 
 
 Procopius made his entry into Basle on the 6th of January, 
 1433, accompanied by a hundred members of his party. 
 .HKneas Sylvius, afterwards pope Pius II., who Avas an eye- 
 witness, has told us of the impression produced on the people 
 by the sight of these Hussites, each one of whom, according 
 to their enemies, was possessed by a hundred devils, and of 
 the terror inspired by their chief. "There he is !" said they, 
 "the man who has so often put to flight the armies of the 
 faithful, who has destroyed so many cities, who has mas- 
 sacred so many thousand people, who is also as much 
 dreaded by his own people as by his enemies ; the invincible, 
 the indefatigable general ! " The discussions which now took 
 place, sometimes before the council, sometimes in private con- 
 ference, and which lasted for three whole months, related more 
 especially to the four articles which we have already quoted. 
 The majority of the council was favourable to reform, and an 
 agreement seemed possible, even concerning the dogma of the 
 Cup, if only the Chekhs would renounce their teaching that 
 communion under both forms was indispensable to salvation. 
 But the difficulty was to get the Taborites to accept the 
 principle of ecclesiastical authority and to acknowledge the 
 value of a hierarchy, and, in a spirit of conciliation, the council 
 offered to send a deputation to Prague to treat of these and 
 other matters with an assembly of the Hussites of Bohemia 
 and Moravia. To this end, a special diet was summoned 
 to meet at Prague in June, 1433. But it was evident that
 
 196 HISTORY OF A USTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 the Church could not treat with each sect separately : the first 
 thing necessary was that the body of Hussites should agree 
 on a form of doctrine which should be accepted as a com- 
 promise by all the various parties ; and this it was found 
 could not be done, as the men of Prague and the Taborites 
 would come to no agreement together. The delegates of 
 the council offered to the men of Prague provisional tolerance 
 of the communion under both kinds, leaving all other questions 
 to be settled by the council, in which Bohemia would be 
 represented, but they urged that a truce should be con- 
 cluded at once. The men of Prague, on their side, insisted 
 that communion under both kinds must be made obligatory 
 on the whole of Bohemia and Moravia, as the only means of 
 putting an end to the various religious sects in the country. 
 The powers of the delegates were not ample enough to allow 
 of such a concession, and a new Chekh embassy set out for 
 Basle, to treat directly with the council. ^Meantime no truce 
 was proclaimed, and the Hussites continued to ravage Hun- 
 gary, while they boldly laid siege to the town of Plzen, which 
 had remained the stronghold of Catholicism in the kingdom of 
 Bohemia. In the midst of these perpetual civil wars, the 
 Chekhs were strong enough to lend an army of eight thousand 
 men to the king of Poland to help him in his struggle against 
 the Teutonic knights, and the terror of the name of Hussite 
 thus spread to the shores of the Baltic and the very walls of 
 Dantzig. 
 
 The siege of Plzen proved a slow matter, and the besieging 
 army, accustomed to live in plenty on the lands of foreigners, 
 dwindled away on the exhausted soil of their native country. 
 An insurrection broke out among the soldiers of Procopius, in 
 which he was wounded and taken prisoner by the men he had 
 so often led to victory. He gave up the command to his 
 lieutenant, Czapek de San. Meantime the council of Basle 
 had sent a new deputation into Bohemia, bringing with it 
 fresh proposals to the diet of Moravia and Bohemia, which are 
 known by the name of the Compactata. In these, the council
 
 THE COMPACTATA REJECTED. 1 97 
 
 offered to grant the Cup to those adults who should ask for it, 
 to consecrate the Utraquist priests, and to admit in principle 
 the three other articles of Prague, and only reserved for 
 itself the right of regulating all matters of detail with the 
 assistance of the representatives of the Chekh Church. The 
 Chekh clergy divided into two parties, that of John de Pribram, 
 who were inclined to accept these proposals, and that of John 
 de Rokycana, who maintained that communion under both 
 forms must be obligatory. This party prevailed. The Com- 
 pactata were rejected; the delegates of the council left Prague 
 in the beginning of the year 1434, and the war was begun 
 again with as much fury as ever. 
 
 The whole of Christendom was now called upon to take 
 part in the struggle against Bohemia, a tax being laid by the 
 council on all the Catholic clergy in aid of the Chekh Catholics, 
 more especially those of the town of Plzen. The money pro- 
 duced by this tax w'as used to buy over some of the besieger?, 
 by whose treachery the town was revictualled just in time to 
 save it, and it seemed as if the struggle was to go on for ever. 
 In the month of April, 1434, the permanent committee of the 
 Estates summoned a diet, in order by its help to make one 
 more effort to restore peace. It decreed that from that time 
 forward only one army should be maintained at the expense of 
 the nation, and called upon the Taborites and Orphans to dis- 
 band their troops or allow them to join the new army. But 
 this measure, far from attaining its aim, was only the signal for 
 a new phase in the civil war. In Prague, the New To\mi 
 (Nove-Mesto), which had been long occupied by the Taborites, 
 refused to agree to the general peace which was accepted by 
 the Old Town.^ The army raised by the Estates thereupon 
 entered Prague, on the side of Kourim, and forced the rebels 
 to obey. At this news the Taborites raised the siege of Plzen, 
 
 ' Prague was really composed of three towns : the Old Town (Stare- 
 Mesto, Altstadt), the New Town (Nove-Mesto, Nciistadt), and, on the left 
 jjank of the Vltava, the Mala-Strana (KIcinscite), above which was the 
 district of Hradcany (Ilradschin). The old town was especially inhabited 
 !))• the Germans, the new by the Slavs.
 
 198 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 and marched on Prague, once more with their old leader, Pro- 
 copius, at their head. But the army of the Utraquists had 
 meanwhile been strengthened by the addition of all the 
 Catholic troops. The two armies met at Lipany, near the 
 town of Cesky Brod (Bohmisch Brod, the Ford of the Chekhs), 
 on the 30th of jNIay, 1434. The struggle was terrible; until at 
 last, by a pretended flight of their enemies, the Taborites were 
 induced to leave their war-chariots and fight in the open field, 
 when, after performing prodigies of valour, Procopius was 
 beaten. According to ^Eneas Sylvius, he was tired of conquer- 
 ing rather than conquered. He was slain, and with him 
 sixteen thousand Taborites, the flower of his army. Chekhs 
 could only be conquered by Chekhs. The remnant of these 
 troops, once so formidable, took shelter behind the walls of 
 Tabor and some other of the confederated towns ; but many of 
 them soon after left the confederation, and submitted to the 
 authority of the Estates. 
 
 TJie Compadaia (1436) — TJic Result of the Hussite Wan — 
 Death of Sigisviund (1437). 
 
 After the victory of Lipany the Estates met again in a new 
 diet, and entered into negociations with Sigismund. They 
 could no longer count on help from Poland. King Wladislaw 
 Jagellon was dead ; his son, Wladislaw III., was only ten years 
 of age, and his inheritance was disputed by some of the Polish 
 nobles. Sigismund went to Ratisbon to meet the envoys of 
 Bohemia. An embassy from the council of Basle was also in 
 Ratisbon at the time, but the Bohemian envoys had no power 
 to treat with them ; their mission was to announce to Sigis- 
 mund that the estates were ready to make peace with him on 
 condition that he would recognize the liberties of their country, 
 and promise to obtain from the council the right to communion 
 under both kinds for Bohemia and Moravia. The king quickly 
 agreed to the first point, and invited the envoys to treat directly 
 with the council as to the second. Subsequently at a diet held 
 in Prague, the Utraquists moderated their demands, and agreed
 
 THE COM PACT ATA ACCEPTED. 1 99 
 
 to insist only on the use of the Cup for those churches where 
 it was already in use. They also asked that Bohemia and 
 Moravia should have power to elect an archbishop and bishops. 
 In 1435, another meeting took place at Brno (Briinn) 
 between Sigismund and the delegates of Bohemia and those of 
 the council. The council was still unwilling to recognize the 
 existence of the Utraquist Church ; they were only ready to 
 allow that in each parish the sacrament of the altar should be 
 administered to each member of the church with or without the 
 Cup as each one pleased, and that the archbishop and bishops 
 should undertake to administer under one or both kinds, and 
 to consecrate both Catholic and Utraquist priests. The Bo- 
 hemian delegates refused this proposal, and threatened to quit 
 Brno. Whether they were supported in this refusal by Sigis- 
 mund is doubtful, as the part he played is ambiguous ; but it 
 was owing to his persuasion that a new meeting was agreed on, 
 which w'as to take place at Szekes Fejervar (Stuhlweissenburg), 
 in Hungary. Meanwhile, the Estates of Bohemia drew up a 
 list of all the parishes in the kingdom, both Catholic and 
 Utraquist, and, with the help of tlie Utraquist clergy, pro- 
 ceeded to choose an archbishop and two bishops. Their first 
 choice fell on John of Rokycana ; but the council refused to 
 ratify this election, and appointed Philibert of Coutances, one 
 of their delegates, as provisional administrator of the see. At 
 the conference held at Szekes Fejervar, peace was at last con- 
 cluded ; Sigismund had made the delegates of the council 
 understand that the first thing necessary was that he should 
 be restored to his inheritance, and that once in the kingdom 
 he would be able to bring it back to the true religion. He 
 did not venture, however, to proclaim in Prague itself a treaty 
 which he well knew he could never fulfil. The Compactata 
 were solemnly proclaimed at Jihlava (Iglau), in Moravia, in 
 1436. By it the council for a time tolerated the use of the 
 Cup, and the existence of an Utraquist clergy, and the four 
 articles of Prague were also accepted. The emperor-king 
 promised by a royal letter to observe the articles of Prague ;
 
 200 inSTOKY OF AUSTRO-HUXGARY. 
 
 to allow Hussite preachers at his court; to grant a general 
 amnesty for all acts committed during the wars ; to appoint 
 no foreigner to a public office ; to govern henceforward with 
 the help of a council nominated by the diet; and to take 
 measures for assuring the prosperity of the university of Prague. 
 Thus was peace concluded between l>ohemia and Christen- 
 dom, and Sigismund at last was able to enter the town of 
 Prague, which for so many years had known no king. 
 
 And thus ended that great conflagration which had been 
 set alight by the flames round the stake of John Hus. 
 Bohemia had shown Europe the astounding sight of a people 
 placing its religion and patriotism before all its interests, and 
 doubling its strength by enthusiasm. Were the results of the 
 enormous efforts she had made in any way equal to the sacri- 
 fices ? AVhat had become of the reforms for which Zizka and 
 his followers had so bravely fought ? It is true the Catholic 
 Church in Bohemia had lost some of her possessions, but they 
 had fallen into the hands of avaricious nobles on whom the 
 clergy would have to depend in the future. The intellect of 
 the country had abandoned the practical ground of morality 
 and discipline to occupy itself with nice questions of dogma. 
 Religious controversy had inflamed men's minds in Bohemia 
 as long before it had done in Byzantium. The reconciliation 
 of Bohemia with the Catholic Church was still incomplete, 
 for the council had by no means granted all the Utraquists 
 demanded, and these latter, misled by the promises of Sigis- 
 mund, vainly expected further concessions. The pope, too, 
 had not yet ratified the Compactata. 
 
 Politically also the Hussite movement had not been so 
 productive of good as might have been expected. It had 
 secured one important advantage for the Chekh nation by 
 delaying for a long time the Gennanizmg of the country ; but 
 in spite of its popular and democratic beginnings, it had ended 
 in the triumph of the nobles, who were now more powerful 
 than ever. The king had been obliged to pledge or sell to 
 them, or else to allow them to seize almost all the crown
 
 DEATH OF SIGISMUXD. 201 
 
 lands, and it was impossible to get these back. Many of tlie 
 estates of the Church liad also passed into their hands, and 
 the crown, which had been accustomed to receive from the 
 Church taxes or contributions in time of war which could be 
 obtained without the consent of the diets, now saw this 
 source of revenue at an end. The equiUbrium between the 
 power of the king and that of the nobles was destroyed. 
 Among foreign nations, the name of the Bohemians had become 
 to the Catholics a name of hatred and contempt, as we see 
 from the name Bohemians being applied to the gypsies and to 
 the Fragucrie ^ in Paris. What did remain to Bohemia was a 
 vigorous national vitality, a religious enthusiasm, and an 
 austere morality which we find reflected in some of her writers, 
 teachers, and politicians, such as Peter of Chelcic, Komensky 
 and Charles of Zerotin, and, above all, in the lofty ideal of 
 the sect of Bohemian Brothers, among whom we find perhaps 
 the best result of the Hussite movement. 
 
 Sigismund lived but a short time after his restoration. He 
 died at the end of the year 1437. The few months he spent 
 on the throne of Bohemia were full of bitterness. He found 
 it impossible to fulfil the engagements he had entered into with 
 the Utraquists and the council ; he would have nothing to do 
 with the election of John of Rokycana as bishop, and sought 
 the support of the party of John of Pribram, in order to keep 
 the balance even between them. The archbishopric of Prague 
 remained vacant. The Utraquist Church was governed by an 
 administrator and a consistory of the parish priests of Prague, 
 all chosen from the party of John of Pribram ; the Catholic 
 Church by the metropolitan chapter and the French bishop 
 Philibert, by whom the priests of both churches were conse- 
 crated. When Philibert died, the chapter chose an adminis- 
 trator. But the bishop of Olomouc (Olmutz), nothwithstanding 
 the Compactata, refused to consecrate those who would not 
 
 ' The league cf the French nobles against Charles MI. in 1439. 
 "Their league was called the Praguerie, in allusion to tlic war which the 
 Hussites of Prague were then waging against the Catholics." — Lavallee.
 
 202 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNG ARY. 
 
 renounce the Cu[). This led to great irritation among the 
 partisans of John of Rokycana ; the latter, no longer believing 
 himself safe in Prague, quitted the city, and his flight increased 
 the discontent among his followers. The state of the country 
 was as little j^eaceful as men's minds. The Taborites had 
 never been completely disarmed. On his arrival in Bohemia, 
 the king had agreed to terms with their leader, the priest 
 Bedrich of Straznice, by which he granted to the town of 
 Tabor the privileges of a royal city, and to the Taborites 
 the temporary exercise of their religion. Some of their bands 
 had, however, refused to accept the peace, and had taken 
 possession of the castle of Sion, in the neighbourhood of 
 Kutna Hora. The king captured this castle, and had the 
 chief, Rohac, and fifty-six of his followers hanged. This 
 roused the indignation of the Taborites, and Bedrich of 
 Straznice had just renewed the war at the time of Sigismund's 
 death. 
 
 With Sigismund ended the male line of the house of 
 Luxemburg, which had given three emperors to the Holy 
 Roman empire and two kings of the Romans ; which had 
 supplied four kings to Bohemia, dukes to Luxemburg, elec- 
 tors to Brandenburg, a dynasty of margraves to Moravia, and 
 one king to Hungary. Had Sigismund lived in quieter and 
 happier times, he might have brought about that close union 
 between Hungary and Bohemia which is the foundation of the 
 Austrian State. " These princes of the House of Luxemburg," 
 says Hofler, " cannot be called great kings ; but they pos- 
 sessed buoyant and elastic characters which never allowed 
 them to be beaten by any stroke of fortune. If one enterprise 
 failed, they were ready with another. They w^ere fitted to exert 
 a most varied influence over their time, with an activity which 
 made itself felt throughout the whole of Europe ; without, 
 perhaps, knowing how to bring together or to maintain and 
 concentrate the various elements of the peoples under their 
 rule .... They were a race not without ideas j above all, 
 they were a race full of activity."
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 I30HE:\IIA under GEORGE of PODIEBRAD (1437-147 i) — THE 
 JAGELLON DYNASTY (1471-1526). 
 
 Albert of Austria (1438-1439) — Vladislav the PostJiumous 
 (1439-1447)— Cd'^/'^'-t' of Podicbrad (1444). 
 
 SiGiSMUND left no male heir, and the direct line of the house of 
 Luxemburg ended \vith him. On his death, Bohemia and 
 Hungary reverted to Albert V. of Austria, his son-in-Ia\v, in 
 virtue of the treaties of inheritance entered into by the houses 
 of Luxemburg and Habsburg. But these treaties had been 
 entered into in the reign of Charles IV., when the royal 
 authority was at its height ; since then, Bohemia had learned 
 how to do without a king, or, when it had one, to oblige him 
 to carry out the will of the people. Albert V. had no possessions 
 beyond Upper and Lower Austria, and was still not strong 
 enough to seize Bohemia by force, while Bedrich of Straznice 
 and the Taborites were anxious to have the young prince 
 Kazimir, brother of Wladislaw HI. of Poland, as their king. 
 As it was the interest of Poland to unite with Bohemia, and 
 so to balance the union of Austria and Hungary, Kazimir was 
 sent into Bohemia with an army, while at the same time the 
 king of Poland invaded Silesia and Moravia. Notwithstanding 
 this opposition, Albert, however, forced his way into the 
 kingdom, had himself crowned at Prague, and then marched 
 on to the town of Tabor, which was the centre of resistance.
 
 204 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGAKV. 
 
 The dangers which threatened hhii were soon put an end to 
 by the intervention of pope Eugenius IV. Albert died shortly 
 afterwards (1439), and four months after his death his widow 
 gave birth to a son, named Vladislav the Posthumous. As 
 might have been foreseen, the new-born prince was not 
 recognized as king without resistance. The opposing parties 
 agreed that a sovereign shotild be chosen by the diet. Prince 
 Kazimir of Poland, who had by this time become the grand- 
 duke of Lithuania, renounced all claim to the crown, and the 
 duke of Bavaria, to whom the assembly proceeded to offer it,, 
 had the wisdom to refuse. Bohemia, weary of the long-con- 
 tinued state of anarchy, next sought for a king among the 
 princes of Germany, but in vain, and at last the diet entered 
 into negociations with the queen dowager Elizabeth. It seemed 
 as if the mere presence of a king, however young, might be of 
 some use in restoring order in a country so divided. But his 
 mother refused to send the child to Prague, and the land was 
 left to govern itself. The captains of the circles ruled their 
 provinces as best they could ; not always successfull}', for the 
 religious excitement was by no means at an end. The Utra- 
 (juists complained that the i^romises of king Sigismund had 
 never been fulfilled ; that the communion was only adminis- 
 tered under one kind ; and that the bishop of Olomouc still 
 refused to consecrate Utraquist priests. At the same time the 
 Utraquists were divided among themselves. The four circles 
 of Kourim, Caslav, Chrudim, and Kralovec Hradec had formed 
 themselves into a confederation which recognized the baron,. 
 Ptacek of Perkstein, as its leader, and John of Rokycana as 
 archbishop, and refused all obedience to the consistory of 
 Prague, which had John of Pribram at that time as'its adminis- 
 trator. Both these parties, however, ended by uniting against 
 the Catholics, and even proposed to join the Taborites in 
 forming a church which should embrace all parties. After 
 endless disputes, however, the Taborite doctrines were finally- 
 declared to be false by the Utraquist majority, and this proved, 
 the death-blow of the sect ; large numbers of pari.shes deserted
 
 GEORGE OF PODIEBRAD. 205 
 
 it, and l)efore long the town of Tabor was left its last and unly 
 refuge. 
 
 Ptacek of Perkstein died without having succeeded in 
 bringing about the desired union among the non-Catholics. 
 His successor as leader of the four circles was George of 
 Kunstadt, or of Podiebrad (more correctly written Podiebrady). 
 George was only twenty-four years of age, but in him were 
 combined the linest qualities. According to tradition, John 
 Zizka had been his godfather; like Zizka, he was a valiant 
 soldier and an ardent patriot, and longed to restore union and 
 order to his country. "He was," says .-^^neas Sylvius, "a 
 short, strongly-built man, with eyes full of fire, of quiet 
 manners, infected, it is true, with the errors of the Hussites, 
 but a lover of law and of justice." He persuaded the leaders 
 of the Catholic party to send an embassy to Rome (1447), in 
 consequence of which the Holy See sent Cardinal Carvajal on 
 a mission to Bohemia. He arrived in Prague in 1448. The 
 Bohemians begged him to induce the pope to accept the Com- 
 pactata and to confirm John of Rokycana as archbishop of 
 Prague. But the cardinal had not come with conciliatory 
 intentions. He gave them to understand that the court of 
 Rome was resolved to reject the communion under both 
 kinds, and to appoint a man of its own choice as archbishop. 
 Upon this, the irritation of the people became so great that 
 the cardinal judged it best to withdraw from the city. Accord- 
 ing to the account of a contemporary, he carried off with hini 
 the text of the Compactata, but was forced to restore it. His 
 flight was the signal for fresh disturbances, in which the par- 
 tisans of Pribram and Rokycana made common cause against 
 the Catholics ; while some of the lords of the party of Pribram, 
 who cared less for the Cup than for their own position, went 
 over openly to the Catholic party. George took advantage of 
 the general confusion to march on Prague, and to take it by 
 surprise. He was received in triumph \ John of Rok}-cana and 
 John of Pribram took the spiritual direction of the Utraquists, 
 and George of Podiebrad became de facto ruler of Bohemia.
 
 206 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Once more the country became the scene of bloody wars, 
 Uh-ic of Rosemberk, the chief of the Catholic party, took up 
 arms against Podiebrad, and received most unexpected help 
 from the Taborites, who had been expelled from the Utraquist 
 community. He sought allies also abroad in Frederick, duke 
 of Saxony, and the margrave of Misnia. But George of Podie- 
 brad, whose political ability equalled his military skill, induced 
 Bavaria and Brandenburg to attack the Saxons ; while he him- 
 self invaded Misnia, and established his authority on all sides. 
 His adversaries tried to get possession of the young king 
 Vladislav, but Frederick of Austria, his guardian, refused to 
 give him up, and they were at last obliged to consent that the 
 diet should nominate a regent of the kingdom. The exploits 
 of George of Podiebrad and the power he had gained naturally 
 pointed him out for the choice of his countrymen, and they 
 bestowed on him the title and office of high captain of the 
 kingdom (nejvyssi hejtman zemsky), and his election was con- 
 hrmed by the emperor in 145 1. Podiebrad knew how to make 
 the authority which had been conferred upon him respected. 
 He subdued the town of Tabor and obliged it to accept 
 Utraquist priests (August, 145 1), besieged Ulric of Rosemberk 
 in the town of Budejovice, reduced him to submission, and 
 threw the principal Taborite priests into prison. From this 
 time the sect almost entirely disappears. 
 
 The countries, however, which had formed outlying pos- 
 sessions of Bohemia, such as Lusatia, Silesia, and Moravia, 
 had become to a great degree detached from her, and could 
 only be brought once more into union by the coronation of 
 the young king. George succeeded in bringing Vladislav to- 
 Prague, and there had him crowned. At his coronation, 
 Vladislav, who was now fourteen years of age, recognized 
 Podiebrad as his lieutenant, which office he was to hold for 
 six years, agreed to the Compactata, and promised to keep 
 the engagements entered into by Sigismund. From this time,, 
 the regent, supported by the authority of a crowned king — an 
 authority which had been so long wanting in Bohemia— was-
 
 VLADISLAV THE I'OSTHUMOUS. 20/ 
 
 able to reorganize the government of the countr}-. He re- 
 estabHshed the courts of justice, began a rigorous inquiry 
 into all misappropriations of land during the last thirty 3-ears, 
 and recovered the greater part of the crown estates. The 
 connection of Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia with Bohemia 
 had always been based on a personal relation to the king, 
 and these countries now took the oath to Vladislav : the 
 town of Vratislav (Breslau) alone refused to send a repre- 
 sentative to Prague, its inhabitants declining altogether to 
 enter an heretical city. They had been excited against 
 Bohemia by the preaching of the Italian monk, John Capris- 
 tan, who had been sent by the pope to preach a crusade 
 against the Turks and to watch events in Bohemia. But king 
 Vladislav, at the advice of George, punished this attempted 
 opposition severely, imposing upon them a very heavy fine. 
 This young prince had the greatest confidence in George, and 
 liked to call him his father. A\'hen the Turks, by the capture 
 of Constantinople, terrified the whole of Christendom, Vladislav 
 was able to offer forty thousand men to the emperor for the 
 crusade against them, which, after all, never took place. He 
 died at Prague (1457) when on the point of celebrating his 
 marriage with Madeleine of France, daughter of Charles VII., 
 who afterwards married Gaston do Foix. A magnificent em- 
 bassy had been sent to Tours to demand the hand of the 
 princess, and the historians of Charles VII. have related its 
 splendour at great length, and describe the interest felt in it 
 by the Parisians during its stay in their capital. 
 
 The Reign of George of Podiebrad (1457-1471 ) — Bohemia 
 at Peace. 
 
 According to agreement, Bohemia ouglit now to have 
 returned to the house of Habsburg. But the nation which 
 had freed herself did not consider herself bound by the 
 contracts entered into by her former sovereigns, ^^'hat need 
 was there for Bohemia to seek a foreign ruler, when she 
 already had the best possible one at home ? Everything
 
 208 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-ITUNGARY. 
 
 seemed to point out George as the natural leader of liis 
 countrymen. A large numl:)er, however, of competitors for the 
 crown presented themselves, and among them Charles Wl., 
 king of I'^ance, who put in a claim for his second son, no 
 doubt to make up for not seeing his daughter Queen of 
 Bohemia. Nevertheless, George was almost unanimously- 
 elected, and Bohemia once more became her own mistress, 
 freed from the control of Austria and Hungary ; for the first 
 time since the days of the Premyslides she had a really 
 national sovereign. ]Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia took the 
 oath of fealty to the new king, two towns only, Vratislav 
 (Breslau) and Jilibava (Iglau), resisting him on the ground of 
 religion. He reduced them by force of arms, in spite of the 
 help granted to Jihlava by the emperor Frederick. Soon even 
 the emperor became reconciled to George of Podiebrad, and 
 granted him the investiture of the kingdom, at the same time 
 reducing the number of the escort which Bohemia was bound 
 to furnish for the imperial expeditions into Italy, from three 
 hundred to one hundred and fifty knights. He also undertook 
 never to interfere in the internal affiiirs of Bohemia. As king, 
 George continued the task he had begun as regent, the 
 restoration of that peace and prosperity in which the kingdom 
 had been left by Charles IV. The partition and diminution 
 of the royal estates had led to the diminution of the army ; he 
 did not hesitate to impose heavy contributions on the estates 
 in order to be able to pay a well-organized force. Throughout 
 Europe he acquired the reputation of a wise and powerful 
 monarch. One of his daughters married Mathias Corvinus, 
 king of Hungary, and another Albert, duke of Saxony ; the 
 latter is the ancestress of the present royal family of Dresden. 
 
 But religious troubles were far from being at an end. 
 George had reduced the Taborites to silence, and those who 
 still adhered to their doctrines practised them in secret. 
 Among" this small remnant had arisen a new sect, the brother- 
 hood of Kunwald, so called from Kunwald, in the circle of 
 Hradec, the place wliere it began. Later on, this sect took
 
 THE BOHEMIAN BROTHERHOOD. 209 
 
 the name of the Union, or ratlicr the Unity of Eohemian 
 Brothers (Jednota bratri Ceskych). It was organized by 
 brother Gregory, who was a member of a noble family but a 
 poor man. The Union of Bohemian Brothers broke off all 
 connection with the Roman Church, and chose their bishops 
 and elders from among the community, the first bishop being 
 consecrated by a Vaudois bishop. Their dogmas were much 
 the same as those of the Taborites ; but they had one decided 
 advantage over their fierce jDredecessors — they refused to 
 defend their faith by force of arms. They taught a strict 
 morality, and awarded temporal punishments to all transgres- 
 sions of duty. This last article of their doctrines prevented 
 them from developing so rapidly as they would otherwise 
 have done ; but, in spite of it, by the end of the fifteenth 
 century, there were no less than two hundred congregations in 
 Bohemia and jNIoravia who were subject to their bishops 
 and elders. Considered as a whole, the sect of Bohemian 
 Brothers, better known among foreigners by the wrong name 
 of Moravian Brothers, may be looked upon as one of the 
 expressions of religious opinion which does most honour to 
 humanity. 
 
 But notwithstanding the inoffensive character of the new 
 sect, king George treated them with severity. He wished to 
 respect the very letter of the Compactata, and hoped, by 
 stifling all religious innovation in the germ, to become the 
 more easily reconciled with the Holy See, but it was a most 
 difficult thing to establish a modus vivetidi with the court of 
 Rome. Notwithstanding the Compactata of Basle, nothing 
 had yet been settled as to the position of the Utraquist 
 Church. In 1462, George, who himself belonged to it, sent an 
 embassy to Rome to beg the Pope to ratify the Compactata. 
 The sovereign pontiff was at this time Pius II., who, under the 
 name of .-Eneas Sylvius, had played an important part at the 
 council of Basle and in the subsequent negociations between 
 the Church and Bohemia. Pius II. was determined to bring 
 Bohemia into complete union with the Western Church, and, 
 
 p
 
 210 iriSTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUXGARY, 
 
 far from agreeing to the request of the king, he declared the 
 Compactata abohshed, forbade the administration of the com- 
 munion under both kinds, and sent a legate, Fantin de Valle, 
 to invite George to abandon the Utraquist faith. Neither 
 the personal convictions nor the political interests of George 
 would allow him to obey this injunction. If he had abjured 
 the Utraquist faith, he would have roused at once against 
 himself the greater part of the nation he had with so much 
 difficulty restored to tranquillity. He had Fantin de ^^alle 
 thrown into prison. On this Pius II. declared war against 
 him, called upon the citizens of Vratislav to refuse obedience 
 to him, and threatened him with excommunication (1468). 
 The death of this violent pontiff for some time suspended 
 the effect of the menace, and his successor, Paul II., wish- 
 ing to gain time and to be able to add material force to 
 the arms of spiritual warfare, entered into negociations on 
 the one side with the emperor, on the other with the 
 Catholic nobles of Bohemia. No emperor had ever yet neg- 
 lected an opportunity of humiliating a king of Bohemia, and 
 though the Bohemian Catholics had no cause of complaint 
 against their king, who had granted them complete liberty of 
 conscience, yet they began to find him too powerful, and were 
 not likely to let slip an opportunity of lessening his authority. 
 One of their leaders, Zdenek of Sternberg, Avho was grand- 
 burgrave of the kingdom, was found ready to place himself at 
 the head of a confederation — the confederation of Zelena Hora 
 (Grunberg) — and to combine with the emperor to second the 
 efforts of the pope. Then pope Paul issued his anathema 
 against George (1465). declaring him a relapsed heretic and 
 a spoiler of the Church, forbidding his subjects to obey him, 
 and calling upon all good Christians to join once more in a 
 crusade against the Hussites. The German princes, however, 
 with the exception of the emperor, were not disposed to* come 
 to Paul's assistance, and the sale of indulgences and the hope 
 of booty only attracted a few armed bands, who brought but 
 feeble assistance to the confederates. Only a few of the royal
 
 MATHIAS CORVINUS ATTACKS BOITEMLi. 211 
 
 towns of Silesia and INIoravia, and a ft-w in Bohemia, together 
 with the Cathohc town of Plzen, joined the rebels. 
 
 Having tried in vain to come to terms with the Holy See, 
 George now bravely determined to meet force with force. He 
 appealed to a future general council, to a future pope, and, 
 what was much more to the purpose, organized a powerful 
 army. He then threw himself upon his enemies and captured 
 their principal fortresses, while his son Victorin invaded Austria 
 (146S), to punish the emperor Frederick on his own land. But 
 at this moment the pope roused a new enemy against George 
 Podiebrad in ISIathias Corvinus, who was tempted less, perhaps, 
 by the honour of defending the Catholic faith, than by his wish 
 to avenge his personal injuries and the hope of uniting the 
 crowns of Hungary and Bohemia on his own head. The pope 
 supplied him with all that was needed for the war, and he soon 
 obliged Victorin to quit Austria. He then suddenly attacked 
 Moravia. The Catholic towns of Moravia and Silesia opened 
 their gates to him, and in the following year he entered Bohemia, 
 and penetrated as far as the circle of Caslav. But the Chekhs 
 had been trained in the school of war for the last half-century ; 
 George was able to surround his enemies, and to oblige Mathias 
 to sign a truce at Vilemov. Mathias, freed by the Holy See 
 from the obligation to observe the armistice, again took up 
 arms, and invading Moravia, pushed on the war with the most 
 savage cruelty, cutting off the heads of his Chekh prisoners 
 and throwing them into the enemy's camp by means of cata- 
 pults. He even summoned a meeting of his partisans at Olo- 
 mouc, and had himself proclaimed king of Bohemia ; but the 
 Chekh army coming up with him, pursued him across Lusatia, 
 Silesia, and Moravia, and finally drove him back into Hungar)'. 
 The towns, however, which he had garrisoned remained true 
 to him, and George, ill and without allies, began to fear the 
 dismemberment of his kingdom. 
 
 It seemed to him that he might best secure the liberty of 
 Bohemia by offering the crown to a foreign prince, and, though 
 he had two sons, he did not hesitate to sacrifice the interests
 
 212 IIIS'J'ORY OF AUSTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 of his family to the higher interests of his country. He might 
 have secured the throne for one of these sons ; he preferred to 
 offer it to Kasimir, king of Poland, and persuaded Bohemia to 
 accept Kasimir as his successor. This act of disinterested 
 patriotism was the last of his life. He died in the year 147 1, 
 in his fifty-second year, a few weeks after the death of John 
 of Rokycana. 
 
 His early death prevented George from carrying out his 
 great projects. He had dreamed of nothing less than the 
 establishment of a kind of tribunal formed of the principal 
 sovereigns of Europe, before which each one amongst them 
 might appeal for justice either against the aggressions of other 
 sovereigns, those of their subjects, or those of the Church. 
 In the hope of realizing this dream, which was so far in 
 advance of his age, he had sent an embassy to Louis XI. 
 (1464), a curious account of which in the Chekli language has 
 come down to us. He begged the French monarch, as Most 
 Christian King ^ and as a prince devoted to the general welfare, 
 to convoke an assembly of kings and princes, which was 
 to work together for the glory of God, the good of the uni- 
 versal Church, and the independence of nations. A chi- 
 merical project, which Henry IV. was to entertain later on, 
 and with no better success than befel George ! At the very 
 moment that the pope was exciting Christendom against him, 
 George was meditating a crusade of the whole of Europe 
 against the Turks. By his patriotism and his virtues, this king, 
 a son of the Chekh nation, far surpassed the most illustrious 
 of the foreign princes who had reigned over his country. 
 He had the help of able ministers, among whom we ought 
 especially to mention the Frenchman, Antoine Marini of 
 Grenoble, and the two Chekhs, Kostka and Albert of Postu- 
 pice. The German, (iregory of Heimburg, also gave him the 
 help of his rare dialectic talent and a genius for diplomacy in 
 advance of the times in his struggle against the Church of 
 Rome. 
 
 ' Kefcrrinr to the official title of the kincf of France.
 
 IVLAD YSLA W JA GlELLO. 2 1 3 
 
 Wladyslaiu JagicUo (1471-1516) — Increased Poivcr of the 
 
 Nobles. 
 
 According to the engagements entered into in the reign of 
 George of Podiebrad, the Utraquists of Bohemia proceeded to 
 elect as their king Wladyslaw ^ of Poland, then sixteen years 
 of age. He took possession of the throne after promising to 
 secure the observance of the Compactata, and brought some 
 thousands of soldiers to the help of Bohemia. IMathias con- 
 tinued the war, and in the years 147 1 and 1472 invaded 
 Bohemia, but could not get beyond Kutna Hora. It would 
 have been far wiser for him to have turned his Hungarian 
 forces against the Turks, who had now conquered the Balkan 
 peninsula, and threatened to invade the valley of the Upper 
 Danube. The successor of Paul II., pope Sixtus IV., Avho 
 knew what were the true interests of Christendom, obliged the 
 two kings to sign a truce, which was to last two years and a 
 half; but Mathias was as little loyal to Wladyslaw as he had 
 been to his predecessor, and did not long observe it, again 
 invading JSIoravia and Silesia. The war did not come to an 
 end till the peace of Olomouc (1478), by which Mathias at 
 last received the fruit of his perseverance. By the help of the 
 emperor he then obtained the title of king of Bohemia ; this 
 was a completely illusory title, only securing to him the crown 
 in case Wladyslaw should chance to die ; but he also secured 
 Lusatia, Moravia, and Silesia for his lifetime; Wladyslaw, if 
 he survived Mathias, having the right of re-claiming these 
 provinces on the payment of a fine of 400,000 ducats. Thus 
 these wars, which had been undertaken in the name of religion, 
 ended in a mere bargain for the possession of land. 
 
 On his accession, the young king of Bohemia found himself 
 confronted by a proud and selfish nobility, with an exhausted 
 territory and an empty treasury. After the batde of Lipany, 
 the nobles had never been able to secure for themselves all 
 
 ' The Polish spelling of this name is Wladyslaw Jagiello ; the Bo- 
 hemians spell the former Vladislav, and the Magyars Laszlo.
 
 2 14 ins TORY OF AUSTRO-HUXGARY. 
 
 the advantages tliey had hoped, as George of Podiebrad had 
 always looked for support to the lower classes, the zemane or 
 squires, and had held the aristocracy in check. Now the 
 nobles got the upper liand, and from the reign of Wladyslaw 
 dates the legalized oppression of the people. Taking ad- 
 vantage of the weakness of the king, the nobles secured the 
 recognition in the law-courts of the principle that a peasant 
 had no right to sue his lord, and to the burdens which 
 already weighed down the agricultural class they added that 
 of making them serfs of the soil, by taking from the peasant 
 the right of leaving the place where he was born. They 
 also appropriated to themselves the most monstrous mono- 
 polies, as for instance that of making and selling all the 
 l)eer used by the peasants, and even endeavoured to restrict 
 the privileges of the towns, thus giving rise to internal struggles 
 in which the young king was more than once obliged to take 
 part, and in which the crown lost prestige and the peace of 
 the kingdom was disturbed. 
 
 Wladyslaw was more fortunate in putting an end to religious 
 difficulties. In his reign, the Catholics and Utraquists agreed 
 to a solemn reconciliation, which took place at a diet held at 
 Kutna Hora (1485). The two parties undertook to observe 
 the Compactata of Prague and the engagements entered into 
 by King Sigismund. From this time these two covenants 
 became part of the laws of the state, and the kings had to 
 swear to obey them as part of the coronation oath. Wladyslaw 
 tried in vain to obtain a confirmation of the Com2:)actata from 
 Alexander VI. Under these circumstances the Utraquist 
 party lost ground rapidly, and its clergy became few in number, 
 as the bishops of Olomouc had refused, since the quarrel of 
 George with pope Pius II., to consecrate any priest who would 
 not promise to give up the administration of the wine. Candi- 
 dates were obliged to seek consecration in foreign lands, or 
 else to receive it by tortuous means, and most frequently at the 
 price of perjury. Now and then a foreign bishop was with 
 great difficulty persuaded to come to Bohemia to officiate.
 
 STATE OF THE BOHEMIAN CHURCH. 21 5 
 
 Thus, while it became exceedingly difficult for the Utraquists 
 to obtain a high-minded clergy, men with no real vocation and 
 mere adventurers obtained admission without difficulty into 
 the Church. This state of things was naturally followed by the 
 most serious falling-off in morality. John of Rokycana was no 
 longer there to support his disciples by the authority of his 
 teaching and his example ; and, added to all this, the Utraquist 
 Estates claimed the right of nominating the members of the 
 consistories, and so reduced their priests to a kind of servitude. 
 
 In the midst of this decay, the sect of Bohemian Brothers 
 had decided the difficulty about the hierarchy by suppressing 
 it altogether, and by their lives of strict morality were a con- 
 stant reproach to the established Churches, They daily 
 increased in number, especially in the circles of Hradec, 
 Boleslav, and Chrudim. The place of assembly for their elders 
 was the town of Mlada Boleslav (Jung Biinzlaw). They could 
 not escape persecution ; Catholics and Utraquists joined in 
 denouncing the Picards, as they were called, to the king, and 
 AVladyslaw forbade their worship ; but they continued to meet 
 in secret. 
 
 In the year 1490, Wladyslaw was elected king of Hungary, 
 and, tired of Bohemia, he went to live at Festh, where 
 he always afterwards remained. The crowns of Bohemia 
 and Hungary were once more united on one head, but the 
 union produced no great advantage for either country. 
 Wladyslaw was the first Chekh king who did not reside in 
 Prague, and from this date the ancient capital began to lose 
 some of its importance. In order to secure the throne for his 
 family, Wladyslaw had his son Louis crowned in 1509, though 
 he was then only three years of age. Wladyslaw died in 15 16. 
 He had married Anne de Foix, who was related to Louis XII. 
 of France. 
 
 Louis (1516-1526) — The Reformation of Luther in Bohemia. 
 
 Louis was ten years old when he came to the throne. 
 There is no doubt that the fact that the Bohemian throne was
 
 2l6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 SO often ascended by princes under age greatly facilitated the 
 encroachments of the nobility ui)on the royal power. On the 
 death of Wladyslaw, Zdenek Leo, of Rozmital, who was grand- 
 burgrave of Prague, undertook to govern, with the help of 
 some of the highest officers of the late king ; the Estates were 
 still quarrelling among themselves, but in the year 15 17 they 
 came to terms, and it was agreed that the towns — that is to say, 
 the citizens who dwelt in them — ^should be allowed to vote at 
 the diets. The representative system which was established at 
 this period continued almost down to the present time. It was 
 at this date that the two towns of Prague, the old and the new, 
 united, in order to be the better able to resist the claims of the 
 nobles. This agreement, which was named the Convention of 
 St. Vacslav, from the day on which it was proclaimed, did not 
 however, succeed in putting an end to the feelings of hatred 
 between the classes, nor to the conflicts between them. More 
 than once the towns and the nobles came to blows ; castles 
 were captured by the citizens, and nobles were beheaded in 
 Prague. The king paid a visit to this city in the year 1522, 
 when he tried to restore peace by appointing new officers tO' 
 the crown ; he afterwards proceeded to levy taxes- for a war 
 against the Turks. 
 
 Meantime the religious difficulties, which had been thought 
 to be at an end, began again worse than ever. In 15 21, 
 Luther began to preach the Reformation in Germany, and, 
 strangely enough, the new doctrines were received with 
 enthusiasm by those very German towns in Bohemia which 
 had so lately been the strongholds of Catholicism. The Chekhs, 
 who had for so long a time been irritated by the Holy See, 
 could not fail to greet the new doctrines with sympathy. For 
 a long time they had hoped to be able to preserve the use of 
 the Cup and yet to remain in union with the Church, but the 
 papacy had remained deaf to their prayers. The new Protes- 
 tantism recalled the old traditions of the Hussites, and Luther 
 seemed to be carrying on the work of the Martyr of Constance ; 
 he did not insist on the rigorous morality of the Bohemian
 
 PROGRESS OF THE REFORMERS. 21/ 
 
 Brothers ; he was at open quarrel with the pope. All this 
 could not fail to make his teaching very welcome. The 
 Utraquist priests at once began to preach his doctrines, and, 
 from the year 1523, their synod added to their confession of 
 faith several articles borrowed from the Lutheran formularies. 
 A friend of Luther's, the priest Cahera, was appointed adminis- 
 trator of the church of Tyn, at Prague, and the separation 
 from the Roman Church became wider than ever. 
 
 It would take too much time to relate the tumults of 
 which the city of Prague now became the scene. At this 
 period the religious history of Bohemia enters into a new- 
 phase, during which the nation was guilty of such excesses as 
 merited punishment at the hands of a tyrant ; the lawless 
 character of the Chekh nobles found ample scope in these 
 perpetual troubles, Avhich have but small interest for us, though 
 their heroes have remained popular in Bohemia down to the 
 present time. There is no doubt that the death of Louis at 
 the battle of Mohacs (1526) was partly due to the obstinate 
 and factious spirit of the nobles, who would not grant their 
 sovereign that help against the Turks of which he stood in 
 need ; but their narrow egotism and want of patriotic feeling 
 were destined to be cruelly punished.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HUNGARY UNDP:R THE HOUSE OF ANJOU (1310-1388) — 
 THE ELECTIVE :M0NARCHY (1388-1444). 
 
 Charles Robert of Anjou (1310-1342). 
 
 One of the most beautiful provinces of France gave its name 
 to the dynasty which replaced the Arpads on the throne of 
 Hungary. Charles, Count of Provence, of Anjou, and of 
 Maine, and brother of St. Louis, when on his return from the 
 crusades, had been invited by pope Urban IV. to conquer 
 the Two Sicilies ; and after defeating the German princes, 
 Conradin and Manfred, in 1268, he had succeeded in estab- 
 lishing himself at Naples. But he dreamed of vaster destinies 
 for his family. He saw that, by obtaining possession of Hun- 
 gary, with its Adriatic coast-line, it would be possible to create 
 one of the greatest powers on the Mediterranean. With this 
 end in view he concluded a double alliance with the royal 
 house of Arpad, Laszlo the Cuman marrying Isabella of 
 Naples, and Charles the Lame, the future king of the Two 
 Sicilies, Mary, the daughter of Stephen V. Thus the nephew 
 of St. Louis became very closely related to the race of Arpad. 
 But it was also closely connected by family alliance with 
 Bohemia and Bavaria, whose rulers equally laid claim to the 
 throne of Hungary when it was left vacant by the death of 
 Andrew III. in 1301. The pope, Boniface VIII., preferred 
 the French candidate. Boniface proudly recalled the fact that 
 .St. Stephen had done homage for his kingdom to the See of
 
 CHARLES ROBERT OF AXJOU. 2\(J 
 
 Rome, and through his legate, the Bishop of Olomouc, he now 
 called upon the Hungarian prelates to recognize Charles 
 Robert of Anjou as their king, and Charles was crowned at 
 Esztergom (Gran). Notwithstanding the papal commands, 
 some of the nobles sided with Vacslav of Bohemia, and the 
 latter entering Hungary, and pushing forward as far as P2sz- 
 tergom, had himself also crowned by the archbishop of 
 Kalocsa. He was however almost immediately afterwards 
 recalled to Bohemia by the death of his fother (1305), and 
 found himself obliged to give up all claim to Hungary. Then 
 Otto of Bavaria presented himself, and found some partisans 
 among the Saxons of Transylvania, led by their voievode, 
 Ladislas Apor. It was not before the year 13 10, that Charles 
 Robert really became king, and even then he had to take up 
 arms against the dynast, or petty king, Mathew Csak of 
 Trencin, one of the most powerful of his vassals in the 
 country of the Slovaks, who laid claim to complete inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 Charles Robert retook Belgrade from the Servian princes : 
 entered into an alliance with Frederick of Austria against 
 the emperor Louis of Bavaria (1322) ; restored order among 
 the Cumans ; and pacified the Saxons who had revolted. 
 His foreign policy was more ambitious than had been that of 
 the Arpads. He could not forget Italy, and hoped one day 
 to unite the two crowns of Naples and of St. Stephen, if not 
 on his own head, yet on that of one of his children. He 
 believed this hope sure of realization when he was able to 
 conclude the marriage of his son Andrew with Joan, daughter 
 of the duke of Calabria, who became afterwards the notorious 
 Joan of Naples. 
 
 Charles kept up the most cordial relations with Venice. 
 His first object was to secure friends in Italy, and with this 
 end in view he concluded a treaty of commerce with the Most 
 Serene Republic, securing to them their towns on the Adriatic. 
 Towards the north, Poland was the special object of his 
 ambition, and here he was able to enter into close alliance
 
 220 I/IS TORY OF AUSTRO-IWNGARY. 
 
 with A\'laclislaw Lokictek, whose daughter he married in 1320. 
 He was not without hope that Poland might some day be 
 united to Hungary, and persuaded king Kasimir III. to recog- 
 nize Louis of Anjou, his son, as his heir (1338). Hungary, 
 united on one side to Poland, and on the other to Italy, might 
 have become one of the most powerful states of Europe. 
 
 loiiis the Gnat (1342-13S2) — The Hungarians in Italy — 
 Wars with Venice and Naples. 
 
 It seemed as if Louis the Great, the son of Charles Robert, 
 was to realize the ambitious dreams of his father. Shortly 
 after his accession, he received the news of the murder of his 
 brother, who had been assassinated at the instigation of his 
 wife, Joan of Naples. This seemed to furnish a good excuse 
 for interfering in the affairs of Ital)-, especially as the Hun- 
 garian nation shared in the indignation of the sovereign. The 
 diet levied a large army, and the republic of Venice consented 
 to the free passage of the Magyar troops through its territor)-. 
 Louis entered Italy, and Florence complimented the first king 
 of Hungary who had set foot on the soil of the peninsula. 
 He reached without difficulty the town of Aversa, where his 
 brother had been assassinated, and there he seized and put to 
 death Charles of Durazzo, who was accused of having been 
 an accomplice in the murder of prince Andrew, and then 
 pushing on to Naples he took possession of the reins of 
 government. But it was only for a brief period. He was 
 forced to return to Hungary after Joan had been declared 
 innocent by the cardinals as having acted under the influence 
 of sorcery. 
 
 Louis's expedition was quite useless as regarded his am- 
 bitious projects, but it had one result of importance. It 
 taught the Hungarians to know the west ; it revealed to them 
 a world of refinement and elegance hitherto quite unknown on 
 the vast Hungarian plain, and the effects of this temporary 
 contact with the country on which the Renaissance was then
 
 LOUIS THE GREAT. 22 1 
 
 dawning, can in future be seen in the manners, literature, and 
 arts of the Magyars. 
 
 Though Louis had been obliged to abandon Italy, he had 
 iit least been able to establish the sovereignty of Hungary 
 firmly on the Adriatic. He had married a Slav princess, 
 Elizabeth Kotzmanovic, sister of the ban of Bosnia, the pro- 
 vince over which the kings of Hungary claimed a sovereignty 
 which they could not exercise. In consequence of this connec- 
 tion with Bosnia, the pope called Louis's attention to the spread 
 of the Patarine^ heresy in eastern Europe, more especially 
 among the southern Slavs. This led him to undertake an 
 expedition against the Slavs of Dalmatia, and in 1345 he 
 attempted to get possession of Jadera (Zara). The Venetians, 
 however, interfered, and he was unsuccessful. Some years 
 afterwards, when he had raised a considerable arm}-, under 
 pretence of fighting the heretical Servians, he suddenly invaded 
 the north of Ital}^, and penetrated as far as Padua. The re- 
 public had no means of maintaining a struggle on land, and 
 was forced to conclude a peace by which Louis gained 
 possession of the whole of Dalmatia (1358). This gave 
 Hungary access to the Adriatic, and an opportunity of de- 
 veloping into a maritime power. When he had conquered 
 Dalmatia, Louis turned his arms against the heretics, attacking 
 Urosh, emperor of Servia, and obliging him to restore certain 
 lands which his father had conquered in Hungary. In the 
 banat of Bosnia, the terrified Paterines fled from him into the 
 mountains, while in the comitat of INIarmaros the dread of this 
 champion of the Romish Church drove the Wallachian adherents 
 of the Eastern Church to take refuge in Moldavia. Louis had 
 become a favourite with the papacy, and furnished it with help 
 against its enemies. 
 
 Meanwhile the Turks had settled in the Balkan peninsula, 
 
 * Patarini, a name which, from having belonged to the opponents of 
 clerical marriage in Milan in the preceding centuries, was now transferred 
 to parties which disparaged all marriage ; or perhaps had come to be used 
 in forgetfuhiess jf its origin, as a convenient designation for sectaries. — 
 T. C. Rol)erlson, History of the Christian Church.
 
 222 HISTORY OF AUSTKO-HU.\GARY. 
 
 and were advancing towards Hungary. The sultan Murad had 
 already taken Adrianople (1375), and was watching Byzantium. 
 According to documents, which are, however, somewhat obscure, 
 the first battle between the Magyars and the Osmanlis took 
 place in the year 1366, on the Danube, close to the Iron Gates. 
 The Greek emperor, John Palceologus, came to the court of 
 Louis to implore his help, promising, if it were granted, to 
 become a convert to the Romish faith. But the then Pope 
 cared too much for questions of dogma, and too little for the 
 dangers which threatened Christendom, and he persuaded 
 the king of Hungary to put no faith in the emperor's promises ; 
 Louis therefore turned his attention from the affairs of the 
 Greek empire towards Poland, whose crown had so long been 
 the object of his ambition. 
 
 As we have already seen, he was the chosen heir of king 
 Kasimir. He had lost no opportunity of ingratiating himself 
 with the Poles, lending them his aid against the Lithuanians, 
 who were still pagans, and against the Tartars. He had 
 crossed the Carpathians in 1354, with a considerable army, to 
 help the Poles to drive back both these enemies, who had 
 invaded Volhynia and Podolia. By these services lie had 
 earned their gratitude, and in 1370 he was able to get himself 
 proclaimed king both in Cracow and in the sacred city of 
 Gniezno, near the relics of St. Adalbert. But his reign in 
 Poland was not fortunate. His mother, to whom he had 
 entrusted the government, was unable to manage this restless 
 and lawless nation, and revolts soon broke out. In such a 
 state of things, Louis of Anjou could hardly hope to secure 
 both the crown of Poland and that of Hungary for his 
 successor. He had no son. After hesitating for a long time,. 
 he decided to make Sigismund, the young prince of Luxemljurg, 
 son of Charles IV. (the future king of Bohemia and emperor 
 of (iermany), a member of his family, and married him to 
 Mary, his eldest daughter. Sigismund was sent while he was 
 still very young to the court of Hungar)^, there to study the 
 language and laws of the country. Louis had two other
 
 COXDITION OF HUXGARY UNDER LOUIS. 223 
 
 daughters, Hcdwig, who afterwards became queen of Poland, 
 and Catherine, whom he hoped to marry to a I''rench prnice. 
 Embassies had already been exchanged with this end in view 
 between Charles V. of France and Louis of Hungary, when 
 the death of the young princess put an end to the project. 
 The last years of the reign of Louis were devoted to a war 
 against Venice, which ended in the defeat of Venice, and 
 secured for Hungary the peaceable possession of the Adriatic 
 shore in the future. 
 
 With the death of Louis the Great (13S2) the house of 
 Anjou, which had only given two kings to the INLigyars, became 
 extinct. 
 
 State of Hungary under tJie House of Anjou. 
 
 It was to be expected that the kings of the house of Anjou 
 would bring into Hungary the influence of western habits. 
 Even before their time the institutions of the country had 
 already made some approach to the feudal type, but LIungary 
 never adopted feudalism as a whole. " Two things prevented 
 this," says M. Sayous, " first, the complete power of the kings 
 over the whole land, a fundamental law which made the forma- 
 tion of large fiefs quite impossible ; and next, the interest taken 
 in politics by the numerous petite noblesse, a class which was 
 much more numerous in Hungary than in any other country. 
 In a word, the king was too powerful and the people who had 
 political influence too careful of their rights, for Hungary, not- 
 withstanding its knightly and aristocratic tendencies, ever to 
 become a completely feudal state." 
 
 The Angevin princes increased the luxury of the court. 
 
 They gathered around them a hierarchy of great lords, and 
 
 richly endowed some noble f:imiHes, who became absolutely 
 
 devoted to them. The court was sometimes held at Buda and 
 
 sometimes at the castle of Visegrad, whose Slav name had 
 
 survived the occupation of the Magyars, and whose splendour 
 
 inspired the following lines of the poet — 
 
 " Inspice natales Visegradi et funera : dices 
 Destruxisse homines, sed poluisse Deos."
 
 224 JIISTORY OF AUSTRO-llUNGARY. 
 
 'I'ournaments were held there and the science of heraldry 
 was encouraged. The army gathered in banderia round the 
 lords, lay and ecclesiastical, and those who brought a certain 
 number of soldiers had the right of leading them to battle 
 under their own standards. -Vn hereditary nobility was formed 
 by the law of "atavicity ;" a law which deprived noble families 
 of the right to sell their estates ; they were to descend to the 
 natural heirs as long as there were any, and in default to lapse 
 to the king. Charles Robert and Louis convoked the general 
 diets but seldom ; but to make up for this they interfered very 
 little with the assemblies of the comitats. 
 
 The burgher class in the chief towns was recruited prin- 
 cipally from foreigners. A large number of Italians had been 
 attracted to Hungary as the result of the connection with 
 Naples, and Germans always abounded in Transylvania. 
 Trade with Germany, Italy, and even the east, increased the 
 intercourse with these countries. Some towns, called free 
 cities, enjoyed considerable privileges in return for yearly pay- 
 ments made to the king. Louis the Great, who had taken 
 upon himself the part of champion of Christianity, persecuted 
 the Jews, many of whom emigrated to Austria and Poland ; 
 those who remained formed a separate people in the country 
 (Universitas Judseorum), dependent solely on the king and 
 wearing a peculiar dress. The Church was richly endowed, 
 a circumstance which did not increase the morality of the 
 clergy. Learning increased ; Louis the Great, with the con- 
 sent of pope Urban V., had founded a university in the town 
 of Pecs (Fiinfkirchen), in which all the sciences except the- 
 ology were taught ; the literary productions of the time are, 
 however, of little value. The works of the Dalmatian historians 
 owed their existence to the special culture which their country 
 enjoyed from its intercourse with the west, and the literary 
 life of Slavo-Italian Dalmatia was very different from that of 
 Hungary properly so called, whose literature contains little of 
 interest. But very little remains of it ; we know that at one 
 time there existed a whole cycle of poems celebrating the
 
 SIGISMUND OF LUXEMBURG. 22 5 
 
 national heroes and among them Louis the Great, but not a 
 single line has come down to us. 
 
 Sigisi/iiind of Lttxcinbiirg (1382-1437). 
 
 The destined heir to the crown of Hungary was, as we 
 have already seen, Prince Sigismund of Luxemburg, but the 
 diet was not willing to accept a foreigner as king, and, as 
 Hungary had no Salic law, the Princess ]\Lary was crowned in 
 Szekes Fejervar. Coronata fnit in regein, says the chronicler 
 Lucius, and this expression of the fourteenth century explains 
 to us the famous moriamicr pro rege nostra of the eighteenth. 
 With the help of the queen-dowager Elizabeth, the young 
 princess ruled the kingdom. 
 
 The Poles on their side refused to accept Sigismund as 
 their king unless he would undertake to reside in Poland, and 
 they chose the princess Hedwig to reign over them. She 
 soon afterwards married Jagiello, duke of Lithuania, and con- 
 verted him to Christianity. This alliance of a princess of the 
 royal family of France with a pagan of the north prepared the 
 way for the union of Lithuania and Poland. 
 
 It was some time before the claims of Sigismund to Hun- 
 gary were recognized. The queen-dowager wished Charles of 
 Orleans, one of the French princes, to dispute the throne 
 with him ; the king of Naples, Charles of Durazzo, also forced 
 his way into the kingdom and had himself crowned, but he 
 perished soon afterwards in a popular rising. Tired at last of 
 the state of uncertainty, the diet had Sigismund proclaimed 
 king, and he, happy in the possession of Hungary, abandoned 
 all claim to the crown of Poland. He gave up also those 
 shadowy claims of Hungary to Galicia and Lodomeria, which 
 were revived years afterwards by Maria Theresa. 
 
 The beginning of Sigismund's reign was troubled by rcbel- 
 iions in Hungary and Croatia, which were put down with 
 severity. More serious dangers threatened the kingdom from 
 the Turks. The Servians had succumbed to them ; the 
 princes of Wallachia had recognized their suzerainty ; Bosnia
 
 226 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUXGARY. 
 
 was invaded ; Bulgaria had fallen into their hands. Sigis- 
 mund and the diet determined at once to put a stop to their 
 further progress. But Hungary could do little alone ; so Sigis- 
 mund sought the alliance of the Greek emperor Manuel IL, 
 and sent to ask for help from Germany, France, and Burgundy. 
 The war thus begun was ended by the defeat of Nikopolis 
 (1396), in which both French and Hungarians were van- 
 quished. Sigismund escaped with great difficulty to his ter- 
 ritory on the Adriatic with the help of the Venetian fleet, and 
 the small republic of Dubrovnik (Ragusa), Avhich was then 
 free and prosperous, lent the fugitive king money to enable 
 him to return to his kingdom. The Turks remained masters 
 of the Lower Danube. 
 
 The name of Sigismund is celebrated ratlier as emperor 
 and king of Bohemia than as king of Hungary ; but one or 
 two events occurred in his reign which Avere of importance to 
 the Magyars. The two diets of Temesvar and Buda, held 
 in 1397 and 1405, laid the foundations on which the repre- 
 sentative government of Hungary has ever since been based. 
 From this time each comitat sent four representatives to the 
 lower chamber, or Chamber of Orders {ordiiiuiii\ and the 
 royal cities were also represented ; while the upper chamber 
 was composed of the hereditary legislators and prelates. The 
 assemblies of the comitats thus gained real political influence 
 and early became accustomed to entrust to their delegates 
 what might be called " un mandat imperatif ; " the kind of 
 commission which is the ideal of some modern democracies, 
 seemed quite natural to the small land-owners of Flungary. It 
 Avas at this time also that the light troops of hussars, which were 
 especially destined for War against the Turks, were first formed. 
 Sigismund cannot be looked upon as a wise ruler. He 
 was melancholy, capricious, cruel, and a religious persecutor ;; 
 he was never popular among his Hungarian subjects. Always 
 needy, he was constantly mortgaging the crown lands. He 
 had the same faults as his brother Vacslav IV. of Bohemia, 
 and was destined to have the same misfortunes. In 1401, a
 
 LOSS OF D ALMA 77 A. 22/ 
 
 plot was formed with the help of the prhnate of the kingdom 
 and the palatine, and Sigismund was suddenly taken prisoner 
 in his palace and shut up in the castle of Vysegrad ; he was 
 soon, however, restored to liberty because no one could be 
 found to take his ])lace on the throne. \Yq have already seen 
 how he treated Vacslav, whom he helped the Austrian princes 
 to keep as a prisoner in Vienna (1404). He concluded a 
 treaty of succession with his brother-in-law Albert of Austria, 
 which prepared the way for the future rule of that house over 
 Hungary. The diet accepted this treaty, but Sigismund 
 became every day more unpopular, and we find Ladislas of 
 Naples landing at Jadara (Zara), getting himself crowned by 
 the archbishop of Esztergom (Gran), and then pushing his 
 way on to Raab (Gyor). He was, however, driven back by 
 Sigismund. A short time after, Sigismund and pope Gregory 
 XII. planned a new crusade against the Turks, and founded 
 the order of the Dragon, whose members were to fight against 
 infidels and heretics. 
 
 In 141 1, Sigismund was chosen emperor. It was the first 
 time this dangerous honour had been conferred on a king of 
 Hungary, and it proved a great misfortune to the country, as 
 from this time forward it was looked upon as an appendage of 
 Germany. Sigismund was none the better king for being 
 emperor. The year following his election he mortgaged to 
 Poland a portion of the district of Szepes (Zips) on the 
 Carpathian frontier; and when, a little later, owing to his 
 position as emperor, he was dragged into a war with Venice, 
 Hungary paid the penalty of his defeat by the loss of tlie 
 Dalmatian coast (1419). In the following year, Kotor (Cattaro) 
 gave itself up to Venice, and remained in her possession down 
 to 1797. Thus the whole of the Dalmatian coast, except the 
 free republic of Ragusa, fell into the power of \'enice ; the 
 interior of the country, however, remained dependent on 
 Croatia, and was governed by the ban of that country. To 
 add to his misfortunes, Sigismund became king of Bohemia. 
 The union of the three crowns proved as fatal to Hungary as
 
 228 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 to Bohemia, because the Magyars no\v found themselves 
 obh'ged to employ their energies in a useless struggle against 
 the Hussites, whose teaching, indeed, was making considerable 
 progress amongst themselves, instead of turning all their 
 strength against the common enemy, the Turks. The princes 
 of the two houses of Arpad and Anjou had never, like Sigis- 
 mund, worn the imperial crown, but at least they had known 
 how to preserve the integrity of their kingdom. 
 
 Had Sigismund cared less for these religious wars, and 
 more for the real interests of Christianity, he might have found 
 southwards of his dominions some compensation for his losses 
 elsewhere. Servia had been half conquered by the Turks, but 
 had been able to keep its native princes, who, under the name 
 of despots, had managed to maintain a doubtful kind of 
 independence, by oscillating between their neighbours, Turkey 
 and Hungary. About this time, Stephen Lazarevic, one of the 
 Servian despots, acknowledged himself the vassal of the king 
 of Hungary, and did homage to the crown of St. Stephen, not 
 only for the future, but even for the past, by this act acknow- 
 ledging that Servia had always been subject to Hungar}'. 
 This act falsified history — Servia had long been an indepen- 
 dent kingdom — but otherwise it is of little practical interest, 
 as Servia so soon afterwards fell entirely into the hands of the 
 Mussulmans. Stephen Lazarevic, however, died childless, 
 and, according to the terms of the act of homage, Belgrade, 
 Macva, Golubac, and some other towns^ became the property 
 of Hungary. In consequence of a contract entered into by 
 Sigismund with George Brankovic, the new despot, these towns 
 were only given up in exchange for others, Servia obtaining 
 Slankamen, Munkacs, Tokaj, Debreczen, Vilagos, afterwards 
 so celebrated, and some others. At the time of this exchange, 
 a large number of Servian families migrated into Hungary, 
 and brought into the country a military clement, which proved 
 of considerable value in the wars against the Turks. Bran- 
 kovic turned out a dangerous vassal ; he was always ready to 
 come to terms with the sultan, to whom he married his sister,
 
 OKGAMZATION OF IIUXGARIAX ARMY. 229 
 
 and his policy towards both his neighbours was more worthy 
 of a doge of Venice than of a Servian hero. 
 
 Hungary, threatened on one side by the Turks, on the 
 other was ravaged by the Hussites. In 1435, ^^ ^^^^^ o^ 
 Poszony (Presburg) took measures for the national defence, 
 and completed the organization of the army. Everyone who 
 did not already serve in tlie handeria of the prelates and great 
 lords was in future to serve in the bandcria of the comitats, and 
 the country was divided into seven camps, a measure which 
 very much facilitated the management of military affairs. But, 
 notwithstanding these efforts, Hungary was the scene of the 
 greatest disorders. Peasant revolts broke out in Transylvania ; 
 and the Hussite doctrines spread among this people, who had 
 been so often led by their sovereigns to fight against tliem. 
 In 1437, Sigismund ended his long reign without having 
 remedied one of the many evils of which he had been either 
 the author or the impotent spectator. 
 
 Albert of Austria — Wladyshnv Jagiello (143 8- 1444). 
 
 Taught by experience, the diet imposed much more severe 
 restrictions on the new king than those to which Sigismund 
 had submitted. Elizabeth, daughter of the late king, was 
 declared his heir, and her husband, Albert of Austria, was 
 associated with her on the throne. At last the house of 
 Austria had obtained the prize whicli had so long been the 
 object of its desires ; but Hungary insisted on the following 
 conditions : — The new king was always to reside in the country ; 
 he was to consult the diet as to the marriage of his daughters ; 
 Itc was neither to give nor to sell the crown lands, nor to 
 nominate the palatine, without the consent of the assembly. 
 Neither the monarch nor his subjects, however, had time to put 
 these wise agreements into practice, as Albert died in 1439. 
 He left his wife pregnant. The Turks, who had captured 
 Smederevo (Semendria), were now on the very threshold of the 
 kingdom, and a king was imperatively needed. The child, 
 Madislav the Posthumous, who was born shortly after Albert's
 
 230 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUXGARY. 
 
 dealli, was not the king needed by a nation in such straits, and 
 the majority of the people decided to elect Wladyslaw 
 Jagiello, king of Poland, as their ruler. Among the partisans 
 of the new monarch, John Corvinus Hunyady stood in the 
 foremost rank. He belonged to a noble family in Transyl- 
 vania, and had already distinguished himself by his bravery 
 against the Turks. He now took up arms against the Austrian 
 party in support of the king whom his patriotism had chosen, 
 and endeavoured to unite the whole nation against the infidels. 
 The Sultan Murad had laid siege to Belgrade, which at 
 this time belonged to Hungary ; but Hunyady forced him to 
 retire. The Turks next marched into Transylvania ; Hunyady 
 got before them, and gave them a crushing defeat near Hcr- 
 mannstadt at St. Emmerich (Szent-Imre), leaving twenty 
 thousand dead on the field of battle, Brankovic, the Servian 
 despot, rendered Hunyady assistance in this expedition, which 
 the conqueror repaid by sending to him, as a bloody trophy, 
 the head of Mesid Bey, the Turkish general. Exasperated by 
 this defeat, Murad next sent general Schehabeddin against 
 Hungary. Hunyady attacked him near the Iron Gates of the 
 Danube with a far inferior force, and the Hungarian cavalry 
 put the janissaries to flight and nobly avenged Nikopolis. 
 Murad, terrified, begged for peace. Hungary refused to grant 
 it, for it seemed as if the moment had come when the Turks 
 could be driven once for all from her frontiers. In the month 
 of July, 1443, king Wladyslaw and John Hunyady crossed the 
 Danube close to Smederevo (Semendria), and marched up the 
 valley of the Morava. Again defeated at Nish, the Turks 
 were obliged to fall back and leave Sophia in the hands of the 
 Magyars. The latter then crossed a defile of the Balkans in 
 spite of the formidable defences of the Turks, and penetrated 
 into the valley of the Maritsa, where again the Mussulmans 
 were severely beaten. The road to Constantinople lay open 
 to the Magyars ; but winter came upon them in these barren 
 regions, and in the midst of the delirium of triumph the king 
 was oblisied to order a retreat.
 
 DEFEAT OF VARNA. 23 I 
 
 Once more ]\Iurad begged for peace, and the diet of 
 Szeged offered the following conditions to him : — A truce to be 
 concluded for ten years ; Wallachia to pass again under the 
 suzerainty of Hungary ; Servia and Herzegovina to be restored 
 .to the despot Brankovic ; the Turkish prisoners to purchase 
 their freedom by heavy ransoms. This treaty was solemnly 
 sworn to on the Gospel and on the Koran. 
 
 But many Christians thought that it was a great mistake 
 thus to lose the easy advantages of the success gained by the 
 Hungarians, and cardinal Julius] Cesarini proved to the diet 
 •that an oath taken to infidels was not binding, and that he, 
 .as the representative of the Holy See, had the power to annul 
 it. Notwithstanding the treaty, the king and Hunyady there- 
 upon decided to renew the war, and marched towards Bulgaria 
 and the Black Sea. Murad was at this time in Asia Minor ; 
 but the Genoese, worthy rivals of the Venetians, carried his 
 troops to Europe in their fleet for the sum of 70,000 ducats, 
 and on the loth of November, 1444, the Christian and IMussul- 
 man armies found themselves face to face at Varna, near the 
 Balkan j\Iountains. In order to recall to the Christians their 
 broken faith and to disturb their consciences, Murad had a 
 •copy of the treaty and of the Gospel they had dishonoured 
 carried on a lance in front of his troops. 
 
 The beginning of this memorable battle was fiivourable to 
 the Hungarians. Their cavalry charged with unheard-of 
 courage ; but soon king Wladyslaw, carried away by his ardour, 
 rushed into the midst of the fray, and his head, placed at the 
 end of a lance, announced their defeat to the Magyars. The 
 action ended in a hopeless flight, and of his glorious army Hun- 
 yady only brought back to Hungary some miserable remains. 
 
 A wit of the time made the often-quoted epitaph on 
 ^Vladyslaw — 
 
 " Romani Cannas, ego Varnam clade notavi ; 
 Discite mortales non temerare fidem," 
 
 The defeat at Varna opened the gates of Constantinoi^le to 
 .the Turks.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 JOHN HUNYADY — MATHIAS CORVINUS THE JAGELLONS 
 
 (1444—1526). 
 
 Ladislas the Posthumous — -John Hunyady Governor of the 
 Kingdom. 
 
 Ladislas the Posthumous had been sent to the court of his 
 uncle, Frederick of Austria, to be educated. He was at this time 
 only five years old, and the diet, \vhich now met at Buda, while 
 proclaiming him king, decided that during his minority the 
 government should be carried on by representatives of the 
 aristocracy, both lay and ecclesiastical. In consequence of 
 this decision, there was for a time something like a republic, 
 and happy would it have been for Hungary if the experience 
 of this period had led her always to do without a king. It was 
 also decided that Ladislas should be given up to the nobles, in 
 order that he should be brought up in Hungary ; but Frederick 
 refused to give up his ward, whereupon the diet met again oa 
 the plain of Rakos,^ and proclaimed Johu Hunyady governor 
 during his absence. Hunyady was to be a kind of lieutenant- 
 general, with much the same authority as George of Podiebrad 
 was about to exercise as grand hetman of Bohemia. Hunyady's 
 first intention was to defend his country against the house of 
 Austria ; but the pope, who understood the importance of 
 Hungary in the struggle against the Ottoman power, brought 
 
 ' The diets were often held on this plain. The Poles used to call a 
 riotous meeting of their nobles a Rokosz.
 
 DEFEAT OF KOSOVO. 233- 
 
 about a reconciliation between the two countries, and after 
 this the Magyar hero was able to assemble an army of twenty- 
 four thousand men against the common enemy of Christendom, 
 and to cross the Danube, while Scanderbeg made a useful 
 diversion in Albania. Unfortunately, George Brankovic had 
 already begun to play that double game which has disgraced 
 his memory, and consequently refused his aid to the 
 Hungarians. He had hoped to have himself been chosen^ 
 Giibej-nator regni, but Hunyady had been preferred before him,- 
 and jealousy of his rival and fear of the Turks, who seemed 
 to him likely to prove the stronger, led him once more to 
 desert the Magyars, Hunyady, however, crossed the Serviarr 
 territory and reached the fatal plain of Kosovo (1448). There 
 Murad awaited him behind formidable intrenchments, and the 
 disaster of Varna was repeated. To crown his treachery, 
 Brankovic offered after the battle to take Hunyady prisoner 
 and deliver him up to the sultan, but the knightly IMussulman 
 refused to have anything to do with so infamous an action. 
 This second defeat in no wise diminished the popularity 
 of Hunyady or the confidence felt in him, but the house of 
 Austria dreaded so watchful a guardian of the freedom of 
 Hungary, and excited opposition in various quarters against 
 him. They supported the claims of the Chekh noble, Jiskra 
 of Brandyse, grand hetman of the king of Bohemia, who 
 settled to the north of Hungary on the slopes of the Car- 
 pathians, occupied the land in the name of his king, and refused 
 to recognize the authority of John Hunyady. The latter 
 attacked him, but without success. This Jiskra is hated by 
 the Magyar race as the enemy of their country, and celebrated 
 by the Chekhs as a zealous servant of his king and a fervent 
 upholder of the doctrines of the Hussites. 
 
 Meanwhile the emperor continued to refuse to give up the 
 young king, and the Magyars to demand his return, sending 
 their envoys even as far as Italy, when he visited that country, 
 and endeavouring to carry him off by surprise. They have 
 always had a superstitious respect for the royal crown and the
 
 234 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 person of their king, and both were now in the possession of 
 Austria, Frederick having carried away the sacred crown, the 
 crown of St. Stephen, when he bore off his young ward to the 
 Austrian court. At last, however, the emperor yielded to 
 the entreaties of the nation, and Ladislas was allowed to return 
 to his native country (1453). 13 ut it was only for a time. He 
 received the reins of government from the hands of Hunyady, 
 rewarding the patriot with his thanks and the title of count of 
 Bistrice, assisted at the deliberations of the diet at Poszony, and 
 then once more returned to Vienna. 
 
 At this time the position of affairs in Turkey demanded 
 the full attention of John Hunyady. Constantinople had 
 fallen; Brankovic was imploring the help of Hungary. A 
 meeting of the diet was summoned to Buda. It voted large 
 subsidies and decided on a general insurrection ^ in case the 
 country should be invaded ; and then Hunyady marched into 
 Servia, up the valley of the Morava, and coming up with the 
 Turks near Krushevats, close to the spot by which they had 
 formerly invaded Servia, defeated them, and drove them back, 
 pushing his way as far as Sophia. Had he had the whole of 
 Europe as his allies he might then have driven the Osmanlis 
 from Constantinople; but, instead, Hungary was entirely without 
 allies, and John Hunyady himself had two jealous rivals, the 
 palatine Gara and the count of Cilly, who were always trying 
 to prejudice the mind of the young king against him. He 
 was obliged to retrace his steps ; but at least he determined to 
 save Belgrade. This fortified town, from its wonderful posi- 
 tion, is the key both to the Danube and the Save, and is 
 called by the Turks, with some show of reason, the Town of the 
 Holy A\'ar. The brothcr-in4aw of Hunyady commanded it, 
 and the sultan Mahomet U. had brought against it the most 
 formidable artillery that had ever been seen. In the uneijual 
 struggle, Hunyady had no ally except the monk Capistrano, 
 
 ' Insurrection, the name applied by tlie Magyars to a general levy of 
 the troops of Hungary, when all men were bound to fight either in the 
 ■baiidcria of the prelates or lords, or in those of the coinilats, see page 229.
 
 SIEGE OF BELGRADE. 235 
 
 \vhose fervid eloquence had gathered from the whole of 
 Europe an army of sixty thousand volunteers. This was l)ut a 
 small force with which to face the dangers which threatened 
 Christendom ; but tlie age of crusades had gone by. 
 
 The first collision between the opposing forces took place 
 on the waters of the Danube, when the Magyar fleet overthrew 
 the galleys of the Turks. Hunyady and Capistrano entered 
 Belgrade. On the 21st of July, 1456, after having destroyed 
 the walls with his formidable artillery, Mahomet endeavoured 
 to take the town by assault. But when his janissaries had 
 crossed the first outworks, they found themselves before 
 a second line of fortifications, and their courage failed. Com- 
 pletely repulsed by the Hungarians, the sultan fled to .Sophia, 
 leaving all his artillery and twenty-four thousand corpses under 
 the walls of the citadel. Hunyady did not long survive this 
 triumph. He died either of fatigue, or a wound, or else of an 
 epidemic which broke out on the field of battle. His con- 
 temporaries pay the most splendid homage to his memory, 
 ^' With him " says the pope ^-i^neas Sylvius, " have died our 
 hopes." " He was in all things an excellent man ! " exclaims 
 Chalcondylas. And the Polish annalist Dlugosz, who shows 
 but little favour to the Hungarians, is obliged to write, " He 
 was a man celebrated in fight, and of great worth as a leader of 
 armies. His death was a calamity, not only for Hungary, but 
 for the whole Catholic world." 
 
 King Ladislas was little worthy of sucli a subject. He had 
 already shown his ingratitude, and the count of Cilly continued 
 to prejudice his sovereign against the brave warrior even after 
 his death. Ladislav, the son, and Szilag}^, the brother of the 
 hero, became possessed of a letter which the favourite had 
 written to the despot of Servia, in which he proposed to him to 
 exterminate "these dogs of A^'allachians," as he called the 
 family of Hunyady. They resolved to be beforehand with him, 
 and when Cilly came to Belgrade with the king they had him 
 assassinated. This was but an act of justice according to the 
 manners of the times; but the king would not jxardon it, and at
 
 236 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 the instigation of the palatine Gara, he had Ladislav arrested^ 
 thrown into prison at Buda (1457), and then condemned ta 
 death. The headsman in his agitation thrice missed his aim. 
 " It is not permitted to strike more than thrice," said the son 
 of the man who had saved Belgrade ; but the king, inflexible in 
 his vengeance, ordered the execution to go on. To complete 
 his own dishonour, Ladislas then issued an edict which declared 
 John Hunyady a traitor and a scoundrel. The Magyar poetry 
 often recalls the memory of these tragic scenes. Ladislas the 
 Posthumous did not long survive his shame, dying a few days 
 after his victim (1458). 
 
 Mathias Corvinus (1458-1490) — War with Bohemia and 
 Turkey. 
 
 The memory of John Hunyady was to be gloriously avenged. 
 Ladislav Hunyady had perished under the sword of the 
 executioner ; but he had left behind him a brother named 
 Mathias, This brother had been sent into Bohemia by 
 Ladislas the Posthumous, and now, on the death of this king, 
 while Bohemia was choosing George of Podiebrad to reign over 
 her, the Hungarian diet assembled at Pesth, and paid the debt 
 that Hungary owed to the Hunyady family by their almost 
 unanimous choice of Mathias as their king. He was at this 
 time, according to some writers, fifteen years of age ; twenty, 
 according to others. Szilagy supported the cause of his 
 nephew at the head of forty thousand men, and, on account of 
 the king's youth, he was chosen Guhernator for five years, and 
 undertook to protect the liberties of the nation. Podiebrad 
 did not allow the newly elected king to leave Bohemia until he 
 had paid a heavy ransom, and also stipulated that Mathias 
 .should be betrothed to his daughter Catherine. He paid 
 dearly afterwards for his illiberal conduct. For the first time 
 for many years Bohemia and Hungary had now each a national 
 king, a true son of the soil ; and the Holy^See and the house of 
 Habsburg were both equally astonished and annoyed at a state
 
 M ATI II AS CORVINUS. 237 
 
 of things, which paid so Httle regard to their rights and still 
 less to their claims. 
 
 The young king was worthy of his high destiny. He had 
 received an excellent education, could speak equally well the 
 Magyar, German, and Slavonic languages; while he had inherited 
 ■from his father warlike instincts and the power of ruling. He 
 first began by placing the military forces of Hungary on a good 
 footing, and then proceeded to reduce those of the great 
 landed nobility who contested the royal authority. Among 
 them were his uncle Szilagy who had hoped to keep the power 
 in his own hands for a long time to come, Gara, Jiskra of 
 Brandyse, and Ujlaky. These men entered into an alliance 
 with Frederick HI., who still had possession of the sacred 
 crown, and who now took the title of King of Hungary. But 
 Mathias was able to overcome all his enemies, and the 
 emperor was soon forced to have recourse to diplomacy. He 
 undertook to recognize Mathias as his adopted son, and to 
 restore the holy crown, and in return obtained his own recog- 
 nition as heir to the throne, in case Mathias should die leaving 
 no children. 
 
 Mathias now found himself free to pursue the traditional 
 policy of the Magyars against the Turks. In 1463, the kingdom 
 of Bosnia had been completely conquered by them ; its king, 
 Stephen Tomasevic, with the greater number of his nobles, 
 had been beheaded ; thirty thousand young Bosnians had been 
 enrolled among the janissaries and two hundred thousand carried 
 into captivity. Wallachia also was entirely under Turkish rule. 
 The first step of Mathias was to send ambassadors to the 
 republic of Venice and to the pope, Pius II. (.Eneas Sylvius) ; 
 and, with the help they granted him, he was able to recover 
 part of Bosnia, and to drive the Mussulmans back from 
 Belgrade. The frontier of Hungary on the Save was now 
 safe ; hut more remained to be done before the Turks could be 
 driven completely out of the Slavo-Hellenic peninsula, and in 
 such an enterprise Hungary was naturally expected to be the 
 sword of Europe. An embassy, at whose head was Anthony
 
 238 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IWKGARY. 
 
 Maiini, a Frenchman, one of the ministers of George of 
 Podiebrad, Avas sent to Mathias by the French king to propose 
 a Christian league against the infidels, and to ask him to con- 
 voke a General Council. Mathias received this double proposal 
 with distrust, and, while acknowledging the friendly relations 
 which existed between France and Hungary, he declined the 
 offered alliance. The proposal in question had unfortunately 
 been first planned by George of Podiebrad, against whom 
 Mathias felt a certain amount of animosity, and moreover 
 Mathias was annoyed that the king of France should have 
 acted as intermediary in the matter. As to the council, he 
 had no faith in it whatsoever, believing it could only result in 
 schisms and disturbances. Perhaps too he remembered the sad 
 consequences of the council of Constance. 
 
 Unfortunately for Europe, it was not against the Turks- 
 that Mathias next proceeded to turn his soldiers, but against 
 that same George of Podiebrad who was then dreaming of 
 universal peace. A strong Catholic, and devoted to the Holy 
 See, Mathias looked upon the Hussites as enemies to be 
 detested as much as the Turks. Pope Pius II. had urged him 
 to restore the Catholic faith in the kingdom of Bohemia, and 
 in this enterprise he felt he could gratify his greed and spite, 
 as well as fulfil his duty to the Church. But this crusade 
 against Christians Avas delayed by various complications ; first, 
 by quarrels with the emperor, who was always ready to inter- 
 fere in the internal affairs of Hungary, and then by a rising in 
 Transylvania, where the people had been annoyed by an 
 increase of taxation. Mathias put down this revolt; but^ 
 anxious to punish Stephen of ISIoldavia, the voie'vode who 
 had supported the rebels, he undertook an unlucky expedition 
 against him, in which he was wounded. This delayed matters ; 
 but in 146S Mathias summoned the estates of Hungary to 
 Cheb (Eger) to prepare for the war — a fratricidal war as it was 
 sure to prove — against Bohemia. " It was " says the Hungarian 
 historian Boldenyi, "the most unjust and fruitless war that 
 Mathias could possibly undertake, so far as regarded the
 
 IVAJ^ WITH BOHEMIA. 239^ 
 
 interests of Hungary. A\'hat glory and what triumphs would 
 not an intimate alliance between Bohemia and Hungary 
 against the Mussulmans have secured for the whole Christian 
 world ! The face of eastern Europe might have been 
 changed ! " Nothing could have suited either Turkey or 
 Austria better than a war between the two kingdoms of St. 
 Vacslav and St. Stephen. The Hungarian diet hesitated before 
 agreeing to it; but the bishop of Vratislav^ (Breslau), the pope's 
 legate, and the ambassador of the emperor all insisted upon 
 it, and it was finally decided upon, w-hereupon the legate wrote,. 
 " The Church owes eternal praise to the king of Hungary." 
 
 The details of this campaign belong to the history of 
 Bohemia. After various vicissitudes and an attempt at recon- 
 ciliation with George of Podiebrad, we have seen how Mathias 
 had himself crowned king of Bohemia at Olomouc on the 
 3rd of May, 1469, and how, on the death of George, the 
 Chekhs chose a Polish king, "Wladyslaw Jagiello. Mathias 
 had but little chance of keeping the crown he had usurped in 
 defiance of an adversary who could bring against him the 
 forces of two kingdoms, and this chance Avas lessened by the- 
 fact that at this moment the Turks invaded the south of 
 Hungary, while a conspiracy was formed against Mathias, at 
 the head of which was the bishop Vitez, who had been his 
 old tutor. The conspirators offered the crown to Kazimir, a 
 Polish prince, who was nephew to the king who had been 
 slain at Varna. Mathias, however, defeated the plot, and 
 persisted in the war with Bohemia. His campaign in Silesia 
 ended in a victory, and the treaty which he signed in February, 
 1475, secured to him INIoravia and part of Silesia. But this 
 dismemberment of Bohemia was of little use to Hungary, and 
 the whole of this first part of the reign of Mathias is wretched 
 enough. The second part, from 1475-1490, is, however, more 
 noble. In it INIathias adopted wiser political views, and 
 directly attacked the two real enemies of his kingdom, the 
 Turk and the emperor. 
 
 ^ Polish form, \Vioc]a\\\
 
 rr40 ifisroRY of austko-ituxgary. 
 
 It was high time that he should turn his attention to the 
 progress of the Turks. Wliile Mathias was fighting against 
 Podiebrad, Mahomet II. had built on the Save the fortress of 
 Shabats, now belonging to Servia and commanding the Save 
 above Belgrade. The king began to understand the danger 
 which threatened him. He made Emerich Szapolyai, who 
 had been one of his most distinguished officers in the Bohemian 
 war, regent, and then besieged and took the jNTussulman 
 fortress. At the same time he offered to help prince Stephen 
 of Moldavia, and his lieutenant, Batory, drove the Turks out 
 of that province. 
 
 By his marriage with Beatrix, daughter of King Ferdinand 
 of Naples, Mathias had hoped to be able to revive the old 
 claims of the house of Anjou on southern Italy; but the 
 emperor, with his usual jealousy of Hungary, had no in- 
 tention of allowing Mathias to enjoy in peace even the spoils 
 he had taken from Ijohemia. AVar between these two powers 
 was inevitable, though when it came it proved of short dura- 
 tion. The Hungarian cavalry invaded Austria. " I have 
 never seen such a war," says an eye-witness ; " the king 
 followed the campaign with his wife and his mother in a gilt 
 -carriage ; he looked as if he were going to a wedding ; each 
 day he captured towns or castles ; no one could stand against 
 him." Frederick was forced to take refuge in Linz, and the 
 result of the war was that the emperor recognized the complete 
 right of Mathias to Moravia and Silesia (1485). 
 
 Mathias now began to reap the fruits of his former unwise 
 policy, as he found himself entirely without allies at a time 
 when he sorely needed them. In the month of October, 
 1479, '^ formidable army of Turks invaded Transylvania. 
 The king sent Stephen Batory against them. The general 
 came up with them on the plain of Kenyer-meso (the field of 
 corn), and there obtained a decided victory over them, though 
 the Hungarians were far fewer in number than their opponents. 
 Batory received six wounds, and owed his life to the heroism 
 of Kiniszy, the brave leader of the hussars. The baggage and
 
 DEATH OF MATHIAS CO R VI X US. 24 1 
 
 tents of the enemy fell into the hands of the ^^lagyars, who 
 •celebrated their triumph with extravagant rejoicings ; and the 
 historians tell us that in the midst of their rejoicings Kiniszy 
 Blight be seen '• throwing aside his usual gravity, and executing 
 an Hungarian dance, while he held the body of one dead Turk 
 between his teeth, and another in each of his arms." Kiniszy was 
 afterwards equally successful on to the other side of the Danube. 
 
 In 14S1, the death of jNIahomet II. increased the hopes of 
 the Christians. Bajazet II. succeeded the conqueror of Con- 
 stantinople ; his struggles against his brother and rival, Djem, or 
 Zizira, are well known. AVhen Zizim became the prisoner of the 
 knights of Rhodes, he offered to give ^slathias Bosnia, Servia, 
 and Bulgaria, if he would deliver him from slavery ; but 
 Hungary had not at the time a single all}^, and Bajazet was 
 ready to sign a truce for five years, an offer which Mathias was 
 obliged to accept, in order to be able to continue his war 
 against the emperor Frederick. Frederick fled before him to 
 Nuremburg; but the Germans of Vienna were not disposed 
 to submit to the Hungarians, and had to be reduced by a long 
 siege (1485), after which Mathias placed Stephen Szapolyai as 
 royal lieutenant of that city. 
 
 ■\Vhen once the archduchy of Austria was conquered, 
 IMathias, who was already master of IMoravia and Silesia, had 
 in his power a state almost as large as the Austria of the 
 present time, if we except from it Galicia and Bohemia. But 
 his power had no solid foundation. Wliile the influence of 
 the house of Austria had been increased by marriage, IMathias 
 Corvinus had no legitimate heir. He made several attempts 
 to have his natural son, John Corvinus, born in Silesia, recog- 
 nized as his successor; but he died suddenly (1490) at the age 
 of fifty, without having arranged anything definitely for the 
 future of his kingdom. He himself wrote his own proud 
 epitaph : " A conquered Austria bears witness to my power. 
 I was the terror of the world. The emperor of the Germans 
 and the emperor of the Turks trembled before me. Death 
 ■alone could conquer me." 
 
 R
 
 242 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARY. 
 
 Hungary under Mathias Corviuus. 
 
 The whole nation mourned for Mathias, and he is one of 
 the kings whose memory has remained dearest to the people. 
 He belonged to no foreign dynasty, but was the first sove- 
 reign of purely national descent since the house of Arpad ; 
 and he had done great things. But he was not a great man, 
 and the meanness of his political aims did more harm to 
 Hungary than the courage and variety of his enterprises 
 brought her real profit. As a lawgiver and as the protector 
 of literature and art, his claim to greatness is less questionable. 
 Few sovereigns have been more careful to observe the con- 
 stitution of their country. He convoked the diet every year, 
 and not only the representatives of the bishops and barons, 
 but also the representatives of the coviitats — what a contem- 
 porary calls the " commonalty of the kingdom." The public 
 life of the comitats was most active during his reign, their 
 assemblies met frequently, and Mathias looked to them to 
 help him in overcoming the efforts of the nobles to make 
 themselves independent of the crown. The king had the 
 right of appointing whom he pleased to be the chief count of 
 the comitat {fo ispan) ; but his deputy had always to be 
 chosen from among the nobles of the comitat itself. The 
 authority of the palatine^ was lessened, and he was deprived 
 of those judicial powers which had made him the chief justice 
 of the kingdom. Although very religious and devoted to 
 the Holy See, though in a somewhat intermittent and capricious 
 fashion, Mathias restrained the clergy, and would allow of no 
 appeals to the court of Rome. But, above all things, he 
 endeavoured to lessen the privileges of the great barons. " Now 
 Mathias is dead, justice has fled," is a Magyar proverb which 
 has come down to the present time. He took great pains to 
 protect commerce, and invited foreigners to his kingdom, 
 especially the Servians, who came in great numbers after the 
 death of Brankovic and the final ruin of the old Servian empire. 
 
 ' For the previous history of tlie office of Palatine, see siifra, p. 69.
 
 STATE OF HUXGARY UNDER CORJ'INC'S. 243 
 
 Mathias had a highly cultivated mind, and possessed that 
 spirit of repartee which makes a king so popular, " He is a 
 Avise and learned king, of most dignified speech," writes the 
 pope's legate of him ; " he only says what is fitting, and his 
 wisdom and eloquence surpass those of all the princes that I 
 know." 
 
 His second wife, Beatrix, had brought from Italy the love 
 of elegance which was the result of the Renaissance, and 
 many Italians lived in the court at Buda, some of whom 
 adorned the country with fine buildings. The king's palace 
 was magnificent and full of precious things. The pontifical 
 legate says that fifty waggons would have been needed to 
 transport only the plates and dishes of the royal household. 
 
 Mathias founded the famous Corvina Library at Buda, the 
 first library in the kingdom. It is said to have contained fifty 
 thousand manuscripts — an enormous number for the time. 
 The king sent his agents all over the world to buy and to 
 copy, and thirty copyists were constantly employed at Buda. 
 He gathered round him national poets, who sang his exploits 
 in the Magyar tongue ; but unhappily all their works have 
 perished, and the only Hungarian manuscripts which ha\-e 
 come down to us from this time relate to theological matters. 
 The Reformation was needed to give the national language 
 her true place in literature. 
 
 The treasures of the Corvina Librar}- were unfortunatel}' 
 wasted or lost in the succeeding centuries, some of them being 
 sold by the kings of the Jagellon dynasty, and the Turks 
 carrying off the rest to Constantinople. A few of the manu- 
 scripts are still to be seen in Paris, among them a I'tolemy 
 and a St. Jerome ; a few are in Vienna and Pesth ; and recently 
 some volumes which had remained in Constantinople were 
 restored to Hungary by the Turks, as an expression of the 
 sympathy of the two nations during the campaign of Russia 
 in Bulgaria in 1877. But the age of manuscripts was almost 
 at an end, for the art of printing had reached Buda from 
 Ciermany in 1473, ^^'^ the trade in books had begun. By the
 
 244 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUXGARY. 
 
 end of the fifteenth century iJuda possessed as many as 
 thirteen booksellers. 
 
 At this time we meet with the first beginnings of a learned 
 society, called "Sodalitas litteraria Hungarorum." Among the 
 writers of the time the majority are Italians or Greeks (Cali- 
 machus, Eonfinius) ; but some of them are natives, as, for 
 example, John Pannonius, bishop of Pecs (Fiinfkirchen), a 
 T.atin poet of some value, and John Thuroczy, author of the 
 " Chronicles of Hungary." Mathias Corvinus intended to 
 found a gigantic university at Buda, but his death prevented 
 the realization of this project, though an Academia Cor- 
 viniana, which included the two faculties of theology and 
 philosophy, existed down to the time of the battle of INIohacs. 
 
 Wladyslaiv II. ( 1490-15 1 6) — Verhoczy — Revolt of the Kurucs 
 
 (1514)- 
 
 Hungary reached her highest point in the reign of Mathias 
 Corvinus, and from this time we shall have to watch her 
 hopeless decay. The diet, divided by the ambition of rival 
 barons, could decide on no national king, and so turned to a 
 foreigner. Wladyslaw H., of the house of Jagellon, was elected, 
 and thus a king of Bohemia, and an old rival of Mathias, 
 united the two crowns of St. Vacslav and St. Stephen — a union 
 which had been so ardently hoped for by Mathias, and for 
 which he had waged the miserable war against Bohemia. 
 
 The choice of the diet was not prompted by the true 
 interests of the two kingdoms, for Wladyslaw was feeble and 
 insignificant. The people called him " King Dobre." This 
 Chekh adverb, which means "good," or "well," was always in 
 his mouth, and was a sign of that inertia which was one of his 
 strongest recommendations to the turbulent aristocracy, who 
 were glad to take breatli under a feeble sovereign, after the 
 harsh rule of Corvinus. Petofi, the national poet of the 
 nineteenth century, has devoted one of his best satires to 
 King Dobre. " He cared not to command — He knew not 
 liow to do it ; — And even if he had known — The land would
 
 IVLAD YSLA IV II. 245 
 
 not have obeyed. — His head was very empty, — Emptier still 
 were his pockets. — He must fumble to the bottom — To find 
 one single coin. Insects and the weather — Had eaten away 
 the fur from his garments, — And his clothes were so worn that 
 they had lost all their colour," etc. 
 
 The beginning of the new reign was not fortunate. ]\Iaxi- 
 milian recovered the Austrian provinces, and John of Poland 
 declared war against his brother, Wladyslaw, and obliged him 
 to cede part of Silesia to him. Maximilian invaded the west 
 of Hungary, and got as far as Szekes Fejervar (Stuhl Weissen- 
 berg), whence he only consented to retire after "Wladislaw had 
 agreed to a treaty, which secured Hungary to the house of 
 Austria, in case of Wladyslaw dying without children. This 
 treaty, in which the king disposed of the country without 
 consulting the diet, roused universal indignation, and made a 
 sovereign who had been received at first with the greatest 
 enthusiasm universally unpopular. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Turks thronged round the southern frontier 
 of the kingdom. Bajazet II. had failed to capture Belgrade 
 in 1492, but he could not be prevented from forcing his way 
 into the valley of the Save, and beating the Hungarian army, 
 which was badly paid and badly disciplined. The diet of the 
 following year was full of bitter complaints of the cowardice 
 and laziness of the king, who preferred " the rest and amuse- 
 ment of the chase to the duties of war." The finances were 
 in the greatest disorder, and the great barons were still quarrel- 
 ling over the possession of power. In the year 1505, the diet 
 came to a most important decision. " This kingdom," says 
 its manifesto, " has often been ruled by foreigners. Never 
 has it suffered so cruelly as under their reigns. Busied only 
 with the interests of their own families, instead of studying 
 the manners and customs of the Scythian people, who have 
 made themselves, at the price of their blood, masters of the 
 soil they occupy, these foreigners have given themselves up 
 to idleness rather than to the toils of war. Thus have we 
 lost Servia, Galicia, Lodomeria, Bulgaria, and Dalmatia. . . .
 
 2^6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 This loss of our frontiers may well make us fear that our 
 enemies may invade our land itself, if the nation, out of its 
 love for its native soil, does not chose from among its own 
 sons an able king." It then went on to declare any one who 
 should in future support the claims of a foreigner to the 
 throne a traitor to his country. This expression of patriotism 
 came somewhat late, and the nobles had no one to thank but 
 themselves if their country had so often been ruled by 
 foreigners. The manifesto, which was the work of the protho- 
 notary, Stephen Verboczy, was sent round to all the coinitafs. 
 Verboczy was a man of legislative genius, and a true patriot, 
 Avho in his youth had devoted himself to the study of the 
 laws of Hungary in the academy at Buda. But, unhappily, 
 legal maxims, with whatsoever eloquence they might be drawn 
 up, were of small avail against brute force. 
 
 Wladyslaw had one son, Louis. Surrounded by the net of 
 Austrian diplomacy, he had affianced this son in his cradle to 
 Mary of Austria, the sister of Charles V., and later on he 
 undertook, in defiance of public opinion, to leave the crown to 
 his daughter xVnne, who was betrothed to Ferdinand of Austria, 
 if Louis should die without heirs. He was so completely care- 
 less of the interests of Hungary, that he never took advantage 
 of the league of Cambray to recover Dalmatia from the 
 Venetians. To add to the miseries of his reign, a peasant 
 rising, a terrible Jacquerie, took place. Hungary was an 
 essentially aristocratic country, in which the great barons had 
 endeavoured by every means in their power to crush the small 
 landholders ; they in their turn harassed the peasants. As a 
 natural consequence of this state of things, bitter animosities 
 had arisen among the rural class against those above them, and 
 only waited for a favourable opportunity to break out. In 
 15 13, Cardinal Ijakracz came from Rome, bringing with him 
 the papal bull for a crusade against the infidels ; whereupon 
 the peasants armed themselves, as if they were about to march 
 against tlie Turks, and then turned their arms against the 
 nobles. This terrible insurrection is called in Hunsiarian
 
 REVOLT OF THE KURUCS. 247 
 
 liistory the insurrection of the Kurucs (Kouroutses, cniciati) 
 crusaders. Was the name really invented at this time ? Per- 
 haps it had been used at the time of the first crusade, when 
 the defenders of Palestine crossed Hungary, ravaging it as 
 they went. The chief leader of the insurrection, the peasant 
 Dosza, was one of the Szeklers of Transylvania. From his 
 .camp at Cseged he issued a proclamation in which he styles 
 himself "the Mighty Knight, the General of the Crusaders, 
 subject to the king but not to the nobles," and in which he calls 
 the peasants to arms against the infidel barons. Armed with 
 •scythes, the peasants marched against them. Defeated in the 
 first encounter, the nobles chose John Szapolyai, voievode of 
 Transylvania, as their leader, and Dosza was beaten in a battle 
 near Temesvar, and fell into the hands of his enemies. Their 
 ■vengeance was terrible. The king of the peasants was seated 
 on a throne of fire, and crowned by the executioner with a red- 
 hot crown.^ He bore his frightful sufferings with a courage that 
 astonished his adversaries. The people believe that Szapolyai 
 became blind for two years, as a punishment for the cruelty he 
 showed on this occasion, and that he only recovered his sight 
 in answer to the fervent prayers of his family. The name of 
 Dosza is still popular among the Hungarians, and that of 
 Kurucs appears more than once in the national histor}-. 
 Kurucs is the Hodge of Hungary. 
 
 It was hoped that order would be restored when this insur- 
 rection came to an end. In the year 15 14, Verboczy presented 
 to the diet his celebrated work " Decretum bipartitum juris con- 
 suetudinarii," in which he had compiled the law of the land, and 
 which may be looked upon as the last will and testament of 
 independent Hungary. It proves a condition of things which 
 justifies the insurrection of the Kurucs, and amply explains 
 the numerous revolts of which the kingdom had been the 
 
 ' Goklsmitb, mistaking, however, his name, refers to him in "The 
 Traveller," line 435 — 
 
 " The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel, 
 Luke's iron cro^cii and Damions' bed of steel."
 
 248 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARW 
 
 theatre. Verboczy recognizes but one legal class — the nobles 
 descended from the conquerors of the soil. As for the rest, 
 they are Jobbagj-ones, serfs of the soil, "whom the revolt of 
 Dosza has proved for ever to be infidels, and fit only for 
 perpetual servitude." The privileged class never fails to make 
 use of the mistakes and the crimes of its inferiors as arguments 
 for the maintenance and even the increase of its own privileges. 
 
 Louis II. (1516-1526) — Loss of Belgrade (1521) — Battle of 
 MoJiacs (1526). 
 
 The feeble Wladyslavv died in 15 15, and the reign of the 
 child-king, Louis II., may be summed up in two catastrophes, 
 the loss of Belgrade and the defeat at IMohacs. The young 
 king, married in his cradle, was corrupt and dissolute, and 
 <iuite incapable of governing, and his guardians could not rise 
 to the height of the occasion. The finances of the kingdom 
 were in great disorder, and tlie leading barons quarrelled 
 continually over the shreds of sovereignty still left, exercising 
 in turns and occasionally by main force, powers which belonged 
 to the sovereign alone. This state of things was of the greatest 
 use to the Turks, for while Hungary was sinking ever deeper 
 into anarchy, Turkey was ruled by the great sovereign who 
 was called Soliman the jNIagnificent. It Avas not long before 
 he found a pretext for war in the arrest of one of his subjects 
 as a spy, and assembled his troops at Sophia, captured Shabats, 
 laid siege to Belgrade and took it, making it thenceforward a 
 Mussulman fortress (1521). The key of the Danube was now 
 in the hands of the Turks. In the face of this extreme danger, 
 Hungary continued at strife, divided between two parties, that 
 of the palatine Batory and that of Verboczy, who disputed for 
 power ; and the violence of these internal struggles prevented 
 the public attention from being directed towards tine common 
 enemy. 
 
 Meanwhile, King Louis begged for help on every side. 
 He wrote to the king of England, " If help from your majesty 
 does not readi us quickly, our kingdom is lost ; " and he even.
 
 BATTLE OF MO H ACS. 249 
 
 applied for aid from a Persian prince, hoping tliereby to divert 
 the attention of the Mussulmans to the East. The Austrian 
 princes were ready to help him from interested motives; but even 
 when joined with Hungary they were too feeble to conquer the 
 armies of "the Magnificent." On the 25th of April, 1526, 
 Soliman quitted Constantinople, bringing with him one hundred 
 thousand men and three hundred cannon, taking up arms not 
 only against Hungary, but against the empire. One of the 
 pretexts for his expedition was the captivity of Francis I. ; he 
 wished he said, to save " the bey of France " from the hands of 
 the Germans and their allies the Hungarians. He crossed the 
 Save near Osiek (Essek), captured Petervardin, and came up 
 with the Hungarians at INIohacs, on the right bank of the 
 Danube (August 2 6, 1 5 2 6). The Magyar army was commanded 
 by the king in person, assisted by Paul Tomory, archbishop of 
 Kalocsa, one of the warlike bishops of whom Hungary gives us 
 so many examples ; by George Szapolyai, and by Peter Perenyi, 
 bishop of Nagy-Varad (Great Varadin). Perenyi wished to 
 treat with the Turks, in order to gain time for help to reach 
 them from Croatia and Transylvania, but the impetuosity of 
 Tomory decided on immediate battle. " Tomory, proud 
 captain, why didst thou quit thy bishop's throne ? Then the 
 glory, the flower of the fatherland, would not have died with 
 thee ! " cries the poet Kisfaludy. At first, it seemed as if the 
 battle was in favour of the Magyars ; but Soliman had com- 
 manded that the front ranks of his army should give way before 
 the Hungarian cavalry, and that then the main body of his 
 troops should close around them. "When the Magyars were 
 thus easily within reach, they were overwhelmed by the Turkish 
 artillery and forced to retreat. They took refuge in some 
 marshy land, in which many of them lost their lives. The king 
 had disappeared ; Tomory was slain ; seven bishops, twenty-two 
 barons, and twenty-two thousand men were left upon the field. 
 The road to Buda lay open before the invaders, and after 
 having laid waste the whole country on their way, they reached 
 the. capital, where the treasures which Mathias Corvinus had
 
 2 50 JflSTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARY. 
 
 collected ia his palace and his library were either carried olT 
 or committed to the flames, while the statues were sent down 
 ihe Danube to adorn the public squares of Constantinople. 
 Then the tide of invasion gradually retired, leaving behind it 
 a land covered with ruins. The independent existence of 
 Hungary ended with Louis II. Up to the time of the 
 accession of the house of Austria, this kingdom had had twenty- 
 three princes of the house of Arpad, and fourteen who had 
 belonged to various other families. Henceforward it was to 
 oscillate between Austria and Turkey, and must continue to 
 do so down to the time when the feeling of nationality should 
 become sufficiently strong to enable it to become once more a 
 nation governing itself.
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 IHE AUSTRIAN EMPERORS. 
 
 Maximilian I. {1493-1519) — The Austrian Marriages. 
 
 The real importance of the house of Austria dates from tlie 
 reign of Maximilian. In his hands all the domains of the 
 family were united — Austria properly so called, Styria, Carinthia, 
 Carniola, and the Tyrol ; and its territories reached to the sea 
 at Trieste and Fiume. On the death of Leonard, the last 
 descendant of the junior branch of the counts of Gorica, in 
 1500, Maximilian succeeded to Gorica, Gradiska, Mitterburg, 
 and the Pusterthal. It is true that during his war with Venice 
 (1507) he lost for a time his possessions on the Adriatic, but 
 it was not long before he recovered them, and even invaded 
 part of the A^enetian territory. The principal event of his 
 reign as emperor is his struggle with France for the inheritance 
 of the dukes of Burgundy ; but that belongs to European 
 ihistory, and does not here concern us. He took an active 
 part in the affairs of Europe. A temperament at once chivalrous 
 and dreamy led him to conceive all kinds of strange projects, 
 among which was that of one day obtaining for himself the 
 pontifical tiara; but he never lost sight of the interests of his 
 hereditary states. He tried hard to have Austria made an 
 electorate, but failed, owing to the obstinacy of the German 
 princes. The electors met at Frankfort and mutually engaged 
 never to admit a new member into their college, and the 
 emperor was obliged to abandon this project. Thus tlie
 
 2 52 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARY. 
 
 family with whom tlie imperial crown remained during so 
 many centuries was always excluded from the body which 
 conferred it. When, later on, the Habsburgs formed part of 
 the electoral college, they entered it as kings of Bohemia. 
 
 It was under Maximilian that the Swiss were finally 
 released from all obligations towards the house of Austria and 
 the emperor. After a war in which the confederates had 
 invaded Suabia and the Tyrol, had destroyed two hundred 
 villages and castles, and had slain more than twenty thousand 
 men, the peace of Basel was concluded in 1499. Austria 
 did not suffer by surrendering her claims in this quarter, for 
 her power was only increased by concentration. 
 
 In 1505, Maximilian interfered in the war of the Bavarian 
 succession, which broke out on the extinction of the male line 
 of Wittelsbach, and obtained a certain number of towns, 
 among them Kufstein, already celebrated for its fortress, and 
 the lordships of Rottenburg and Kitzbiihl, as the price of his 
 interference. Thus Austria obtained a footing on the sources 
 of the Isonzo and the Drave. At this time the Austrian 
 states, without Bohemia and Hungary, formed a semicircle 
 which shut in Southern Germany from the frontiers of Bohemia 
 and Silesia down to Switzerland, while their possessions 
 scattered in Suabia, Alsace, and the Black Forest gave them 
 considerable influence in the valleys of the Upper Rhine and 
 Upper Danube. Considered apart from its German territories, 
 the little Austrian state, this miniature of the future Austria, 
 included within its borders Germans, Slavs (Slovenes), and 
 Italians ; but then, as now, the Germans were the dominant 
 race, owing to the close neighbourhood of Germany, to the 
 vigour of the race, and to the prestige of the imperial crown. 
 
 When Germany was divided into ten circles at the diet of 
 Cologne (15 1 2), the Austrian possessions formed one of them. 
 Of course neither Bohemia nor Hungary were included in the 
 circles of the empire, because they were independent kingdoms ; 
 but Maximilian neglected no opportunity of identifying the 
 interests of his family with those of Germany, and in a diet
 
 MAXIMILIAN I. 253 
 
 held in 1506 he had declared ''that he hoped some day to be 
 able to add the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary to the 
 empire, if he should receive aid, and if the Hungarians should 
 be reduced to obedience." The internal organization of the 
 Austrian circle was settled at a diet which met at Innsbruck in 
 1518. As early as 1501, Maximilian had founded a College of 
 Government {Hofraths Collcgiuni) at Vienna, which super- 
 intended the circle and helped him in the management of the 
 affairs of the empire ; this college ended by confining its 
 attention to exclusively German matters, and, under the name 
 of the Reichshofrath, came in the time of Ferdinand II. to be 
 only second in importance in the constitution of the empire 
 to the diet itself. 
 
 It is well known how Maximilian raised the power of the 
 house of Austria enormously by the marriages which he 
 brought about.^ By his own marriage with Mary of Bur- 
 gundy (1477), he prepared the way for Charles V.'s rule over 
 Spain, the Indies, and Southern Italy ; but this union had wo 
 direct influence on Austria properly so called. It was the 
 marriages entered into with the family then reigning in Bohemia 
 and Hungary which made the Austrian empire of our times. 
 And he was only carrying out the ancient policy of his family 
 when, in 1515, Maximilian arranged the marriages of his grand- 
 children, Ferdinand and Mary of Austria, with I>ouis and Anna, 
 the children of Wladyslaw, king of Bohemia and Hungary. On 
 this occasion, Wladyslaw and his brother, Sigismund of Poland, 
 made a splendid \-isit to A^ienna, when they renewed the old 
 treaties of inheritance between Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary, 
 The greed of Austria was helped more by fortune even than by 
 policy ; every event seemed to turn to its advantage, and 
 among them the terrible defeat of Mohacs, which might have 
 
 ' These celebrated lines have been often quoted : 
 
 " Bella gerant fortes : tu, felix Austria, nubc : 
 Nam quae Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus." 
 They have been attributed to Mathias Corvinus, but we know not on 
 what authority. We have been unable to discover who was the author. — 
 Leger.
 
 254 HISTORY OF AVSTRO-IIUXGARY. 
 
 proved so fatal to Christendom. Owing to its treaties and 
 their results, Austria was to become one of the most important 
 constituents in the balance of power in Europe, Init un- 
 fortunately the part she played in European history from the 
 sixteenth century onwards has made us too much forget the 
 internal history of the nations involved in her destiny. 
 
 The most important event which occurred in the hereditary 
 jn'ovinces in the reign of Maximilian, besides the invasions of 
 the Venetians, Swiss, and Turks, was the peasant war which 
 broke out in Carniola (1515), and soon spread to the 
 neighbouring provinces. It took place at the same time as 
 the insurrection of Dosza in Hungary, and like it was caused 
 by famine and the exactions of a selfish nobility. The Slovene 
 jjeasants of Carniola adopted as their motto, Stara pravda 
 (" Our old rights "), and declared, like the Magyar Kurucs, that 
 they took up arms against the nobles and not against the 
 sovereign. The insurrection spread from Slovenic Carniola 
 into the German portions of Styria and Carniola ; and if we 
 are to believe contemporary writers, the peasants set on foot 
 an army of eighty thousand men, and spread terror all around, 
 capturing castles and hanging some of the nobles. As in 
 Hungary, the revolt was put down with the utmost cruelt)'. 
 
 Maximilian was always in want of money, and frequently 
 summoned the diets of the hereditary provinces to beg for 
 subsidies, which were more than once refused him. The 
 provinces were poor, but he was still poorer. "The most 
 wretched thing of all is our poverty ! " he exclaimed, after his 
 unsuccessful war against Venice. He was obliged at last t» 
 promise that he would undertake no war without the consent 
 of the Estates. In his reign the several pro^inces began to- 
 discuss their common interests in general diets to which they 
 sent delegates. Thus we find, at a diet held at Wiener- 
 Neustadt in 1502, Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, 
 and Carniola all represented. 
 
 Maximilian died in 15 19, and was buried in the town of 
 Innsbruck, which had been his favourite place of residence.
 
 FERDIXAND I. 255 
 
 He was a great hunter, and liked the Tyrol because of its- 
 mountains and its chamois. Incidents which happened on 
 some of the imperial hunts have become the subject of popular 
 legends, and no Austrian sovereign since the time of Rudolf 
 has been so much beloved by posterity. He himself helped 
 this popularity by the two poems, " Theuerdank " and " Weiss 
 Konig," which were inspired and perhaps partly written by 
 him. He loved artists and learned men, and protected the 
 Sodalitas Dannbiana, a sort of academy which had been 
 founded at Vienna by the humanist Conrad Celtes. 
 
 Though he had had two wives, ]\Iary of Burgundy and 
 Blanche of ]\lilan, Maximilian had only one legitimate son, 
 PhiHp the Handsome, who died in 1500; but his various con- 
 cubines had presented him with fourteen natural children. 
 Charles V. and Ferdinand I. were the two sons of Philip the 
 Handsome. Between them they were to divide the empire of 
 Europe and carry the name of Austria to the savannahs of 
 the New World. 
 
 Ferdinand I. (15 19-15 64) — The Reformation in Austria. 
 
 Ferdinand I. (15 19) was educated in Spain; his brother,^ 
 Charles V., in the Low Countries. Both brothers were at 
 a great distance from the hereditary provinces at the time 
 of their grandfather Maximilian's death, and these provinces 
 were governed for some time by lieutenants. Charles w^as- 
 elected emperor on the ist of June, 15 19, but it was not until 
 1 52 1 that the division of the domains between the brothers 
 was concluded, and it was agreed that Ferdinand should have 
 Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, and the emperor Outer 
 Austria, the Tyrol, Gorica, Friuli, and Trieste. But the states 
 of Carinthia and Carniola objected to a division which altered 
 their frontiers, and Charles eventually gave up the contested 
 country to his brother, and ended by yielding to him all his 
 (lerman possessions. He kept, however, the title of duke of 
 Austria, and Ferdinand took that of imperial lieutenant. It 
 was not without distrust that the half- Spanish prir.cc Ferdinand
 
 256 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARV. 
 
 \vas received in the country, for he was a stranger, and tlie 
 foreign advisers whom he had brought with him were extremely 
 unpopular. His arrival was followed by disturbances in Vienna, 
 and the heads of the two chief rebels, Eicinger and Pucheim, 
 fell on the scaffold (1522). 
 
 On the 27th of May, 152 1, at Linz, Ferdinand celebrated 
 his marriage with the ])rincess Anna, sister of Louis, king of 
 Boliemia and Hungary, and at the same time Louis, who was 
 then fifteen years of age, married Mary, the sister of Ferdinand. 
 Thus the wise matrimonial plans of Maximilian were carried 
 into execution. But this double marriage could not absolutely 
 guarantee the possession of the two crowns of Bohemia and 
 Hungary, as that depended on the consent of the Estates. And 
 even when this had been obtained and they had accepted the 
 rule of a foreign prince, it was the intention of both Bohemia 
 and Hungary to remain quite distinct from the group of 
 Austrian states, and to have nothing in common with them 
 but the person of the sovereign. At his coronations at Prague 
 and at Buda he had to swear to maintain the rights of the two 
 kingdoms, and their history ought not to be mixed up with 
 that of the hereditary states, but to be studied separately with 
 all the minuteness it deserves. 
 
 At present it is our business to relate the history of the 
 Austrian states from the accession of Ferdinand L to tlie 
 death of Charles VI., who by his Pragmatic Sanction was to 
 take a decisive step towards uniting the various parts of the 
 Austrian monarchy. The name of Ferdinand shines but dimly 
 by the side of that of Charles V., and yet only a memory 
 survives to-day of the empire of Charles, on which the sun 
 never set, while Ferdinand's reign marks the rise of a state 
 which even now plays an important part in the destinies of 
 Europe. The Spanish branch of the house of Habsburg 
 attained its highest point of power at the time of the treaty of 
 Chateau -Cambresis in 1559, and by the treaty of Vervins its 
 decline is shown to have begun as early as 1598. The Austrian 
 branch, owing to its possession of the Hereditary States,
 
 FERDINAND I. 257 
 
 Bohemia, Hungary, and the imperial crown, grew steadily in 
 power, and to it was reserved, at the beginning of our century, 
 the honour of upsetting the crowned revolutionist who believed 
 he had restored the empire of Charles V. 
 
 Ferdinand became king of Bohemia and Hungary in the 
 year 1526, and, notwithstanding the opposition of the Protestant 
 party, he was elected king of the Romans in 1531. From this 
 time the imperial crown remained with the house of Austria. 
 The care of two kingdoms and an empire did not prevent the 
 successor of the Habsburgs from attending to his own hereditary 
 domains, and at the close of the war of Smalkalde he was able 
 to annex the town of Constance, which had been put under 
 the ban of the empire in consequence of its adherence to the 
 league of Protestant princes, and to buy the counties of Bregenz 
 and Thengen. 
 
 Notwithstanding his attachment to Catholicism, Ferdinand 
 was not able to keep the Reformation out of his kingdom. As 
 was the case in Germany, the preaching of the new Gospel 
 was coincident with a formidable peasant war which took 
 place in Salzburg, Styria, and Tyrol. At a meeting of the people 
 which was held about this time at Meran a manifesto was drawn 
 up which astonishes us even now by its courage. " In Tyrol," 
 it says, "there shall in future be but one law, and that the law 
 of the land; there shall be no Roman law, foreign and un- 
 intelligible to the people. The government sitting at Inns- 
 bruck shall be composed only of native officials " — the latter 
 clause was especially aimed at the Spaniards whom Ferdinand 
 had brought with him. — " There shall be no respect of persons 
 before the courts of justice. Bishops, monasteries, and 
 begging friars shall be suppressed. Priests shall not hold 
 more than one living. The surplus of the revenues of the 
 Church shall be divided among the poor. The estates of the 
 clergy shall be secularized. The revenues of the monasteries 
 shall be collected by agents of the king and employed for the 
 needs of the land. The king may choose his financial agents, 
 but all judges shall be chosen and dismissed by the people. 
 
 s
 
 258 HISTORY OF A USTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 Fishing and hunting shall be free to every one. The great 
 trading companies shall be dissolved, that so the price of goods 
 may be lowered. All custom-houses, except those belonging 
 to the crown, shall be suppressed; all seigneurial dues and 
 enforced labour shall also be suppressed, and uniformity of 
 weight and coinage shall be decreed." The peasants took 
 great pains to explain that they fought against the privileged 
 classes, and not against their sovereign. Ferdinand was obliged 
 to yield to most of their demands ; he granted pardon to the 
 insurgents, and ordered the execution of those clauses in the 
 articles of Meran which did not affect Church property. 
 
 In other parts of the Hereditary Provinces the Reforma- 
 tion made rapid progress; as early as the year 1520 it found 
 ardent disciples in Austria proper, and thirty years later it was 
 not thought safe to hold the procession of Corpus Christi in 
 Vienna. Two hundred parishes had no priest ; two hundred 
 and sixty-eight had become Protestant. The same progress 
 was made in Styria, and in 1552 the procession of Corpus 
 Christi was suppressed at Gratz. Among the Slovenes in 
 Carniola one result of the Reformation was the emancipa- 
 tion of the national language, several theological works being 
 [printed at Tubingen in the Slav tongue, under the direction 
 of Primus Truber, who also undertook the translation of the 
 Bible. The new doctrines spread as far as Trieste and 
 (iorica, while the Anabaptists almost succeeded in causing 
 a fresh revolt among the peasants of the Tyrol. The diets 
 on several occasions gave expression to the need for liberty of 
 conscience which troubled the people ; and even Ferdinand, 
 who had begun by forbidding the reading of Luther's Bible, 
 was obliged in the end to allow communion under both kinds. 
 
 To put down the Reformation was the special aim of the 
 Society of Jesus ; for that it had been founded, and it was not 
 long before it made its way into Austrian land, the Jesuits 
 settling themselves in Vienna in 1552, in the Tyrol in 1560, 
 and in Styria in 1564. In 1547, Ferdinand established the 
 censorship of the press in his dominions. During his reign,
 
 THE JESUITS IN AUSTRIA. 259 
 
 the famous Council of Trent (1545-1563) took place in 
 Tyrol, and the title of Protector of the council was bestowed 
 on him as its temporal defender. His lands were several 
 times ravaged by the Turks, Vienna being besieged by them 
 in 1529 ; and thirty years later, Carniola suffered greatly from 
 them. In the midst of all these trials, Ferdinand had at 
 any rate the consolation of seeing his son Maximilian chosen 
 king of the Romans, and of having him crowned king of 
 Bohemia and Hungary. The law of primogeniture had never 
 yet been strictly carried out by the house of Austria, and 
 Ferdinand divided the hereditary states among his three sons, 
 Maximilian H. taking Austria; Ferdinand, Tyrol; and 
 Charles, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. These collateral 
 branches did not come to an end for a century, when they 
 were united anew under Leopold I. in 1665. 
 
 The character of Ferdinand I. has been thought worthy 
 of much praise ; he had received a careful education, and was 
 a thorough master of the Spanish, French, and German 
 languages, and he cared for men of literature and science- 
 He was no fanatic, though he was a sincere Catholic, and he 
 might have proved a good ruler for Austria if it had stood by 
 itself But he understood nothing of the constitutions of 
 Bohemia and Hungary, and, believing as he did in absolutism, 
 proved but a very indifferent king for these countries. In 
 Bohemia especially his memory is detested. From his reign 
 dates the first institution common to the whole group of 
 states, the High Council of War, but in truth, when Hungary, 
 Bohemia, and Austria chose the same sovereign, it was less 
 a union than a defensive alliance that they sought. 
 
 Maximilian II. (1564-1576). 
 
 Maximilian II. was a liberal and tolerant prince for the age 
 in which he lived. Wolfgang Schiefer (Severus), who was a 
 wise and enlightened man, had been his preceptor, and Schiefer 
 was secretly attached to the doctrines of Protestantism. Fer- 
 dinand dismissed him from his office as soon as he discovered
 
 260 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 the feebleness of his orthodoxy; but Collatin, who replaced 
 him, was also far from being a fervent Catholic, and it was in 
 order to correct whatever harm might have been done by these 
 two men, that Ferdinand sent his son to iinish his education in 
 Spain. He had even some thoughts of excluding him from 
 the succession, and it was owing to his distrust of Maximilian 
 that he eventually divided his dominions among Maximilian, 
 Ferdinand, and Charles. The three princes were not equally 
 tolerant in their several states. 
 
 Maximilian showed himself extremely liberal towards the 
 Reformation. He corresponded himself with Melancthon, even 
 kept a Lutheran preacher at his court, and more than once 
 roused the suspicions of the court of Rome. At the time of 
 the massacre of St. Bartholomew, he wrote, " It is with deep 
 regret that I have learned that my son-in-law,^ the king of 
 France, has allowed himself to be dragged through this sha^ne- 
 f id bath of blood. I wish to God he had consulted me on the 
 subject 1 He never would have acted thus with my con- 
 sent. . . . Religious matters ought never to be settled by the 
 sword. No good man, who fears God and loves peace, believes 
 they can be so settled. ... If Spain and France carry out 
 their intentions, they will have to answer for it before God. As 
 for me, I wish to live like a good man and a Christian, and so 
 doing, I care little for this poor world." He refused, however, 
 to send the Jesuits out of the country when the Austrian 
 estates begged for their expulsion, and would not allow his 
 nobles to celebrate the reformed rites on their estates, nor 
 grant to the towns liberty of conscience. He had married his 
 cousin Mary, the daughter of Charles V., and she, true to 
 her Spanish blood, brought up their children with a horror 
 of heresy. Two of his sons, Rudolf and Mathias, reigned 
 after him. The elder, Rudolf, he had had crowned during 
 his own lifetime; as king of Hungary in 1572, and as king of 
 Bohemia in 1575. On the extinction of the Jagellon dynasty 
 
 * Charles IX. had married Elizabeth of Austria, Maximilian's second 
 daughter.
 
 RUDOLF II. 261 
 
 in 1572, some of the Polish nobles chose Maximilian to be 
 their king, but the majority preferred Stephen Batory, of 
 Transylvania. 
 
 Riidolf II. (15 7 6-1 6 11) — The Counter-Refor7nation in the 
 Austrian States. 
 
 Rudolf II. imitated rather the narrow devotion of his 
 mother than the tolerance of his father. In several respects 
 he resembled Philip II., possessing the fierce fanaticism and 
 the morose temper of that prince, but not his strength of will. 
 He is celebrated for his love for the occult sciences and for his 
 obstinate indolence. Prague, which owes to him much of its 
 splendour, was his usual place of residence ; he lived there 
 shut up in his castle of Hradcany, surrounded by astronomers 
 and astrologers. He sent for Kepler, who prepared for him 
 the astronomical tables called the Rudolphine tables, and for 
 Tycho Brahe, who united with his love of real knowledge 
 a leaning towards alchemy and astrology. The dangerous 
 fancies of the weak emperor ended by disturbing his reason, 
 and his brothers decided to proclaim one of themselves, 
 Mathias, as the head of the house. Mathias took up arms 
 against Rudolf, and in 1608 obtained the title of governor of 
 Austria, Moravia, and Hungary. 
 
 In the hereditary provinces the reign of Rudolf was 
 signalized by a peasant war, caused by agrarian difficulties 
 and an earnest desire among the people for liberty of conscience. 
 During the whole of this period we find agrarian and religious 
 troubles constantly coincident. Bishop Khlesl, who was the 
 administrator of the two dioceses of Vienna and Wiener- 
 Neustadt, worked hard to stop the progress of reform, and was 
 assisted to the utmost of their power by the Jesuits. The 
 fierce couplet addressed to the emperor in 1581 by one of the 
 Jesuits has been often quoted : 
 
 " Utere jure tuo, Csesar, servosque Lutheri 
 Ense, rota, ponto, funibus, igne neca." 
 
 The archduke Charles was no less in earnest for the restora-
 
 262 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 tion of Catholicism in Styria. He settled the Jesuits in Gratz, 
 and in 1572 the religious processions, which had been sus- 
 pended for twenty years, were resumed. The Lutheran nobles 
 ])rotested in vain, and the worship of Mary, which was so 
 zealously taught by the Jesuits, became the rallying-point of 
 the anti-reformers. A Catholic printing-press was set up at 
 (jratz, and a university for Jesuit instruction, which has con- 
 tinued to the present time, was founded in 1586. The nobles 
 were obliged, under pain of disgrace and even punishment 
 (schwerer Ungnad und Straf), to send their children to this 
 university, and no one was allowed to attend the heretical 
 schools of Germany. But Charles was incessantly harassed 
 by the complaints of citizens, peasants, and diets, and died in 
 the end of weariness and vexation (1591). His work was 
 worthily carried on by his successor Ferdinand (1591-1637), 
 who afterwards became emperor and king of Bohemia and of 
 Hungary. When on a pilgrimage to Loretto this prince had 
 vowed to exterminate heresy, and he endeavoured to keep his 
 word. He began by driving all the Protestant preachers from 
 Gratz and other towns; he then took possession of their 
 schools, burnt their books, and forced the members of the 
 reformed Churches to sell their property and quit the country. 
 The Capuchins were sent for to help the Jesuits to bring back 
 tlie people to the right way, and liberty of conscience was 
 stifled for long years to come. Later on, Ferdinand had an 
 opportunity of applying in Bohemia, and on a far larger scale, 
 the methods of conversion which he had first tried in Styria. 
 
 In Austria, when the archduke Mathias was made governor, 
 he was obliged to listen to the demands of the estates, and to 
 renew the arrangements made by Maximilian H., which granted 
 liberty of conscience on all seigneurial estates, but not in the 
 towns. 
 
 In Tyrol also the archduke Ferdinand — who must not be 
 confounded with the emperor Ferdinand II. — laboured no less 
 actively than his namesake for the restoration of Catholicism. 
 This province owed to him a code of laws {Landesord?iung)
 
 MATHIAS. 263 
 
 which remained in vigour for more than two centuries, a better 
 system of coinage, and wise measures for the development of 
 trade and industry. He founded the famous Ambras Museum 
 in the castle of Ambras, near Innsbruck, which was afterwards 
 carried to Vienna, and bears witness to the knightly and 
 artistic tastes of this enlightened prince. 
 
 Mathias (1612-1619) — Ferdinand II. (1619-1637) — Ferdinand 
 III. (1637-1657) — InflueTue of the fcsuits. 
 
 Rudolf never married, and he was succeeded in Austria, 
 Bohemia, and Hungary by Mathias, whose activity formed a 
 striking contrast with the indolence of his brother. His chief 
 minister and confidant was Cardinal Khlesl, bishop of Vienna, 
 who had carried on the counter-reformation in the Austrian 
 dominions with so much vigour. The whole interest of the 
 reign of Mathias is centred in Bohemia and Hungary, and the 
 part he acted there enables us to measure the poverty of a 
 character which never rose to the height of its ambition. It 
 is far easier to covet power than to exercise it well. Matliias 
 had no direct heir, and his first and principal care was to 
 secure his inheritance to his family and to arrange the order of 
 succession. To this end, he chose his cousin Ferdinand, of 
 the Styrian line, as his heir, and obtained a deed of renuncia- 
 tion from his brothers Maximilian and Albert, and even from 
 the king of Spain. Thus we see that even then the succession 
 to two great kingdoms was nothing more to the Habsburgs 
 than a family affair. It is true, however, that the Bohemian 
 and Hungarian estates ratified this arrangement, and Ferdinand 
 was crowned king of Hungary on the 8th of June, 1617, and 
 king of Bohemia on the i6th of May of the following year. 
 
 The ease with which these transactions were accepted by 
 the two kingdoms may seem astounding ; but we must not 
 forget that both Bohemia and Hungary were essentially aristo- 
 cratic countries, and that their nobles would rather obey a 
 foreigner than see one of their own number, even if he were 
 a Mathias Corvinus or a Podiebrad, raised to the throne.
 
 264 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Besides, they were constantly in dread of a Mussulman invasion, 
 and instinctively felt it their interest to obtain the support of 
 a house which was already powerful in itself, and could, at 
 need, secure to its subjects the help of the whole of Germany. 
 Unfortunately, the house of Austria adopted too completely 
 the character of defender of Christendom, and identified itself 
 entirely with Catholic intolerance. The reformed Churches, 
 whatever their origin, whether they followed Hus, Luther, or 
 Calvin, were all enemies as hateful to the Habsburgs as Turks, 
 and much more easy to fight ; and confounding as they did 
 the spirit of independence with that of heresy, they stifled 
 liberty, and made absolutism the sole basis of their policy. 
 
 Ferdinand II. {161 9-163 7), a fervent Catholic and a despotic 
 ruler, was the first representative of those typical Austrian 
 monarchs who ruled Austria, with the one single exception of 
 Joseph II., from 161 9 down to the middle of the present 
 century. He had been educated at Ingoldstadt, under the 
 care of the Jesuits and of his uncle, the pious William of 
 Bavaria ; he had more than once expressed a wish to become 
 a Jesuit, and we have already seen how he carried the maxims 
 of his teachers into practice in his government of Styria. 
 He found a far larger field for his religious zeal in Bohemia 
 and Hungary. In order to obtain the funds needed for his 
 war against the Chekhs, Ferdinand pledged Upper Austria to 
 Bavaria, and Herbersdorf, the Bavarian governor, had recourse 
 to the most violent measures in order to restore that province 
 to Catholicism. Those peasants who were attached to the 
 reformed religion rose in arms. According to a song of the 
 time, they wished to become their own masters, and to govern 
 their country as the Swiss did. The hatter Fadinger, who was 
 an old soldier, was their leader, and showed real military talent 
 in the unequal struggle. He took the title of captain-in-chief 
 of the Christian army, and was followed by seventy thou- 
 sand men, whom he organized and furnished with artillery ; 
 but he was wounded at the siege of Linz, and died shortly after- 
 wards (1627). His successor as leader of the insurgents was a
 
 FERDINAND II. 265 
 
 knight named Wiellinger, who was defeated by General Pappen- 
 heim,one of the heroes of the Thirty Years' War. The peasant 
 army was gradually broken up, and Wiellinger and the other chief 
 leaders perished on the scaffold. Four weeks were granted 
 to the rebels in which to become good Catholics ; but, of 
 course, many of the conversions were insincere, and in a latent 
 form the spirit of the Reformation lingered on in most of the 
 parishes. 
 
 Ferdinand's reign was a golden age for the Catholic 
 Church. He founded sixteen colleges for the Jesuits, be- 
 sides convents for the Barnabites, Capuchins, Camaldulensians, 
 Augustines, and Benedictines, and he increased the estates of 
 the clergy. He was outwardly a strict observer of the Christian 
 virtues, and 'loved to practise towards the poor that charity 
 full of ostentation which is so easily reconciled with cruelty 
 towards heretics. His second son, Leopold William, was 
 destined for the Church, and by the age of eleven already 
 possessed two bishoprics and four abbeys. 
 
 Ferdinand had reunited all the hereditary provinces, but 
 in 1623 he ceded Western Austria and Tyrol to his brother 
 Leopold, who married the beautiful and intelligent Claudia de 
 Medici. In 1665, this province returned to Leopold I., and, 
 excepting during the wars with Napoleon, has never again 
 been separated from Austria. 
 
 Ferdinand H. left the continuation of the Thirty Years' War 
 as a legacy to his successor, Ferdinand IH. (1637-165 7). This 
 war struck a rude blow at the prestige of the house of Austria 
 in Germany. There is no need to relate here its varying 
 incidents; we shall see further on how it affected Bohemia 
 and Hungary. The famous pamphlet of Hippolytus a Lapide 
 (Philip Chemnitz) on the position of the Holy Roman Empire 
 appeared during this time. According to it, the sole means 
 of saving the empire from certain ruin was the exclusion ot 
 Austria from Germany. It argued that Austria had always 
 exercised a fatal influence, having grown powerful at the 
 expense of the empire ; she ought now to be separated from
 
 266 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 it, and so leave Germany to form a federation under the 
 protection of France and Sweden, etc. The peace of West- 
 phaUa, while it secured liberty of conscience for Germany, 
 contained no stipulations in favour "of the subjects of Austria, 
 except for those in Silesia. The rapid spread of the Reforma- 
 tion in this province, which had formerly been so hostile to 
 the Hussites, was in later years to make its separation from 
 Bohemia and assimilation with the Prussian monarchy much 
 more easy. By the treaty of Miinster Ferdinand was obliged 
 to cede his Alsatian possessions to the king of France. 
 
 During the reign of Ferdinand III. the counter-reformation 
 in the Hereditary States was continued with greater energy 
 than ever. Upper Austria, however, showed remarkable- 
 tenacity in its attachment to the reformed doctrihe, and with- 
 stood all the efforts of this sovereign. In 1645, when Vienna 
 was threatened by the Swedes, the malcontents sent emissaries 
 to them to concert a common course of action, and some 
 noble families even sold their estates and emigrated in order 
 to be able to keep the faith they had chosen. An insurrection 
 among the peasants was severely repressed. And yet Ferdi- 
 nand was neither cruel nor Avanting in intelligence ; Guistiniani, 
 the Venetian ambassador, speaks of him in his correspondence 
 as a king who was enlightened, gentle, and moderate in his 
 views ; he simply carried out the ideas of his time and the 
 traditions of his family, and did this without exaggeration. 
 During his lifetime he saw his eldest son, Ferdinand, elected 
 king of Hungary and crowned king of Bohemia ; the early 
 death of this prince, however, left both these crowns to his 
 brother, Leopold I., whose long reign occupied the whole of 
 the latter half of the seventeenth century. 
 
 Leopold I. (1657-1705) — Siege of Vietina — Sobieski (1683). 
 
 At the time of Leopold's accession Austria was a much 
 smaller state than it is in our own time. Galicia still belonged 
 to Poland ; the shores of Istria and Dalmatia, and the islands 
 from Fiume to Cattaro, to the Venetian republic ; Brixen and
 
 LEOPOLD /. 267 
 
 Trent were only attached to Tyrol by a very loose tie, and 
 Tyrol itself belonged to the junior branch of the family. 
 Scarcely the third of a divided Hungary obeyed the king, 
 but, on the other hand, Bohemia still included the greater part 
 of Silesia which is now Prussian, with the principalities of 
 Breslau, Oppeln, and Ratibor. Leopold acquired Tyrol in 
 1665, when the last prince of the younger line died, and at the 
 same time he inherited a million of florins, which was a large 
 sum in those days. The victories of prince Eugene secured 
 for him almost the whole of Hungary, Croatia, Slavonia, and 
 Transylvania. The Austrian states, which at the accession of 
 Leopold had contained only 6800 square miles, on his death 
 contained 9100. 
 
 This prince, who added a third to the inheritance of his 
 forefathers, was not, however, of a warlike temperament, and 
 never commanded an army. He had been educated by the 
 Jesuits MuUer and Neidhard (Nitardi), and was to have been 
 a priest. His father used to say that he would make an 
 excellent bishop, and he exhibited on the throne the virtues 
 and the faults of the profession to which he was to have 
 belonged, — great purity of life, extreme timidity, and a spirit of 
 inexorable intolerance. He had absolutely no decision of 
 character, and followed the lead of councillors of the most 
 opposite kinds. Among these advisers we find Auersperg, 
 Zinzendorf, Schwarzenberg, Hocher, Montecuculli \ his con- 
 fessor, the Jesuit Muller, whom Pufifendorf calls " a pedant of 
 the schools who knew nothing of business ; " the Capuchin 
 Sinelli, the Jesuit Menegatti, and the Spanish Franciscan 
 Spinola, who dreamed of a united Church which was to 
 include Protestants and Catholics. The curious accounts of 
 the Venetian ambassadors at the court of Leopold prove that 
 the influence of these Churchmen far exceeded its due limits. 
 Leopold was passionately attached to the Jesuits, and hoped, 
 like Louis XIV., to make the Catholic faith triumphant 
 in his country; but he lived in his castle at Vienna a solemn, 
 monotonous, and melancholy life, which was very different
 
 268 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 from that of the Sun-king. Spanish etiquette weighed heavily 
 on the Viennese court, which was almost as dull as that 
 of the Escurial. Music, painting, literature, the study and 
 practice of some of the mechanical arts, alchemy, and astrology 
 were the pastimes of his sleepy life. More than once a 
 placard was found on the gates of the palace on which was 
 written, " Leopolde, sis Caesar et tio?i nmsicus^ sis Caesar et non 
 /esiiiia.'^ The sternness of the prince did not prevent his 
 manner to the poor and to those whom he received in audience 
 showing a certain paternal kindness and good-nature ; but he 
 punished all who ventured to attack his kingly power with 
 merciless cruelty. " In Leopold," says Sayous, " were united 
 and intensified all the faults of his ancestors, while he had 
 none of their greatness ; the haughty Austrian lip, which was 
 a real deformity in him, made him look like a caricature 
 of Charles V." His bust in the Ambras Collection in 
 Vienna represents a face of repulsive ugliness which rouses 
 strong feelings of dislike. Leopold founded two universities, 
 one at Breslau, and another at Innsbruck. He reformed the 
 courts of justice, replaced in them the use of the Latin 
 language by German, and established a regular police in 
 Vienna. 
 
 If we leave on one side the part played by Leopold in 
 European affairs as emperor, his reign in Austria presents but 
 one event of importance, the siege of Vienna by the Turks. 
 In 1683, the grand vizier, Kara Mustapha, with the aid of 
 the Hungarians, marched against Vienna. The emperor, 
 with his family and court and the greater number of the 
 nobles, immediately quitted the town and retired to Linz. 
 Abandoned by the sovereign, with dismantled fortifications 
 and a feeble garrison, it seemed impossible that the capital 
 should hold out long; but duke Charles of Lorraine and 
 count Stahrenberg put it into a state of defence, and the in- 
 habitants displayed heroic courage, students, merchants, and 
 citizens turning soldiers, and themselves burning the outskirts 
 of the city lest they should be used as shelter by the enemy.
 
 SIEGE OF VIENNA. 269 
 
 The outer fortifications were soon in the possession of the 
 Turks, who formed a magnificent camp before the town, and 
 began a regular siege, attempting to take it by assault no less 
 than eighteen times. Soon famine attacked the place. Happily 
 the pope, Innocent XL, terrified at the danger to Christendom, 
 had persuaded John Sobieski, king of Poland, to lend his aid 
 to the emperor, and, thanks to the efforts of the Holy See, a 
 formal alliance between the courts of Vienna and Cracow had 
 been concluded. Leopold had undertaken to set on foot an 
 army of sixty thousand men, and Sobieski forty thousand ; 
 and both parties were to help each other directly either of their 
 two capitals was attacked. All Christian princes, amongst them 
 even the czar of Russia, were to be invited to join this alliance. 
 Sobieski was faithful to his engagements. The victor of Chocim 
 (1673) had long been celebrated for his success and his heroic 
 courage, and as soon as he heard of the peril of Vienna, he set 
 out at once, and arrived thereby forced marches on the 7th of 
 September. There he met the armies of the duke of Lorraine, 
 the emperor's brother-in-law, and the electors of Bavaria and 
 Saxony, who had come to the help of the besieged city. The 
 total number of the three armies was about eighty thousand 
 men, and among their leaders we find the names of some of the 
 heroes of Poland, the Czarniecki, Potocki, Zamojski, and the 
 Leszczynski. On the 12th of September, they appeared on the 
 heights of Kahlenberg. The battle that followed was terrible. 
 The pachas of Aleppo and of Silistria perished in the fight. 
 "God is against us," cried Selim Gherai, the khan of the 
 Crimea. In the end, the Turkish camp was captured, and 
 Kara Mustapha was forced to fly. The Turks lost twenty 
 thousand men, while only four thousand Christians were left 
 on the field of battle. Sobieski sent the golden stirrup of the 
 grand vizier to the queen of Poland, and his standard to pope 
 Innocent XL 
 
 The next day the conqueror entered Vienna, and the 
 populace, who had seen the departure of the emperor with 
 indignation, received their deliverer with enthusiasm. On
 
 2/0 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-ITUNGARY. 
 
 the 15 th of September Leopold returned to the capital, and 
 at once gave proofs of the utter meanness of his character. 
 More jealous of the success of Sobieski than grateful for his 
 help, he first tried to avoid an interview with him, and then, 
 finding that impossible, set to work to contrive how best to 
 humiliate his glorious rival. He lost time in trying to find out 
 how an emperor ought to receive the elected king of the Polish 
 republic. " With open arms," the duke of Lorraine had an- 
 swered ; but to Leopold the great question was whether Sobieski 
 ought to stand on his right hand or his left. The interview 
 at length took place in a field, and it was decided that the two 
 sovereigns should stand face to face. After the exchange of 
 a few commonplace sentences, Sobieski rode off, saying that, 
 if it pleased the emperor, he would direct his generals to show 
 him the Polish troops. In his letter to Maria Kazimira, his 
 wife, Sobieski has described eloquently and bitterly the pain- 
 ful impression made upon him by the ingratitude of Austria. 
 He writes : " The palatine of Red Russia displayed our army 
 before the emperor, but our people have been much annoyed, 
 and have loudly complained, because the emperor never 
 deigned to thank them, not even by a bow, for all their 
 trouble and privations. They give us neither forage nor pro- 
 visions ; our sick are lying on dunghills, and our many 
 wounded cannot obtain a single boat to carry them down to 
 Pressburg, where I could more easily provide for them at my • 
 own cost. They will not bury our dead in their cemeteries, not 
 even the superior officers. . . . They steal our baggage ; they 
 carry off those of our horses which are in the rear. But for 
 the oats which we found in the Turkish camp, all our horses 
 must have perished. We should be less miserable if they 
 would have the charity to build us a bridge across the Danube, 
 and let us go to live in the land of our enemies. There we 
 should find something to keep us alive. But these Viennese 
 gentlemen put off everything till to-morrow, and now that they 
 are saved, they give themselves up to those excesses for which 
 God had righteously punished them. Many of our men, find-
 
 SOB IE SKI. 271 
 
 ing that they were dying of hunger in the country, hurried to 
 the town to find food ; but the commandant of Vienna had 
 given orders that they should not be allowed to enter, and that 
 they should be fired upon. After this great battle, in which we 
 have lost so many members of our most illustrious families, we 
 are treated like plague-stricken men, whom every one must 
 avoid. There remains nothing for us now but to groan as we 
 watch our army perish, not by the blows of our enemy, but 
 from the faults of those who owe everything to us. So I shall 
 march away to-day, perhaps to meet a greater famine than 
 I leave ; but I wish to get far away from the town of Vienna, 
 where they fire on my men. We are here by the waters of the 
 Danube, as the Israelites were in old times by the waters 
 of the Euphrates. We weep for the loss of our horses, for the 
 ingratitude of those whom we have saved, and for the many 
 chances of victory which we have lost. Every one is out of 
 heart, and we even go so far as to regret that we ever helped 
 the emperor." ^ 
 
 After leaving Vienna, Sobieski pursued the Turks into 
 Hungar}^, and captured Esztergom (Gran) from them, and in 
 the month of December he returned to Cracow. It is difficult 
 to understand why historians have named Leopold " the Great," 
 when his character so little justifies the title. 
 
 Austria under Leopold I. — Army — Finances. 
 
 Before going on to the reign of Joseph I., it will be well 
 to study the general organization .of the Austrian provinces 
 under Leopold, leaving on one side everything which concerns 
 the empire and also the internal government of Bohemia and 
 Hungary. At this time all political and judicial matters were 
 settled by the Council of State or Secret Conference, matters 
 
 ' Two centuries later, when the emperor Nicholas had saved the lioiise 
 of Austria from a revolted Hungary, he asked the poet Rzewuski, "Who 
 was the most stupid king of Poland Ijefore me ? " When the poet hesitated 
 to answer, " Well," said the czar, " it was Sobieski, for only he and I 
 have helped Austria."
 
 2/2 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 of finance and trade by the Court Chamber {Hofkanwier), 
 and questions of -war by the Council of War; but the powers of 
 these various councils were not defined with strict precision, 
 and there were not as yet ministers entrusted with special 
 departments. The Secret Conference never included more 
 than twelve members, among whom the chief men were 
 Auersperg, Lobkovice, Trautson, MontecucuUi, Harrach, and 
 Kinsky. This council assisted the emperor in all important 
 matters. There was no minister of foreign affairs, and all 
 negociations were carried on with a slowness which had become 
 proverbial. " Vienna vult expectant' said a proverb which 
 was widely spread in the diplomatic world. No one in the 
 council could ever boast of having as much influence with the 
 emperor as any one of his numerous confessors. 
 
 The High Council of War was founded in 1556. Under 
 Leopold it was composed of twelve members, and had amongst 
 its presidents the celebrated general MontecucuUi, and Hermann, 
 margrave of Baden. This institution did not, however, call 
 forth good generals from among the native Austrians ; Monte- 
 cucuUi came from Modena, De Souches from France, while 
 the titles of Charles of Lorraine and Eugene of Savoy show 
 their foreign origin. At the head of the army was a lieutenant- 
 general, who was dependent on the Council of War. At the 
 beginning of the reign of Leopold there was no standing army ; 
 MontecucuUi was the first who proposed that one should be 
 organized, and although the sovereign did not yield to his 
 wishes, MontecucuUi was able to induce him not to disband 
 all the troops after a war, and to make some effort to retain 
 the veterans in his service. 
 
 The army on an average was composed of thirty thousand 
 men, not including the garrisons ; in this number the Hun- 
 garian and Croatian troops are not included. From fifty to 
 ninety thousand soldiers were employed in the wars against 
 Turkey, but from twenty to thirty thousand of these were 
 furnished by the German princes. From 1680, the continu- 
 ance of war had for its immediate result the permanence
 
 MILITARY ORGANIZATION— TAXATION. 273 
 
 of the army, and its formation into regular regiments.' 
 The first infantry regiment was formed in 1680. By 1705, the 
 date of Leopold's death, there were twenty regiments of 
 cuirassiers, eleven of dragoons, and thirty-six of infantry, 
 besides irregular troops. The infantry regiments contained 
 from two thousand to two thousand five hundred men ; the 
 cavalry regiments, from five hundred to a thousand. Recruiting 
 was carried on, as in France, by means of recruiting officers and 
 sergeants, who induced men to become soldiers by offering 
 them money and promising them booty. In case of extra- 
 ordinary need the provincial diets voted special levies, and 
 vagabonds and prisoners of war were forcibly enrolled. Old 
 soldiers married and brought up their children to their own 
 trade — sometimes three generations might be found fighting 
 under the same flag — and the armies were always followed by 
 an immense number of women and children. 
 
 Towards the end of the seventeenth century a small fleet 
 was established on the Danube, commanded by an admiral 
 and manned by sailors from Holland and the Baltic. The 
 garrisons in time of peace were very small. Vienna itself had 
 never more than two thousand soldiers. In Hungary, besides 
 the national militia, the government maintained ten thousand 
 men, but these men were badly fed and badly paid, and were 
 often forced to pillage the enemy's territory in order to live. 
 Pillage of this kind had become a custom, and the Turks 
 themselves allowed that peace was not violated so long as the 
 frontier was not crossed by as many as five hundred men at a 
 time, and no artillery came with them. Wars were still 
 organized extremely ill ; supplies were never ready when they 
 were needed, and all the expeditions against the Turks set out 
 too late. Regiments were usually farmed by the colonels or 
 other officers to their own profit ; the treasury was a bad pay- 
 master, and the soldiers' pay was often six months in arrears. 
 This state of things produced insubordination, and that again 
 
 ' Compare the growth of a standing army in England during the same 
 period. 
 
 T
 
 274 HISTORY OF A US TRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 provoked harsh measures of repression. A commission was 
 appointed in 1698 to remedy these abuses; its deliberations 
 were numerous, but had little result. There were also other evil 
 influences at work on the army. The nomination of officers 
 frequently depended on the king's confessor ; there was no 
 security for their obtaining technical instruction, and the 
 government was obliged to have recourse for this purpose to 
 Prussian, English, and French officers ; there was no military 
 college, and the care of the sick and wounded was almost 
 entirely neglected. In 1696, a lottery, was established as a 
 means of founding a military hospital ; and the lottery has 
 remained ever since one of the financial institutions of Austria. 
 Much of this mismanagement was due to the bad state of 
 the finances. The whole of the ordinary revenue from direct 
 taxation was made up of the subsidies granted yearly by the 
 diets, (in Hungary, every three or four years,) and these sub- 
 sidies amounted almost always to the same sum, so that the 
 income from this source never increased. Lower Austria paid 
 on an average about two hundred thousand florins ; Upper 
 Austria, one hundred thousand ; Bohemia, Silesia, and 
 Moravia, one million two hundred thousand. The only 
 extraordinary subsidies that were ever granted were as volun- 
 tary gifts, as, for instance, on the occasion of a coronation, 
 or as aid under exceptional circumstances. The income 
 derived from indirect taxation, moreover, was often burdened 
 with debts contracted towards the various provinces of the 
 empire. The treasury was, however, clever at finding money. 
 We find taxes on billiards, playing-cards, and hair-powder as 
 early as 1676 ; later on, the State had a monopoly of tobacco 
 and stamped papers ; and, in 1691, a capitation tax was raised 
 which excepted neither priests nor nobles. Then came the 
 lottery under a philanthropic pretext. The whole revenue of 
 Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary amounted to about twelve 
 million florins by the end of Leopold's reign. The members 
 of the Hofkannner, whose business it was to watch over the 
 finances, were not always remarkable for their honesty, and
 
 ADMINISTRATIOy. 275 
 
 Leopold's thoughtless generosity also helped to compromise 
 the revenues of the State. 
 
 Administration — Legislation — Literature. 
 
 For purposes of administration the country was divided into 
 several groups. Lower Austria, which included the Austrian 
 lands on both sides of the Enns, Middle Austria, Styria, 
 Carinthia, Carniola, Gorica, and Istria ; Upper Austria with 
 Tyrol and Outer Austria, i.e. the Austrian possessions in South- 
 western Germany and Bohemia, which included Silesia and 
 Moravia ; while Hungary and Croatia were grouped together. 
 There were three chief chanceries attached to the court — one 
 for Bohemia, one for Hungary, and one for the Hereditary 
 Provinces ; but these central offices did not prevent the 
 working of the autonomous institutions which belonged to 
 each kingdom. Thus, while Hungary had its chancery at 
 Vienna, the emperor was represented in the kingdom by the 
 palatine, in Croatia by the ban ; but great efforts were made 
 to bring all financial and military matters to the capital for 
 decision. Bohemia, which had been crushed in 1620, had 
 nothing but its chancery at Vienna. 
 
 The Habsburgs loved absolute power, and the prestige of 
 their imperial title made them easily forget the duties imposed 
 on them by that of king, count, or archduke. Their rule, 
 however, was based on representative government, each 
 country having its diet where the delegates of nobles, priests, 
 and cities assembled. But these delegates were not always 
 consulted by the government either about civil or criminal 
 legislation or on questions of trade. Their principal business 
 was to levy taxes, and to administer the internal affairs of the 
 province ; authority over the inferior courts of justice, and the 
 nomination of the officers of the provincial government were 
 also left to them. Customs barriers between the various pro- 
 vinces seriously interfered with trade. Legislation descended 
 to the most minute and absurd details. An order of police 
 in 167 1 divided laymen into five classes, and gave the most
 
 276 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 minute instructions as to what each class ought to wear and 
 what it ought to eat. Another order in 1688 reduced the 
 number of classes to three, and tailors and cooks were called 
 upon to denounce all who were so unlucky as to infringe 
 the rules. Interfering as the police was on certain points, on 
 others it was exceedingly negligent. In those days Vienna, 
 like all other cities, was ill-drained. The plague which broke 
 out in it in the year 1679 was almost as terrible as the great 
 epidemics of the Middle Ages, and the emperor Leopold fled 
 before it, as he fled before the Turks a little later on. It 
 caused the death of more than fifty thousand persons. 
 
 This government by a paternal despotism, together with 
 the perpetual wars (which were usually undertaken for causes 
 foreign to the interests of the several countries), the financial 
 difficulties, and the great influence of the Jesuits, sufficiently 
 explain why Austria made so little progress in arts and litera- 
 ture. The teaching of the Jesuits and of the Piaristes, who 
 settled in the country at the close of 1656, was entirely con- 
 fined to the lifeless formulas of the schoolmen, and the 
 importation of books and of foreign ideas was strictly pro- 
 hibited. The Latin which was used in teaching was detestable, 
 and the German little better. The melancholy position of 
 Bohemia and Hungary prevented any real progress in their 
 national literature. No single centre of intellectual activity 
 could at this time have borne any comparison with the little 
 republic of Ragusa, which was then independent, and within 
 which the Slav literature attained its highest degree of 
 excellence. 
 
 Leopold meant, however, to encourage learning. He spent 
 considerable sums of money on the royal library, sent for 
 some portion of the museum of Ambras {Ambraser Samtnlung) 
 after the annexation of the Tyrol, and placed it in Vienna, and 
 collected the scattered remains of the library of Mathias 
 Corvinus. He had the catalogue of the manuscripts of the 
 imperial library and the works on physics of Father Kirschner 
 printed at his own expense, founded the two universities of Inns-
 
 JOSEPH I. 277 
 
 bruck and Breslau, and began the collection of pictures which 
 now forms the picture-gallery of Vienna. But, notwithstand- 
 ing all his efforts, his reign produced not one single man of 
 genius. 
 
 /oseph I. (1705-1711) — Charles VL (1711-1740) — The 
 Pragmatic Sartction. 
 
 The very short reign of Joseph I., from 1705 to 17 11, was 
 occupied by his wars with France for the Spanish succession 
 and his struggle with Rakoczy of Transylvania. His tolerance 
 towards the Reformed Church has been praised, and it is true 
 that he forbade Catholic priests to attack Protestants in their 
 sermons, and favoured the Jesuits far less than his predecessors 
 had done. Indeed, if we are to believe the doubtful evidence 
 of the emperor Joseph II., he had some thoughts of banishing 
 them from the kingdom. He also did not shrink from a 
 dispute with the pope, Clement XL, on the subject of the 
 presentation to benefices, and the sovereign pontiff issued a bull 
 against him, in which he reproached the emperor "for having 
 forgotten the hereditary piety of the house of Austria." But 
 Clement's action is largely explained by his hostility to the 
 foreign policy of Austria and his devotion to the cause of 
 France. 
 
 At the time of Joseph's death his brother Charles was in 
 Spain, where for some years he had been unsuccessfully fighting 
 against Philip of Anjou for the possession of that kingdom, 
 without succeeding in gaining more than Aragon, Valencia, 
 and Catalonia. On leaving for Vienna, he appointed his wife, 
 Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick, governor-general of the pro- 
 vinces of Aragon, Valencia, Sardinia, Majorca, Catalonia, 
 Roussillon, and Cerdagne, and Stahremberg commander of the 
 Austrian troops in the peninsula. The treaty of Rastadt in 
 17 14 obliged the house of Austria to give up Spain, and 
 gave to it in compensation the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, 
 Milan, the presidii of Tuscany, and Sardinia. By the Barrier 
 treaty of 17 15 the Dutch reserved the right to place garrisons
 
 278 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 in the towns of Namur, Menin, Ypres, Tournai, etc. AVe 
 shall take no notice of the history of these ephemeral pos- 
 sessions. They did nothing but weaken Austria, and it 
 would have been far wiser to have striven continuously to 
 enlarge the borders of the kingdom at the expense of the 
 Turks. 
 
 Charles VI. succeeded peacefully to the empire and the two 
 kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary (171 i-i 740). His brother 
 Joseph I. had left two daughters, but the will of Leopold I. had 
 excluded females from the throne, and, in default of male heirs, 
 had declared that the younger should succeed to the elder 
 brother. It had gone on to declare that in case of Charles VI. 
 having no male heir, then the daughters of Joseph I., or of the 
 elder branch, should take precedence of the daughters of the 
 junior branch.^ Charles VI. had but one daughter, Maria 
 Theresa. Immediately after his accession, he began a series of 
 negociations with the various members of his family and with 
 the diets of his various Estates, with the object of reversing the 
 order of succession as established by Leopold, and of securing 
 the whole of the Austrian dominions for the young princess. 
 These negociations were all directed towards obtaining the 
 confirmation of the celebrated deed of settlement which is 
 known under the name of the Pragmatic Sanction, and they 
 occupied most of the reign of Charles VI. The following 
 were the principal phases of the matter. 
 
 ' GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE HOUSE OF HABSBURG, FROM 
 LEOPOLD \. TO MARIA THERESA. 
 
 Leopold I., died 1705. 
 
 Maria Antonia, Joseph I., 1705-1711. Charles VI., 17 ii-i 740. 
 
 d. 1692, j I 
 
 married Max I I I ^j 
 
 Emanuel, Maria Amelia, Maria Joseph, Leopold, Maria Theresa, 
 elector of d. 1756. d. 1757, d. 17x6. d. 1780. 
 
 Bavaria. married Augustus III. 
 
 of .Saxony, 
 king of Poland.
 
 CHARLES Vl. 279 
 
 On the 13th of April, 17 13, the emperor summoned the 
 Secret Council at Vienna, and read to them a solemn decla- 
 ration, which may be summed up in the three following 
 articles : — 
 
 I. All the Austrian dominions form an indivisible whole. 
 
 II. Heirs male in the house of Austria succeed each other 
 by virtue of the law of primogeniture. 
 
 III. In default of heirs male, daughters are to succeed in 
 the following order: first those of Charles VI., then those of 
 Joseph I., then those of Leopold I. 
 
 The council had nothing to do but accept the royal will 
 without any discussion, but the emperor required further 
 guarantees. First of all, he obtained from each of the 
 princesses interested in the will of Leopold a renunciation of 
 her rights, and then he proceeded to extract a ratification 
 of the family compact from each of the different states over 
 which he ruled, beginning with the more docile. 
 
 On the 2ist of April, 1720, the Estates of Lower Austria 
 were convoked in Vienna, and undertook to recognize the 
 archduchess Maria Theresa as rightful heir if there should be 
 no heirs male. On the 21st of September, the Estates of Silesia 
 gave the same promise. The Bohemian nobles had entirely 
 lost the habit of meeting in diets, but they were now sum- 
 moned by Charles to meet in the castle of Prague, and 
 were informed of what had taken place concerning the suc- 
 cession of the house of Austria from the time of Ferdinand I., 
 and of the projects of the reigning sovereign for the good of 
 all his dominions and the preservation of the Catholic faith. 
 On the i6th of October, 1723, a deed was prepared containing 
 the agreement of the Estates to the Pragmatic Sanction, of 
 which two copies were made, one for the Bohemian chancery 
 in Vienna, the other being deposited among the archives of 
 the kingdom, where it still remains ; and when all was com- 
 pleted, the emperor wrote to the diet to thank tliem for their 
 compliance with his wishes. 
 
 It might have been expected that Hungary would find it
 
 280 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 more difficult to agree to the arrangement. On his coronation 
 as king of Hungary, Charles VI. had been obliged to sign five 
 articles, one of which insisted on the right of the Magyars to 
 choose their own king if he himself should die without male 
 heirs. Besides, Hungary had never felt cordially towards the 
 Austrian dynasty. The dependent provinces were first asked 
 to sign the Pragmatic Sanction — Croatia in March, 1721, and 
 Transylvania in March, 1722; and then, in the month of June 
 of this year, Charles went in person to open the Hungarian 
 diet, which had already been prepared by cardinal Csaky to 
 receive the king's proposal favourably, and there, thanks to the 
 eloquence of the orator Szluha, he obtained its ratification by 
 the Magyars. He next had it proclaimed at Milan and in the 
 Low Countries. Nothing now remained to be done but to 
 obtain the adhesion of the European powers. The Pragmatic 
 Sanction was recognized by Prussia and Russia in 1726, in 
 1 731 by England and the States-General of Holland, in 1732 
 by Germany, and in 1733 by Poland. France, Spain, and 
 Sardinia did not give in their adhesion until after the treaty 
 of Vienna in 1735. As prince Eugene said, "a well-filled 
 treasury and a strong army would have been a better guarantee 
 than all these parchments," for all the ratifications which had 
 been obtained with so much difficulty did not prevent the 
 powers from attacking Maria Theresa the moment she as- 
 cended the throne. The real interest of the Pragmatic Sanction 
 lies in the more or less voluntary consent yielded to it by the 
 various portions of the Austrian state, by some from an instinct 
 of hereditary fidelity to the reigning dynasty, by others only 
 because they were weary of continual struggles, and felt them- 
 selves unable to maintain their existence outside the Austrian 
 state. 
 
 This agreement, which has long been looked upon abroad 
 as nothing more than a bit of parchment with historical asso- 
 ciations, still forms the basis of the common law of Austria, and 
 is quoted in Parliamentary debates. For example, the Croats 
 remember that they accepted the Pragmatic Sanction before
 
 TREATY OF BELGRADE. 28 1 
 
 Hungary, and argue from this their right to the self-govern- 
 ment which Hungary would withhold from them. 
 
 The recognition of the Sanction was the most important 
 success obtained by Charles VI. during his reign. By the 
 treaty of Vienna (1735), which put an end to the war of 
 the Polish succession, he lost part of his Italian possessions, the 
 Two Sicilies, which he ceded to Don Carlos in exchange for 
 Parma and Piacenza. But this could hardly be looked upon 
 as a real loss of power to Austria. Far more serious was the 
 disastrous treaty of Belgrade (1739), by which he was obliged 
 to restore to the Porte almost all that Hungary had gained by 
 the- treaty of Pozarevac (Passarovitz). A short time before 
 the treaty of Belgrade was signed, Charles had lost the great 
 general of the Austrian forces, Eugene of Savo}', and he 
 himself did not long survive, dying in 1740 at the age of 
 fifty-six. 
 
 Charles is celebrated for his love of the fine arts, especially 
 music. He invited to his court Scarlati, whose pupil he was, 
 and Caldara, both well-known Italian musicians, and he adorned 
 Vienna with fine buildings, founded academies of painting and 
 sculpture, and enlarged the collection of medals. He was a 
 great admirer of Italian literature, and he had Muratori for his 
 historian and Metastasio for his poet laureate. He tried hard 
 to develop commerce, and to that end had a large number of 
 roads made, some of which bear his name to this day, while he 
 also established at Vienna an Eastern Trading Company in 
 1 7 19, a Levantine Company at Trieste, and an East India 
 Company at Ostend, which latter, however, he soon sacrificed 
 to the jealousy of the neighbouring states in order to obtain 
 from them their recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction. Trieste 
 and Rieka (Fiume) were declared free ports in his reign, the 
 ports of Buccari (Bakar) and Porto Re (Kraljevica) were im- 
 proved, and a small fleet of war-ships was created on the 
 Danube in order to protect the navigation of that river. We 
 must not forget to mention the efforts of Charles VI. to improve 
 the administration of justice. His clemency obtained for him
 
 282 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 the surname of Titus ; but it did not extend to religious matters, 
 for during his reign many of the Austrian Protestants were 
 compelled to migrate into Germany and Transylvania. 
 
 We will now return to Bohemia and Hungary, and see by 
 what series of events these two kingdoms were induced finally 
 to accept the rule of the Austrian dynasty.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 BOHEMIA UNDER THE FIRST AUSTRIAN KINGS (1526-1620). 
 
 Ferdinand I. (1526-1564) — Growth of the Royal Poiver — The 
 Aloiarchy becomes hereditary. 
 
 The elective throne of Bohemia had been left vacant by the 
 death of Louis at the battle of Mohacs in 1526. Ferdinand 
 of Austria immediately laid claim to it in virtue of the treaties 
 concluded between Wladyslaw Jagiello and the emperor Maxi- 
 milian ; but the Estates of the realm refused altogether to 
 recognize their validity, and insisted that none but a freely 
 elected sovereign could ascend the throne. Ferdinand set to 
 work to conciliate the chief nobles in Bohemia, Moravia, 
 Silesia, and Lusatia by gifts and promises, and in consequence 
 of his clever management was at last chosen by them in 
 preference to his rivals, Sigismund of Poland and William and 
 Louis of Bavaria, being unanimously elected by the four and 
 twenty electors to whom the diet had entrusted the decision. 
 He immediately confirmed all the privileges of the kingdom 
 and the Compactata of king Sigismund, and signed a revers, in 
 which he acknowledged that he owed his nomination to the 
 free elections of the Estates ; at the same time, he undertook to 
 reside in Prague. A diet was held immediately after the 
 accession of the new king, which defined some of his preroga- 
 tives. It authorized him to have his successor crowned in his 
 own lifetime, provided he should be the legal heir to the 
 kingdom; it recognized the exclusive right of the king to
 
 284 HISTORY OF AVSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 convoke diets and the assemblies of the circles, and it granted 
 supplies for the war against John Szapolyai and his allies the 
 Turks. 
 
 Ferdinand at first got on well with his new subjects, owing 
 to his tolerance and his firmness. He endeavoured by all the 
 means in his power to put an end to the quarrels between the 
 various religious parties, and to lessen the power of the nobles, 
 who during the troubles had become accustomed to the exercise 
 of tyrannical authority on their estates. He entered into a 
 solemn engagement to protect the Utraquists, and to secure 
 to them rights equal to those of the Catholics ; but this 
 tolerance did not extend to the Bohemian Brothers, who still 
 remained proscribed, nor to the followers of the new Lutheran 
 doctrines, whom the Utraquists endeavoured to attach to their 
 party. John Pasek of Vrt, the first consul or burgomaster of 
 Prague, who was one of the most influential persons in 
 Bohemia at this time, had acquired so much authority that he 
 was able to persecute the Lutherans, drive them from the town, 
 and even bring some of them to the stake. In the reign of 
 Louis, John Pasek's authority in Prague had been almost 
 boundless ; but Ferdinand obliged him to be more tolerant. 
 Pasek had formed the old and the new town into one single 
 municipality; Ferdinand restored the aid division, and ended 
 by banishing Pasek, notwithstanding the services he had 
 rendered him at the time of his election, and by this act 
 restored peace and order to the capital. He took advantage 
 of the position of affairs to reduce the privileges of the royal 
 c;ities by forbidding all municipal assemblies unless held 
 with the permission of the king ; he restored regularity to the 
 administration of justice, and put an end to the private wars 
 which had so long wasted the country. 
 
 Ferdinand was a sincere Catholic, and entirely hostile to 
 the Lutheran doctrines, but circumstances would not allow him 
 to act with all the energy he would have wished. He forbade 
 the use of the churches to the Protestants,- but he could not 
 prevent the spread of their doctrines and their form of worship
 
 FERDINAND I. 285 
 
 on the estates of the barons and knights. In order to be able 
 to fight the new heresy more successfully, he strove hard to 
 bring about a union between the Utraquists and the Catholics, 
 and to found an archbishopric common to both confessions 
 (diet of 1537); but in this he failed. The Lutherans took 
 advantage of the troubles Ferdinand met with in Hungary to 
 make an attempt to form for themselves a permanent organiza- 
 tion, but the king would make no concessions. Indeed, the 
 war with the Turks, instead of weakening him in Bohemia, 
 enabled him to obtain additional supplies of money over and 
 above the annual subsidies. 
 
 With the tenacity of his race he never neglected a single 
 opportunity of increasing the prerogatives of his crown or 
 dynasty; as, for instance, in 1541, when a fire destroyed 
 large portions of the town of Prague, and burnt part of the 
 TabidcR regni BoJiemice. (desky zemske), the national archives, 
 in which the public and private charters were preserved, and 
 the diet undertook to replace this important collection. The 
 king then demanded that, in consideration of the rights of his 
 wife Anna, the revers which he had signed on his accession 
 should be considered as annulled, and that another should be 
 substituted for it, in which it should be stated, not that he had 
 been elected, but that he had been received as king. The 
 Estates had the weakness to agree to this new formula. Already, 
 in 1527, they had admitted his right to have his successor 
 crowned during his lifetime, and this was to recognize the 
 hereditary right of the Habsburgs to the crown. But the spirit 
 of the people had been weakened by their religious quarrels, 
 and each party thought only of gaining the favour of the 
 sovereign by servile concessions, instead of keeping in sight 
 the interests of the whole country. This compliant temper 
 was not, however, without limits ; the Estates were far from 
 having entirely renounced their independence, and of this fact 
 Ferdinand had some experience before long.
 
 286 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Revolts and Persecutions of the Protestants — Destruction of the 
 Municipal Franchises. 
 
 In 1546, Charles V, applied for help to his brother Ferdinand 
 in his war against the Protestant league of Smalkalde. The 
 king of Bohemia had no power to levy troops without the con- 
 sent of the diet, and the Utraquist members of the diet were 
 not inclined to furnish an army to fight against those whom 
 they looked upon almost as co-religionists. In spite of this, 
 the king insisted that the Estates should meet at Litomerice 
 (Leitmeritz) on the 12th of January, 1547, and should bring 
 their troops with them. Some of the 'members refused to 
 answer the sovereign's summons ; others declined to cross the 
 frontier, as the kingdom was not in danger; and in the 
 end only a small minority accompanied Ferdinand on his 
 expedition against Saxony. The moment he had left the 
 country, discontent broke out ; and, in spite of the royal pro- 
 hibition, the consuls of Prague summoned a meeting of the 
 citizens and formed a league for the defence of the liberties of 
 the land, the Utraquist barons and knights hastened to the city 
 to join it, and some of the Bohemian Brothers became its 
 leading orators and chiefs. Under their influence certain 
 articles were drawn up for presentation to the king, which 
 called upon him to renounce all those rights of which he had 
 possessed himself in the last twenty years, which increased the 
 power of the crown at the expense of the kingdom. According 
 to these articles, the Utraquists were to organize their Church 
 as they wished and to form unions in defence of their interests, 
 and the diets of the kingdom and the circles were to meet 
 whenever they considered it necessary. The king was to give 
 up the concessions made to him in 1545 relative to the heredi- 
 tary succession to the crown, and to agree to appoint no public 
 officers except with the consent of the diet. As soon as these 
 articles were decided upon, messengers were sent to Ferdinand 
 to ask him to summon a diet in which they. could be discussed, 
 and at the same time the Estates of Silesia, Moravia, and
 
 THE BLOODY DIET. 28/ 
 
 Lusatia were invited to take similar resolutions. The elector 
 of Saxony, who had been threatened by Charles V., entered 
 into relations with the Estates assembled at Prague, and called 
 upon them to join him in his resistance to the king and the 
 emperor. A victory gained by the elector encouraged the 
 diet to set on foot an army which was to go to his assistance 
 if his success continued, but the defeat at Miihlberg {1547) 
 destroyed all their hopes. Ferdinand entered Bohemia at the 
 head of the imperial forces, and the Estates had not the 
 courage to resist him, laying down their arms all the more 
 quickly in consequence of his promise of an amnesty to all 
 those barons and knights who should give in their submission. 
 Many of them hastened to Litomerice to pay their homage 
 to their sovereign, and then marched with him against Prague. 
 The terrified capital surrendered at discretion, and the other 
 towns followed its example. The king revenged himself on 
 the towns, confiscated their goods, and limited their powers 
 of self-government by the appointment of royal judges and 
 captains, while the estates of some few nobles were confiscated, 
 and two knights and two citizens were put to death, their 
 execution taking place on the same day as the assembly of the 
 diet, which received the name of the Bloody Diet (^Krvavy 
 s/iem). The king declared that the towns deserved to lose 
 their places in the diet for their conduct, but that, in his 
 clemency, he would only restrict or suppress their privileges. 
 From this time no communal meeting could be held except in 
 the presence of a royal judge. Thus this attempted revolution, 
 badly begun and badly carried out, resulted only in the increase 
 of the power of the dynasty, enlarged the royal dominions, 
 which had been much reduced in former reigns, and weakened 
 the power of the diets, where the town representatives could 
 only appear by royal favour, and, it might almost be said, 
 controlled by royal officers. 
 
 These energetic measures enabled Ferdinand to leave 
 Bohemia for Augsburg, where Charles V. had just convoked 
 the imperial diet. He left the archduke Ferdinand, his second
 
 288 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 son, as regent. While at Augsburg, the German princes de- 
 manded that Bohemia should be made subject to the same 
 charges as the rest of the empire ; but Ferdinand knew how- 
 to defend the rights of his kingdom, and maintained his inde- 
 pendence as regarded Germany. Soon after this he established 
 a royal court of appeal at Prague for all his Bohemian pos- 
 sessions, suppressed the town courts of Prague and Litomerice, 
 prohibited the further use of the German code of Magdeburg, 
 and brought about the unification of the law throughout the 
 whole of the kingdom of St. Vacslav. In the same year he 
 renewed the persecutions of the Picards and the Bohemian 
 Brothers, breaking up their communities, and forcing the 
 Brothers to join either the Catholics or the Utraquists. Those 
 who refused were banished, and more than eight hundred 
 emigrated into Prussia and Poland, many of them going to 
 Leszno, near Poznan (Posen), where, later on, the great 
 Komensky^ came to seek them. One of their elders, John 
 Augusta, was thrown into prison, and remained there till the 
 death of the king. 
 
 Ferdinand proposed fresh measures against the Lutherans 
 at the diet of 1549, but he met with strong resistance from both 
 Bohemia and Moravia, and the energy shown by the German 
 Protestants obliged him to renounce them. The peace of 
 Augsburg (1556), which secured the triumph of the Reforma- 
 tion in Germany, gave fresh courage to the Evangelicals of 
 Bohemia. In order to resist them, Ferdinand threw himself 
 more passionately than ever on the side of the Catholics, sum- 
 moned the Jesuits to Prague (1556), founded an archbishopric 
 for the Catholics, and entered into negociations with the 
 Council of Trent for the admission of Utraquists into the 
 Catholic Church. In 1564, he obtained the sanction of the 
 pope, Pius IV., and the authorization of the Council of Trent 
 for the use of the Cup throughout the kingdom of Bohemia, 
 and in Prague the Jesuits and the archbishop himself might 
 be seen administering the sacrament under both kinds. 
 ' See post, p. 304.
 
 MAXIMILIAN II. 289 
 
 During his lifetime, on the 14th of February, 1549, Ferdi- 
 nand succeeded in getting his eldest son, Maximilian, recog- 
 nized as heir to the kingdom of Bohemia, and crowned in 1562. 
 
 Maximilian II. {\^ 64-1 5 7 6) — Rudolf II. ( 1 5 7 6-1 6 1 2) — Wars 
 with Mathias and the Utraqidsts. 
 
 Maximilian II. was favourable to the Reformation, and 
 ascended the throne with ideas of toleration, which he applied 
 so far as the spirit of the time allowed. He granted the 
 request of the Utraquists that they should be allowed to govern 
 themselves not according to the Compactata, but according to 
 " the Word of God." The Evangelicals, however, were not 
 able to obtain the king's recognition of the Confession of 
 Augsburg, and consequently joined with the Bohemian 
 Brothers, who still existed though in secret, to elaborate a 
 kind of confession of faith of their own ; but this also failed 
 to obtain the recognition of the sovereign, and the Lutheran 
 Church was allowed to remain without clergy and without 
 government. This led to a state of disorder and moral anarchy 
 which wasted the energy of the best men of the time. 
 
 We shall not dwell on the wearisome quarrels which filled 
 almost the whole of the reign of Maximilian. During his 
 reign and that of his predecessor, as regarded foreign enemies, 
 Bohemia was at peace ; she had to furnish some levies against 
 the Turks and Hungarians, but no enemy was seen on the 
 native soil. But the Chekh nation was enervated by this long 
 peace, spent in endless theological discussions and religious 
 quarrels ; it lost those warlike qualities which had been its 
 glory in the previous century. The national literature, verbose 
 and pedantic, was more remarkable for the quantity than the 
 quality of its productions. A large number of foreigners, 
 especially Germans, again settled in the capital ; and the 
 policy of the sovereign was always prompted by the interests 
 of either Germany or his own dynasty, never by those of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 Rudolf II. (15 7 6-1 6 1 2) had more taste for arts and science 
 
 u
 
 290 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 than for theology. Like Charles IV., he made Prague one of 
 the most learned cities in Europe, and in his time Chekh 
 literature made remarkable progress ; the prose of Adam of 
 Veleslavin^ being still considered classical, though his matter 
 lacks originality. The Bohemian Brothers published a trans- 
 lation of the Bible, which was for Bohemia what Luther's was 
 for Germany. The number of foreigners in the kingdom 
 continued to increase. Rudolf, who had been educated in 
 Spain, never knew the national language, and he was always 
 surrounded by Spaniards and Germans. -Though a Catholic, 
 his character was so indolent and dreamy that for a long time 
 he remained either ignorant of the religious quarrels of his 
 subjects, or quite indifferent to them. The Jesuits made great 
 progress in Bohemia during his reign, and acquired consider- 
 able influence both in the schools and with the Catholic 
 nobles, and in the end the Catholics obtained an overpowering 
 influence over the enfeebled character of Rudolf. In 1602, 
 he renewed the persecutions of the Bohemian Brothers, and 
 the Utraquists found it impossible to defend them, as the 
 Jesuits and fanatical Catholics had become complete masters 
 of the kingdom. All the servants of government were obliged, 
 under pain of dismissal and exile, to sign a confession of 
 the Catholic faith ; and we are even told of a certain lord, 
 Borita of Martinice, who on his estates hunted his peasants to 
 church with his dogs, and forced them to receive the sacra- 
 ment. A provincial synod was about this time assembled by 
 the archbishop of Prague, with the avowed purpose of restor- 
 ing the whole of Bohemia to the Catholic union. Religious 
 dissensions broke out worse than ever when the feeble Rudolf 
 had to defend his power against his brother Mathias, who was 
 impatient to rule over the whole of the Austrian dominions 
 and had found allies in the Bohemian Brothers of Moravia, led 
 by their chief, Charles of Zerotin. Zerotiu is an important 
 person in Moravian history. He was devoted to the Reforma- 
 tion, and had been a good deal associated with Henry IV. of 
 ' See Morfill's Sl<xvo7iic Literature, p. 234.
 
 RUDOLFS CONCESSIONS TO THE SECTS. 29 1 
 
 France, to whom he lent money, and in whose army he served 
 during the siege of Rouen in 1591. His correspondence, 
 which is otherwise very remarkable, supplies us with some 
 curious details concerning that prince. 
 
 Zerotin convoked the Estates of the kingdom at Caslav 
 and entered Bohemia, but they remained true to their lawful 
 king and flocked round him at Prague. The Utraquists took 
 advantage of the position of affairs to ask that their religious 
 grievances should be redressed, and to demand political 
 reforms. Rudolf promised all they asked, and purchased 
 peace with Mathias by the treaty of Libno (1608), by which he 
 ceded Moravia to him. 
 
 At the diet held in 1609, the Evangelicals and the 
 Bohemian Brothers renewed their demands, calling upon the 
 emperor to recognize the Bohemian confession, to admit them 
 into the consistory of the Utraquists, and to entrust to them 
 the management of the university of Prague. The emperor 
 refused these demands, whereupon they constituted themselves 
 an independent diet in the town-hall of the new town of 
 Prague, and formed an armed league for the protection of 
 their religion. At the head of their troops they placed count 
 Mathias of Thurn, a German gentleman w'ho had shortly 
 before come to settle in Bohemia, and they also appointed 
 a committee of seventy-five directors, who were charged with 
 the defence of their interests. The Estates of Silesia joined 
 this league. 
 
 The emperor-king, alarmed, begged the elector of Saxony 
 to act as mediator, and offered to allow the formation of a 
 special consistory for the Bohemian Brothers. They refused 
 his offer and drew up their demands under the form of a 
 letter of majesty — that is to say, a fundamental and perpetual law 
 — which Rudolf at last made up his mind to sign on the 9th of 
 July, 1609. This celebrated document secured the recognition 
 of the Bohemian confession, the admittance of the Evangelicals 
 and Bohemian Brothers to the consistory and their right to 
 govern the university. Besides, they were to choose a certain
 
 292 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-ITUNGARY. 
 
 number of defenders of the faith from among the lords, 
 knights, and citizens who were to maintain these privileges. 
 At the same time, a treaty concluded between the Catholics and 
 Utraquists decreed, as the treaty of Kutna Hora had formerly 
 declared (1485), that for the future all religious parties were 
 to tolerate one another. The whole matter was a definite 
 recognition of the rights of liberty of conscience, so far as it 
 was understood at the time, and was a kind of Edict of Nantes, 
 which secured religious peace to Bohemia for the future. 
 
 Rudolf had signed the letter of majesty sorely against his will, 
 and could think of it only with humiliation and with grief. He 
 neglected no opportunity of revenging himself, and before long 
 instigated the archduke Leopold, the younger brother of Ferdi- 
 nand of Styria, and bishop of Passau and Strassburg, to attack 
 Bohemia. Leopold collected an army on the frontiers under 
 the pretext that he wished to conquer the duchies of Cleves 
 and Juliers ; this army, about twelve thousand strong, pushed on 
 into Bohemia and captured Budejovice, Tabor, and Pisek, and 
 reached Prague (161 1). The diet was taken by surprise, but 
 soon assembled an army which put the invaders to flight, 
 When once free from their enemies, the Estates turned round 
 upon Rudolf, whom they suspected, not without reason, of 
 complicity with Leopold^ besieged him in his royal castle, and 
 forced him to abdicate. They then elected Mathias, who 
 came up with an army of eight thousand men. Rudolf died 
 the following year (1612). 
 
 Mathias (1612-1619) — The Defenestration at Prague (1618). 
 
 Unhappily, the Protestants and Utraquists did not know 
 how to make a good use of the liberty which they had secured 
 so much against the will of Rudolf An agreement was 
 entered into by the Evangelicals and the Brothers, according 
 to which a new consistory was to be chosen and the higher 
 dignitaries elected from among these two parties ; but no serious 
 steps were taken to increase the number of their clergy or to 
 improve Church discipline, and the reformers continued to be
 
 MATHIAS. 293 
 
 divided into two rival camps by th- dogmas of Luther and 
 Calvin. They had taken possession of the university of 
 Prague, but they found it far easier to destroy institutions than 
 to restore them. No one was ready to make the sacrifices 
 necessary to carry on the teaching with efficiency, and the 
 old school of John Hus was never again able to recover the 
 brilliant position it had formerly enjoyed. The Estates busied 
 themselves less with the religious improvement of the nation 
 than with the increaae of its political liberty. At the corona- 
 tion of Mathias they presented the following conditions to him. 
 They claimed the right — ist, to hold diets even without the 
 permission of the king ; andly, to summon the army whenever 
 they judged it necessary ; 3rdly, to maintain the union entered 
 into with the Estates of Silesia in 1600 for the defence of the 
 common religion ; 4thly, to conclude similar treaties with neigh- 
 bouring states; and, lastl)', to renew the treaties formerly entered 
 into by George of Podiebrad with the electors of Saxony, Bran- 
 denburg, and the Palatinate, now become Protestant, in such 
 sort that the diets should be able to apply for help to these 
 princes in their conflicts with the king. Of these propositions 
 Mathias only ratified the third, adjourning the discussion of 
 the remainder, and meantime he endeavoured to disarm the 
 leaders of opposition by honours and gifts. He w^as not suc- 
 cessful, and the Protestants sought for allies among the Hun- 
 garians and Austrians, and among the Protestant princes and 
 those states who were interested in the lessening of the power 
 of the Austrian dynasty. The emperor-king tried to avert 
 the threatened crisis by bringing forward a proposal for a war 
 against the Turks, and invited the delegates of the various 
 diets of the Austrian dominions to meet him at Linz in the 
 August of 1 6 14. Here they refused his request for men and 
 money. He then convoked a general diet of the provinces 
 belonging to the Bohemian crown at Prague on the same pre- 
 text. This assembly also remained deaf to the sovereign's 
 proposals, and contented itself with taking vigorous measures 
 for the maintenance of the Chekh language as the official
 
 294 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 language of the kingdom, while, in order to avert the danger 
 to Slav nationality, threatened once more by German immi- 
 gration, it also decided that in future no one should be admitted 
 into Bohemia who could not speak Chekh. 
 
 Mathias, having no heir, proposed that the diet should 
 recognize his cousin, Ferdinand of Styria, as his successor on 
 the throne of Bohemia. He succeeded in having him crowned, 
 but not without some resistance, as it was well known that 
 Ferdinand was an enemy to the new forms of religion and a 
 bigoted supporter of Catholicism. 
 
 An apparently slight incident which occurred about this 
 time once more aroused the religious passions which were 
 only slumbering. On the strength of the letter of majesty the 
 Utraquists had built some churches on the abbey-lands of 
 Brevnov and in the archbishopric of Prague. The letter of 
 majesty had, however, only proclaimed tolerance within the 
 royal cities,^ and the abbot and archbishop consequently ordered 
 the churches to be closed, and appealed to the king. After 
 many discussions, the king decided that the church at Brevnov 
 should be shut up by the abbot, and one which had been built 
 in the German town of Klostergrab destroyed by the arch- 
 bishop (1618). But as soon as this news reached the De- 
 fenders of the Faith they convoked the Protestant assembly, 
 and that body proceeded to declare that the government had 
 violated the letter of majesty, and sent messengers to Vienna, 
 where the sovereign then was, to demand the restoration of 
 the churches. Mathias refused, and ordered the assembly to 
 dissolve. This excited their intense wrath, and, after some 
 hesitation, they determined to break with the king and to pro- 
 claim their independence in some startling fashion. On leaving 
 the country Mathias had appointed ten lieutenants to govern 
 it, and it was resolved that these ten lieutenants should be 
 hurled from the windows of the castle of Hradcany at Prague. 
 Popular anger had already chosen this method of punishing its 
 victims in earlier times and under other circumstances. The 
 ' See, however, S. R. Gardiner, History of England, vol. iii. pp. 264-266.
 
 THE DEFENESTRATION OF PRAGUE. 295 
 
 23rd of May was fixed for the revolt. The Protestant members 
 of the council of the wtw town, notwithstanding all the 
 efforts of the royal judge, remained in attendance on the 
 deliberations of the assembly. The leaders of the conspirators 
 were count Thurn, Schlick, and William of Lobkovice. They 
 arrived armed at the castle, where they found four of the royal 
 lieutenants, the grand burgrave, Adam of Sternberg, with his son- 
 in-law, Jaroslav of Martinice, burgrave of Karlstein, the chief 
 justice, William of Slavata, and the grand prior of the Knights 
 of Malta, Diepold of Lobkovice ; and with them was Fabricius, 
 the secretary, an obscure personage whom this day was to make 
 celebrated. The room, which is still shown in the castle of 
 Prague, was small, and but a small number of the conspirators 
 could get into it, but among them were Thurn, Schlick, 
 William of Lobkovice, Ulric Kinsky, and Paul of Rican. 
 They angrily questioned the lieutenants, and demanded whether 
 they had not prompted the threatening letter which the as- 
 sembly had received from Mathias. The lieutenants refused 
 to reply. Thurn insisted, and declared that he would not quit 
 the room until he had received an explanation. Schlick and 
 Lobkovice violently addressed the lieutenants : " You dogs 
 of Jesuits, you shall find out that you have not to deal with 
 women ! " All the conspirators were convinced that Martinice 
 and Slavata were mainly responsible for the imperial letter, and, 
 in spite of their protests, these men were declared enemies of 
 their country and pronounced outside the law. The con- 
 spirators then thrust Sternberg and Diepold of Lobkovice out 
 of the door, while the two other lieutenants were seized and 
 flung down from the windows of the castle. Philip Fabricius, 
 the secretary, who had hidden himself among those present, 
 shared the same fate. By a strange chance the three men 
 escaped the death that was meant for them. Although they 
 fell from a height of more than forty yards, they were not 
 hurt. The rubbish with which the ditch of the castle was filled 
 had broken their fall. Slavata alone was slightly injured. 
 They made their escape under a brisk fire from the guns, and
 
 296 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARY. 
 
 hid themselves in the house of a friend. The CathoUcs did 
 not fail to attribute their safety to a miracle. Fabricius 
 hastened to Vienna to carry the news of the catastrophe, and 
 there he was raised to the nobility as the reward of his fidelity, 
 and received the appropriate title of Hohenfall (Lord of the 
 High Fall). Martinice fled to Bavaria, and Slavata, later on, 
 succeeded in reaching Saxony. 
 
 Bohemia in Revolt (16 18) — The Thirty Directors. 
 
 The defenestration of Prague was the signal for a terrible 
 war. The assembly, immediately after their act of rebellion, 
 proceeded to form a provisional government, composed of 
 thirty directors. They then assembled an army, which they 
 placed under the supreme command of count Thurn, sent to 
 ask the German princes for their alliance, and banished from 
 the country the Jesuits, the archbishop, and the bishop of 
 Brevno. Taken by surprise by the revolt, the emperor at first 
 hesitated what step to take. His favourite, cardinal Khlesl, 
 advised moderation ; and Mathias was ready to listen to him, 
 as he was weakly and dreaded the war which his heir, the 
 impetuous Ferdinand, urged him to undertake. He first sent 
 an envoy to Prague in the hope of treating with the rebels ; 
 but this proved of no use, and in the mean time the latter 
 refused to allow the royal lieutenants to go out of their sight. 
 It was not an easy matter for Mathias at this moment to 
 collect an army against Bohemia. He was busied about the 
 recognition of Ferdinand as his successor ; the diet of Hungary 
 was anything but docile, and both Upper Austria and Moravia 
 would have nothing to do with raising troops against the 
 Chekhs. Meanwhile the Bohemians did not wait to be attacked, 
 but marched against the Catholic provinces who were faithful 
 to the dynasty, and besieged the town of Budejovice (Bud- 
 weiss). In order to force Mathias into action, his two brothers, 
 Ferdinand and Maximilian, at last seized cardinal Khlesl by 
 surprise and shut him up in the castle of Ambras in the Tyrol. 
 Deprived of his constant adviser, Mathias now allowed Ferdi-
 
 DEATH OF MATHIAS. 297 
 
 nand to manage his afifairs ; and an army of ten thousand men, 
 commanded by Henry of Dampierre, soon entered Bohemia. 
 Thurn was obliged to raise the siege of Budejovice ; but he 
 repulsed Dampierre in two engagements, one at Caslav, the 
 other at Lomnice, and obliged him to retreat into Austria. 
 The imperial army was soon reinforced by some Spanish troops, 
 led by the general, Charles Buquoi. But the Chekhs also 
 were by no means without allies. The whole of Protestant 
 Germany had been the enemy of Austria ever since the 
 Schmalcaldic War, and the revolt of Bohemia was the signal 
 for a European reaction against the excessive power of the 
 house which held Europe and the Reformation in check ; in 
 order to obtain universal sympathy, the kingdom had only to 
 declare its resolution never again to belong to the Habsburgs. 
 Charles Emanuel of Savoy and the princes of the Evangelical 
 Union furnished the Estates with an auxiliary force which was 
 paid for out of a common fund and led by Ernest of Mansfeld. 
 This general entered Bohemia and took possession of Plzen 
 (Pilsen), which remained, as it had always done, true to the 
 Catholic faith, and refused to recognize the authority of the 
 Estates. Mansfeld also defeated Buquoi, and obliged him to 
 shut himself up in Budejovice. 
 
 At the beginning of the winter, the elector of Saxony and 
 Sigismund, king of Poland, tried to act as mediators between 
 the emperor Mathias and Bohemia, and to this end a congress 
 met at Cheb (Eger), but it did nothing. The plenipotentiaries 
 of Bohemia insisted on the definite acceptance by Mathias of 
 the four articles which had been in dispute ever since his 
 accession, and before any decision was arrived at he died on 
 the 20th of March, 1619.
 
 CHAPTER XVII r. 
 
 BOHEMIA CONQUERED (1619-1740). 
 
 Ferdinand II. ( 1 6 1 9-1637). 
 
 Ferdinand showed more energy than his predecessor in the 
 prosecution of the struggle. He began his reign by a letter 
 addressed not to the Estates, but to the old royal lieutenants, 
 in which he announced to them that he should respect the 
 letter of majesty and those privileges which he had sworn to 
 observe at the time of his coronation, and promised to restore 
 peace and order to the kingdom. At the same time he offered 
 to conclude a truce with his revolted subjects. But the diet 
 refused his offers, and in the spring of 161 9 Henry of Thurn 
 entered Moravia. The greater part of the Estates of this 
 province, Catholic as well as Protestant, had refused to join 
 the Bohemian revolt. At their head was that Charles of 
 Zerotin of whom we have already heard as leader of the 
 Bohemian Brothers. He was both a lawyer and a soldier, and 
 possessed great influence. He had more than once been 
 the object of fanatical attack, and had suffered from cowardly 
 persecution ; but, in spite of this, he had set out for Prague 
 immediately after the defenestration in order to persuade the 
 revolutionists to follow the counsels of moderation and obedi- 
 ence, and although his brother-in-law, Albert of Wallenstein, 
 and one of his sons-in-law were among their number, he 
 remained faithful to the king. The arrivaLof Thurn in Moravia 
 provided the malcontents of that province with a leader, and
 
 ELECTION OF FREDERICK, ELECTOR-PALATINE 299 
 
 the Estates entered the confederation formed by Bohemia, 
 Silesia, and Lusatia, and joined the three provinces in con- 
 stituting a provisional government of twenty-four directors. 
 Then Thurn marched to Vienna, where the Protestants rose 
 and demanded the free exercise of their religion, but he was 
 recalled to Bohemia by the defeat of Mansfeld by Buquoi. 
 
 Bohemia could not remain without a king. In those 
 days no one thought it possible for a country to rule itself, and 
 the patriotism of the nobles was not sufficiently intelligent to 
 induce them to choose a king from among their countrymen. 
 There were three candidates for the throne : the young elector- 
 palatine, Frederick, who was chief of the German Evangelical 
 Union ; John George, elector of Saxony ; and Charles Em- 
 anuel, duke of Savoy. The general diet of all the Bohemian 
 territories summoned to Prague by the directors, elected 
 Frederick on the 26th of September, 1619; and the elector 
 of Saxony, in his vexation, immediately became reconciled to 
 Ferdinand, who had just been chosen emperor. 
 
 Frederick came to Prague, and, notwithstanding that he was 
 a Protestant, was crowned in the city of St. Vit by the Utra- 
 quist administrator, for the Chekhs cared at least as much for 
 their historical traditions as for their religious opinions. He 
 undertook to recognize the four articles which had been dis- 
 puted by Mathias, and which placed the sovereign completely 
 under the control of the Estates. Almost all the Catholics were 
 opposed to the election of Frederick, but his cause was mate- 
 rially assisted by the invasion of Hungary by Gabriel Bethlen, 
 as Buquoi was obliged to leave Bohemia to march against the 
 Transylvanian troops. Thurn pursued him as far as the Danube. 
 At a diet held at Pozsony (Pressburg), a treaty was concluded 
 between the Chekhs, Hungarians, and Transylvanians against 
 the house of Austria, the contracting parties even sending an 
 embassy to Constantinople to endeavour to arrive at an under- 
 standing with the Porte. In 1620, however, Bethlen made peace 
 with Ferdinand, and the emperor employed the winter season 
 in getting ready his army. Philip III., king of Spain, and the
 
 30O HISTORY OF A US TRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 pope both sent him troops, as also did the elector of Bavaria, 
 to whom he pledged Upper Austria, and the elector of Saxony, 
 to whom he promised both Upper and Lower Lusatia. Sigis- 
 mund of Poland also offered his help. The German Protes- 
 tant princes, who were desirous of helping Bohemia, could do 
 nothing, as they were paralyzed by the presence of the Spaniards, 
 who at that time had possession of the Low Countries. 
 Bohemia therefore found herself without allies, and, what was 
 still worse, the palatine Frederic proved himself quite unfit 
 for the position he held. He was a fanatical Calvinist, and 
 favoured the sect of Bohemian Brothers to the detriment of 
 the Lutherans, whose anger he excited ; he changed the 
 national cathedral of St. Vitus into a bare Protestant church, 
 and he irritated his best generals, Thurn and Mansfeld, by the 
 preference he showed for the foreign advisers whom he had 
 brought with him. Almost the whole of his army was composed 
 of mercenaries, and yet he was in constant need of money. 
 
 Battle of the White Moimtain (1620) — Political and Religious 
 Reaction (1620-1627). 
 
 In the spring of 1620 Frederick's army invaded Lower 
 Austria, but obtained no decisive victory. In vain did Gabriel 
 Bethlen renew his alliance with Bohemia ; in vain did Mehemet 
 Aga, the ambassador of the SubUme Porte, come to congratu- 
 late Frederick on the success he had obtained and promise him 
 help. Ferdinand and his allies acted with an energy which 
 destroyed every hope. Maximilian of Bavaria and Tilly 
 entered Upper Austria, the elector of Saxony Lusatia, while 
 the king of Poland's Cossacks made their way down to Lower 
 Austria; and it was not long before Maximilian and Buquoi 
 invaded Bohemia on the south with an army of fifty thousand 
 men. Bohemia had only twenty-five thousand. Krumlov, 
 Budejovice, Pisek, Strakonice, and Klatovy fell into the hands 
 of the imperialists. The Bohemian troops were obliged to fall 
 back, and entrenched themselves on the plateau of the White 
 Mountain (Bila-Hora, Weissenberg), to the west of Prague,
 
 BATTLE OF THE WHITE MOUNTAIN. 3OI 
 
 where they awaited attack. Here they were completely de- 
 feated and put to flight by the two invading armies, notwith- 
 standing the heroism of the Hungarian cavalry sent by Bethlen, 
 and the courage of the Moravians, who fought to the last. Ten 
 thousand corpses covered the field of battle, and the whole 
 Chekh camp fell into the hands of the enemy. When the 
 battle began, Frederick was quietly feasting in his palace ; 
 they brought him word that the battle had begun, but by the 
 time he had reached the gate of Prague he was met by the 
 ruins of his army rushing into the city (November 8, 1620). 
 
 But all hope was not yet lost. Prague might hold out ; 
 eight thousand Magyars, sent by Bethlen, had just reached the 
 frontier ; Moravia and Silesia were in arms ; Mansfeld was still 
 in possession of several strongly fortified towns, such as Plzen 
 and Tabor ; Lusatia alone had yielded, and was occupied by 
 the Saxon troops. But Frederick, considering his position 
 desperate, retired to Breslau, and the Estates, abandoned by 
 the monarch whom they had chosen, opened the gates of the 
 city and surrendered at discretion to the conqueror. 
 
 Ferdinand now entrusted Charles of Lichtenstein with the 
 government of Bohemia, while Buquoi pushed on to Moravia 
 to complete the submission of that province. The elector of 
 Saxony soon brought Silesia under control, and Frederick, who 
 had continued to exercise the last remains of his ephemeral 
 power in Breslau, was obliged to leave that city ; Mansfeld 
 also was forced to quit Bohemia, after having resisted for some 
 time in the western part of the kingdom. 
 
 As long as he was not quite sure of victory, Ferdinand had 
 exercised a prudent reserve, and had allowed no one to know 
 what were his intentions towards his revolted subjects ; but the 
 moment he felt himself complete master of the situation he set 
 no bounds to his vengeance. He gave orders for the arrest of 
 all the old offenders, the directors, and all those who, in what- 
 ever fashion, had taken part in the revolt. On the 20th of 
 February, 162 1, he threw into prison all who, trusting to the 
 royal mercy, had remained in the capital, and this was the
 
 302 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 signal for his vengeance to begin. The Calvinist preachers 
 and the Bohemian Brothers were banished from the kingdom, 
 a special tribunal was set up in Prague, presided over by the 
 prince of Lichtenstein, and after summary judgment pro- 
 nounced the executions began. 
 
 On the 2 1 St of June, 162 1, before the town-hall of the 
 Staremesto (Altstadt), seven and twenty of the principal leaders 
 were put to death. Among them were Andrew Schlick, Vacslav 
 of Budova, Harant of Polzice, and Jensenius, the rector of 
 Prague university, who had been condemned to be quartered, 
 but whose tongue only was cut out as an act of mercy. Some 
 had their heads cut off, some were hanged ; all died heroically, 
 confessing their faith. Their heads were exposed on a tower 
 on the bridge at Prague.^ This 21st of June was to Bohemia 
 what, later on, the bloody day of Eperjes was for Hungary. On 
 the day following were published the punishments decreed 
 against those who had not been condemned to death and 
 the torture ; these were flogging, banishment, imprisonment. 
 One of the accused, graciously reprieved, was only nailed by 
 the tongue to a beam till he died of his wounds. The goods 
 of all these men were confiscated to the king, his generals or 
 favourites, Spaniards, Italians, Walloons, and Germans. It was 
 at this time that a crowd of foreign families settled in Bohemia, 
 whose descendants may still be found in Austria or Bohemia — 
 CoUoredos, Piccolomini, Wallis, Gal las, Millesimos, Lichten- 
 stein s, Goltz, Trautmansdorfs, Villanis, Defours, Buquois, 
 Maradas, Huertas, and Vasquez. It was small wonder that 
 these intruders, enriched by the royal munificence at the 
 expense of the Chekh nation, showed little solicitude for the 
 rights of the people in the diets. The German historian, 
 Struve, has remarked with justice that, of all the nobles in the 
 world, these of the empire of Austria have the least right to 
 
 ' The following quatrain was made on this execution : — 
 " Septeni viginti procerum de gente bohema 
 Colla truci gladio denietit una dies. 
 Si cervix foret una tibi, gens czechica, credam 
 Uno momento demetet una dies."
 
 FERDINAND'S REVENGE. 303 
 
 be proud of their origin; and this is especially the case in 
 Bohemia. 
 
 Some portion of the confiscated property vras consecrated 
 to pious foundations in the archbishopric of Prague, and in 
 favour of the Jesuits, for whom the emperor had a special 
 liking. Father Carafa, one of their body, was entrusted with 
 the organization of the movement against the Reformation in 
 Bohemia. He has himself characterized the system he adopted 
 in this frank avowal : " It is now agreed that there is only one 
 means of enlightening the Bohemians and of bringing them 
 back into the right way, and that is persecution." The 
 members of the consistory of the Utraquist Church were all 
 banished. Every single person in the kingdom, except the 
 Catholics, had taken part in the revolt, so that terror reigned 
 over the whole land. On the 3rd of February, 1622, Ferdinand 
 proposed to put an end to this state of things by a mandate 
 which was called a general pardon, and which enables us to 
 take the measure of his mercy. This document says that all 
 those who had taken any part in the revolt had deserved to 
 lose both goods and life, but that the emperor, if they would 
 agree to confess their fault, would deign to grant to them their 
 lives, and would only confiscate their goods. This mock 
 amnesty was accepted by seven hundred and twenty-three 
 lords and knights, who found themselves, in consequence of 
 it, either half or wholly ruined. 
 
 But Ferdinand's great aim was the restoration of the 
 Catholic faith throughout the kingdom. To this end the 
 university of Prague was taken out of the hands of the 
 Utraquists and placed in those of the Jesuits, who now took 
 possession of the teaching throughout almost the whole land. 
 The elector of Saxony tried in vain to interfere in fovour of 
 his co-religionists, the Lutherans. In 1624, the Bohemian 
 Brothers were banished from the kingdom by an imperial 
 decree, which also ordained the restoration of Catholicism, 
 placing all the churches in the hands of Catholic priests, 
 many of whom had to be brought in from foreign lands,
 
 304 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 especially Poland. No possible means of reducing the people 
 to spiritual obedience were neglected : those who did not 
 profess the Catholic religion could exercise no civil rights 
 and were not even allowed to practise a trade ; those who 
 were refractory were denied even the rites of marriage and 
 burial ; those who neglected the observances of festivals, who 
 did not fast, or who did not attend Mass were punished by 
 fines. At the same time, the peasants were persecuted by 
 the new lords who owed their estates to the bounty of the 
 king, and who were glad to prove their gratitude by their zeal. 
 And even these measures were not enough. In Prague, it 
 was found necessary to banish the greater number of the 
 influential citizens, and, in the other royal towns, to place men 
 in the houses of suspected persons to see that they obeyed 
 the law. But the indomitable spirit of the Chekhs rose in 
 direct ratio with the persecutions, and we see, at Lysa, the 
 inhabitants burning their town and emigrating in a body rather 
 than yield. In the circles of Kourim and Hradec the peasants 
 took up arms and burned the castles ; troops had to be sent 
 against them, and order was established by means of executions 
 and torture. The detailed account of the horrible cruelties 
 then committed in the name of religion is one of the most 
 terrible pictures in the history of religion, and we can well 
 understand that a people that has gone through such an ordeal 
 can never forget it. 
 
 A reaction in politics followed on that in religion. Im- 
 mediately after his victory, Ferdinand sent for the original of 
 the royal charters of Rudolf and the letter of majesty ; these he 
 had cut to pieces and thrown into the fire. He was determined 
 that now that he had Bohemia in his power, the country should 
 be reduced once for all into servitude. On the 15th of March, 
 1627, he published a new constitution for the country, which 
 began by proclaiming the right of the house of Habsburg to 
 the hereditary possession of the Bohemian throne in either the 
 male or female line. To the three estates represented in the 
 diets up to this time (lords, knights, and citizens) the sovereign
 
 EMIGRATION OF PROTESTANTS. 305 
 
 now added a fourth, the clergy, which was to take rank above 
 the other three, and was to inckide the archbishop of Prague, 
 the primate of the kingdom, and all ecclesiastics who held 
 royal benefices. The diets were deprived of all legislative 
 power, which was reserved solely for the king. They were still 
 to have the right of consent to the various taxes, but were to 
 exact no conditions in return from the sovereign. They were 
 to deliberate on no matters except those submitted to them by 
 the king. The supreme tribunal was deprived of all legislative 
 power, and was to comply with the decisions of the executive ; 
 trials were to be held in secret, and German was to be the 
 language used equally with Chekh in the law courts and in all 
 public acts {tabulae regni). A few weeks after the publication 
 of this decree, a new order crowned the work of religious 
 unity. It granted six months' respite, in which all who had not 
 already accepted the State religion were to become converted. 
 
 The emperor came himself to Prague to watch over the 
 execution of his orders, to hold a diet according to the new 
 constitution, and to have his son, Ferdinand III., crowned. A 
 certain number of conversions took place, many of which were 
 not sincere, the pretended Catholics continuing to practise the 
 religion dear to their consciences in the secrecy of their own 
 fireside or in the shade of the forests. But a great number of 
 Chekhs left their country and sought liberty of conscience in 
 Protestant lands. It is beUeved that no less than thirty-six 
 thousand families emigrated and founded colonies at Dresden, 
 Pirna, and Meissen in Saxony, and at Leszno in Poland. 
 
 Among these emigrants were some who played a consider- 
 able part in the national literature ; as, for instance, the 
 historians Habernfeld and Paul Skala of Zhor ; Paul Stransky, 
 the author of' the "Respublica Bohema;" the theologian 
 George Holyk, who published "The Bloody Tears of Bo- 
 hemia" at Wittenberg; and the famous engraver Hollar, 
 whose works are still much sought after. 
 
 Moravia was treated with no less harshness than Bohemia. 
 Dietrichstein, who was appointed commissary-general of the 
 
 X
 
 306 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 province, began by recalling the Jesuits; the leaders of the 
 revolt were thrown into prison, and their possessions confis- 
 cated. It is believed that the gain of the Crown from these 
 confiscations was no less than five millions of florins. No 
 person not being a Catholic was allowed to hold landed 
 property. Considering the size of Moravia, emigrations from 
 that province were as numerous as from Bohemia. Among 
 these voluntary exiles we ought to mention the celebrated 
 teacher, John Amos Komensky (Comenius), who took refuge 
 first in Poland, then in Transylvania, and finally in Holland, 
 where he died (1670). His works, the " Orbis Pictus," "Janua 
 Linguarum Reserata," and " Didactica Magna," exercised con- 
 siderable influence on education, and are still looked upon 
 as classics. His countryman and protector, Charles of Zerotin, 
 was not more fortunate ; he had also to leave Moravia, and 
 took refuge in Silesia. Chekh literature was looked upon as 
 stained by heresy, and was mercilessly persecuted, Chekh 
 books and manuscripts being sought for even in private houses 
 and burned by zealous Catholics. It was Bohemia that gave 
 the signal for that Thirty Years' War which was to secure liberty 
 of conscience for the rest of Europe, but to Bohemia itself it 
 brought nothing but ruin. 
 
 The Thirty Years^ War — Wallenstein — The Swedes in 
 Bohemia (i 634-1 648). 
 
 Exhausted as she was by the harsh measures of Ferdinand II., 
 Bohemia was still called upon to furnish soldiers for the armies 
 of Wallenstein. This celebrated soldier of fortune was born in 
 the north of the kingdom, of parents who belonged to the 
 community of the Bohemian Brothers, but he had been early 
 left an orphan, and, educated by Jesuits, became a Catholic 
 whilst still a boy. His brother-in-law, Charles of Zerotin, 
 recommended him to the emperor Mathias, and his first 
 military experience was in the wars against the Turks and 
 against Venice. During the rebellion he remained faithful 
 to the emperor, took part in the battle of the White Mountain,
 
 THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 307 
 
 and also had a share in the defeat of Gabriel Bethlen. No one 
 profited more than he did by the ruin of Bohemia. In pay- 
 ment of certain debts which he had contracted in the service 
 of the emperor, he received the principality of Friedland, which 
 contained no less than nine towns and fifty-seven villages. To 
 these he added a large number of confiscated estates, which 
 he was able to buy cheaply ; and out of these new possessions 
 he made, with the emperor's sanction, what might almost 
 be described as a petty sovereignty, with the rights even of 
 administering justice and coining money. 
 
 When the king of Denmark came to the help of the 
 Protestants in Germany (1626-1629), \\'allenstein offered to 
 raise and maintain an army at his own expense for the service 
 of the emperor. He collected thirty thousand mercenaries, 
 with whom he invaded Germany, ravaging the whole district 
 through which he passed. In return for these services he 
 obtained from the emperor, first the duchy of Sagan (Zahan) 
 in Silesia, and next that of Mecklenburg, with the title of 
 General of the Baltic. Wallenstein inspired the Germans of 
 the seventeenth century with the same terror that they had 
 felt for Zizka and Procopius in the fifteenth, and even the 
 emperor's allies were terrified by his success and asked Ferdi- 
 nand to recall him. He returned to Prague, where he built 
 a magnificent palace for himself. At Jicin he entertained 
 a court as brilliant as that of a king, being waited on by 
 sixty pages, and going about with a body-guard. Men of 
 family even quitted the service of the emperor to enter his. 
 When the cause of Protestantism was taken up by the king 
 of Sweden, it was soon found that Germany had no general 
 able to cope with so formidable an adversary, and the emperor 
 was obliged to send for Wallenstein, who only consented to 
 take up arms on the distinct understanding that he was to 
 have the supreme command, both military and political. 
 Already the Saxons, who were the allies of Gustavus Adolphus, 
 had entered Bohemia (1631) and reached Prague. A large 
 number of Bohemian emigrants had returned with them, and
 
 308 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 these men drove the Jesuits out of the country, and prepared 
 to pay the last honours to the Protestant martyrs, whose heads 
 still remained exposed on the tower of the bridge of Prague ; 
 when they had done this, they meant to summon a synod of 
 the former representatives of the Evangelical Churches. But 
 Wallenstein, who had assembled his army at Znoimo (Znaim) 
 in Moravia, now in his turn entered Bohemia, drove out the 
 Saxons, and pursued the Swedes through Bavaria and Saxony, 
 till Gustavus Adolphus fell on the field of Liitzen, on the i6th 
 of November, 1632. Then Wallenstein returned to pass the 
 winter in Bohemia. Even while fighting the emperor's enemies 
 he had never ceased to negociate with them, and betrayed a 
 boundless ambition which aimed at territorial sovereignty in 
 Germany, and perhaps at the crown of Bohemia. The sus- 
 picions and fears of the court were at last excited. He tried 
 to clear himself, and retired to Cheb (Eger), where he was 
 assassinated on the 25th of February, 1634. 
 
 It is difficult to know how far he was guilty, or who gave 
 the order for his assassination. What is certain is that Ferdi- 
 nand, while he ordered three thousand masses to be said for 
 the repose of his soul, divided the greater part of his estates 
 among the men who had taken part in the plot against him — 
 Gordon, Butler, Gallas, CoUoredo, and the Piccolomini. 
 Wallenstein, whose tragic end forms the subject of one of 
 Schiller's plays, has left behind him a name which inspires 
 astonishment and contempt, rather than admiration ; his 
 countrymen curse his memory. 
 
 In the year of Wallenstein's death the Swedes were able 
 to reach the very walls of Prague (1634); but they did not 
 succeed in entering the city, and were soon obliged to leave 
 Bohemia. The elector of Saxony, Frederick, finally made 
 peace with the emperor, obtaining from him the province of 
 Eusatia, which he held as a fief of the crown of Bohemia ; 
 that is, in case of the extinction of the electoral family, the 
 province was to revert to the crown of St. Vacslav. It has 
 remained ever since a part of Saxony, and but few remains of
 
 FERDINAND III, 
 
 309 
 
 the old Slav population are now to be found in it ; even in 
 the sixteenth century they had already become very largely 
 Germanized. 
 
 In the reign of Ferdinand III. (1637-1657) the Swedes 
 returned to Bohemia under the leadership of Banner. This 
 general called himself the avenger of oppressed Protestantism 
 and treated the Catholics without mercy. He bombarded 
 Prague, without however succeeding in capturing it, and took, 
 burned, and pillaged by turns the towns of Nimburk, Podie- 
 brady, Hradec, and Caslav. The country was left to its fate by 
 the emperor, and suffered terribly from those who, twenty years 
 earlier, had been its allies, and who now remained for a whole 
 year in the land as its conquerors. The enemy carried off every- 
 thing that could be carried off, and sent their booty on boats 
 down the Vltava (Moldau) and the Elbe; remains of their spoils 
 are still to be found in Sweden. In 1640, the imperial army 
 returned, and with great difficulty forced Banner to retire ; but his 
 successor, Torstenson, soon brought the Swedish forces back into 
 Bohemian territory, seized Silesia and part of Moravia, and 
 ravaged the northern parts of the kingdom. He was recalled 
 by the war which broke out between the emperor and Den- 
 mark, and pursued by Gallas with the imperial army ; but Gallas 
 was defeated, and returned to Bohemia with only two thousand 
 men. After this, Ferdinand himself came to reside in Prague, 
 in order to organize the defence in person. 
 
 In the years 1645 and 1646, the kingdom was again invaded, 
 and the imperial forces were crushed by Torstenson in 1647, '^e^i' 
 the village of Jankov in the circle of Tabor. Wrangel, who 
 succeeded Torstenson, obtained possession of Cheb (Eger) and 
 marched into Upper Austria. In 164S, the Swedish general 
 Konigsmarck got into Prague itself by stratagem, but was 
 obliged to retreat before the desperate resistance of the inhabit- 
 a;nts. The city had to undergo yet another siege, but the 
 treaty of Westphalia (1648) saved it.
 
 3IO HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Decay of Bohemia in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth 
 Centuries. 
 
 No country suffered so cruelly as Bohemia from the Thirty 
 Years' War. That war left its towns and villages destroyed or 
 half ruined ; its people famished and wretched ; its trade gone ; 
 its land uncultivated. The kingdom, which before the war 
 had contained three millions of inhabitants — without including 
 Lusatia, Moravia, and Silesia — was now reduced to seven or 
 eight hundred thousand. 
 
 Deprived of its independence by the new constitution, and 
 left to the mercy of a rapacious aristocracy who were almost all 
 foreigners, it seemed as if the land had received its death-blow. 
 The sovereign resided entirely in Vienna, and the executive 
 power was exercised by high civil and judicial functionaries, 
 who formed a sort of council of regency ; but all legislative 
 power was in the hands of the king alone. The high chan- 
 cellor lived in Vienna; and the chancery of the kingdom of 
 St. Vacslav sank into the position of an executive department 
 subordinate to the royal council. The chief dignitaries of the 
 land were the president of the Court of Appeal and the chan- 
 cellor. The other functionaries had merely honorary titles, 
 with offices which were only filled on the occasion of a corona- 
 tion. The finances were in the hands of the Royal Chamber in 
 Vienna, and the army was taken completely out of the hands 
 of the Estates and became part of the imperial forces ; it is true 
 the royal cities retained their civic guard, but they were not a 
 military body. The country was still divided into circles, each 
 of which was governed by two captains, one chosen from 
 among the lords, the other from among the knights. The 
 towns had their burgomasters and their consuls, but they were 
 under the strict surveillance of the captains and royal judges, 
 and the peasants were serfs who were under the rule of the 
 lords. This was the only one of all their ancient privileges 
 which the nobles had been able to keep,- and it must not be 
 forgotten that most of the estates were now in the hands of
 
 THE CATHOLICS IN POWER. 3II 
 
 foreign adventurers, hostile to the Chekhs and devoted to the 
 sovereign whose creatures they were, and servitude under these 
 mercenaries was far harsher than it had ever been under the 
 native aristocracy. 
 
 We have seen by what means the country had been 
 restored to religious unity ; but some followers of the old sects 
 were to be found long afterwards, and down to the very end of 
 the eighteenth century the proscribed rites were secretly cele- 
 brated in rural districts. 
 
 " I remember," says the refugee Holyk, " that once, when 
 I was about seven years old, I went with my parents to a vast 
 and gloomy forest. I remember sitting in a cart under the 
 trees, which were covered with snow. Soon some hundreds of 
 the faithful joined us, and began to build themselves huts of 
 branches. Not far off a bell was hung between two trees ; that 
 was rung for divine service, and I still remember, as one 
 remembers a dream, hearing the preacher preach and seeing 
 the Communion administered to the crowd. . . . Watchful 
 sentinels were stationed at a corner of the wood, and then we 
 sang joyfully to the praise of the Lord. The Communion took 
 place after the sermon round the stump of a tree rudely 
 squared. Ah ! how sweet and sublime sounded those holy 
 hymns in the depths of the forest ! " 
 
 Two bishoprics, those of Litomerice and Hradec, were 
 added to that of Prague, that the maintenance of the CathoHc 
 faith might be well watched over ; but the most active agents 
 in Catholic restoration were the religious orders, and, among 
 them, more especially the Jesuits. Bohemia became one of 
 the provinces most under the influence of this celebrated 
 order. As missionaries and teachers they possessed them- 
 selves of all the pulpits and of public education, and they 
 made bitter war against heretical books and dogmas at the 
 same time that they encouraged superstition and pilgrimages. 
 It was at this date that the legend of St. John Nepomucenus, 
 the pretended martyr in the cause of auricular confession, was 
 invented \ it was intended to supplant the worship of Master
 
 312 HISTORY OF A USTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 John Hus, saint and martyr, in the minds of the new converts. 
 Other orders of monks, the Theatins, the Trinitarians, and the 
 Piaristes, settled in Bohemia at the beginning of the second 
 half of the seventeenth century, and no less than one hundred 
 and seventy-nine new convents were built At last the court 
 of Vienna took alarm at the rapid growth of the Jesuits, and, in 
 order to lessen their influence, obliged them to surrender to 
 the court the control of the two faculties of Law and Medicine. 
 
 The nationality of the Chekhs suffered seriously from all 
 these trials. The old inhabitants forsook many of the large 
 landed properties, and the new lords peopled them with German 
 colonists. These brought with them their language, which has 
 since remained the dominant tongue in the frontier lands to 
 the north and west. The real German invasion of Bohemia 
 may be considered to have begun at this time : Germans then 
 occupied, and have kept down to our own times, almost a third 
 of the whole kingdom, and their language, favoured by the 
 Government, became more and more that of the upper classes, 
 while the national literature was neglected. The greater part 
 of the works of old Bohemian literature was destroyed during 
 this period, either by the Jesuit missionaries or the Swedes — by 
 the former out of hatred of heresy, by the latter out of love of 
 pillage. But the new Catholic literature which they tried to 
 substitute had neither the vigour nor the originality of the old 
 writings. It was, however, tolerably extensive, and proves 
 the vitality of the national tongue, which flourishes more than 
 ever now in spite of all it has gone through. The religious 
 works published at this time serve to fill up the gap between 
 the brilliant Hussite times and the literary renaissance, which 
 was delayed till the end of the eighteenth century. 
 
 During this intermediate period, the history of Bohemia 
 presents but few points of interest ; she has no noisy diets at 
 Pozsony (Pressburg), no revolts among Transylvanians, like 
 Hungary. We need only mention one or two events. In 
 1680, an agrarian revolt broke out in the circle of Caslav. The 
 peasants took up arms, and sent delegates to Prague to complain
 
 JOSEPH I. AND THE GERMAN PRINCES. 3 1 3 
 
 to the government of the tyranny of their lords. They declared 
 that they were treated more harshly than if they were ruled by 
 Turks or Tartars, and begged for some alleviation to their 
 misery. The delegates were thrown into prison, and two 
 regiments were sent against the revolted peasants. Upon this 
 the insurrection broke out worse than ever in the circles of 
 Litomerice and Plzen, and it was only put down with great 
 difficulty and at the cost of some concessions, which, however, 
 were more apparent than real. In the war of the Spanish 
 succession, Joseph I,, as king of Bohemia, concluded a treaty 
 with the German princes by which he undertook to contribute 
 for Bohemia to the common expenses of the empire ; and in 
 return the princes guaranteed the integrity of his kingdom. 
 The crown of Bohemia, however, remained independent of the 
 empire. This treaty may be called the prologue to the one 
 which, later on, included Bohemia within the Germanic Con- 
 federation. It was concluded without any reference to the 
 opinion of the diet of the kingdom. Charles VI. paid more 
 attention to the Estates when he wished to secure . the crown 
 for his daughter, and laid the Pragmatic Sanction before them 
 for their approval. It was adopted on the i6th of October, 
 1720. He also appointed a permanent committee of the diet 
 in Bohemia, whose business it was to administer those current 
 affairs which fell within the competency of that assembly.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE DISMEMBERMENT OF HUNGARY (1526-1629). 
 
 Fcrdinajid I. and Szapolyai {1^26-1^^0) — The Ttcrks in 
 Hungary (i 529-1562). 
 
 The defeat at Mohacs left a clear field for Austrian ambition 
 in Hungary as well as in Bohemia. Many of the patriots, with 
 Verboczy at their head, believed that the right course was to 
 choose a national king, and, meeting in a diet at Tokaj, within 
 the estates of Verboczy, they proclaimed John Szapolyai 
 under the title of John I. The Szapolyais had already played 
 a prominent part in Hungarian history. It was Stephen 
 Szapolyai who captured Vienna in 1485, and who was after- 
 wards the lieutenant of Mathias Corvinus in Austria. His 
 court at Trenczin on the Vah had rivalled that of the king in 
 luxury, and in 15 12 his daughter Barbara had married 
 Sigismund, king of Poland. His son John was voievode of 
 Transylvania, and had rendered signal services to the Magyar 
 nobles in suppressing the peasant rising of the Kurucz. In 
 concert with Verboczy and the archbishop Bakracz, he had 
 practically governed the country as regent during the reign of 
 Louis. It has even been asserted that from that time forward 
 he aimed at the throne, and that he had not hastened to the 
 help of Louis because he wished for his defeat, knowing that 
 that would open the way to the object of his desires. How- 
 ever that may be, he was crowned in the month of November 
 by the bishop of Nitra in Szekes Fejervar (1526). In the
 
 SZAPOL YAI IN HUNGAR Y. 3 I 5 
 
 mean time another diet had been summoned to meet at Pozsony 
 (Pressburg) under the influence of Batory, the bitter enemy of 
 Szapolyai, and by it Ferdinand of Austria was proclaimed king. 
 Hungary therefore had two kings, but Ferdinand had the 
 advantage of having been crowned with the crown of St. 
 Stephen, for which the Magyar patriots have always felt a 
 superstitious reverence. 
 
 Szapolyai took every possible means to obtain his recogni- 
 tion by the European powers. The king of France, Francis 
 I., who was represented in Hungary by the able Rosconi, as 
 the enemy of the house of Austria was the natural ally of the 
 national king of Hungary ; and the Bavarian princes were 
 equally inclined to sympathize with him, out of dread of the 
 growing power of Ferdinand, who had just had himself crowned 
 at Prague. Cardinal Wolsey also received the ambassador of 
 Szapolyai most graciously. But these expressions of sympathy 
 were not supported by any real help, and the troops of 
 Ferdinand soon defeated those of Szapolyai and obliged him to 
 flee to Poland. A diet then met at Buda and declared him 
 and Verboczy enemies of their country. Szapolyai turned for 
 help to the side on which it might have seemed that Hungary 
 could least hope for it ; he sent his envoy Laszka to the 
 sultan Soliman at Constantinople. It is true that Francis I. had 
 set the example of such alliances, which were so httle to the 
 credit of Christian princes ; but France had never been sullied 
 by an Ottoman invasion. 
 
 Soliman promised to come to the help of Hungary, if the 
 claimant to the throne would acknowledge his suzerainty. He 
 deigned, according to his own expression, "to grant to Szapol- 
 yai a kingdom which belonged to the victor of Mohacs by all 
 the rights of war and the sword." At the same time Francis I. 
 signed a treaty granting to the king of Hungary an annual 
 subsidy of twenty thousand crowns, in return for an assurance 
 that Szapolyai, if he died without a male child, should be 
 succeeded by the young duke of Orleans. During these nego- 
 ciations the monk Martinuzzi, who belonged to the Croat
 
 3l6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 family of the Utiesenovic, and was prior of the famous Polish 
 sanctuary of Czenstochovva, traversed the whole of Hungary, 
 endeavouring in all possible ways to arouse the enmity of the 
 people against Austria, and to gain adherents for Szapolyai. 
 
 In the spring of 1529 Soliman entered Hungary, not this 
 time as a conqueror, but as its suzerain. Szapolyai met him 
 not far from Mohacs, and kissed the hand which had inflicted 
 such terrible disasters on his country. He allowed the Turks 
 to carry off the holy crown, the palladium of Hungarian 
 independence, and agreed that Turkish garrisons should be 
 placed in Buda and Gran. But the troops whom Soliman 
 brought to the help of Hungary ravaged the country almost as 
 badly as if it had belonged to an enemy and not to a vassal. 
 "The Magyars," says an Hungarian historian, "hardly knew 
 which to hate the most, the Austrians v/ho came to attack 
 them, or the Turks who came to defend them." Soliman 
 besieged Vienna unsuccessfully, and in 1531 a truce was 
 concluded between the two kings of Hungary. An Itahan 
 named Gritti, who had helped to secure the dangerous 
 guardianship of Soliman for Szapolyai, laid claim to consider- 
 able power in the government of the country, and made 
 himself detested by his insolence, his intrigues, and his cruelty. 
 His unpopularity was reflected upon Szapolyai, who, however, 
 believed himself unable to get on without this dangerous 
 supporter. At last the adventurer was assassinated by the 
 Hungarians, and a treaty between the two kings put an end 
 to a long period of disorder. By this treaty of Varad {1538) 
 Ferdinand and Charles V. recognized Szapolyai as king of 
 Hungary ; but on his death Ferdinand was to succeed, even 
 in case Szapolyai should have a male child. 
 
 He did have one, for shortly after the conclusion of the 
 treaty he married Isabel, the daughter of Sigismund and queen 
 Bona Sforza, and by her had a son, who was named John 
 Sigismund. Szapolyai died a few months after the child's 
 birth, in 1560. When he had disinherited his son from the 
 Hungarian crown he had stipulated that the house of Austria
 
 THE TURKS AS ALLIES. 317 
 
 should provide him with a principality. Perhaps he hoped 
 that the Magyars would violate the treaty he had concluded. 
 He appointed Martinuzzi Utiesenovic, better known to his 
 contemporaries by the name of Brother George, and Valentine 
 Torok head of the army, as guardians to his child, and 
 Verboczy continued to exert with the young queen dowager 
 the influence due to his ability and legislative skill. These 
 men found that the only way to make Hungary independent 
 of Austria was by an alliance with the Turks ; and Verboczy 
 decided on again asking the help of Soliman. Such an 
 opportunity for interfering in the affairs of Hungary was not 
 to be neglected by the Turkish sovereign ; he recognized the 
 son of Szapolyai as king and marched to his aid, Ferdinand, 
 who had found himself obliged to conquer his kingdom, had 
 laid siege to Buda, which was completely invested and on the 
 point of surrendering when Soliman arrived. The Austrians, 
 taken between two fires, were completely defeated, and their 
 general, Roggendorf, died of his wounds. 
 
 But the grand signior was determined to be well paid for 
 his assistance. He sent for the little king of Hungary, loaded 
 him with caresses, and bade his sons love him as if he were 
 their own brother. But meantime his troops took possession 
 of Buda, and Soliman declared, as soon as he was master of 
 the place, that he meant to occupy it, as John Sigismund was 
 not yet old enough to be able to defend it. He then assigned 
 him Transylvania as his place of residence, naming him 
 voievode of the province. It was in vain that the daughter 
 of the king of Poland, the widow of John Szapolyai, protested 
 against this humiliation ; she was obliged to submit, the young 
 prince took up his abode in the castle of Lippa, the monk 
 Martinuzzi going with him into banishment. " From this 
 time," says Sayous, " there were three Hungaries : Western 
 Hungary, ruled over by Ferdinand ; Central Hungary, occupied 
 by the Turks, and governed by a pacha at Buda; and Eastern 
 Hungary, which was formed by the semi-independent prin- 
 cipality of Transylvania."
 
 3 1 8 HISTOR Y OF A USTRO-HUNGAR Y. 
 
 The principal church in Buda was changed into a mosque, 
 and Verboczy had the humiliating honour of being appointed 
 supreme judge of the Christians in Buda, the subjects of the 
 grand signior. He died soon afterwards. 
 
 Martinuzzi — The Tiirkish rule. 
 
 Soliman's success was not only an act of defiance towards 
 Austria, but towards the peace and security of the whole 
 Christian world. Fully conscio-us of this, the German princes 
 offered their help to Ferdinand, and magnates of the highest 
 rank placed themselves at his service. Martinuzzi, who was 
 always hard at work endeavouring to keep the balance between 
 Germany and the Turks, between the interests of Hungaiy and 
 his own personal ambition, renewed the treaty of Varad (1541), 
 adding to it as one of its conditions that Ferdinand should 
 drive out the Turks. This was not, however, of much use. 
 A German expedition which was sent against them failed, and 
 it was in vain that the Magyar diet implored further help from 
 the German diet. Germany was at this time divided by the 
 struggles of the Catholics and Protestants, and had no time to 
 attend to the troubles of Hungary. Soliman proceeded to 
 take possession of Esztergom (Gran) and Szekes Fejervar 
 (Stuhl Weissenburg). The greater number of the Hungarians, 
 finding themselves treated with comparative gentleness by 
 their Mussulman conquerors, grew accustomed to their rule, 
 and Martinuzzi, " that evil-minded and unlucky monk," as 
 Ferdinand called him, once more entered into alliance with 
 Soliman. In the midst of all these disorders, Martinuzzi was 
 the real master of the country. His policy of maintaining a 
 balance of power between the three sovereigns, Ferdinand, 
 Szapolyai, and Soliman, is probably to be ascribed to his 
 Italian trainmg. At one time he oftered to give up Tran- 
 sylvania to Ferdinand, and so drew down on this unhappy 
 country a Turkish invasion ; then he turned against Austria ; 
 and finally he persuaded the queen-dowager to renounce the 
 crown in Ferdinand's favour, and to lay down the royal insignia
 
 TRANSYL VAN IAN AFFAIRS. 3 1 9 
 
 at the diet of Kolosvar (Klausenburg). But the Austrian king 
 could have but little confidence in a personage who knew how 
 to play so many parts at once. He sent the condottiero 
 Castaldo into Transylvania to keep watch over him, and with 
 Castaldo went some Italians who were not too scrupulous, and 
 who could be counted on in any dangerous enterprise. In the 
 midst of all his intrigues, Martinuzzi had managed to become 
 a cardinal of the Church of Rome ; but the purple could not 
 protect him against the dagger of these assassins, who surprised 
 him in the castle of Alvinz and murdered him, striking, it is 
 said, sixty-six blows. So ended this strange man, who has 
 been compared, not without reason, to Wallenstein. Rome 
 aimed its thunderbolts against the murderers who had put an 
 end to the life of a prince of the Church ; but Ferdinand, who 
 made no secret of his part in the " quick despatch of Brother 
 George," was able to obtain absolution for the murder from 
 pope JuUus III. (1551). 
 
 The death of Martinuzzi did not deliver Hungary from the 
 scourge of war. Temesvar fell into the hands of the Turks, in 
 spite of heroic efforts, and Eger (Erlau) defended itself in vain 
 with no less heroism. When the besieged city was summoned to 
 surrender, four pikes were fixed on the ramparts, and on them 
 was placed a bier hung with black, and this was the sole 
 answer to the summons. Four times the Turks assaulted the 
 brave city, whose women rivalled the men in courage ; more 
 than eight thousand perished beneath its walls (1552). 
 
 In the midst of all these misfortunes, Isabella Szapolyai, 
 hopeless of reconquering the whole of Hungary for her son, 
 determined at least to secure for him Transylvania. To this 
 end she sought the help of Henry II., king of France, and of 
 the sultan, both of whom were interested in holding the house 
 of Austria in check. Henry II., invoking the traditions of the 
 kings of France, " always ready to lend help and comfort to the 
 afflicted," showed himself in his despatches very ready to aid 
 the young prince, and in the year 1557 Christopher Batory 
 was sent to Paris, and received from Henry the promise of
 
 320 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 the hand of one of his daughters for John Sigismund. Isabella, 
 however, died in 1559, before she had succeeded in making 
 her son's position secure. 
 
 Meantime the situation of Hungary properly so called was 
 utterly deplorable. Ferdinand left all posts, such as that of 
 the palatine, which ought to have been entrusted to natives, 
 vacant, while he placed the government in the hands of 
 Germans, and gave all military commands to foreigners. In 
 1562, he was obliged to conclude a treaty with the Turks 
 which recognized their right to all their conquests and promised 
 them an annual present, which was really tribute in disguise. 
 He had, however, the satisfaction of seeing his son Maximilian 
 crowned king of Hungary at Pozsony in 1563. 
 
 Maximilian (15 64-1 5 76) continued his father's policy. The 
 only event of his time which may be mentioned with pride is 
 the siege of Sziget, whose heroic defence has immortalized 
 the name of Zrinyi. The peace signed by Soliman and Fer- 
 dinand had not been of long duration, and in 1566 Soliman 
 had attacked the town of Sziget, situated to the west of 
 Mohacs, to the north of the Drave. The Croat Zrinyi or 
 Zrinski, who had formerly been the ban of Croatia, commanded 
 the little town, which was surrounded by the waters of the 
 Almas as by a lake. But the garrison only numbered two 
 thousand five hundred men. After the outskirts had been 
 destroyed by fire, Zrinyi took refuge in the castle. The Turks 
 tried to force him to surrender, now by terror, threatening to 
 murder his son George, who was their prisoner ; now by the 
 most tempting promises. During the siege, Soliman died in a 
 fit of passion, but his vizir, Sokoli, hid his death from the 
 besiegers. Gradually the castle fell into ruins under the fire of 
 the artillery. Then Zrinyi clothed himself in his most magnifi- 
 cent garments and put gold into his pockets, **so that they 
 should find something on his corpse," and, at the head of the 
 soldiers who were left to him, dashed into the midst of the 
 Turks. He soon found the death he sought for. That of 
 Soliman was only made known to the troops when the town
 
 MAXIMILIAN II. 321 
 
 was in their hands. Sziget, whose tragic fate has been the 
 theme of both Slav and Magyar poetry, remained in the hands 
 of the Turks down to 1689, and MaximiUan also allowed them 
 to get possession of the town of Gyula, and concluded two 
 treaties with the new sultan, Selim, which once more recognized 
 the dismemberment of Hungary (1568). 
 
 The districts of Hungary which were under Ottoman rule 
 became almost as wretched as the Servian or Bulgarian 
 provinces. The orders of the pachas often began with these 
 words : " In the name of the Emperor, the All-powerful ! know 
 that if you disobey, the stake is ready and the faggots await 
 you." The towns which were occupied by the Turks were 
 covered with ruins ; the young Hungarians were carried off by 
 the Janissaries and forced to enter the armies of the grand 
 signior ; the taxes were heavy, sometimes heavier than could be 
 borne, and they were levied hap-hazard. For administrative 
 purposes the country was divided into twenty-five sandjaks, 
 which were afterwards formed into four eyalets, those of Buda, 
 Eger, Kanisza, and Temesvar. The autonomy of the comitats 
 was, however, respected, and in some matters, especially as 
 regarded religion, they enjoyed more liberty than did the 
 Austrian parts of the kingdom. 
 
 Maximilian recognized not only the authority of the Turks, 
 but also that of John Sigismund Szapolyai in Transylvania. 
 John Sigismund renounced the title of king and contented 
 himself with that of Most Serene Prince. He died in 1571, 
 and with him the dynasty of the Szapolyais came to an end. 
 The Transylvanian diet elected Stephen Batory to be his 
 successor. He managed to steer his way cleverly between 
 Vienna and Constantinople, and was at last summoned to 
 fill a still higher position. Poland had formerly given kings 
 to Hungary ; in Batory Transylvania gave to Poland one of 
 her most celebrated rulers (1575). The departure of the 
 French king, Henry of Valois, had left the throne of Poland 
 vacant. Maximilian II. and Batory both became candidates 
 for it, but Batory was elected, and the Poles consider his 
 
 Y
 
 322 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 reign as one of the most glorious in their history. He took 
 some Hungarians with him to his new kingdom, who im- 
 proved the army and especially the artillery. Maximilian 
 did not long survive his disappointment about Poland. He 
 had taken care to have his son Rudolf crowned at Pozsony 
 during his lifetime (1572). We have already elsewhere 
 praised the tolerant and liberal spirit of Maximilian, but he 
 was never popular in the kingdom which he proved himself 
 so incapable of defending, and the Magyars never forgave his 
 want of knowledge of their language. A conspiracy was at 
 one time formed to dethrone him ; it failed, but its authors 
 were only condemned to banishment. Compared with his 
 immediate successor, Maximilian was certainly one of the best 
 of the sovereigns who reigned over mutilated Hungary. 
 
 The Reformation in Hungary — Rudolf {x'-^'j 6-1612). 
 
 The condition of Austrian Hungary during this period was 
 scarcely better than that of Turkish Hungary. The whole 
 country was in a state of continual warfare, and, the national 
 militia being insufficient, the Austrian prince covered the whole 
 land with foreign troops, Germans, Italians, and Spaniards, who 
 were often as oppressive as any Turks. Each coviitat was 
 responsible for raising soldiers for the national defence, and we 
 have seen how these native troops, the Honveds, distinguished 
 themselves at the sieges of Eger and Sziget. 
 
 The most prominent event of the time is the spread of the 
 Reformation among the Magyars. Notwithstanding the political 
 antagonism which existed between Hungary and Bohemia, at 
 several periods Hussitism had penetrated into the land of 
 St. Stephen, and had prepared men's minds for new doctrines. 
 The causes which predisposed the Catholics to the Reforma- 
 tion were the same here as elsewhere. The ignorance of the 
 clergy was gross, and though the Hungarians, whose minds 
 were less original and less cultivated than those of the Bo- 
 hemians and Germans, had not sufficient, energy to produce 
 a reformation of themselves, they were sufficiently yielding and
 
 REFORMATION IN HUNGARY. 323 
 
 docile to accept it as soon as it reached the frontiers of their 
 kingdom. Besides, the German colonies of Transylvania 
 formed a sort of half-way ground between Germany and 
 Hungary ; and here we find the diet, as early as the beginning 
 of Louis's reign, a year before the battle of Mohacs (1525), 
 at the instance of the terrified clergy, condemning all heretics 
 to be burned. The partition of Hungary could not fail to 
 favour the spread of the new doctynes. The various masters 
 who divided the land amongsf them could not secure that 
 unity of action which renders persecution successful in its 
 struggle against heresy. Pastor Honter in Transylvania had 
 early helped on the work by schools and books, while in 
 Hungary itself, Devay, who had known Luther at Wittenburg, 
 was the first reformer. He translated the Epistles of St. Paul 
 into Magyar. Some of the nobles accepted the new doctrines, 
 and from the year 1548 the diets ceased to pass persecuting 
 laws. The Evangelical Church organized itself on the basis 
 of the Augsburg confession, without keeping strictly to it on 
 all points. But it was Calvinism which mostly took root in the 
 centre of Hungary along the valley of the Tisza (Theiss). A 
 proverb says, " Calvitiista hit, Magyar hit'" — "The Calvinistic 
 faith is the true Magyar faith ; " for the Lutheran doctrines 
 came from Germany, and, therefore, were suspected by patriots. 
 The new sect established itself at Debreczen, and its chief 
 was pastor Juhasz, who, according to a fashion of the time, 
 changed his name for the pseudo-Greek Melius (or shepherd). 
 He translated the Scriptures from the Greek and Hebrew, 
 composed hymns, and corresponded with Theodore Beza. In 
 1567, the Synod of Debreczen drew up the creed of the 
 Magyar Calvinistic Church in seventy-four articles. John Hus 
 had restored Chekh prose ; Luther, German prose ; and the 
 Hungarian reformers, Devay, Erdosi (Johannes Sylvester 
 Pannonicus), Caspar Heltai, and Karoly, rendered the same 
 service to their country. Protestantism became a new power 
 in Hungary, ready to confront the Catholic and Ultramontane 
 dynasty.
 
 324 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Rudolf II. (1576-161 2) did nothing to increase the popu- 
 larity of the house of Austria. At the beginning of his reign 
 (1582) the diet brought forward some of the grievances of the 
 countr\-. They demanded that he should pledge himself to 
 maintain their rights, and expressed a wish that the relations 
 with Turkey should be regulated by native ambassadors, and 
 not by Germans or Italians, who were strangers to the interests 
 of Hungary ; and Rudolf ^vas so much annoyed by this that 
 he left the country and never set foot in it again. 
 
 For four years Rudolf never once summoned the diet, and 
 all this time the office of palatine remained vacant. The 
 friend of occult arts and sciences, and steeped in the doctrines 
 of absolutism, he had no love for that uncivilized Hungary 
 which he found so independent, and never appealed to it 
 except for money. One of the Venetian ambassadors has 
 thus recorded his impression of the condition of the kingdom : 
 " The Hungarians detest the house of Austria : they consider 
 that they are not only subject to her, but that they are also 
 despised by her, as she governs them by means of the Germans, 
 who are her natural enemies." The wars with the Turks con- 
 tinued, and, in order to keep back the Mussulmans, the 
 emperor granted certain lands between the Unna and the 
 Kulpa to Servian colonists, on condition that they should 
 defend the frontier. These lands were lying waste — con- 
 temporaries call them desertu7n prinmni, desertum secundum 
 — they were thus repeopled by men who were both agricul- 
 turists and warriors, and this is the origin of the organization 
 of the " military frontiers," which was retained down to the 
 year 1881.^ 
 
 In 1577, the fortress of Karlovac (Karlstadt) was constructed 
 to defend Croatia from Mussulman invasions. In 1592, Hassan, 
 the pacha of Bosnia, was defeated under the walls of Sisek, 
 and, in 1595, the town of Esztergom (Gran) was captured by 
 the combined troops of the empire and Hungary. But these 
 successes were unfortunately balanced by the loss of Eger. 
 ' See Z^j Serbes de Hotigroie, by M. Picot.
 
 TREATY WITH THE TURKS. 325 
 
 This town had been impregnable when defended by native 
 soldiers, but now that it was garrisoned for the most part by 
 Walloon mercenaries, it capitulated. A few days after its fall, 
 a terrible battle took place at Mezo Kereztes in Transylvania, 
 between the army of Mahomet III. and that of the archduke 
 Maximilian, assisted by the troops of Sigismund Batory. Raab 
 (Gyor) was retaken by Adolphus of Schwarzenberg in 1597. 
 When the house of Austria had summoned Walloons and 
 Spaniards to its aid, the Turks had brought Tartars, and the 
 Magyar nation suffered equally from friends and foes. The 
 last event of any importance in this war was the check received 
 by the imperial army before Kanisza in 1601 ; the archduke 
 Ferdinand lost all his artillery under the walls of this town, 
 and a large number of his troops were taken prisoner and 
 beheaded. But the thirst for conquest among the Turks had 
 gradually diminished, and in 160 1 they themselves proposed 
 peace. The treaty of Sitvatorok shows clearly how weary they 
 were of fighting. They demand from the Christians neither 
 humiliating concessions nor any annual tribute ; they only 
 stipulate that they shall keep the lands they have conquered, 
 and from this time onward they turn all their attention to the 
 side of Transylvania. 
 
 Tlie Transylvanian Princes — Gabriel Bethlcn (161 3- 1629). 
 
 It was in this Eastern Hungary with its three languages 
 (Magyar, German, and Wallachian) that the destinies of the 
 fatherland and the great Magyar Orszag (country) were to be 
 decided. From 157 1 to 1575, the principality was ably governed 
 by Stephen Batory, but he prepared the way for serious religious 
 troubles by the introduction of the Jesuits. His successors 
 were Christopher Batory (1575-1581) and Sigismund Batory 
 (1581-1599). The latter, a feeble prince who was entirely under 
 the influence of the Jesuits, the fast friends of the emperor, con- 
 sented to cede Transylvania to Rudolf, in exchange for the 
 principalities of Oppol (Oppeln) and of Ratibor in Silesia
 
 326 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY, 
 
 (1597). He afterwards revoked this decision on the per- 
 suasion of his uncle, cardinal Andrew Batory, and had in 
 consequence to defend himself against both the imperial array 
 and that of Michael, voievode of Wallachia, who hoped to 
 obtain a grant of the principality from tlie Turks. Tired of 
 war, Sigisraund at last abdicated and retired to Prague, where 
 he died in 16 13. Transylvania was then invaded by the 
 imperialists, and was for a time really governed by general 
 Basta, whose rule is still remembered by the people as one 
 of terrible oppression, and the Protestants, whom the Mussul- 
 mans had left in peace, were systematically persecuted. The 
 exactions of the Austrians were such as to make men even 
 desire the return of the Turks. Such tyranny was sure to 
 excite a terrible reaction. The Transylvanians rose in revolt 
 together with the Magyars of Upper Hungary, who were ex- 
 asperated by the brutality of Belgiojoso, the imperial lieutenant. 
 All these foreign adventurers treated the kingdom like a con- 
 quered land, and made the Austrian dynasty detested. The 
 Transylvanians chose for their leader Stephen Bocskai, one 
 of the great nobles, who was full of daring and an able soldier, 
 and he was seconded by the youth Gabriel Bethlen. The 
 imperialists were defeated before Kasso (Kaschau), and that 
 town opened its gates to Bocskai. At the diet of Szerencs, 
 Bocskai was proclaimed prince or voievode of Transylvania. 
 The new voievode ruled the land from 1604 to 1606, and showed 
 himself as able as a diplomatist as he was skilful as a general. 
 He entered into negociations with the Turks, and secured the 
 alliance of the sultan, Achmet H., who even offered to recog- 
 nize him as king of the whole of Hungary. Bocskai had 
 sufficient prudence to decline this honour, and in 1606, by 
 the peace of Vienna, he obtained the recognition of his sove- 
 reignty, not only over Transylvania, but over part of Northern 
 Hungary ; if he died without heirs these provinces were to 
 return to the house of Austria. The peace of Vienna also 
 granted certain rights to Hungary, among them liberty of con- 
 science for the Protestants, and a stipulation that, in the
 
 GABRIEL £ A TORY. 327 
 
 absence of the king, an archduke should reside in the king- 
 dom ; it also promised that military posts and public offices 
 should be filled only by natives. 
 
 Of the three masters who then divided Hungary amongst 
 them, Bocskai was the most powerful. The kingdom of St. 
 Stephen, with Transylvania, Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia, 
 comprised 5163 square miles; of these Austria possessed 
 1222, the Porte 1859, and Bocskai 2082. 
 
 The treaty of Vienna was due to the efforts of the archduke 
 Mathias, who endeavoured with the whole force of his energy 
 to make up for the indolence of his brother Rudolf When 
 he became governor of Austrian Hungary he tried to put an 
 end to the discontent of the nation, but he had not succeeded 
 in reannexing Transylvania, when the sudden death of Bocskai 
 in 1606 left it without a ruler. The diet met at Kolosvar 
 (Klausenburg), and elected first Sigismund Rakoczy, and after- 
 wards, when Rakoczy voluntarily renounced the princely title, 
 Gabriel Batory (1608). 
 
 In the same year, Mathias obliged his brother to cede Austria 
 and Hungary to him, but the hopes which had been raised by 
 his efforts as archduke were not all fulfilled. He did, however, 
 give the kingdom once more its higfi officer, the palatine, and 
 undertook that this important post should never again be left 
 vacant; he also gave back the sacred crown, withdrew the 
 foreign garrisons, and granted liberty of conscience. In the 
 absence of the king, the royal authority was in the hands of 
 the palatine, the king's council, and a treasurer. These con- 
 cessions soothed the Hungarians, but they could not make 
 them forget all their other grievances. Henry IV. of France 
 recognized the existence of these grievances, and in the political 
 plans he had formed, and which death prevented him from 
 carrying into execution, Hungary had its place. According to 
 Sully, he wished "that the Hungarians should have their old 
 franchises restored to them, the right of themselves electing 
 their prince, or of choosing any other form or mode of govern- 
 ment which they should judge convenient."
 
 328 HISTORY OF AUSTRIA HUNGARY. 
 
 After the coronation of Mathias, the Protestant Thurzo was 
 elected palatine. This election was a great triumph for re- 
 ligious toleration, but it was extremely difficult to maintain 
 such toleration in the face of the traditions, and in opposition 
 to the usual advisers of the house of Austria. There were 
 besides many decided opponents of the Reformation among 
 the Hungarians themselves, and at their head cardinal Paz- 
 many, a fiery prelate, clever and eloquent, who had been edu- 
 cated by the Jesuits, and who succeeded in restoring to the 
 Catholic Church some of the highest families in the kingdom. 
 For one moment, after the tragic death of the voievode 
 Batory, whose violence had provoked the intervention of 
 Austria, Mathias may have hoped to reconquer Transylvania 
 (1613); but the Transylvanians cared almost more for liberty 
 of conscience than for political independence, and they pro- 
 ceeded to elect Gabriel Bethlen, the Protestant (1613-1629).! 
 This enlightened prince was able to restore toleration in re- 
 ligious matters, discipline in the army, and order in the govern- 
 ment of the country. He has been compared, with reason, to 
 Mathias Corvinus. Like that great king, he cared for art, and 
 was himself a well-educated man. He constantly endeavoured 
 to hold the balance even between the Protestants and Catholics, 
 as well as between the Austrians and the Turks, When Fer- 
 dinand II, ascended the throne (1619-1637), and the Thirty 
 Years' War broke out, Bethlen understood how seriously Pro- 
 testant interests were threatened, and how possible it was that 
 the blow which was aimed at Bohemia might reach the Magyar 
 nation. The emperor first tried to secure the voievode's neu- 
 trality by sending to him Nicholas Esterhazy, one of the 
 ablest diplomatists and best patriots of Austrian Hungary, 
 Esterhazy was one of those who, like Francis Deak in later 
 times, frankly accepted the Habsburg dynasty, and only asked 
 that, in return for loyal obedience, it should respect the wishes 
 
 ' Also known by the name of Bethlen Gabor. Gabor is the Magyar 
 form of Gabriel. The Hungarians place the baptismal name after the 
 surname.
 
 GABRIEL BETHLEN. 329 
 
 of the nation. A sincere but liberal-minded Catholic, he may- 
 be said to have stood half-way between Cardinal Pazmany and 
 the Protestant Bethlen. Gabriel hesitated for some time, but 
 finally decided to take the side of Bohemia. He published a 
 manifesto, entitled the " Complaint of Hungary," which he 
 sent all over the country, and then convoked a general diet of 
 all the comitats. This assembly met at Kasso, and named 
 him governor and George Rakoczy captain-general, placing 
 the latter at the head of all the comitats. Bethlen sent a 
 body of ten thousand auxilliaries to count Thurn, and the 
 diet, which met under his protection at Pozsony, decided to 
 go to the help of Bohemia. On the 25th of August, 1620, 
 about the same time that Bohemia was choosing the elector 
 palatine for her king, this diet proclaimed Bethlen king of 
 Hungary. But, unfortunately, neither France nor Poland was 
 ready to come forward to the help of the new sovereign, and 
 even the Turks seemed no longer to interest themselves in 
 Hungarian affairs. The defeat of the Chekhs at the White 
 Mountain destroyed the hopes of Transylvania, and Bethlen 
 was obliged to come to terms with Ferdinand. By the peace 
 of Nikolsburg, he renounced the crown of Hungary ; but he 
 kept, together with Transylvania, the government of the seven 
 northern comitats, Abauj, Bereg, Zemplitt, Borsod, Szabolcs, 
 Ugocsa, and Szatmar, the fortified towns of Kasso, Munkacs, 
 and Tokaj, and the duchies of Oppeln and Ratibor. Besides 
 this, he received the title of prince of the empire, and an 
 annual subsidy of fifty thousand florins. 
 
 But this treaty was only temporary, for Bethlen was de- 
 termined not to remain long in the position thus assigned to 
 him. Pie hoped to be able to find allies somewhere, and 
 entered into negociations with Holland, Englaad, and Venice, 
 through their ambassadors at Constantinople. At the same 
 time he strengthened his connection with Northern Germany, 
 and married the princess Catherine of Brandenburg. He had 
 a large number of diplomatists at work under his orders, and 
 from 1623 to 1629 he was negociating with the French am*
 
 330 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 bassador at Constantinople, M. de Cesy, who encouraged him 
 to march against Austria. But all his efforts, even an attempted 
 campaign against Wallenstein, came to nothing, and Bethlen 
 died in 1629, without having succeeded in altering any of the 
 stipulations of the peace of Nikolsburg.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 HUNGARY IN REVOLT AND HUNGARY RECONCILED 
 (1629-1740). 
 
 The Rakoczy Family in Transylvania — Leopold I. in Hungary 
 (1629-1705). 
 
 George Rakoczy was chosen to succeed Bethlen, notwith- 
 standing that the claims of the princess-dowager, Catherine of 
 Brandenburg, were supported by the courts of France, Holland, 
 Sweden, and Brandenburg. During the Swedish period of the 
 Thirty Years' War, Transylvania was at peace, for the policy 
 of George Rakoczy was pacific. In the kingdom of Hungary 
 the palatine Esterhazy endeavoured to maintain public liberty 
 against the encroachments of the sovereign, but he was unable 
 to prevent the establishment of the Jesuits in the kingdom by 
 cardinal Pazmany. They founded a university at Trnava 
 (Tyrnau, Nagy Szombat), and made themselves the educators 
 of the young Magyar Catholics. In 1637, Ferdinand II. was 
 succeeded by Ferdinand III. In his reign, the discontent of 
 the Hungarian Protestants was increased by the constant 
 violations of the treaty of Vienna. George Rakozcy believed 
 that the time for a successful attack on Austria had come, and 
 in spite of the entreaties of Esterhazy, who implored him not 
 to weaken the power of Hungary, which was all needed for 
 resistance against the Turks, he entered into negociations with 
 France and Sweden. He received from them the promise of a 
 subsidy of one hundred thousand crowns a year, and religious
 
 332 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 liberty and political independence for Hungary and Transyl- 
 vania, as the price of his co-operation. He began hostilities in 
 1644, took Kasso, and advanced as far as Eperijes, where he 
 issued a proclamation calling on all the Hungarians to join 
 him. But here he was stopped by the imperial troops, and 
 forced to fall back on his own dominions. When the nego- 
 ciations which preceded the peace of Westphalia began, he was 
 not forgotten, and the French diplomatists offered to represent 
 his interests. He would not, however, wait for the conclusion 
 of the peace, but signed a treaty on his own account, by which 
 the emperor ceded to him the northern comitais, which Gabriel 
 Bethlen had already possessed, and the fortresses of Tokaj and 
 Regetz (peace of Linz, 1645). 
 
 Transylvania was prosperous under this prince, who 
 introduced the reformed religion into his court and army. He 
 was succeeded by his son, George Rakoczy II. (i 648-1 660), 
 whose ambition seriously compromised the fate of the princi- 
 pality. He hoped that Sweden would help him, as it had 
 helped his predecessor, Batory, to obtain the throne of Poland. 
 But the Porte was not prepared to allow so powerful a state to 
 be formed on its frontiers, and the only result was a series of 
 wars and invasions, in which Transylvania was cruelly ravaged 
 and George lost his life (1660). He was succeeded by John 
 Kemenyi, one of his principal Heutenants and one of the best 
 writers of his day, who tried with the help of the emperor to 
 drive back the Turks. He also was killed (1662), and the 
 Transylvanians, quite as much alarmed by the imperial alliance 
 as by the ravages of the Mussulmans, on his death accepted 
 a voievode imposed upon them by the Porte, Michael Apafy, 
 who ruled from 1662 to 1689. 
 
 The reign of Leopold I. (1657-1705) was a most disastrous 
 reign for Hungary. On the coronation of this prince, the diet 
 had insisted that the office of palatine should be restored, 
 and all foreign troops should be banished from the kingdom ; 
 the Protestants had also demanded that they should have that 
 liberty of conscience which had been so often violated. For
 
 LEOPOLD /. IN HUNGARY. 333 
 
 a short time in 1664 the invasion by the Turks under the grand 
 vizir Kiuprili united all the forces of the empire and the 
 kingdom. The imperial army was commanded by the 
 celebrated Montecuculli, the worthy adversary of Turenne, and 
 the Hungarians by Zrinyi, a descendant of the hero of Szigeth. 
 Zrinyi performed prodigies of knightly valour, while Monte- 
 cuculli was an able representative of that school of great 
 tacticians which was formed by the Thirty Years' War. The 
 battle of St. Gothard, which is called by the Magyars the battle 
 of Kormend, took place on the ist of August, 1664, on 
 Hungarian soil, and the Turks, to the great joy of Christendom, 
 suffered a terrible defeat. The French auxiliaries, under La 
 Feuillade and Coligny, distinguished themselves greatly in the 
 fight. But this victory brought but little profit to Hungary, as 
 the peace which was concluded almost immediately after it at 
 Vasvar did not free the least particle of Magyar soil. Indeed, 
 the Turks obtained possession of several fresh fortresses, among 
 them Nagy Vaxad (Great Varadin) ; and it seemed as if the 
 treaty had been drawn up in the interests of Austria and Turkey, 
 at the expense of those of Hungary. A truce for twenty years 
 was agreed upon. 
 
 The emperor Leopold was inspired by a double fanaticism 
 for an intolerant creed and for absolute power. Led by the 
 Jesuits, he had determined to destroy at one and the same time 
 the reformed religion and the liberties of the kingdom. He 
 first of all tried to suppress the diet, and to substitute for it an 
 assembly of the great lords and prelates at Vienna ; but even 
 among these men he discovered a spirit of independence which 
 thwarted his plans. Can it be true that he one day pronounced 
 the dreadful words, " Faciam Hungariam captivam, postea 
 mendicarn, deinde catholicam " ? Such historical sayings are 
 always to be distrusted, but it is quite certain that the men 
 who surrounded Leopold never disguised their hatred of the 
 nation which so obstinately refused to yield. " Gens dura et 
 pervicax, non nisi atrocibus suppliciis, et quae alibi saeva 
 viderentur, coerceretur,'' wrote the Jesuit Wagner, the historian
 
 334 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 of Leopold the Great. Against this double tyranny Hungary 
 could only hope for help in the support of foreign lands. As 
 early as 1665, Francis Frankopan, a Croat magnate who was 
 allied to the illustrious family of Zrinyi, addressed a memorial 
 to the prince elector of Maintz, in which he said, " The 
 kingdom of Hungary has reached such a state of ruin and 
 misery, that if God does not incite Christian princes to defend 
 it, all is over with this bulwark of Christendom and of all 
 lands. . . . The upper comitats of Hungary have fallen into 
 such a depth of despair that they see no means of safety except 
 in placing themselves under the protection of the Turks. . . . 
 The Hungarians, from national antipathy, have a horror of 
 Turkish rule. . . . And yet extreme necessity has now reduced 
 them to thoughts like these." Peter Vesselenyi, Peter Zrinyi, 
 the brother of the general, Nadasdy, and Frankopan put 
 themselves in communication with the French ambassador 
 Gremonville at Vienna, but Louis XIV. cared too much for 
 the rights of princes to support revolt. Apafy remained 
 indifferent; but Zrinyi and Frankopan tried to stir up Hungary, 
 and succeeded in gathering some troops together. They were 
 soon, however, induced to lay down their arms on the promise 
 of a full and complete amnesty. Arrested together with their 
 accomplice Nadasdy, they were thrown into prison, and then, 
 contrary to the law, were tried outside Hungarian territory, 
 Nadasdy at Vienna, Zrinyi and Frankopan at Wiener-Neustadt, 
 and were condemned to death, the emperor, " out of his royal 
 grace and favour," sparing them the cutting off of the right 
 hand (April 30, 1671). 
 
 The execution of the three counts was the signal for 
 atrocious persecutions of both patriots and Protestants. 
 Caspar Ampringen, a German, was made supreme commander 
 of the country and invested with special powers. The primate 
 Szelpcsenyi, who cared more for Catholicism than for his 
 country, set to work to prosecute the Protestants, many of 
 whom were sent into exile, condemned to hard labour, or sold 
 to the viceroy of Naples to row in his galleys. But the Magyar
 
 EMERICH TOKO LI. 335 
 
 spirit of independence was not crushed by all this severity ; 
 tlie Kurucz were heard of again, and Louis XIV., who was at 
 war with Austria, at last decided to help the malcontents, and 
 sent them men and money through the French ambassador in 
 Poland. Emerich Tokoli was the formidable leader of the 
 insurrection. He was the son of that Count TokdU who had 
 been the friend of the three counts beheaded in 167 1, had 
 taken part in their enterprise, and had been killed in battle. 
 Emerich Tokoli had married brave Helen Zrinyi, the widow of 
 (ieorge Rakoczy H. ; his banner bore the motto ^'' Pro arts et 
 focis ; " he coined money bearing his own effigy and ruled with 
 real sovereign power. He succeeded in getting together an 
 army which vigorously pushed its way into Moravia. Meantime 
 the primate Szelpcsenyi had tried to bring about a peace at 
 tlie diet of Pozsony in i68r, and had secured the nomination 
 of a palatine and the restoration of the constitution. But 
 Tokoli was not satisfied with these concessions ; his aim was 
 to become the sovereign of an independent Hungary. 
 
 He hoped to find allies among the Turks, vvho were at this 
 time marching against Vienna, and with this end in view went 
 to meet the grand vizir, Kara Mustapha. He invested Pozsony 
 while the Turks besieged the Austrian capital. But the defeat 
 of the Turks by Sobieski was also a defeat for him whom they 
 called the king of the Kurucz, and after it he found himself 
 reduced to guerilla warfare. The victory over the Turks was 
 followed by the capture of some of the chief Magyar towns, 
 the imperial army entering Hungary and gaining possession of 
 Ksztergom, Visegrad, Eperjes, Pecs, Szegedin, and in the end 
 Buda itself, which was at last recovered after so long an 
 occupation. The Turks were pursued as far as Mohacs and 
 there atoned by the loss of twenty thousand men for their 
 former victory on this plain. Kara Mustapha attributed his 
 defeat to Tokoli, and had his former ally arrested and imprisoned 
 in Belgrade. His captivity put an end to the party of the 
 king of the Kurucz ; his followers dispersed, and the towns 
 which they had held surrendered. Only the fortress of
 
 336 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Munkacs held out, defended by brave Helen Zrinyi, the wife 
 of Tokoli, whose heroism is often sung by Transylvanian 
 poets. 
 
 The insurrection at an end, and Hungary in a great degree 
 reconquered, it might have seemed as if mercy were the first 
 duty of the conqueror. But Leopold and his lieutenants were 
 not of this opinion. An amnesty was proclaimed and 
 immediately afterwards violated, the Italian general, Caraffa, 
 becoming the merciless executioner of imperial vengeance. 
 He established a court at Eperjes, and the horrors of this 
 tribunal recall the most atrocious deeds of the Spaniards in the 
 Low Countries. For thirty consecutive days, thirty executioners 
 exposed their victims, innocent as well as guilty, to the most 
 refined tortures and the most terrible forms of death. The 
 Butchery of Eperjes, as it is called, is the saddest of all the sad 
 events in Hungarian history. The emperor Leopold pretended 
 that he had nothing to do with these horrors, and that they had 
 taken place without his knowledge. 
 
 After having terrorized Hungary, Leopold thought he had 
 the right to expect every sort of concession. Notwithstanding 
 persecution, up to this date the monarchy had remained 
 elective. He was determined it should now become heredi- 
 tary; and the diet of 1687, in conformity with the wishes of 
 the sovereign, made the crown hereditary in the male line of 
 the house of Habsburg. The mode of procedure had been the 
 same in both Hungary and Bohemia ; first executions, and then 
 the nominally free consent of the country to changes in the 
 law of the land. The king was to swear to maintain the funda- 
 mental laws of the land ; but article 31 of the Golden Bull, or 
 the constitution of Andrew IL, was abolished: it was the one 
 which proclaimed the right of insurrection. When granting 
 these concessions, the diet stipulated that executions should 
 come to an end, and prisoners be set at liberty, and a general 
 amnesty was in consequence proclaimed. Tokoli had already 
 taken refuge at Nikomedia, in Asia; the -fortress of Munkacs 
 w^as surrendered by Helen Zrinyi.
 
 PEACE WITH TURKEY. 33/ 
 
 Expulsion of the Turks. 
 
 It now seemed as if Austria wished to recompense Hungary 
 ior her more or less voluntary submission by fighting her battles 
 against the Turks. Louis of Baden first led his troops against 
 them to the south of the Danube, and then, returning within 
 the boundary of the kingdom, won the battle of Slan Kamen 
 on the delta between the Danube and the Save (1691). The 
 Turks, however, with the help of Tokoli, who had returned to 
 Transylvania, were able to hold their own until prince Eugene 
 of Savo}^, their most formidable adversary, appeared upon the 
 scene. Eugene had been placed in command of an army for 
 the first time, and was in the neighbourhood of Szegedin, in 
 Higher Hungary (1691), when he heard of the approach of the 
 Turks by way of the valley of the Tisza. He immediately 
 threw a bridge across this river at Zenta, and had made prepara- 
 tions to attack the enemy, when he received orders from the 
 emperor by courier, forbidding him to fight. He believed, 
 however, that the position of the two armies was such as to 
 justify disobedience, and his audacity was crowned with 
 victory. More than ten thousand Turks were slain, great 
 numbers of them being thrown into the Tisza ; the sultan fled 
 to Temesvar, and thence to Constantinople (1697). Winter 
 prevented prince Eugene from following up his advantages, 
 and the emperor, who was busy about the succession to the 
 throne of Spain, granted the request of the Turks for peace. 
 A treaty was signed at Karlovci (Karlowitz), by which the 
 sultan was bound not to grant any help to the Hungarian 
 malcontents, and to abandon all claim to Transylvania. Of 
 all her old possessions in Hungary, Turkey was only allowed 
 to keep a small territory between the Theiss and the Maros. 
 A special clause in this treaty of Karlovci stipulated for the 
 maintenance of the tomb of a Mussulman monk, Gul Baba, 
 " the father of roses," at Buda, and this tomb exists in our 
 day, and is still the object of pious pilgrimages to the Turks. 
 
 z
 
 338 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Latter])' the Hungarians have kept it in repair at their own 
 expense, in order to prove their sympathy with Turkey. 
 
 In its struggles against Turkey the house of Austria had 
 found most valuable allies in the Servians, who had emigrated 
 in large numbers from Turkey into Hungary, Their chief, 
 Brankovic, had lent his assistance to the imperial army; but he 
 was afterwards suspected of treachery, perhaps on account of 
 his popularity with the Servians of the south, and was arrested 
 and thrown into prison at Eger, where he died in 17 ii. 
 
 In the month of April, 1690, Leopold laid claim to Bosnia 
 and Bulgaria on behalf of Hungary, and called upon the Slavs 
 in Turkey to take up arms. Later on, he invited the Servian 
 patriarch of Pec (Ypek) to settle with his Servians in his 
 dominions, promising them the free exercise of their religion 
 and a separate government. In i6gi, the patriarch Arsenius 
 Tsernoievitch (Cernojevic) accepted this offer, and from 
 thirty-five to forty thousand families were settled on the banks 
 of the Maros, in Sirmia, in Slavonia, in the district of Backa, 
 and even in the outskirts of Buda ; and these colonists, owing 
 to their special privileges, formed a distinct nation. The 
 soldiers which they furnished to Leopold and his successors 
 rendered great services in the wars against the Turks and 
 Hungarians. 
 
 The descendants of these Servian emigrants are still to be 
 found in the south of Hungary, where their influence is con- 
 siderable. The Magyars called them Rascians, from the name 
 of the old town of Rasa, which used formerly to stand on the 
 spot now occupied by Novi Bazar. 
 
 Francis Rakoczy (1700-1711). 
 
 After the departure of Tokoli, Transylvania had become an 
 Austrian province, and during the campaigns against the Turks 
 Austrian generals had garrisoned most of the Transylvanian 
 towns. The young prince, Michael Apafy, had been taken 
 to Vienna to be educated, and the principality was governed 
 by imperial lieutenants. The treaty of Karlovci in 1699
 
 ANNEXATION OF TRANSYLVANIA. 339 
 
 obtained the recognition of this new state of things from the 
 whole of Europe, and the same year, by a special charter, 
 the rights and privileges of the principality were recognized by 
 Leopold, and the free exercise of the Protestant and Orthodox 
 religions, which were practised by some of its inhabitants, was 
 granted to them. But the Transylvanian nobles were not 
 prepared to accept at once an annexation which, while uniting 
 the province once more to the mother-country, also subjected 
 it to a brutal soldiery and a harassing administration. 
 
 The malcontents soon found a leader in the person of 
 Francis Rakoczy (1706-17 11), who brought with him to their 
 cause a heritage of heroic traditions and hereditary hatreds. 
 His mother was the daughter of that count Zrinyi who had 
 perished on the scaffold, and the widow of Francis Rakoczy 
 and of Tokoli. His father, Francis Rakoczy, had taken part 
 in the conspiracy of the three counts, but, more fortunate than 
 they, had escaped the scaffold. At the age of twelve, Francis 
 Rakoczy had been taken to Vienna to be educated in the 
 Catholic faith, and it was intended he should become a priest. 
 But he obtained permission to return to Hungary and to travel, 
 and when still very young he married a princess of Hesse- 
 Rheinsfeld, whose manly courage harmonized well with his own 
 adventurous disposition. To great bodily vigour Rakoczy 
 joined rare moral energy and extraordinary ambition. His 
 first conspiracy failed, and he was seized and thrown into the 
 prison of Neustadt, but he managed to escape and took refuge 
 in Poland. There, while the emperor confiscated his property 
 and put a price upon his head, he entered into relations with 
 the French embassy, and obtained some help in money from 
 France. He returned to Hungary in 1703, when a revolt of 
 the peasants broke out in the districts round Munkacs. A 
 state of great irritation existed at the time throughout the 
 whole kingdom. The efforts of the court of Vienna to destroy 
 Hungarian liberty had continued without a pause, and quite 
 recently the emperor Leopold had summoned a meeting of 
 the great nobles and prelates, at which he had brought forward
 
 340 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 a scheme for suppressing part of the Hungarian nobility, that 
 petite noblesse which had alwa3'S taken so active a share in 
 the pubUc affairs of the coinitats. Besides this, a large number 
 of families were indignant at certain clauses of the treaty of 
 Karlovci, which forbade the return to Hungary of those who 
 had emigrated into Turkey during the late revolts. The 
 insurrection of 1703 was not only a rising among the Kurucz ; 
 members of some of the highest families, and even some 
 Catholics, took the side of the revolted peasants. In the 
 beginning of 1704, the insurrection, spreading from Tran- 
 sylvania, had crossed the Vah, and even made some progress 
 in the neighbourhood of Vienna. At this moment began the 
 war of the Spanish succession, and the Bavarians, who were 
 allies of the French, attacked Austria. Prince Eugene was 
 busy fighting the armies of Louis XIV. The king of France 
 entered into correspondence with Rakoczy, calling him " mon 
 cousin," and sent him French officers to command his forces. 
 
 In spite of some checks to his arms, Rakoczy had been 
 able to organize a government. A diet which met at Szeczeny 
 elected him chief of the Hungarian nation ; another, assembled 
 at Maros-Vasarhely, proclaimed him voievode of Transylvania. 
 The greater part of the kingdom of St. Stephen was, in fact, 
 under his command, though he would gladly have come to 
 terms with the emperor on condition of being allowed to keep 
 only Transylvania. But the exasperation of the Hungarians 
 was such that they had determined to break once for all with 
 the Habsburgs. At the diet of Onod, on the river Sajo, in the 
 comitat of Borsod, thirty-one confederated comitats — the king- 
 dom only contained fifty-two — proclaimed Joseph I. no longer 
 king of Hungary. They dared not go on to offer the crown to 
 Rakoczy, but, at the suggestion of Louis XIV., offered it to the 
 elector of Bavaria. The elector declined to accept it, and 
 much precious time was lost in negociations, during which the 
 imperial general, Heister, defeated the insurgents at Trencsin 
 in the August of 1708, and regained from them part of Hun- 
 gary. Stahrenberg and Sickingen followed up his successes ;
 
 FRANCIS RAKOCSY. 34 1 
 
 Louis XIV., exhausted by defeat, could no longer continue his 
 subsidies, and Rakoczy, unable to go on with the war, left the 
 country and took refuge in Poland. In 17 ii, the diet agreed 
 to the treaty of Szathmar, which granted a general amnesty and 
 the restoration of the rights of Hungary. 
 
 Some time after Rakoczy went to Paris, and, together with 
 some of his companions in arms, paid a visit to that court of 
 France with which he had formerly treated as a sovereign. 
 This visit has done much to make his name known ; he and 
 other Magyar nobles are frequently mentioned in contemporary 
 memoirs and documents as taking part in court ceremonies. 
 Hungarian vests and Transylvanian boots became all the 
 fashion ; " there is no good society without prince Rakoczy," 
 writes a learned lady of the day, and St. Simon often mentions 
 the celebrated Transylvanian in his memoirs. The Austrian 
 government at last became anxious about his stay in Paris, and 
 he then went to Turkey, where the Porte, in fulfilment of the 
 treaty of Pozarevac, assigned him the castle of Rodosto, on the 
 Sea of Marmora, as a place of residence. He did not abandon 
 all his dreams of ambition in this quiet retreat. More than 
 once he tried to interest France and Turkey in his cause, 
 but without success. To occupy his leisure time, he wrote his 
 " Memoirs of the Hungarian Revolution," which were published 
 at the Hague in 1732. His name is also associated with a 
 celebrated march. It is not known who was its author; all 
 that is certain is that it was often played in his armies, and 
 that it has become a national hymn, a revolutionary Marseil- 
 laise, to the Magyars. Whenever Hungarian liberty has been 
 attacked, the Austrian government has strictly forbidden the 
 playing of this march. 
 
 Htingary reconciled — The Treaty of Fassarowitz [I'ji^). 
 
 Hungary was finally reconciled to the house of Austria by 
 the peace of Szathmar, and to Joseph I. belongs the honour of 
 accomplishing this work. Declared by the diet in 1707 un-
 
 342 HISTORY OF A US TRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 worthy to reign over Hungary, he had nevertheless, by 171 1, 
 estabUshed his dynasty firmly on the throne. He was a prince 
 of gentle and tolerant character, and would doubtless in the 
 end have secured the affection of his newly reconciled subjects, 
 but he died at the age of thirty-three. His successor Charles 
 VI., who was Charles HI. of Hungary, reigned from 17 11 to 
 1740, and bound the Magyar nation still more closely to the 
 dynasty, endeavouring by all means to carry out and develop 
 the results of the treaty of Szathmar. After his coronation, he 
 recognized in a special law the right of the Hungarians to elect 
 their own king in case the direct male line of the house of 
 Austria should fail. But though he made this concession to 
 Magyar pride, the Pragmatic Sanction shows how little he 
 meant to be bound by it. The first years of his reign were 
 occupied in restoring order in the land, but evil traditions were 
 not abandoned ; the amnesty was limited in its application, 
 and religious intolerance continued to flourish with less 
 brutality outwardly perhaps, but with all its old obstinacy. It 
 attacked alike Hungarian Protestants and the new Servian 
 colonists of the Orthodox faith. But it was not alone the 
 court of Vienna which was guilty of this persecuting zeal ; 
 the greater part of the Magyar Catholics joined in it, and it 
 was the result of the spirit of the times. 
 
 The reign of Charles III. saw the final expulsion of the 
 Turks. In 17 16, the grand vizir of the sultan, Achmet III., 
 crossed the Save and marched on the town of Petervarad. 
 There Prince Eugene awaited him, and inflicted a defeat which 
 resounded throughout Christendom. The Hungarians fought 
 gloriously in this battle, which cost the grand vizir his life, and 
 restored to the conquerors the town of Temesvar and the 
 last possessions of the Turks in their land. 
 
 Prince Eugene immediately followed up his advantage by 
 advancing right up to the walls of Belgrade, and forcing the 
 great city to capitulate. The remembrance of this exploit was 
 preserved in a soldiers' song which is still popular in the 
 Austrian army :
 
 EXPULSION OF THE TURKS. 343 
 
 " Prince Eugene, the valiant warrior, 
 Vowed to gain the fair white city ; 
 Vowed to snatch the town of Belgrade 
 From its captors without pity. 
 
 " Prince Eugene, the knightly soldier, 
 Led the right wing straight to vict'ry ; 
 Like a lion, fought and conquered," etc. 
 
 The palace which was occupied by the victorious general is 
 still shown at Belgrade. 
 
 The loss of this fortress was a fatal blow to the power of 
 the Turks, and the Porte was soon after forced to sign the 
 treaty of Passarowitz (Pozaverac, in the present principality of 
 Servia). By it were lost all its possessions on the right bank 
 of the Danube, the town of Belgrade, and part of Servia and 
 Wallachia. These conquests delivered into the hands of Austria 
 the keys of the Ottoman empire. She might then, by following 
 up her successes in this direction, have restored the Servian 
 and Roumanian peoples to liberty and civilization, and have 
 gradually annexed them to herself; that so considerable a 
 number of Servians and Wallachians were already incorporated 
 in the kingdom of Hungary would have served as an attraction 
 to their kinsmen. But for the accomplishment of so great a 
 task, the king of Hungary must have devoted all his undi- 
 vided energies to the work, and the Austrian princes preferred 
 to make distant acquisitions of territory in Germany and 
 Italy. Besides, Charles VI. cared far less for the greatness of 
 Hungary than for securing the throne to his daughter, Maria 
 Theresa. We have already seen how the Pragmatic Sanction 
 was successively recognized by the diets of Croatia, Transyl- 
 vania, and Hungary. 
 
 The Servian Colonists — The Military Frontiers — The Treaty ,■/ 
 Belgrade (1739). 
 
 Hungary, now that she was reconciled with the house of 
 Austria, showed little political vitality. In 1723, the diet re- 
 duced the Servian colonists, who had entered the kingdom
 
 344 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 under Arsenius Tsernoievitch, to the condition of serfs of the 
 soil ; not only were they not to be allowed to return to their 
 native land, as Leopold had promised they should, but they were 
 no longer to be able to move from one part of the country to 
 another. Here we see the first signs of that spirit of exclusive- 
 ness, that intolerance towards other nations, which has more 
 than once characterized Magyar policy ; but in the reign of 
 Charles III. this intolerance was directed rather towards re- 
 ligions than nationalities. Magyar Protestants and Orthodox 
 Servians were persecuted by their fanatical fellow-countrymen, 
 until at last the emperor, who was by no means inclined to 
 toleration, was obliged to interfere in their favour. 
 
 " Thus," says M. Sayous, " we see the gradual formation of 
 the modern policy of the Habsburgs. It was sincere on this 
 occasion, and at various other times was more sincere than the 
 Magyar historians are willing to recognize, but only too often 
 it is open to the charge of treachery and dissimulation. It 
 consisted in being more liberal than the constitutionalists, more 
 ready for progress than the assemblies, more tolerant of re- 
 ligious minorities and small nationalities than the fellow- 
 countrymen of Verboczy. It more than once proposed reforms 
 which it knew very well ought not to be accepted, and con- 
 trived to wound the feelings of the Magyars so much by the 
 manner in which these proposals were drawn up by foreigners, 
 that it forced them into such a refusal of them as damaged 
 them in the eyes of Europe. When, on the contrary, the 
 country and the diets were anxious for reform, then the court 
 at Vienna took fright, or pretended to take fright, at the inno- 
 vations. At the same time, these changes were seldom openly 
 refused ; they were put off to a more convenient season, and 
 such a season never cam.e." 
 
 Charles, however, rewarded the Hungarians for their com- 
 pliance in voting the Pragmatic Sanction by some rather im- 
 portant concessions. He undertook to convoke the diet at 
 least once in three years ; to reside in Hungary whenever cir- 
 cumstances permitted him to do so ; to arrange the business
 
 THE MILITARY FRONTIERS. 345 
 
 of the country in person with the help of the Council of 
 Regency, presided over by the palatine ; and he made Rieka 
 (Fiume) a free port. 
 
 The organization of the military frontier was one of the 
 most important acts of his reign. It reached from the banks 
 of the Save to those of the Tisza and the Maros. This insti- 
 tution was not the work of a single man nor of a single day. 
 Under the constant threat of an Ottoman invasion, several of 
 Charles VI.'s predecessors had felt the need of creating within 
 the kingdom a special body of troops for the defence of 
 the frontiers, and the immigrations of those Servians who fled 
 from Turkish oppression furnished the materials for such 
 a body. In 1522, after the fall of Shabats and Belgrade, 
 Louis II., with the consent of the diet, had entrusted the 
 Croatian frontier to those German soldiers who had settled 
 there. Their centre was at Varazdin. The Uskoci, or Slav 
 refugees, who came at about the same time from Turkey, also 
 received lands, with the special duty of defending them. In 
 1575, the Slav and Croat frontiers were placed under the con- 
 trol of a general, and owing to the troubles of the time, the 
 commandants of these regions were made independent of the 
 civil power of the diet of Croatia. Their troops were entirely 
 composed of German and Slav soldiers, who enjoyed special 
 privileges, and were exempt from all taxes. They steadily 
 increased in number, owing to successive colonizations. At 
 the time of the peace of Karlowitz, the frontier was already 
 divided into three districts, each under a general : those of 
 Karlovac, Varazdin, and the Banat. The Hungarian diet 
 hardly ever interfered in the affairs of these purely military 
 districts, in which the Magyars were only indirectly interested. 
 After the treaty of Karlowitz, this frontier system was extended 
 to the recently conquered country along the shores of the Save 
 in Slavonia, the Tisza, and the Maros ; and the new frontiers 
 were made directly dependent on the Council and Chamber of 
 the emperor. When the Banat was reconquered in 1724, 
 Servian and Roumanian refugees were settled there in the same
 
 346 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 way. The command of these frontiers was generally given to 
 German officers directly dependent on Vienna. It is evident 
 that when the Magyars were reducing all the Servians within 
 the kingdom to a state of serfdom, those on the frontier would 
 prefer the rule of tlie emperor, which offered satisfaction both 
 to their warlike instincts and to their hatred of the Turks. On 
 their side, the Magyars could not but see with distrust this 
 new institution ; these lands, which were included within the 
 frontier line, were in reality detached from the main body of 
 the kingdom, and soldiers drawn from thence, never having 
 been' under Hungarian influence, might become obedient in- 
 struments in the hands of the Habsburgs, and, after having 
 served against the Turks, when once the ancient enemy of 
 Christianity was no longer to be dreaded, be the sure support 
 of Viennese despotism. Hence the constant complaints of 
 the Hungarians and the Croats. But, notwithstanding, the 
 institution of the military frontiers continued to our time. 
 
 One of the most remarkable events of the reign of 
 Charles VI. was the revolt of Servian and Hungarian peasants 
 (1734), under the leadership of Pero Tzegedinac, one of the 
 old soldiers of Rakoczy. They were now serfs of the soil, and 
 the Servians saw their condition grow worse from day to day ; 
 the victims of both religious persecution and personal oppres- 
 sion, they rose against their tyrants, and were joined by some 
 Hungarian Protestants and some partisans of Rakoczy's. They 
 were defeated by the army and cruelly punished, and their 
 chiefs put to death. The Servians bitterly resented their treat- 
 ment at this time, and some years later a certain number of 
 them left Hungary to settle in Russia. 
 
 The campaigns of 1737— 1739 against the Turks made the 
 reign of Charles VI. end less brilliantly than might have been 
 expected from its commencement. His alliance with Russia 
 obliged him to undertake the war, and it began with some great 
 successes. The command of the imperial army was given to 
 prince Francis of Lorraine, who had recently married Maria 
 Theresa, but it was led by imprudent and disunited chiefs.
 
 PEACE OF BELGRADE. 347 
 
 among whom, however, we do not find a single Hungarian ; 
 and when it attempted the invasion of Bosnia and Wallachia, 
 it was beatenor surprised at Banjaluka, Nich, and Viddin, 
 and forced to retire into Transylvania. The Turks captured 
 Orsova on the 27th of May, 1738. Belgrade was now the 
 only place on the right bank of the Save which remained to 
 the emperor, and it was not in a condition to maintain a siege. 
 He was forced to treat with the enemy. By the treaty of 
 Belgrade the Porte once more obtained possession of the whole 
 of Servia. The imperialists were allowed to retain the banat 
 of the Temes, but they were required to dismantle the fort- 
 resses of Mehadia, Uj Palanka, Kubin, and Pantchevo. At 
 one time the Porte thought of proclaiming the young Joseph 
 Rakoczy, the son of the last hero of Transylvania, prince of 
 the province, but he died in 1738. His brother Francis went 
 to live in the kingdom of Naples under the name of marquis 
 of St. Elizabeth, and died, leaving no children ; and with him 
 ended the family Avhich had played so distinguished a part in 
 the history of Hungary.
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 MARIA THERESA (1740-1780), 
 
 IVar of the Austrian Succession — Loss of Silesia — Treaty of 
 Aix-la- Chapelle (1748). 
 
 The arch-duchess Maria Theresa, heiress of Charles VI., had 
 married Francis Stephen, duke of Lorraine. Ever since the 
 preceding century, the house of Lorraine had been allied to 
 the house of Austria. Duke Charles V. had married the 
 sister of Leopold L, had commanded his army, and had been 
 one of the heroes of the war against the Turks. His grandson, 
 Francis Stephen, had been brought up'at the court of Vienna, 
 and from an early age chosen to be the husband of the 
 hereditary princess, while his younger brother married Maria 
 Anna, the younger sister of Maria Theresa. Francis had been 
 obliged by the treaty of Vienna to give up Lorraine to Stanislas 
 Leszczynski, and had obtained in exchange the grand duchy 
 of Tuscany, left vacant by the death of the last of the Medici. 
 I'uscany was not attached to the dominions of the reigning 
 house of Austria; it became an inheritance for second sons, 
 and, at the death of Francis Stephen, passed to his younger son 
 Leopold, and not to his elder son Joseph H. 
 
 Maria Theresa was the first woman who had ruled over the 
 whole group of states forming the Austrian power, and she had 
 not the prestige of that imperial crown which had been worn 
 so long by her predecessors that it seemed hereditary in the 
 house of Austria, though, as queen of Bohemia, she had a
 
 JVAI? WITH PRUSSIA. 349 
 
 vote in the Electoral College. She made her husband co-regent, 
 but left him no large share of power ; the active and imperious 
 temper of the young princess did not admit of a fair division 
 of her prerogative, and at the beginning of her reign Francis 
 Stephen was no more than the husband of the queen. Her 
 accession seemed a favourable opportunity for the attacks of the 
 neighbours and enemies of Austria. No one believed in the 
 permanence of the Austrian state as it had been created by 
 Charles VI. with the help of the Pragmatic Sanction ; nothing 
 seemed easier than to dismember it. The French Marshal de 
 Belle-Isle even arranged a plan which gave the Low Countries 
 to France, Bohemia and the imperial crown to Bavaria, Silesia 
 to Prussia, and Tuscany, Parma, and the Lombard possessions 
 to Spain and Sardinia. There was only one thing which 
 puzzled the marshal, and that was " what to do with Moravia." 
 Maria Theresa was to think herself lucky to keep Hungary and 
 the Austrian provinces. It seemed as if no state could be 
 easier to break up than this polyglot collection of principalities, 
 which had no other tie than the person of the sovereign and 
 the more or less faithful adhesion of the diets to the Pragmatic 
 Sanction. A new power had arisen in the north of Germany, 
 which made conquest the law of its existence and war its 
 national trade. Prussia had been erected into a monarchy 
 early in the century, and now had for its sovereign Frederick 
 II., a prince whose ambitions were as vast as his scruples were 
 small, and who would have deserved the surname of Great, if 
 his political honesty had been equal to his genius. He invaded 
 Silesia. He claimed as a justification for his invasion rights 
 no better founded than those in virtue of which Austria after- 
 wards dismembered Poland. It was in vain that Austria 
 protested ; Frederick had the final argument of kings on his 
 side, and the capture of Breslau and victory of Molvitz decided 
 the cause in his favour in 1741. He had at his command an 
 army in admirable condition, and treasure which had been 
 carefully accumulated by his predecessor ; while the Austrian 
 treasury was empty, and the army in a wretched state.
 
 3 so HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 The success of the king of Prussia seemed a proof of the 
 weakness of the edifice which had been so laboriously raised 
 by Charles VI. The young queen found herself surrounded 
 by enemies on every side ; among them were Bavaria, France, 
 Spain, the elector palatine, and the elector of Cologne. 
 C'harles Albert, duke of Bavaria, had married the cousin of 
 Maria Theresa, and he now put in a claim for part of the 
 Austrian inheritance as the descendant of Anna, daughter of 
 Ferdinand I., who had married duke Albert V. The will of 
 Ferdinand I. ran thus : " In case our sons shall die without 
 heirs male, our daughters shall have a right to part of the 
 inheritance." According to Charles Albert, directly females 
 were allowed to succeed, the elder daughter of Ferdinand I., 
 and her heirs, ought to take precedence of all later heirs. He 
 also laid claim to Austria by right of the claims of the house 
 of Bavaria, dating from before the year 1156. Augustus III., 
 elector of Saxony, who had married the elder daughter of the 
 emperor Joseph II., founded his claim partly on that of his 
 wife and partly on a distant relationship to the house of 
 Eabenberg. The other powers brought forward no other right 
 than that of the strongest, wishing simply to increase their own 
 territory at the expense of Austria. 
 
 At first Maria Theresa tried to negociate. She offered to 
 give up the duchy of Luxemburg to Louis XV., if he would 
 persuade Spain to content herself with the Low Countries and 
 the elector of Bavaria to be satisfied with some portion of 
 Upper Austria ; but these negociations came to nothing, and 
 she was obliged to appeal to the fortune of war. An alliance 
 was concluded between Spain, France, and Bavaria. It has 
 been lately proved that this treaty of Nymphenburg, at any 
 rate in the form in which it has come down to us, is apocryphal, 
 but one fact is indisputable, and that is that France placed its 
 troops at the disposal of the elector of Bavaria. Charles Albert, 
 with the help of the French army, captured Linz and pushed 
 on into Bohemia. The French for the first time set foot on 
 the soil of the kingdom of St. Vacslav, while Frederick
 
 WA/? OF THE AUSTRIAN succession: 35 I 
 
 occupied Silesia and the Spaniards attacked Italy. In this 
 emergency Maria Theresa was saved by the swords of her 
 Hungarian subjects and the subsidies of England. We shall 
 see later on what we must think of the famous '^ Moriamur 
 pro rege nostra." After an interregnum of two years, the elector 
 of Bavaria was chosen emperor on the 24th of January, 1742, 
 and it seemed as if the imperial crown had escaped from the 
 house of Habsburg- Lorraine. Meantime, however, England 
 had paralysed the efforts of Spain in Italy, and forced Frederick 
 II., after the victory of Chotusic (near Caslav), to sign the 
 preliminaries of Breslau and the peace of Berlin. By this 
 treaty Maria Theresa gave up to her fortunate rival Upper and 
 Lower Silesia, the Bohemian county of Glatz (Kladsko), and 
 the lordship of[Kostcher in Moravia — in all more than six 
 hundred and fifty square miles ; and the only possessions which 
 she retained in Silesia were the principality of Tesin (Teschen) 
 and some portions of those of Opava (Troppau), Jagerndorf, 
 and Neisse (1742). This was a serious loss ; Silesia conquered 
 by Frederick brought Prussia to the frontiers of Bohemia. 
 Breslau had to give up its old name of Vratislav and become 
 a completely German town. The province, however, was 
 almost entirely Protestant, and regretted Austrian rule but little. 
 Saxony, which had hoped to annex Silesia and part of 
 Moravia, now left the league and concluded a separate treaty 
 with Maria Theresa in December, 1743. For one moment the 
 fortune of war seemed to turn to the side of Austria. The 
 pandours, or Slav soldiers of the frontier, did wonders under 
 the command of De Menzel and Trenck. The French 
 were forced to evacuate Bohemia, and the emperor, Charles 
 VII., saw the Austrian troops enter and occupy his electorate 
 of Bavaria. He had had himself crowned at Prague, and in 
 her turn the queen of Bohemia and Hungary now received 
 the homage of Bavaria, and established a royal lieutenancy 
 at Munich. France and Bavaria proposed peace, but it was 
 refused, and France attacked Austria in the Low Countries, 
 while Frederick II. again took up arms in July, 1744, entered
 
 352 HISTORY OF AVSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Bohemia, captured Prague, and defeated the Austrians and 
 Saxons at Hohenfriedburg on the 4th of June, 1745 ; at Zarov 
 (Sorr) near Trutnov, and at Kesseldorf in December, 1745. 
 Austria still had on her side Saxony, England, and Holland ; 
 nevertheless her arms were not very successful. Charles VII. 
 returned to Bavaria, though only to die. His son signed the 
 treaty of Fiissen and recognized the Pragmatic Sanction. The 
 imperial crown returned to the house of Austria with the 
 election of Maria Theresa's husband, Francis of Lorraine, as 
 emperor, and the mediation of England brought about the 
 peace of Dresden between Prussia, Austria, and Saxony, in 
 which Prussia recognized the imperial dignity of Francis I. 
 and the states of Prussia and Austria mutually guaranteed one 
 another's possessions. 
 
 We shall not follow the various events of this war in the Low 
 Countries or Italy. Notwithstanding the support of England 
 and also of Russia, which sent troops as far as the Rhine, the 
 armies of Maria Theresa were generally defeated. The treaty 
 of Aix-la-Chapelle put an end to the series of campaigns, the 
 result of which was more to the advantage of the empress- 
 queen than she could possibly have hoped. She gave up 
 Upper Novara and Vigevano to Sardinia, and Parma, Piacenza, 
 and Guastalla to Don Philip of Spain. But, with the exception 
 of the loss of Silesia, the whole of the Austrian dominions 
 remained intact, and the Pragmatic Sanction became part of 
 the international law of Europe (1748). 
 
 Kminitz — The French Alliance — The Seven Years' War 
 (1756-1763). 
 
 The war of the Austrian succession had greatly modified the 
 political system of Europe. Prussia had come to the front as 
 the grasping and merciless enemy of the house of Habsburg- 
 Lorraine, and the acquisition of Silesia had given Frederick II. 
 a strong position on the frontier of Bohemia itself. Russia 
 had begun to take a share in the affairs of Europe, and her 
 alliance was in future to have great weight in the disputes
 
 AUSTRIAN ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. 353 
 
 which occurred between Vienna and Berlin. From the year 
 1746, a treaty of defensive alliance had existed between 
 Austria and Russia, by which each power undertook to furnish 
 an army of sixty thousand men in case Frederick should attack 
 Poland, Austria, or Russia. 
 
 Austria, however, coild not be sure of keeping her Spanish 
 or Italian territories as long as France was her enemy. It wa> 
 in the year 1753 that Maria Theresa summoned to her counsels 
 a celebrated man, the count de Kounic, generally known by 
 the name of Kaunitz, who succeeded in putting an end to the 
 long-standing rivalry of the houses of Bourbon and Habsburg, 
 and brought about a friendly understanding between the courts 
 of Vienna and Versailles. Kaunitz was a member of an old 
 Bohemian family. He was born at Vienna in 17 11, and had 
 at first been destined for the Church, but the death of his elder 
 brother had thrown him back into the world. He had studied 
 at the universities of Vienna, Leipzig, and Leyden, and had 
 travelled in Holland, England, France, and Italy. He had 
 married a Stahrenberg, a descendant of the leader who had 
 defended Vienna, and had entered the public service when still 
 very young (1737). Under Charles VI. he had been a member 
 of the imperial council ; and on her accession Maria Theresa 
 had entrusted to him several diplomatic missions, sending him 
 first to Italy, then to Brussels, at last to England, where he 
 showed himself possessed of rare diplomatic powers. He 
 afterwards represented Austria at Aix-la-Chapelle, and from 
 1751 to 1753 was Austrian ambassador in Paris. As soon as 
 he returned to Vienna he pointed out very forcibly the necessity 
 of the French alliance to his sovereign. France, who could 
 direct her troops at once upon Belgium, the Rhine, and Italy, 
 was, he argued, far the most important ally for Austria. In 
 spite of the opposition of the emperor and the majority of the 
 council, it was finally decided that steps should be taken 
 towards an alliance with France ; Kaunitz was appointed 
 chancellor and placed at the head of foreign affairs, and from 
 this time all his efforts aimed at a reconciliation between the 
 
 2 A
 
 354 HISTORY OF A USTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 two cabinets. His first effort was to isolate Prussia. England, 
 Russia, and Saxony were already the allies of Austria, and the 
 German Catholics leaned to her side. Under these circum- 
 stances it even seemed possible to reconquer Silesia. But 
 unfortunately France and England were at the time in the 
 midst of a colonial dispute, and war between them had become 
 inevitable. Kaunitz at first tried to remain neutral ; but it 
 soon became evident that an alliance with France would be far 
 more useful against Frederick II. than one with Great Britain, 
 especially as England had made overtures to Frederick in con- 
 sequence of a threatened attack on Hanover on the part of 
 France. The treaty of Versailles was consequently signed 
 between France and Austria on the nth of May, 1756. 
 
 It has been said that, in her desire to obtain the friendship 
 of Louis XV., Maria Theresa entered into direct relation vi^ith 
 Madame de Pompadour, and wrote a letter to her in which 
 she styled her, "dear friend and fair cousin." The proud 
 princess never used such language. " You are mistaken," she 
 writes on the loth of October, 1763, to the electress of Saxony, 
 " if you believe we have ever had anything to do with the 
 Pompadour. Not a single letter has been sent, not a single 
 interview with our minister has taken place by means of her • 
 they have paid court to her like the rest, but there has been no 
 intimacy. Such a go-between would not have suited me." 
 
 The clauses of the treaty of Versailles which were published 
 only stipulated for a defensive alliance, but its secret articles 
 agreed that Austria should reconquer Silesia and the lost 
 Italian possessions, and territorial gain was also promised to 
 France. " I have never signed a treaty so willingly," said the 
 empress. By a later convention France placed one hundred and 
 five thousand men and twelve millions of florins at the service 
 of Austria (May, 1757). In this same year Frederick II. had 
 recourse to the tactics which had served him so well sixteen 
 years before ; he suddenly invaded Saxony, and, after the 
 indecisive battle of Lobosice, entered Bohemia and advanced 
 as far as Prague. His defeat at Kolin (1757) obliged him, how-
 
 THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 355 
 
 ever, to evacuate the kingdom of Bohemia. At last he had 
 found a worthy adversary in Marshal Daun; but, though pressed 
 by the French on the west, by the Russians who had captured 
 Eastern Prussia on the east, and on the south by the Austrians, 
 who had once more forced their way into Silesia, Frederick 
 held his enemies at bay. 
 
 The war between the Prussian and Austrian generals was a 
 series of alternate triumphs and defeats. In 1757, the Hun- 
 garian hussars pushed on as far as Berlin. We shall not enter 
 into well-known details, but will only recall the victory of 
 Frederick at Lissa (Leuthen) on the 5th of December, 1757, 
 where he beat the duke of Lorraine, Daun, and Nadasdy ; his 
 defeats at Hochkirch (1758), Kunersdorf in August, and Alaxen 
 in November (1759), and at Landshut ; and his victories at 
 Liegnitz on the 15th of August, and at Torgau on the 3rd of 
 November, 1760. • But all these efforts led to no result, and 
 after 1760 the war was carried on but feebly. Silesia, the 
 main cause of the war, remained in the hands of Prussia ; and 
 the peace of Hubertsburg, concluded in 1763 between Prussia 
 Saxony, and Austria, put an end to the Seven Years' War, and 
 left everything in the status quo ante belhnn. By a secret clause 
 in it, Frederick II. promised his vote in the next imperial 
 election to the archduke Joseph. 
 
 The Seven Years' War was an excellent school for the 
 Austrian army, which improved greatly during its continuance. 
 Among the generals whose courage and talents were brouo-ht 
 to light by it, Joseph Daun must be especially noticed. He 
 established the School for Cadets at Vienna, and recalled in his 
 mode of warfare the severe style of Montecuculli. Also the 
 Livonian Loudon, who first tried to enter the service of the 
 king of Prussia, and, when refused, consecrated to the service 
 of Austria a glorious career which she still remembers ; and 
 the two Irishmen Brown and Lascy. The victories ot Kolin 
 Hochkirch, Kunersdorf, and Maxen proved that Austria could 
 now take rank among the military powers of Europe, and from 
 this time the nations became anxious for her alliance.
 
 356 HISTORY OF A USTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 The emperor Francis I. died shortly after the treaty of 
 Hubertsburg. He had no less than sixteen children by his 
 marriage with Maria Theresa, and through them the house of 
 Austria became allied to most of the reigning families of 
 Europe. The princess Maria Christina married Albert 
 of Saxony ; Maria Amelia, duke Ferdinand of Parma ; Maria 
 Carolme, Fenlinand, king of the Two Sicilies; and the arch- 
 duke Ferdinand married the hereditary princess of Modena. 
 These marriages naturally increased the interest which the 
 house of Austria had always taken in Italian affairs. Finally, 
 the marriage of Maria Antonia (Marie Antoinette) with the 
 dauphin of France in 1770 seemed as if it would perpetuate 
 that happy alliance between the families of Bourbon and 
 Habsburg-Lorraine which Kaunitz had succeeded in bringing 
 about. Maria Theresa's correspondence with the dauphiness 
 and with M. de Mercy, her ambassador at the court of France, 
 has been preserved, and shows the deep interest the empress 
 took in the preservation of cordial relations between the two 
 countries. It also reflects great honour on the character of 
 Maria Theresa both as a sovereign and a mother. 
 
 After the death of Francis I., his son, Joseph IL, was elected 
 emperor (1765). His mother associated him with herself in 
 the government of the Austrian dominions, but his part in it 
 was not much more active than had been that of his father, 
 although he had control of the army. 
 
 Fart it ion of Poland — Acquisition of Galicia (1772). 
 
 Notwithstanding the loss inflicted on her by Frederick II., 
 the empress-queen had every reason to be proud of the 
 prosperity of her dominions and the splendour of her house. 
 An occasion soon presented itself for repairing the injury she 
 had suffered in the loss of Silesia by the acquisition of new 
 territory, and the court at Vienna did not allow it to escape. 
 The Austrian dominions and the republic of Poland adjoined 
 one another in those parts of Silesia which the empress still 
 retained, and also in the kingdom of Hungary. For some
 
 CONDITION OF POLAND. 357 
 
 years tl}e republic had fallen into a state of miserable decay 
 which made it an easy prey to its neighbours, while the de- 
 plorable system by which its sovereigns were elected by a 
 riotous and anarchical nobility had rendered its ultimate 
 conquest by foreigners inevitable. The Polish aristocracy had 
 taken possession of the country, and had become the land- 
 owning class, but had made no effort to create a united nation ; 
 a middle class had never existed. Reasons for the interference 
 of ambitious neighbours were not wanting. It is quite certain 
 Maria Theresa would not herself have proposed the partition 
 of Poland ; but when once Prussia and Russia laid claim to 
 the whole or part of the kingdom, the empress was not slow 
 in suiting her policy to her interest. 
 
 There is no doubt that the idea first occurred to Frederick 
 II. He had already tried to come to an understanding with 
 the courts of St. Petersburg and Copenhagen about the partition 
 of Sweden; and in 1772, after the defeat of the Turks by the 
 Russians, a defeat which made it necessary for Austria to 
 interfere, he proposed that territory in Poland should be 
 offered to Russia in lieu of land that the czar might have 
 seized in Turkey, and that Prussia and Austria should receive 
 some fragments of the lands of the republic to enable the 
 balance of power to be maintained. Catherine II. was quite 
 ready to agree to such a proposition, and Joseph II., after 
 two interviews with the king of Prussia at Neisse and at 
 Neustadt, was also persuaded to agree. But Maria Theresa's 
 loyal and religious mind was at first much troubled by the 
 proposals. Informed by her minister at Berlin of the plot 
 which was being hatched by the courts of Berlin and St. 
 Petersburg, she wrote a confidential note to him on the subject, 
 in which she said, " I confess that I find it very difficult to 
 come to a decision about a matter concerning which I cannot 
 feel sure that it is right ; if it were even useful, — but I cannot 
 see the utility. AVhat right have we to rob the innocent, and 
 one too whom we have always represented ourselves as being 
 ready to support and defend ? Why should there be all these
 
 358 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 vast and costly preparations and all these noisy threats to 
 maintain the equilibrium of the north ? The sole reason of 
 convenience, not to be the only one among all the powers 
 gaining no advantage, does not appear to me sufficient, nor 
 even an honourable pretext, for joining two unjust usurpers 
 whose aim is to destroy a third without any justification. I 
 do not understand a policy which, when two use their power 
 to oppress an innocent man, requires that a third may and 
 ought to imitate them in their wrong-doing, simply as a matter 
 of precaution for the future and convenience for the present. 
 That appears to me a position which cannot be held. What 
 would France, Spain, and England say of us if we should ally 
 ourselves so closely with those from whom we have held our- 
 selves aloof, and whose actions we have declared unjust ? It 
 would be to give the lie to all my actions during the thirty 
 years of my reign. Let us try rather to diminish the claims of 
 the others, instead of thinking of sharing the spoil with them 
 under conditions so unequal. Let us rather be thought weak 
 than wicked." 
 
 In another document which bears no date, Maria Theresa 
 tries to explain the reasons which have induced her to share in 
 the partition. "The interests of our own safety and that of 
 the whole of Europe," she writes, " have induced us to 
 endeavour, although to our regret, to balance that increase of 
 power which Russia and Prussia have acquired, by reserving 
 for ourselves that part of the land in dispute to which we had 
 undoubted clai?/is." We see from these last words that reasons of 
 state had triumphed over the Christian principles of the queen. 
 
 The treaty of partition was signed on the 25th of July, 1772. 
 It has been said that Maria Theresa wrote the following words 
 with her own hand at the bottom of the report which contained 
 the decision as to its adoption : — " Placet, since so many wise 
 and able men wish that it should be so, but long after my 
 death the consequences will be seen of having thus despised 
 what has hitherto been considered just and righteous." But 
 this document is not to be found, and the words would seem
 
 PARTITION OF POLAND. 359 
 
 to be apocryphal. The real sentiments of the empress after 
 the partition are to be found in the passage we have quoted, 
 and in a letter to Mercy, Austrian ambassador to the court of 
 France. In this, Maria Theresa at the same time regrets 
 having had anything to do with it, and having gained too 
 little by it. " They have led us by the nose," she writes of 
 her accomplices, " and I am inconsolable. If I could find 
 consolation it would be in the thought that I was always 
 opposed to this iniquitous division, which has been so unequal, 
 and to any alliance with these two monsters. ... I was unable 
 to go to war, and so I yielded, but much against my convictions. 
 I hope that the monarchy will not suffer from it after I am 
 gone." 
 
 On another occasion she wrote to Kaunitz, "When all my 
 dominions were threatened, I put my trust in my rightful 
 claims and in the help of God. But in this business, where 
 not only justice cries out to Heaven against us, but where 
 every reason of equity and common sense is against us, I must 
 confess that I have never in my life suffered so terribly. What 
 an example do we set to the world, when we prostitute our 
 honour and our reputation for a bit of Poland, or of Moldavia 
 or Wallachia ! I see only too well that I stand alone and am 
 no longer vigorous, and so I let things go their way, but not 
 without the utmost vexation." Frederick II., with his usual 
 cynicism, speaking of the grief of Maria Theresa, said, " She is 
 always weeping, but she is always taking;" and she herself 
 has described her position in words which at any rate have 
 the merit of sincerity : " One wishes to behave like the 
 Prussians, and yet at the same time to keep up an appearance 
 of respectability." 
 
 The presentiments of Maria Theresa have been partially 
 realized, and the possession of Galicia has at times been a 
 source of considerable difficulty to the Austrian government, 
 but lately, owing to a curious change of opinion, the Poles 
 have become the most loyal of all the subjects of the present 
 emperor, Francis Joseph.
 
 36o HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 When once the partition was resolved on, it became 
 necessary to find some good pretext for accomplishing it, and 
 the queen of Hungary and Bohemia proceeded to invoke some 
 ancient rights, real or imaginary, which the two kingdoms were 
 supposed to have over certain portions of the Polish territory. 
 As early as 1770 she laid claim to the thirteen towns of the 
 county of Zips (Szepes) which had been pledged by Sigismund, 
 in the year 14x2, to Wladyslaw, king of Poland, and had 
 remained in pledge for three hundred and fifty-nine years. 
 She did not actually take possession of them till the 5th of 
 November, 1772, when the towns paid homage to the queen of 
 Hungary. 
 
 In September, 1772, Austria brought forward some new 
 claims. " Russia and Prussia having determined to insist on 
 their ancient rights to certain districts in the kingdom of 
 Poland," the empress-queen caused fresh territory to be 
 occupied. A special manifesto explained the rights of 
 Hungary over Little Russia and Podplia, and those of 
 Bohemia over the duchies of Osviecim (Ausschweitz) and 
 Zator. Austria thus acquired Red Russia and part of Podolia, 
 and the palatinates of Sandomir and Cracow, with the rich salt 
 mines of Wieliczka and Bochnia, the whole comprising thirteen 
 hundred square miles and two million five hundred thousand 
 inhabitants. These new possessions received the official title 
 of the kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. The former recalls 
 the name of the old town of Galitch, the home of the Russian 
 princes ; the latter, that of prince Vladimir, who in the twelfth 
 century ruled over the country of the Little Russians. The title 
 of king of Galicia and Lodomeria had already been borne by 
 the kings of Hungary. In spite of her honourable intentions, 
 Maria Theresa was careful not to unite her new possessions 
 either to Hungary or Bohemia, whose independent spirit she 
 held in fear ; she preferred to make them immediately depen- 
 dent on the crown. The capital of the new country was fixed 
 at Lemberg, which is called by the Poles Lwow, and by the 
 Little Russians Lviv. In 1773, a royal rescript organized the
 
 ACQUISITION OF BUKOVINA. 36 1 
 
 government ; on the 29th of December, the Estates — clergy, 
 nobles, and citizens — had to take the oath of allegiance to the 
 Austrian dynast)', and the government was placed in the hands 
 of German officials. In 1775, the country was divided into 
 eighteen circles, and in each of the chief towns a normal 
 school was established for the teaching of German, now be- 
 come the official language. Latin, however, was still used in 
 the courts of justice. The estates were organized in the same 
 manner as those of Bohemia and Hungary. We shall see later 
 on what disputes were caused in Austrian Galicia by the 
 rivalry which existed between the Poles and the Little Russians, 
 who divided the country between them. 
 
 Joseph II. had taken much greater interest than his mother 
 in the partition of Poland, and certainly had not shared her 
 scruples. In 1778, we find him visiting the new provinces, 
 anxious, no doubt, to study on the spot the results of that 
 (iermanizing system, which he was hoping to apply to all his 
 other dominions. 
 
 Acquisition of Bukovina (1775) — War of the Bavarian 
 Succession (1779). 
 
 Bukovina was another gain to Austria, though not so im- 
 portant a one as Galicia. It was the result of a war between 
 Russia and Turkey which lasted several years. Austria and 
 Turkey had lived in peace with each other since the treaty of 
 Belgrade, but the attention of the Austrian cabinet had been 
 necessarily drawn to the campaign of the Russians against the 
 Turks. Russia had seized the Crimea and was approaching 
 the Danube, when Maria Theresa grew anxious, assembled an 
 army in Hungar}', and attempted to bring about a peace. This 
 was in 1772, but it was not until 1774 that the Porte agreed 
 to the treaty of Kuchuk Kainardji, which secured to Russia 
 the conquered territory and left Moldavia and Wallachia to 
 Turkey. Austria took advantage of these circumstances to 
 occupy some portion of Moldavia with troops. The reasons 
 given to the Porte for this sudden occupation were scarcely
 
 362 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 better than those which had previously been used to Poland 
 at the time of its partition. Austria asserted that the occupied 
 land was necessary to her as a means of communication be- 
 tween Galicia and Transylvania, and to enable her to prevent 
 the desertion of soldiers ; also that a great part of Moldavia 
 had once belonged to Podolia, which was now an Austrian 
 possession. Turkey protested ; Russia and Prussia demanded 
 explanations. But the Turks were without allies, and on the 
 7th of May, 1775, they were obliged to yield and sign a treaty 
 giving up the disputed territory. It contained about one 
 hundred and eighty-nine square miles, four small towns, and 
 about sixty villages, but from a strategic point of view it was 
 of great importance. Ghika, hospodar of Moldavia, whose 
 principality was dismembered by the treaty, tried to prevent 
 the people from taking the oath of allegiance, but he was seized 
 by the Turks, and his head was cut off. His memory is still 
 held sacred by the Roumanians as that of a martyr to liberty. 
 The poi^ulation of Bukovina is composed largely of Little 
 Russians and Roumanians. In 1875, the Austrian government 
 celebrated the centenary of its annexation by founding a 
 German university at Czernowitz whose business it is to help 
 in the Gertnanizing of the land. 
 
 Thus Maria Theresa and her son practised that policy of 
 rounding off territories by annexation which Frederick had 
 made the fashion by his conquest of Silesia. The principles of 
 Joseph II. in such matters were precisely similar to those of 
 the king of Prussia. In 1779, died Maximilian Joseph, 
 elector of Bavaria. Thereupon, in his own right as emperor, 
 and in right of his mother as sovereign of Austria and Bohemia, 
 Joseph II. laid claim to the electorate, and showed himself 
 prepared to support his claim by arms, if needful. The rightful 
 heir, the elector palatine Charles Theodore, was so much 
 alarmed at these threats that he agreed to a treaty by which 
 he abandoned to Austria almost half of Bavaria. 
 
 On this Frederick II., always jealous of any increase of the 
 power of Austria, took up arms and entered Bohemia. But
 
 7 RE A TY OF TESIN. ^e^ 
 
 the war proved of little military importance, and was prosecuted 
 without vigour, consisting only of a series of patrols, manoeuvres, 
 and reconnaissances. The Austrians called it Zwetschge7irummel 
 (the Plum Skirmish), and the Germans, Kartoffelkrieg (the 
 Potato War). " Chienne de guerre politique ! " growled old 
 Loudon, who was used to more heroic struggles. The mediation 
 of France and Russia brought about the treaty of Tesin (Tes- 
 chen) in 1779, ^"d in this treaty Austria consented to accept 
 considerably less than she had claimed. Maria Theresa only 
 kept the Innviertel, a district situated between Salzburg and 
 Passau, on the Lower Inn and the Salza. It includes about 
 thirty-eight square miles, and Braunau on the Inn is the chief 
 town. The treaty of Tesin was prepared and concluded by 
 Thugut and Cobenzel, two statesmen who afterwards became 
 celebrated, and was the last diplomatic act of the reign of 
 Maria Theresa. She died soon after it, on the 29th of No- 
 vember, 1780. On her death the Austrian dominions, in- 
 cluding the Low Countries and Italian possessions, comprised 
 eleven thousand and ninety-five square miles.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 BOHEMIA, HUNGARY, AND AUSTRIA UNDER MARIA THERESA. 
 
 Bohemia. 
 
 In the reign of Maria Theresa, Bohemia, which had already 
 been so cruelly tried, became once more the battle-field of the 
 enemies of the house of Austria. In 1741, the elector of 
 Bavaria pushed his way as far as Prague, and there summoned 
 the Estates. Four hundred nobles and knights, whose lands 
 were occupied by his troops, answered the summons and took 
 the oath of allegiance to him in the cathedral of St. Vit, 
 Maurice, prince of Manderscheid and archbishop of Prague, 
 himself officiating on the occasion, — so weak was still the tie 
 Avhich attached the kingdom to the house of Austria ! The 
 Chekhs had little reason to love the dynasty, and a change of 
 master was a matter of small importance to them. The high 
 state dignitaries were the only persons who remained true to 
 the queen, and they quitted the capital. Charles of Bavaria 
 instituted a provisional government, at the head of which he 
 placed Philip Krakovsky of Kolovrat ; established a chancery 
 for the Bohemian kingdom in Munich ; convoked the diet in 
 order to obtain supplies for the prosecution of the war ; and 
 then returned to Germany. It was by him, as'king of Bohemia, 
 that the county of Glatz (Kladsko) was given up to Frederick, 
 but Maria Theresa was afterwards obliged to ratify the agree- 
 ment. Later on, the French invaded Bohemia under the
 
 CONDITION OF BOHEMIA. 365 
 
 command of Marshal Belle-Isle, and Prague was occupied by 
 them. 
 
 It was not until April, 17 43, that Maria Theresa entered 
 Prague and was crowned by the bishop of Olomouc. In order 
 in future to prevent the coronation of a foreigner with the 
 Bohemian crown, and also gradually to destroy its historic 
 value, she had it taken to Vienna. The loss of Silesia deprived 
 the kingdom of St. Vacslav of a third of its territory. The 
 queen called upon the Estates to ratify the arrangement, wish- 
 ing to divide with them her responsibility in the matter, and 
 she afterwards thanked them for their help. But Bohemia had 
 other sacrifices to make besides that of Silesia. It gave up all 
 control over the army ; agreed that appeals should in future be 
 carried to Vienna ; that the chancery of Bohemia should be 
 absorbed in the high chancery of the court, and that the 
 criminal law should in future be the same as that of the rest of 
 the Austrian dominions. An archbishopric of Olomouc was 
 created, and Moravia removed by this means from the spiritual 
 jurisdiction of Prague. And finally the German language was 
 introduced into all schools and offices, as the sole official 
 language of administration and instruction. These were hard 
 blows to the Chekh nationality. A census taken in the reign 
 of Maria Theresa gave the number of males in the kingdom 
 as twelve hundred thousand, implying a population probably 
 of two millions and a half. Immediately after the Thirty 
 Years' War ifhad been but eight hundred thousand. 
 
 Maria Theresa gained some amount of popularity in Bohemia 
 by one single act — her edict about forced labour, which was 
 issued in 1773. The peasants did not at first understand the 
 new regulations, and believed that the queen had released them 
 from all dues and that her agents hid the truth from them. 
 They marched to Prague in bands, in order to see the real 
 text of the royal document, and burned and pillaged the castles 
 on the road. It took a large army to reduce them to order, 
 and general Wallis had great difficulty in protecting the capital. 
 After the loss of Silesia, Maria Theresa had two fortresses built,
 
 ^66 HISTORY OF A USTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 one called Terezin (Theresienstadt) and the other Josefov 
 (Josephstadt), to protect the country from Prussian invasion. 
 
 Hungary — '■^ Moriamur pro rege nostra." 
 
 "We have seen how the house of Austria never ceased to 
 oppress the Hungarian nobles. They knew not how precious 
 they would one day become to them. They sought among 
 that nation money which it had not, and never saw the value of 
 the men it had. When a throng of princes divided its terri- 
 tories among themselves, the various parts of the monarchy 
 became as it were a motionless and inert mass ; no life remained 
 except among that nobility, which grew wrathful and then forgot 
 its wrath to take up arms, and found its glory in pardoning 
 and in dying for those who had injured it." These words of 
 Montesquieu express, with the brevity habitual to the author 
 of " L'Esprit des Lois," the feeling of admiration which the 
 devotion of the Magyars to Maria Theresa roused throughout 
 Europe. Those who do not know the Hungarians have seen 
 in this devotion nothing but the expression of their knightly 
 feelings ; but the Magyars are legists as well as knights, and 
 these opposite characteristics of the race find their expression 
 in the characters of Verboczy and Rakoczy. We must now 
 explain with some detail the legendary and picturesque event 
 which is associated with the celebrated words, '■'■ Moriamur pro 
 rege nostro Maria Theresa ! " 
 
 Charles VI. had not been content with the recognition of 
 his daughter as his heir by the kingdom of Hungary; he had 
 also wished that his son-in-law, Francis of Lorraine, should 
 enter into personal relations with the Magyar nation. On the 
 death of the palatine Palffy, in 1732, he did not make a new 
 appointment to this high office, but instead gave his son-in-law 
 the title of royal lieutenant. Now, the Hungarians were 
 exceedingly anxious, and all the more so since the Pragmatic 
 Sanction, not to be confounded with the mass of hereditary 
 states. When Charles VI. died his successor had not yet been 
 crowned. Should Francis of Lorraine ascend the Hungarian
 
 " MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO." 367 
 
 throne with his wife, and should he, as seemed ah-eady ahnost 
 certain, be elected emperor, Hungary would run great risk of 
 becoming merely an appendage to Germany, If, on the 
 contrary, the crown of St. Stephen were placed on the head of 
 Maria Theresa alone, there would be far greater hope of pre- 
 serving the historic individuality of Hungary. 
 
 On the death of her father, Maria Theresa had entrusted 
 the government to John Palfify, field-marshal and judex curiae, 
 the old companion-in-arms of prince Eugbne. She gave him 
 full powers, and promised to respect the liberties of the kingdom, 
 and to convoke a diet before long. This diet was held in 
 May, 1 741, and the debates in it were very animated, the 
 majority of the members being opposed to the idea of the 
 husband of the new queen being associated with her on the 
 throne. Some days later, the queen received a deputation at 
 Vienna, bringing her the congratulations of the diet, not only 
 on her accession, but also on the birth of the future Joseph H. 
 This deputation received fresh assurances that the privileges 
 of the kingdom should be respected, and that the queen would 
 very shortly come, to Pozsony (Pressburg). She embarked on 
 the Danube on the 19th of July, her boat being decorated with 
 the Hungarian colours, red, white, and green. On the frontier 
 she was saluted with cries of " Vivat domina et rex noster ! " — 
 the title of J?ex having been given by the Hungarians to the only 
 woman who had reigned before her in Hungary. On the 2rst, 
 in the castle of Pozsony, she received the homage of the diet, 
 and in a Latin speech renewed the promises which she had 
 already made to Palffy. She undertook to maintain all the 
 rights and privileges of the kingdom — with the single exception 
 of the thirty-first article of the Golden Bull, which proclaimed 
 the right of insurrection ; — to leave the sacred crown in 
 Hungary; and to renew all the clauses of the Pragmatic 
 Sanction. 
 
 The diet was full of sympathy for the young queen, whose 
 graceful manner conciliated the hearts of even the fiercest, but 
 it was careful not to yield to her one of the privileges of the
 
 368 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 country. It insisted that the nobles should be free from 
 taxation ; that the peasant and not the land should be taxed ; 
 that Transylvania should remain indissolubly united to 
 Hungary ; and that Hungarians alone should hold office. 
 Their deliberations were noisy. But, fortunately for Maria 
 Theresa, the diet chose Palffy as palatine, and he professed the 
 most chivalrous devotion to the queen. He gained over the 
 most troublesome members, and persuaded the diet to leave all 
 questions then pending to be decided after the coronation. 
 That ceremony, which has always excited the enthusiasm of 
 the Mao^yars, who are exceedingly jealous of their autonomy 
 and devotedly attached to the holy crown, took place now 
 under circumstances of especial interest. It was a young and 
 beautiful princess whose brow was encircled by the hereditary 
 diadem, and who, mounted on a fiery courser, brandished the 
 sword of St. Stephen to the four quarters of the globe from the 
 top of the King's Hill. 
 
 " She was one of the most beautiful women in Europe," 
 writes an English eye-witness. " Her figure was elegant and 
 her bearing majestic. Her eyes were expressive and full of 
 sweetness. It was only a short time before that she had given 
 birth to her son, and a look of delicacy which still remained 
 lent a new charm to her features. Everything about her was 
 charming. This portrait, which is not in the least flattered, 
 ought to be present in the mind of every one who recalls the 
 enthusiasm which this princess inspired in the Hungarians." 
 
 And yet disputes began again directly after the coronation ; 
 even the hundred thousand florins, which were to be a "gift 
 on her joyful accession," became the subject of bargaining ; 
 and the Magyar passion for legal forms expressed itself in 
 a number of vexatious quibbles which drew tears from the 
 eyes of the young queen. The first scene of the sensational 
 story which has been so much exaggerated in the telling by 
 contemporary writers took place on the 13th of September, 
 1740. The queen had summoned the two Tables to the castle 
 of Pozsony, and appeared before them dressed in mourning,
 
 CONCESSIO.XS TO HUNGARY. . 369 
 
 the crown upon her head, the sword of St. Stephen by her 
 side. The dangers which threatened her and the country were 
 first enumerated by Louis Batthyany, the chancellor, and Maria 
 I'heresa herself then made a short Latin speech calling upon the 
 assembly to provide for the safety of herself, her children, and 
 her crown. Her speech, which was mingled with tears, called 
 forth considerable but suppressed emotion, which grew during 
 the reply of the primate, the nobles interrupting him with cries 
 of " Vitatn et sanguhiem ! " and a levy of one hundred thousand 
 men was at once decided on. On the 20th of September, in 
 another sitting, the prince consort was accepted as co-regent of 
 the kingdom. On the 21st he took the oaths and promised to 
 devote his blood and his life to the queen and to Hungary, and 
 it was on this occasion that Maria Theresa showed her young 
 son, w^ho had arrived from Esztergom (Gratz) only the evening 
 before, to the assembled diet, and that the celebrated cry broke 
 forth, " Moriamjir pro rege nostra Maria Theresa ! " It was 
 not the spontaneous expression of chivalrous feeling ; it was 
 the result of prolonged negociations and of emotions skilfully 
 called forth. Contemporaries themselves were misled, and 
 concentrated into one single moment all the phases of an 
 event of whose details they were ignorant. This diet, which 
 broke up on the 29th of October, had in fact devoted itself 
 almost entirely to the preservation of Hungarian interests. 
 The queen had been obliged to agree to all its demands, which 
 were, indeed, perfectly lawful ; she had consented to the sup- 
 pression of the military frontiers in Sirmia and Lower Slavonia, 
 in the comitats of Bacs, Bodrog, Csongrad, Arad, Csanad, 
 and in the banat of the Temes, and she had obtained, in ex- 
 change for these concessions, the help she needed to enable 
 her to continue the war. 
 
 . The enthusiasm of the Hungarians did not pass away with 
 the circumstances which had given birth to it. Maria Theresa 
 owed some of her best troops to them ; the Servians and 
 Croats commanded by Baron Von Trenck acquired a legendary 
 reputation for their valour and their cruelty. These fierce 
 
 2 B
 
 3/0 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 fandoars, used to war with Turks and now thrown suddenly 
 into the midst of civilized Europe, brought with them the 
 half-savage habits which they had learned in their frequent 
 contact with Asiatic hordes. The devotion of the Magyars 
 to Maria Theresa was proved on many a field of battle, and 
 their horsemen penetrated as far as Berlin, and even to Alsace. 
 Frederick II., with the skill which so often aided Prussian 
 ambition, tried to destroy the fidelity of the Hungarians to their 
 queen by recalling to their minds their insurrections in times 
 past, and the services then rendered to them by the house of 
 Brandenburg ; but his efforts were in vain. 
 
 The Feasant Question — The Military Frontiers. 
 
 This exchange of services between the Magyar nobles and 
 the court of Vienna formed a tie between them such as had 
 never previously existed. The great nobles were assiduous in 
 their attendance at the palaces of Vienna, Schonbrunn, and 
 Laxenburg, and contact with the Bohemian and Austrian 
 nobility and the gentle influence of the empress-queen led 
 them gradually to give up the favourite national dress and 
 national language, and to seek and obtain the foreign titles of 
 prince, count, or baron. A body-guard of Hungarians was 
 at this time formed at Vienna, and the order of St. Stephen 
 instituted, and, by means of ingeniously contrived marriages 
 and a whole system of cleverly devised temptations, the higher 
 nobility were persuaded to allow themselves to be Gerttianized. 
 But the landed gentry (^petite noblesse) remained incorruptible, 
 and in the discussions of the Lower Table and at the meetings 
 of the comitats they continued to defend with invincible 
 obstinacy the pockets and the privileges of their order. 
 
 The disputes between the queen and the chambers turned 
 upon two essential questions, the condition of the peasants 
 and the constitution of the military frontiers. In Hungary the 
 peasants were serfs of the soil. Both the philanthropic ideas 
 of the eighteenth century and the financial interests of the 
 kingdom required the abolition of serfdom. It is more easy
 
 THE PEASANT QUESTION. 3/1 
 
 to tax land, which is a stable element, than the person who 
 cultivates it, and who is, from the nature of things, liable to 
 constant changes. The queen asked for a reform of the old 
 system ; the nobles replied by a series of complaints against 
 the encroachments of the German officials, against the council 
 of regency, against the powers of the military commanders 
 and agoiinst the title of Landtag (local diet), which had been 
 applied, perhaps designedly, to the Hungarian diet, instead 
 of that of Reichstag, or diet of the kingdom. The queen, 
 however, issued, and by dint of perseverance succeeded in 
 enforcing, an edict which remained the fundamental law regu- 
 lating the life of the peasant down to the year 1832. This was 
 called an urbarimn, from the German word Jirbar, a term applied 
 to administrative rules or traditional customs affecting the 
 relations between lord and peasant. By the urbarium of 
 Maria Theresa, peasants obtained the rights of moving from 
 place to place and of bringing up their children as they wished, 
 and all suits in which they might be engaged were in future 
 to be tried before the courts of the comitat. These liberal 
 measures were only accepted by the nobles with the greatest 
 reluctance ; but they found some compensation in the matter 
 of the military frontiers. 
 
 The old system of the court at Vienna had aimed at the 
 complete separation of the frontier lands from the kingdom of 
 St. Stephen. It was argued that they had been freed from 
 Turkish rule by the imperial armies, and therefore ought to 
 belong to the emperor. Moreover, the Slav populations of 
 those districts were of alien nationality, and had no sort of 
 wish to be united to the Magyars, preferring their present 
 obligations of military service to the condition of the oppressed 
 Servians of the comitats. Among other privileges, they pos- 
 sessed those of holding an assembly of their own, and of 
 choosing their own bishop. Maria Theresa, however, was 
 obliged to yield to the demands of the Hungarians, and to 
 consent to suppress the frontiers of the Ti«za and the Maros 
 (1750). In consequence of this, no less than one hundred
 
 372 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 thousand Servians left the country and, under their leaders 
 Horvat and Tokdly, settled in Russia, in the province of 
 Ekaterinoslav. The Austro-Hungarian army lost some of its 
 best soldiers by the exodus, and the grdnzer (soldiers of the 
 frontier), who remained in the country in a state of great 
 discontent, in 1755 rose in a rebellion which was not sup- 
 pressed without bloodshed. Owing to the remonstrance of 
 the Hungarians, the Servians were in 1776 forbidden any 
 longer to maintain an agent at Vienna to look after their 
 interests; and at last, in 1779, the lands between the Maros, 
 the Tisza, the Danube, and the Carpathians were incorporated 
 with the rest of the kingdom, and formed into three comitats, 
 those of Torontol, Krasso, and Temes. Thus Hungary re- 
 covered the territory which had been gradually separated from 
 her by Vienna. The partition of Poland ought also to have 
 restored to her the towns in the county of Szepes (Zips) ; but 
 Maria Theresa refused to annex this new acquisition to the 
 kingdom, although she had laid claim to Galicia on the ground 
 of ancient rights belonging to the crown of St. Stephen. 
 
 In 1765, she associated her son Joseph with herself in the 
 government, and some of the measures decided on after this 
 date would seem to have been inspired by the philosophic 
 mind of this prince ; as, for example, the suppression of the 
 right of sanctuary and of the mendicant orders, the develop- 
 ment of public instruction, and the foundation of numerous 
 village schools. The Hungarians are grateful to him to this 
 day for having given them the port of Fiume (Rieka), which 
 had formerly been dependent on Trieste. It is still a matter 
 of dispute whether the town of Rieka was united to Croatia or 
 to Hungary proper.' The possession of the town has been 
 claimed most energetically by the Croats, but the government 
 at Vienna has decided finally that if belongs to Hungary. 
 
 To sum up : on the death of Maria Theresa the kingdom 
 was materially in a flourishing condition, but from a national 
 point of view it was enfeebled, and had lost the greater part 
 of those ancient rights whose maintenance was so dear to
 
 PROGRESS OF CENTRALIZATION. 373 
 
 patriots. The diet of the kingdom, which, according to the 
 Golden Bull, ought to meet every year, met only three times 
 during the whole of her reign. 
 
 Reforms in Administration and Education. 
 
 It was the ceaseless aim of Maria Theresa to develop the 
 authority of the prince, and to diminish that of the Estates in 
 the Hereditary Provinces, as well as in the kingdoms of Bohemia 
 and Hungary. Almost all the executive power had hitherto 
 been in the hands of the prelates, lords, knights, and a few 
 privileged towns; justice was administered by the towns or 
 the lords ; the roads were bad and the militia managed on 
 no regular system. In the reign of Maria Theresa, govern- 
 ment began to interfere with the churches and schools, and 
 took pains to secure to the inhabitants of towns the position 
 which had hitherto been refused them. The empress retained, 
 on her accession, the principal advisers of her father, Zinzen- 
 dorf, Kinsky, and Harrach. After the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 she made Frederick William of Haugwitz chancellor of Austria, 
 in which post he rendered her important services. Maria 
 Theresa wrote to his widow, " Haugwitz brought the govern- 
 ment out of confusion into order." Later on, she united the 
 two chanceries of Bohemia and Austria. Chotek was called 
 upon to reform the finances, and Kaunitz foreign affairs. 
 
 The following were the principal measures taken to increase 
 the power of the central government. The power of voting a 
 certain number of indirect taxes, such as those on salt, tobacco, 
 and stamps, was taken from the diets. The Estates were in 
 future to be required to present their budgets to the court of 
 accounts at Vienna (^Hofrechnungkammer). All political power 
 was taken from them and vested in the royal lieutenant. The 
 peasants were relieved from some portion of their labour services 
 and seignorial dues. Up to this time the central administration 
 had been divided between the chanceries of Austria, Bohemia, 
 Hungary, and Transylvania, but the imperial chancery and the 
 council of war had exercised jurisdiction over all the territories,
 
 374 HIS70RY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 except those in Italy and the Low Countries, and with these we 
 have nothing to do. The patent of the 14th of May, 1749, 
 separated the admistration of justice from the legislative and 
 executive functions of government, and decreed the union of the 
 Bohemian and Austrian chanceries in one supreme power, called 
 at first the Directory of the Interior {Directorhwi in Tnfernis), 
 and afterwards the United Chancery of the Imperial and Royal 
 court {Kaiserliche Konigliche Vereinigte Hofkanzlei). Thus 
 did the absolute monarchy take the first steps towards the 
 arrangement now in force under the parliamentary system of 
 Cisleithania. In 1760, Maria Theresa also instituted a council 
 of state whose business it was to watch over the whole ad- 
 ministration. Administrative power was gradually withdrawn 
 from the permanent committees of the provincial diets, and 
 vested in the representative of the sovereign power, giiberniuni 
 (lieutenancy or agency) ; and the Estates were only allowed to 
 meet in order to vote money to the crown. OfiEicials were 
 appointed by the court in those circles from which they had 
 hitherto been excluded, and they became the representatives 
 of the central authority, and were required to protect the 
 peasants against their lords. 
 
 The peasants, without being serfs — except in Hungary — 
 were almost absolutely dependent on the territorial lords ; they 
 had not the ownership, but only the usufruct of their holdings ; 
 without the lord's permission they could neither quit the estate, 
 nor marry, nor bring up their children to any other business 
 than that of agricultural labourer; and they were bound to 
 perform many services, which were known by the Slav name 
 of robot, corresponding to the corvee of France. Maria 
 Theresa set herself to improve their condition. She had a 
 new survey of the land taken, in order to be able to regulate 
 the land-tax, and put an end to that exemption from taxation 
 which the territorial lords had hitherto enjoyed. These mea- 
 sures suited not only the needs of the treasury, but also the 
 humanitarian ideas which were coming into favour. They 
 were enforced in all the Cisleithanian states except the Tyrol,
 
 REFORM OF THE COMMUNAL SYSTEM. 375 
 
 (lOrica. Gradiska, and Trieste, where feudal institutions were 
 but little known. The policy of Maria Theresa was to improve 
 the condition of the peasants in order to weaken the nobles ; 
 to attract the great nobles to Vienna, so that their influence 
 should be lessened ; and, by uniting the aristocracy of the 
 various portions of her empire, to bring about the unity of the 
 monarchy. 
 
 The reform of the communal system presented great diffi- 
 culties. Down to the middle of the eighteenth century there 
 were the most radical differences in the constitutions of the 
 various communes. Some of them depended upon a lay, others 
 upon an ecclesiastical lord ; while others, especially cities and 
 towns, were under the immmediate authority of the sovereign. 
 Some of them were in possession of complete freedom, while 
 others were tyrannized over by their lords or by the royal 
 agents. Some of the towns possessed the rights of representa- 
 tion in the diet. Their constitutions differed as much as did 
 those of the Italian republics : here the government was aristo- 
 cratic, there a pure democracy ; here municipal offices were 
 hereditary, there elective. The institutions of the Middle Ages — 
 as, for example, the guilds — were still vigorous, and we find town 
 burgesses and " burgesses of the suburbs," " great burgesses " 
 and "small burgesses;" while in those towns which were under 
 Italian influence, such as Trieste and Gorica, there existed a 
 patriciate, or hereditary aristocracy. After 1 748, these mediaeval 
 institutions began to disappear, and one of the laws passed in 
 1776, proclaiming as it did freedom of trade, attacked the 
 principle on which trading corporations or guilds were based. 
 Maria Theresa also appointed a body of magistrates who 
 administered justice and took the place of the old local courts. 
 
 In the middle of the eighteenth century, the law of the 
 country was solely made up of prescriptive rights and local 
 customs, whose deficiencies were supplied from civil, i.e. Roman 
 law, canon law, or, in some provinces, imperial decrees. The 
 fundamental principle was that every citizen should be judged by 
 his peers. Clergy, universities, nobles, public officials, citizens.
 
 3/6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 peasants, and Jews all had their separate tribunals. From the 
 lords on their estates and the magistrates in the towns there 
 was no appeal. Punishments were still barbarous. The most 
 usual were branding, mutilation, the wheel and the stake, and 
 these awful penalties were usually inflicted by ignorant and 
 superstitious judges. Civil suits dragged on for an indefinite 
 period, and often no final decision was arrived at. To put an 
 end to this state of things, Maria Theresa resolved, in 1753, to 
 make one uniform legislation for the whole of her dominions. 
 The work of compilation took many years. The commission 
 appointed by the sovereign first produced eight folio volumes 
 in 1767; these were afterwards abridged, and in 1776 the 
 first volume of the new compilation appeared. In 1768, the 
 " Constitutio criminalis Theresiana " had been published. It 
 had retained the barbarous penalties of the Middle Ages, 
 admitted torture, and punished blasphemy. But even legal 
 procedure was making progress; and, in 1777, torture was 
 finally abolished, and trials for witchcraft, if not entirely sup- 
 pressed, were at least considerably checked. A patent of the 
 14th of May, 1749, had separated the administration of justice 
 from provincial business, and a minister of justice had been 
 appointed for all the non-Hungarian states. Some of these 
 praiseworthy reforms had, it is true, the Utopian character 
 which is not uncommon in the eighteenth century ; as, for 
 example, the institution of the so-called commission of chastity, 
 whose office it was to prevent all unlawful amours. 
 
 Though she was a sincere Catholic, Maria Theresa never 
 sacrificed the state to the Church. She put an end to the 
 ecclesiastical penalties which the priests had been in the habit 
 of imposing; forbade the various religious orders to send 
 money out of the country, the papal nuncios to travel in her 
 dominions, and the bishops to correspond directly with the 
 court of Rome. She also prohibited priests from having 
 anything to do with the making of wills. In 1773, the order 
 of Jesuits was suppressed in Austria, as it was throughout the 
 rest of Europe.
 
 EDUCATION. 377 
 
 Down to 1740, public instruction had either been entirely 
 in the hands of the clergy or under their control. There were 
 hardly any elementary schools, and the teaching in the higher 
 schools was extremely poor. Austrian education was in a state 
 of miserable inferiority compared with either France or Northern 
 (Germany. It was a foreigner who was entrusted with its 
 improvement— Gerhard van Swieten, a Dutch professor of 
 medicine at Vienna — who was physician to Maria Theresa, 
 and also the illiberal president of the commission for the 
 censorship of the press. All schools were placed under state 
 control. A law passed on the 7th of February, 1749, reserved 
 the sole right of choosing the professors of the university of 
 Vienna to the government, and, soon after, the schools 
 belonging to the Jesuits and Piarists were placed under the 
 state. An imperial resolution of the 24th of September, 1770, 
 contains the words, "Das Schuhvesen ist und bleibt allzeit ein 
 Politicum " {" The organization of schools is and must always 
 remain an affair of state ") ; and this principle, pushed to an 
 extreme, bore singular consequences. The universities were 
 not open to every one, and no one could go to study in 
 foreign lands without the permission of the government. Even 
 theological works had to be submitted to government censure, 
 which was extremely strict, and often as intolerant as the 
 ecclesiastical censure. It prohibited even such classical works 
 as those of Machiavelli. A great number of schools for the 
 young nobility were founded during the reign of Maria Theresa, 
 among them the Theresianum, which exists at the present 
 time. In 1766, the commission of instruction and of the 
 censorship of the press was founded. The suppression of the 
 Jesuits influenced the future of education greatly; but at 
 first the majority of the professors had to be chosen from 
 ex-Jesuits, as the number of other teachers was not sufficient. 
 A new education code was published in 1775, ^-'^^ this was 
 in force down to 1850. 
 
 But the best act of Maria Theresa was the foundation of 
 elementary schools. Before 1770, primary education, properly
 
 378 HISTOR Y OF A USTRO-HUNGAR Y. 
 
 SO called, did not exist Down to this date, all schools 
 had been entirely dependent on the Church ; the state had 
 had nothing to do with them. A few had been founded 
 by the Piarists ; but those which had once flourished — as, for 
 example, some in Bohemia — had been swept away by the 
 Jesuit reaction. In May, 1770, the first normal school was 
 opened at Vienna, and a royal edict of September in the same 
 year freed schoolmasters from the control of the priests. The 
 suppression of the Jesuits and the sequestration of their 
 property had placed ample funds at the disposal of govern- 
 ment, and enabled it to convert many classical into elementary 
 schools, and in 1774 the Silesian schoolmaster, the celebrated 
 Felbinger, was summoned to Vienna to introduce good 
 methods of teaching. 
 
 At the same time higher education, especially in the 
 university of Vienna, developed rapidly. The faculties of 
 medicine and law took rank among the first in Europe. 
 Besides Van Swieten, who was the worthy disciple of 
 Boerhaave, we may mention the botanist Jacquin, the publicist 
 Sonnenfels, and the archaeologist Eckhel, the real creator 
 of numismatics, as among those whose names are worthy of 
 remembrance. In literature, properly so called, there is not, 
 however, a single name to quote. Poetry made but halting 
 progress, and in her clumsy attempts showed but i^\^ signs of 
 the noble influence of Klopstock or Lessing. Architecture 
 was rococo in style, and sculpture was represented in Vienna by 
 Canova, the Italian. Music was the only great art in which 
 Austria excelled, and under Gliick, Haydn, and Mozart, it 
 reached heights hitherto unknown. In their immortal works 
 we may trace the influence of the races among whom they 
 were composed ; they combine the melodious brightness of 
 Italian music, the depth of harmony of the German, and the 
 melancholy of the Slav. Of all the manifestations of the mind 
 of man, music is perhaps the only one which can develop in 
 a state of intellectual servitude.
 
 PROGRESS OF TRADE. 379 
 
 Finance — Trade — The Army. 
 
 Francis I., the husband of Maria Theresa, busied himself 
 chiefly with the finances, and was assisted in the work by 
 Chotek, a Chekh noble, who had succeeded Haugwitz as 
 chancellor of Bohemia and Austria in 1761. He was well 
 acquainted with economic questions, and his first care was to 
 reduce the expenses of the court. On the accession of Maria 
 Theresa the finances were in a miserable condition ; we are 
 assured that not more than eighty-seven thousand thalers 
 remained of her father's treasure. Chotek proceeded to levy 
 a tax on property and another on persons, to which every one 
 contributed, from the prince, who paid six hundred florins, 
 down to the maid-servant, who paid four kreutzers, exemption 
 from taxation being completely abolished. Count Chotek 
 was the first to show what use could be made of Trieste in 
 order to compete with the commerce of Venice. That town 
 grew rapidly ; Dutch, Neapolitan, and Greek merchants settled 
 there for trading purposes, and entered into relations with 
 both hemispheres. By 1763, Austria had twelve large ships 
 trading with India, one of which took possession of the 
 Nicobar Islands in 1776. 
 
 By this date, the port of Trieste was habitually frequented 
 by six thousand vessels. Twenty-five consulates were estab- 
 lished in the Mediterranean and Atlantic ; seven in Italy, 
 thirteen in Turkey in Europe and Turkey in Asia, one at 
 Ragusa, one at Alexandria, one at Tripoli, and one at Lisbon. 
 The Oriental Academy, which was founded at Vienna in 1754, 
 furnished capable and well-educated men as consuls. The 
 Hofcotnmerzialrath (Board of Trade) was established in 1766, 
 and did much to develop commerce, the cloth of Moravia 
 being especially and widely in demand. 
 
 Roads and canals were improved, while the customs dues 
 established in the interior were either abolished or reduced. 
 The postal arrangements were also greatly improved. Chotek 
 created a reserve fund for unforeseen accidents, and raised the
 
 38o HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 credit of Austria by his punctuality in meeting the charges of 
 the public debt. During the reign of Charles VI. the state 
 revenue had scarcely reached the sum of thirty millions of 
 florins ; by 1773 it had almost reached fifty-six millions, and 
 by the time of Maria Theresa's death it exceeded eighty 
 millions. A patent, bearing date 1 751, reorganized the lottery, 
 which by the end of this reign was bringing in to the treasury 
 no less than one hundred thousand florins. 
 
 The system of centralization was applied to the depart- 
 ment of war as early as to that of foreign affairs. Each state, 
 however, retained the right of voting its contingent for the army. 
 The total number of troops rose to one hundred and thirty 
 thousand men, without counting the irregulars furnished by 
 Hungary. Military schools were opened, and Maria Theresa 
 anxiously watched over the welfare of her soldiers. During 
 the war of the Austrian succession, a medal was struck in her 
 honour, which bore the well-deserved superscription, " Mater 
 castroriun." After the battle of Kolin, she founded the military 
 order of Maria Theresa. Some reforms were borrowed from 
 the Prussian army, as, for instance, marching in time ; and the 
 corps of sappers and miners was introduced. The artillery 
 was commanded by prince Lichtenstein, and was considered 
 the best in Europe. In 1772, conscription was introduced 
 into Bohemia, Austria, Moravia, Carniola, Carinthia, and 
 Galicia ; the Tyrol and Hungary were exempted. We have 
 already spoken of the military frontiers. During the Seven 
 Years' War there were no less than two hundred thousand men 
 under arms. "A woman," said Frederick II., " has carried out 
 measures that are worthy of a man." At this period, the 
 Austrian navy was composed of nine ships of war carrying one 
 hundred and ten guns, and six galleys of thirty-six guns each. 
 
 " On the accession of Maria Theresa," writes Sonnenfels, 
 " the monarchy had neither external influence nor internal 
 vigour ; for ability there was no emulation and no encourage- 
 ment ; the state of agriculture was miserable, trade small, the 
 finances badly managed, and credit bad. At her death, she left
 
 CONDITION OF THE EMPIRE. 38 1 
 
 to her successor a kingdom improved by her many reforms, and 
 placed in that rank which its size and fertiUty and the intelH- 
 gence of its inhabitants ought always to enable it to maintain." 
 Maria Theresa had certainly greater claims to the title of 
 "Great" than had Catherine of Russia, and yet it has never 
 been bestowed upon her.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 JOSEPH II. (l 780-1 790). 
 
 Character of Joseph II. 
 
 Joseph II. was forty years of age when he came to the throne. 
 He had been emperor for fifteen years, and his mother had 
 ah-eady associated him with herself, to some extent, in the 
 government of the Austrian states. He seems to have taken 
 Frederick the Great as his model. Greatly influenced by the 
 philosophical ideas of his time, he had waited with some degree 
 of impatience for the moment when he should be ably to carry 
 his ideas into practice in his own dominions. During the life- 
 time of Maria Theresa it was necessary to conceal his aspira- 
 tions, or at any rate to give expression to but few of them, 
 and for many years there existed an open hostility between the 
 old court of the empress and the young court of the emperor. 
 Having for so long a time been obliged to confine himself to 
 the domain of pure theory, the new sovereign hardly realized 
 what difficulties stood in the way of the practical application of 
 his ideas. A few weeks before his accession, the prince de 
 Ligne said of him, " He will be a man of feeble desires which 
 he will never be able to satisfy \ his whole reign will be one 
 constant desire to sneeze." It has been well remarked that 
 almost every one of the changes made by the French Con- 
 stituent Assembly were first tried by Joseph 11. ; but the sharp 
 remedies of the French Revolution were tried on a homogeneous 
 people who were in a much more enlightened state than were
 
 POLICY OF JOSEPH II. 383 
 
 the subjects of Austria, and indeed many of them would 
 probably never have been accepted in France had they not 
 been enforced by the terrorism of the Convention and the 
 despotic rule of Napoleon. Joseph II., a philosopher king, 
 looked upon men as so much inert matter to be moulded at 
 will, on which a sovereign might make what experiments he 
 pleased as in anima vili. 
 
 Those which he tried during his reign came either too soon or 
 too late : too soon, because the minds of men were not yet ripe 
 for that liberty of thought and religious tolerance which he 
 wished to introduce ; too late, because the peoples whom he 
 wished to civilize by Germanizing them were already aroused 
 to a consciousness of their national individuality. Joseph II. 
 had been restricted by his mother to the management of 
 military matters, and he now expected to rule the monarchy as 
 if it were a regiment. He aimed at making philosophy "the 
 law-maker of his empire," and the works of the encyclopaedists 
 and of the French economists, especially the physiocrats, were 
 his favourite study. During his visit to Paris, he had made the 
 acquaintance of Necker, Turgot, Buffon, Rousseau, Marmontel, 
 and D'Alembert, He could find no such men in Austria to 
 help him to carry out his plans. Those whom he had — Von 
 Kressel, Von Gebler, Martin, Gottfried van Swieten, Sonnenfels 
 the converted Jew, Rautenstrauch, etc. — were most of them 
 members of the secret societies of the Freemasons or the 
 lUuminati. These societies had been obliged to conceal their 
 existence under Maria Theresa. In Joseph's reign, they were 
 tolerated ; and we find quite early in it that there was a Lodge 
 of True Concord at Vienna, where the most noted free-thinkers 
 of the capital met, a Lodge of Crowned Hope, and a Joseph 
 Lodge. By the end of 1785, Freemasonry was officially 
 recognized in Austria. 
 
 Joseph II. had a very simple plan of action, which might 
 be reduced to this formula — the destruction of everything 
 which was contrary to his philosophical opinions, without any 
 reference to either historical or religious prejudices or opinions.
 
 384 HISTORY OF A USTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 His most ardent wish was to bring about a complete similarity 
 in language and culture among all the various nations whom 
 fate had placed under his rule. He wrote to an Hungarian 
 noble who had protested against the introduction of the 
 German language into his country, " Every proposal ought to 
 be based upon the irrefutable arguments of reason. , . . The 
 German language is the universal language of my empire. I 
 am emperor of Germany. The principalities which I possess 
 are provinces which form one whole with the state of which 
 I am the head. If the kingdom of Hungary had been the 
 most important of my possessions, I should not have hesitated 
 to make all the other countries speak Hungarian." 
 
 There were two obstacles which Joseph H. in his war with 
 the past found quite insurmountable, and which led to his 
 defeat in the struggle ; on the one side religious tradition and 
 faith, and on the other historical tradition and the sense of 
 nationality. We shall soon see how he provoked a patriotic 
 reaction in Bohemia and Hungary, the consequences of which 
 have not yet passed away ; while even in his efforts against 
 Ultramontanism he did not always manage to have right on 
 his side. 
 
 Church Reforms. 
 
 From the very beginning of his reign Joseph declared 
 war on the Holy See and the religious orders. "We must 
 lessen the influence of the Ulemas," he wrote in a letter to 
 Cardinal Herzan, his minister in Rome. " I despise super- 
 stitions and Sadducees, and I must free my people from them. 
 The principles of monasticism and human reason are in flat 
 contradiction to each other." Again, he wrote to the arch- 
 bishop of Salzburg,, " Monks are the most dangerous and most 
 useless subjects that a country can possess." The following 
 are the principal measures which resulted from these opinions. 
 The right of granting marriage dispensations, which had hitherto 
 been reserved for the Holy See, was now transferred to the 
 Austrian bishops; religious orders were no longer allowed to
 
 CHURCH REFORMS. 385 
 
 recognize as their head any person residing in a foreign land ; 
 no papal bull was to be published before it had received the 
 imperial sanction; the two bulls, In Csena Domini and Uni- 
 genitus, which defined the prerogatives of the pope, were no 
 longer to be taught ; no titles conferred by the Roman chancery 
 were to be used ; no one was to go to Rome to study at the 
 Collegium Germanicum ; and no money was to be sent to 
 Rome. 
 
 All these measures were enacted in 1781. The following 
 year Joseph II. attacked the convents. As a philosopher, he 
 wished to destroy these dens of superstition, and as an econo- 
 mist he would not tolerate idlers who consumed without 
 producing. By a single blow he suppressed more than six hun- 
 dred convents belonging to those orders which made religious 
 contemplation their sole object, and decreed that their property 
 should be applied to charitable works. He caused their pos- 
 sessions to be sold at a low price, not excepting even works of 
 art or sacred utensils. The number of monks, which had been 
 sixty-three thousand, was reduced to twenty thousand, and 
 they were strictly forbidden to maintain any connection with 
 foreign countries. The king interfered even with the details of 
 public w^orship, forbidding the placing of ex voto offerings in 
 the churches, the reading of more masses than one in a church 
 at the same time, the setting apart of altars with special 
 privileges in the matter of indulgences, or the organization 
 of pilgrimages. He also forbade the use of metal candlesticks 
 and wooden coffins ; the dead were to be buried in a sheet 
 only. These two prohibitions were based on an idea of 
 economy ; he maintained that it was useless to waste so much 
 silver, copper, and wood. 
 
 In 1 781, an edict of toleration was also published, which 
 granted \\\& private -w&q. of their religion to Lutherans, Calvinists, 
 and non-uniate Greeks. They were allowed to have schools 
 and churches, but the buildings were to have neither towers nor 
 bells, and their doors were not to open on the public road. These 
 prohibitions did not, however, extend to Hungary or Transyl- 
 
 2 c
 
 386 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 vania, where liberty of conscience had always been more or 
 less enjoyed. Members of the various sects were granted a 
 legal right to acquire property, and were to be admitted to 
 public offices. The condition of the Jews was also improved, 
 and they were allowed to study at the universities and to 
 practise medicine. For more than a century and a half tolera- 
 tion had been completely unknown in Austria, and when it 
 was proclaimed, Hussites, Utraquists, and Bohemian Brothers 
 suddenly reappeared in Bohemia. But Joseph 11, had a 
 fashion of his own of understanding what was meant by re- 
 ligious tolerance, and kept it within official boundaries drawn 
 by himself, beyond which no one was allowed to step. When 
 a sect of Deists was formed in Bohemia, he issued a proclama- 
 tion, one of the articles of which ran thus : " If a man or 
 woman comes to be entered in the lists at the chancery of 
 the circle as a Deist, he must immediately receive four and 
 twenty blows from a stick, not because he is a Deist, but 
 because he pretends to be something concerning which he 
 knows not what it is {weil er vorgibt etwas zu seyn, vo?i dem er 
 nicht weiss was es ist)." 
 
 Incomplete and absurd as some of these measures were, 
 they none the less struck a terrible blow at Catholicism. The 
 archbishops of Vienna and Pesth and the clergy generally pro- 
 tested against them with all their energy, and the following 
 epigram was circulated in the capital : — 
 
 " Tollendos tolerans, tolerandos Austria tollis ; 
 Sic tollens, tolerans, intoleranda facis." 
 
 Pope Pius VI. took a step hitherto unheard of in ecclesiastical 
 annals in the hope of averting the dangers which threatened 
 the Austrian Church. He journeyed to Vienna to see what his 
 personal influence could do with the son of Maria Theresa. 
 On his arrival he was lodged in the imperial castle and treated 
 less as a guest than as a prisoner, not even being allowed to 
 communicate with the Austrian bishops, and though he was 
 received with the most enthusiastic veneration by the Viennese 
 people, he failed altogether to move the scepticism of the prince
 
 yOSEPHINlSM. 387 
 
 and his advisers. His visit even gave rise to a number of 
 violent pamphlets which must have scandalized the ghosts 
 of Ferdinand II. and Maria Theresa. 
 
 After the departure of the pope, Joseph continued his 
 campaign against ecclesiastical institutions with fresh energy. 
 He suppressed all the mendicant orders, even the Trinitarians, 
 whose mission it was to ransom captives from barbarous 
 nations. He would not, he said, have money going out of the 
 country, and he had sufficiently provided for the interests of 
 his subjects by means of treaties and the establishment of 
 consulates. The marriage law passed in January, 1783, was a 
 still more severe blow at the authority of the Church, as it 
 made marriage only a civil contract and allowed divorce. 
 The emperor also deprived all foreign bishops of their estates 
 in Austria and annexed them to his own domains, at the 
 same time that he caused the Austrian bishops to surrender 
 any possessions which involved obedience to foreign powers. 
 On the other hand he increased the number of village priests 
 and elementary schools. The incessant complaints of the 
 Holy See obliged Joseph in his turn to visit Rome, and 
 this meeting with the sovereign pontiff brought about some 
 slight improvement in the action of the emperor towards the 
 Catholic Church, but it was always harsh and often clumsy. 
 Josephinism, as it has since been named, preceded by about 
 a century the Kulturkampf of modern Germany. The univer- 
 sities were as harshly treated as the Church on which they 
 had so long depended, being deprived of their property and 
 becoming state establishments. Joseph II. was essentially utili- 
 tarian in his views, and felt no interest in any but elementary edu- 
 cation, and Van Swieten, when one of his ministers, prevented 
 him even from founding an Academy. But he was more active 
 in furthering projects of philanthropy, and Austria owes to him 
 the establishment of hospitals and the foundation of a school 
 of medicine and surgery. A (ierman university was founded 
 at Lemberg in 1783, but this had for its object the Germanizing 
 of Galicia. Everything which could recall a past hateful to
 
 388 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 the emperor was treated by him with merciless brutality. Thus 
 the palace of Hradcany in Prague was turned into a cavalry 
 barracks, and the treasures of art which adorned it were 
 abandoned to downright pillage. In a list drawn up at the 
 time by one of the imperial agents, Titian's Leda is described 
 thus : '* Item, A naked woman bitten by a wild goose." Most 
 of the legal measures of this time recall the extravagances of 
 the period of the Reformation or anticipate those of the French 
 Revolution. 
 
 Administrative, Judicial, and Economical Reforms. 
 
 Joseph II. was the enemy of all feudal rights and an 
 enthusiastic philanthropist ; he abolished serfdom in Bohemia, 
 Moravia, Galicia, and Hungary, and granted full ownership of 
 the lands they cultivated to the emancipated serfs. The powers 
 of the Kreisdmter (government officials in the circles) were 
 increased, and completely destroyed all those which the feudal 
 lords had hitherto been able to exercise. Nothing was neglected 
 which could help to reduce Bohemia and Hungary to the rank 
 of simple provinces ; the emperor meant to Germanize them 
 at any cost, and then to rule them as a liberal tyrant. If this 
 system had succeeded, when the whole of Austria had become 
 German, she would gradually in her turn have assimilated the 
 whole of Germany, and would form now, in union with her, 
 a nation of nearly twenty-four millions of inhabitants. The 
 possessions of Austria were divided by Joseph into thirteen 
 governments, and subdivided into circles, at the head of each 
 of which was a captain {Kreishauptinann). These govern- 
 ments were — ist, Galicia; 2nd, Bohemia; 3rd, Moravia and 
 Silesia ; 4th, Lower Austria ; 5th, Inner Austria (Styria, 
 Carinthia, and Carniola) ; 6th, the Tyrol ; 7th, Outer Austria 
 (possessions in South-Western Germany); 8th, Transylvania; 
 9th, Hungary; loth, Croatia; nth, Lombardy; 12th, Gorica, 
 Gradisca, and Trieste; 13th, the Low Countries. 
 
 Diets were no longer convoked, and the privileges of the 
 royal towns were entirely abolished ; the old titles of Schul-
 
 ECONOMICAL REFORMS. 389 
 
 theiss, senator, consul, etc. — were suppressed. Each town had 
 a burgomaster, assisted by two or three councillors, who were 
 all really government officials. Joseph II., imbued with the 
 theories of the physiocrats, was determined to arrange the 
 taxation of his dominions according to their notions ; his ideal 
 Avas to be able some day to obtain an average of forty per 
 cent, on all incomes for the use of the state, but meantime he 
 contented himself with establishing a tax levied on the incomes 
 derived from land on the average of the last ten years. It 
 was decreed that thirty per cent, of the net produce of the 
 land should be set aside for the state, and neither nobles nor 
 priests were to be exempted from payment. Two commissions 
 of taxation were created,, one for Hungary and another for the 
 rest of the kingdom, and a government survey was taken at 
 great expense; but this vast undertaking was unfortunately 
 accompanied by many vexatious arrangements, and was usually 
 entrusted to ignorant officials. It lasted for more than five 
 years. 
 
 Joseph's efforts to enrich his people by means of com 
 merce were especially directed to the Low Countries, which 
 possessed the best ports for merchant vessels, and he attempted 
 to obtain the free navigation of the Scheldt, which had been 
 closed by the Dutch since the Barrier Treaty (1714). Owing, 
 however, to the combined resistance of Holland and France, 
 he failed in this ; but he succeeded better on the Danube, 
 and thanks to his exertions the natural wealth of Hungary in 
 corn, wine, and flocks was able to be sold to greater advantage 
 than formerly. A road, called after him the Via Joscphina, was 
 made in his reign to unite the town of Karlovac (Karlstadt) 
 and the ports of Senj (Zeng), and Carlopago (Bag); and the 
 ports on the Adriatic, especially Fiume, were improved. The 
 friendly terms on which he was with the Porte enabled the 
 emperor to obtain freedom from the attacks of the corsairs 
 of Barbary for Austrian ships, and a treaty of friendship and 
 reciprocal trade was concluded with the emperor of Morocco, 
 and another with Turkey and Russia. Joseph was aided in
 
 3^0 HISTORY OF AUSTRO'HUNGARY. 
 
 all these undertakings by count Charles of Zinzendorf, the 
 director of commerce, who had been governor of Trieste. 
 Trade with the Levant acquired a degree of prosperity hitherto 
 unknown, and factories were established even in China and 
 the Indies. The Nicobar Islands were granted to Joseph by 
 Hyder Ali, but the unhealthiness of the climate forced him 
 to abandon them. At home a large number of manufac- 
 tories were built, and it could no longer be said that the 
 Viennese did not even know how to weave a pair of silk 
 stockings. The emperor was a great protectionist, and 
 wished above all things to secure the development of home 
 iuduslries and to restrain importation. As he said, he was 
 desirous that the merchants in his dominions should no 
 longer be merely " the agents of the English, French, and 
 Dutch." His law concerning the customs, which bears date 
 the 27th of August, 1784, introduces a thorough-going pro- 
 tective-system. The importation of foreign produce is en- 
 tirely prohibited ; private persons even may only send for 
 articles of food on payment of heavy duties amounting in 
 some cases to sixty per cent. Even the importation of salt 
 fish is forbidden ! In order to set an example to his subjects, 
 the emperor caused all the foreign wines which were in his 
 cellars to be distributed among the hospitals. The first effect 
 of this system was the creation of smugglers and informers, 
 and the harsh way in which it was carried out by Joseph can 
 only be compared to the severity with which Napoleon tried 
 to maintain the continental blockade against England. He 
 certainly succeeded in making his subjects build factories, but 
 they were for the most part established by foreigners, Swiss. 
 French, and English, who must have carried off a good share 
 of the millions which the emperor wanted to keep by force in 
 his dominions. 
 
 The legislative work which had been begun by Maria 
 Theresa was continued by Joseph II. He published a civil 
 code which formed the basis of that of Francis 11. , the code 
 still in use in the Austrian dominions. His penal code bears
 
 FOREIGN POLICY. 39 1 
 
 traces of the philosophic ideas of the sovereign. He abolished 
 the cruel punishments for blasphemy and sorcery which had 
 been retained by Maria Theresa. The criminal courts were 
 reorganized, and placed under six courts of appeal — those of 
 Vienna, Prague, Klagenfurt, Friburg in Briesgau, Briinn, and 
 Lemberg (Lwow). Hungary was not included. Besides these, 
 there was also a supreme court, divided into three senates — 
 one for the German provinces, another for those belonging to 
 the crown of Bohemia, and a third for Galicia. The crime of 
 rebellion was alone to be punished by death, and torture was 
 abolished. But this code, which was in some respects so 
 humane, still allowed imprisonment in irons for thirty years, 
 the criminal being chained to the wall of his prison, and 
 includes other penalties, which are in some cases absurd, and 
 in others Draconian in their severity. We may mention two 
 of the punishments invented by Joseph H. Criminals were 
 condemned to be chained in pairs, whatever their rank, and 
 forced to sweep the streets of Vienna, or drag the boats which 
 came up the Danube. 
 
 Foreign Policy — TJie Fiirstenbund (1785) — Revolt of the 
 Nethe7'lands — War zvith Turkey (1788). 
 
 In his foreign policy, Joseph H. remained true to that system 
 of which Frederick the Great had set the fashion. He used 
 his utmost endeavours to make his kingdom more compact. 
 Although he was strongly interested in his possessions in the 
 Low Countries, he was well aware that they were a source of 
 difficulty to the house of Austria rather than an element of 
 strength, and in 1785 he attempted to make an exchange with 
 Bavaria. He proposed to Charles Theodore, the elector of 
 Bavaria, — the prince whom a few years earlier he had tried to 
 deprive of all his possessions without any compensation — that 
 they should make the following arrangement : — The elector 
 should give up Bavaria, the Upper Palatinate, Neuburg, 
 Sulzbach, and Leuchtenberg to Austria, and should receive 
 in exchange three millions of money and the whole of the
 
 392 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Austrian Netherlands except Luxemburg and Namur, which 
 towns were to be given to France in order to secure her 
 agreement. Austria would thus have become a homogeneous 
 state, and, absolute mistress of Southern Germany, would 
 have been able more easily to hold in check the greed of 
 Prussia. Frederick defeated all these plans. Under pretence 
 of maintaining the constitution of Germany, he brought about 
 an alliance of the chief German princes, which was called 
 the Fiirstenbund (23rd July, 1785) and thus secured the 
 future of Prussia. Soon after troubles broke out in Belgium. 
 Tired of the despotic rule of the emperor, which attacked both 
 the liberties of the nation and those religious institutions 
 which were so dear to the Catholic population, the country 
 rose and proclaimed its independence (1789). This Belgian 
 insurrection was not suppressed until after the death of 
 Joseph II. 
 
 In his behaviour towards the Turks, the emperor followed 
 tlie example of Leopold I. and Charles VI. His intimate 
 alliance with Catherine II., the esteem which he professed for 
 that princess, and his own philanthropic ideas, all led to this 
 policy. In an interview with Catherine, at Kherson (1786), he 
 and the empress had formed a plan for the complete expulsion 
 of the Ottomans, and the division of their territory between 
 France, England, Austria, Spain, and Russia. When war 
 broke out between Turkey and Russia, Joseph II. at once 
 took part in it. He marched against the Turks " in order to 
 recover those lands which unfortunate circumstances had 
 separated from his empire." The truth was he was deter- 
 mined not to allow the Russians to be the sole heirs of 
 Turkey. In a letter to the king of Prussia, he announces 
 his intention of Germanizing his conquests. It was at this 
 time that the nations in the Balkan Peninsula began to bestir 
 themselves and to dream of their old independence ; there 
 were premonitory signs of the Servian revolution, and the 
 first national poet, Dositei Obradovic, greeted the Austrian 
 army enthusiastically. His poem of "Servia Delivered" has
 
 DEATH OF JOSEPH II. 393 
 
 a frontispiece representing Joseph II. breaking the chains of 
 the southern Slavs. 
 
 " Noble sovereign, Joseph the Great ! " cries the poet, 
 " extend thy protection over the Servian race. Turn thy 
 beneficent face towards a people who were dear to thy 
 ancestors, to miserable Servia and Bosnia, who suffer trials 
 without number. Glory of the world, illustrious monarch 1 
 restore to Bulgaria her boyars, to Servia her heroes of old 
 time, and to Greece her Pindars ! " But the hour of regeneration 
 liad not yet struck for the Danubian Christians, nor was the 
 Austria of Joseph II. fit to be the instrument of it, for she 
 would have given to them the doubtful benefits of Germaniza- 
 tion. Joseph made large preparations for war ; two hundred 
 and forty-five thousand infantry and thirty-six thousand cavalry 
 were set on foot, but they were scattered over the country from 
 the Dniester to the Adriatic. At first he led the troops himself ; 
 but he lost forty-five thousand men from sickness and the 
 attacks of the Turks, and, sick himself, he threw up the command 
 and returned to Vienna in December, 1788. Loudon carried 
 on the war with vigour, captured Belgrade (29th Septeimber, 
 1789) and Shabats, and then pushed on into Bosnia. 
 
 Joseph II. did not long survive these triumphs. His 
 generous but ill-balanced mind had suffered much both from 
 the loss of the Netherlands and from the concessions he had 
 had to make to Hungary. He had been obliged to humiliate 
 himself to Pius VI., whom he had formerly defied, in order 
 to get him to recall the Belgians to their allegiance by his 
 exhortations, and to the Hungarians by his act of the 8th of 
 December, 1789, which restored to them their confiscated 
 privileges. He died on the 20th of the following February. 
 It is said that he wished to have these words inscribed on 
 his tomb: "Here lies a prince whose intentions were pure, 
 but who was unsuccessful in all his enterprises." He was 
 only forty-nine at the time of his death. 
 
 The \wor^ /osephiiiis?n has remained in the political language 
 of Austria to express those ideas which he endeavoured to
 
 394 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-nUNGARY. 
 
 carry out, but which failed to overcome the historical and 
 religious prejudices of a people wedded to the past. His name 
 is remembered with some degree of popularity on account of 
 the love for his people Avhich was manifest in many of his 
 actions. In one of the villages of Moravia a monument is 
 still standing on the spot where the emperor with his own 
 august hands guided the. plough, in order to show the interest 
 he took in agriculture. The peasants whom he freed celebrate 
 his good deeds even in our time, and for many a long year 
 they refused to believe in his death. 
 
 Hungary and Bohemia. 
 
 The reign of Joseph 11. is described by the historians of 
 Hungary and Bohemia as a disastrous time for the two countries. 
 Directly he ascended the throne he began to carry out a series 
 of measures which deeply irritated the Magyars. With his 
 philosophical ideas, the crown of Hungary was to him nothing 
 more than a Gothic bauble, and the privileges of the nation 
 only the miserable remains of an age of barbarism ; the political 
 opinions of the Hungarians were as distasteful to him as their 
 customs, and he amused himself with ridiculing the long beards 
 and the soft boots of the great nobles. He never would be 
 crowned. He annoyed the bishops by his laws against 
 convents, while his tyrannical tolerance never succeeded in 
 contenting the Protestants. He refused to unite Galicia to 
 Hungary, though the only claim which Austria had put forth to 
 that province had been th€ rights of the crown of St. Stephen, 
 nor would he appoint a palatine. He began by concentrating 
 all the business of the country in the Hungarian chancery and 
 the Council of Lieutenancy established at Buda. On the 7th 
 of April, 1784, he ordered that the holy crown should be 
 brought to him in Vienna and placed in the imperial treasury. 
 To confiscate this symbol of Hungarian independence was, in 
 the eyes of the Magyars, an attempt at the suppression of the 
 nation itself, and the affront was deeply resented. Up to this 
 time the official language of the kingdom had been Latin, a
 
 HUNGARIAN FOLICY OF JOSEPH II. 395 
 
 neutral tongue among the many languages in use in the various 
 parts of HungarJ^ Joseph believed he was proving his liberal 
 principles in substituting German, and that language took the 
 place of Latin. From May, 1784, to November, 1785, the 
 diets could not protest against this decree, as arbitrary as it 
 was impoUtic, because they were no longer convoked ; but the 
 comitats gave utterance to bitter complaints. Joseph II. soon 
 learned that it is not wise to attack the dearest prejudices of 
 a nation. The edict which introduced a foreign language was 
 the signal for the new birth of Magyar. For some time there 
 had been an Hungarian literature. Among the young nobles 
 who formed the Hungarian Guard of Maria Theresa, more 
 than one, among whom the poet Bessenyi may be especially 
 mentioned, had cultivated national poetry with ardour, forming 
 themselves on French models and adopting French ideas. 
 Collections of Hungarian compositions had been begun, and 
 the attacks of Joseph IL, while rousing the spirit of patriotism, 
 had given fresh vigour to this new literature. 
 
 Other measures helped to excite the nation. The king 
 ordered a census to be taken which was to form the basis for 
 recruiting the army. This census, which paid no attention to 
 rank or class, and entirely disregarded the comitats, caused 
 great irritation, and it was found necessary to send troops to 
 protect the agents who had to carry out the work. It was still 
 worse when Joseph proceeded to meddle with the comitats 
 themselves. He suppressed their assemblies and placed an 
 official at their head who was nominated by the government. 
 He divided the land into ten circles, each of which was governed 
 by a captain, Kreis/iaiipt/!ia?in : the name of Krcishatiptmaini is 
 still hated throughout Hungary. These imprudent measures 
 were to some extent atoned for by the liberal reforms which 
 accompanied them, as, for example, the suppression of the 
 feudal courts ; but the Hungarians were too much irritated to 
 appreciate the changes justly, and the nobles were also too pre- 
 judiced and too ignorant to share those ideas of the sovereign 
 which took land and not the peasant as the basis of all taxation.
 
 396 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Consequently Joseph's efforts to obtain an accurate survey of 
 the land met with great resistance. At the time of the Turkish 
 campaign the comitats refused to supply the king with men or 
 provisions, and that campaign was not sufficiently brilliant to 
 enable him to appeal to them with all the prestige of military 
 glory. The convocation of the diet was demanded on all 
 sides. Some of the comitats declared the king's requests 
 illegal ; others suppressed the royal orders ; and the general 
 discontent was so great that several of them put themselves in 
 communication with the king of Prussia. Joseph, ill and weary 
 of a ten years' struggle, was obliged to yield. By a royal order 
 of the 2oth of January, 1790, he withdrew all his reforms, and 
 restored everything to the state in which it was in 1780, except 
 that he maintained religious toleration and all the measures 
 passed in favour of the peasants. Some time afterwards he 
 was forced to send the royal crown back to Pesth. 
 
 In Bohemia, as in Hungary, he refused to be crowned, and 
 he insulted the Bohemians in their most cherished national 
 feelings by turning the palace of his predecessors into a 
 barrack. Doubtless the toleration which he granted was a 
 benefit to the country, but all those of his subjects who were 
 not willing to be enrolled among the official sects were severely 
 persecuted. Deists were flogged and exiled into Hungary, 
 and their children were torn from them in order that they 
 might be educated in the religion of the state. The number 
 of those who declared themselves adherents of the Augsburg 
 confession was not more than forty-five thousand. I'he 
 emperor forbade the higher schools to receive pupils who could 
 not understand German, and substituted German for Latin in 
 the teaching of the faculty of philosophy in the university of 
 Prague. The authority of the court of appeal in that city was 
 limited to Bohemia, and was no longer allowed to extend to 
 Moravia, while Prague was deprived of its title oi Residenzstadt^ 
 that being reserved for Vienna alone. The powers of the diet 
 were considerably diminished, and the emperor forbade the 
 Estates to dispose of the hoftie funds or special budget without
 
 ATTACK ON BOHEMIAN RIGHTS. 397 
 
 the approval of the court chamber {Ifofkammer) of Vienno. 
 In 1783, he suppressed the permanent committee of the diet 
 and transferred its authority to the central government. In 
 fact, the only one of their ancient rights which the Estates were 
 allowed to retain was the right to vote the taxes, but the manner 
 in which they were to be raised was taken out of their control. 
 At last, in 1788, Joseph announced that in future the diet was 
 •only to deliberate over such matters as might be presented to 
 it by the sovereign, and that it would only be convoked when 
 he judged right that it should meet. The Estates protested, 
 and when a new patent concerning the taxes was published in 
 February, 1789, count Rudolph Chotek, the high chancellor of 
 Bohemia and Austria, refused to sign it, and sent in his 
 resignation. 
 
 After so many attacks on its independence and its 
 nationality, it might have been thought that Bohemia, as a 
 separate kingdom and nation, was entirely destroyed, and that 
 she was ready to become a German province of the Austrian 
 empire. But the moment of her deepest humiliation was the 
 very moment of her regeneration. The revival was due in 
 some measure to the general reaction which took place on the 
 death of Joseph II. Some symptoms of this may be detected 
 from the moment of his successor's coronation. "The 
 tyranny of Joseph II.," says count Caspar Sternberg in his 
 Memoirs, " had roused the feeling of nationality which had so 
 long slumbered. The emperor wished to centralize everything, 
 and also to destroy the Bohemian language ; but no people 
 will allow the palladium of its existence as a nation to be 
 snatched from it. At the coronation of Leopold, all those who 
 could speak Chekh might be heard using that language in the 
 very corridors of the palace." The Chekhs date the new birth 
 of the sentiment of nationality from the reign of Joseph II. 
 Bohemia owes one single benefit to that prince, the foundation 
 of the Royal Society of Sciences, which continues to flourish 
 in our time, and this society, from the beginning, became the 
 centre of those historical researches which have contributed so 
 largely to the revival of Slavism in Bohemia.
 
 398 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Leopold II. (1790-1792). 
 
 The new sovereign, Leopold II., had been serving his 
 apprenticeship in the art of governing ever since 1765, in the 
 duchy of Tuscany. He had received the well-merited praises 
 of both economists and philosophers for the wisdom of his 
 administration, which was not only paternal but also intelli- 
 gent. From the moment of his accession a violent reaction 
 against the acts of his predecessor set in, and Leopold yielded 
 to it gracefully. He began by declaring that he considered 
 the provincial diets the pillars of the monarchy, that he would 
 restore their privileges, and that he would labour hard with 
 them to bring the interests of his people into harmony with 
 those of the sovereign. He withdrew those measures of 
 Joseph II. which had most violently offended public feeling, 
 and suspended that system of taxation which made the com- 
 munes responsible to the treasury for the taxes due from each 
 inhabitant ; allowed foreign produce to cross the frontiers ; 
 and redressed many of the real grievances of Bohemia and 
 Hungary. He also invited the bishops to send in their 
 claims, and appointed a commission to examine into them. 
 He restored to the clergy most of their important rights, 
 especially those of regulating the liturgy as they wished, 
 holding synods with the permission of government, and 
 organizing the management of parishes with state approval. 
 At the same time, he retained those laws which forbade the 
 publication of bulls without the placetum regium, which 
 deprived the bishops of their rights to administer diocesan 
 funds, and which placed all ecclesiastics under the control of 
 the ordinary tribunals. His concessions, however, satisfied 
 and disarmed the clergy. 
 
 Leopold II. was less fortunate with the revolted Belgians, 
 whom he tried in vain to appease by the most liberal promises. 
 He offered them a full amnesty ; promised no longer to place 
 foreigners in public offices, to give the Estates the complete 
 control of the army, and to pass no law without their assent.
 
 LEOPOLD II. 399 
 
 All this was, however, useless, and he was obliged to have 
 recourse to force. An army of thirty thousand men met in 
 the province of Luxemburg and entered the Netherlands. 
 Namur and Brussels were taken, and Leopold added to the 
 honour of his victories by his clemency. But Belgium was only 
 reconquered by Austria in order to become the battle-field of 
 the Austrian struggles against the French Revolution (1790). 
 
 Meantime the war with Turkey went on, and the success 
 of Austria began to make England and Prussia anxious. The 
 latter had concentrated an army on the borders of Silesia, and 
 had encouraged the malcontents of the Low Countries. Not- 
 withstanding this, Leopold entered into negociations with 
 Frederick William, when the latter brought forward the most 
 extraordinary proposals on the part of Prussia. He demanded 
 that Austria and Russia should give back to the Porte all the 
 lands conquered between the Danube and the Dniester, and 
 that Austria should restore almost the whole of GaHcia to 
 Poland. In compensation, she might take back those frontier 
 lands which had been left to her by the treaty of Pozarevac 
 (Passarowitz), but Prussia was to indemnify herself for her 
 rival's increase of territory in this direction by the acquisition 
 of Thorn and Danzig, which had been taken from Poland. 
 Old Kaunitz rejected these insolent conditions "with indigna- 
 tion. On the 27th of June, 1790, a congress met at Reichen- 
 bach, at which Prussia, Austria, England, and Holland were 
 represented. The Prussian diplomatist, Herzberg, the inventor 
 of the Fiirsteubund, again brought forward the claims of Prussia 
 relative to Galicia and the towns of Thorn and Danzig. On 
 this the emperor entered into secret negociations with England, 
 when the court of St. James's demanded that he should give up 
 his conquests, and, in return, promised that England would 
 guarantee his possession of the Netherlands. Leopold, how- 
 ever, made England less exacting by his threat of ceding to 
 France some portion of Belgium, and, finally, the congress 
 agreed to the treaty of Sistova (4th August, 1791). By this 
 treaty Austria had to give up her late conquests, and to promise
 
 400 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 not to help Russia in any war which might arise between her 
 and the Porte, and she only gained Orsovo and the Unna 
 district on the borders of Croatia. Thus once more the court 
 of Vienna left the substance for the shadow, and sacrificed 
 territory which would have consolidated her real frontiers, in 
 order to preserve Belgium, a province which was distant, un- 
 ruly, and the perpetual object of the greed of France. 
 
 It would have been impossible for Austria to remain in- 
 different to the progress of the French Revolution. As 
 emperor, Leopold had to defend the feudal rights of the 
 German princes, which had been suppressed in Alsace, 
 Franche-Comte, and Lorraine by the National Assembly, and 
 as the brother-in-law of Louis XVI., he watched with uneasi- 
 ness the progress of the democracy and the decay of the royal 
 authority. In July, 1791, he published a circular dated from 
 Padua, calling upon -all the sovereigns of Europe to interfere 
 in favour of the king of France against his revolted subjects ; 
 and shortly after he had the famous interview with Frederick 
 William II. at Pillnitz (27th August, 1791). 
 
 The result of this interview was a convention in which the 
 two sovereigns undertook to employ the most effectual means 
 to place the king of France " in such a position as to establish, 
 with perfect freedom, the bases of a monarchical government 
 which shall maintain the rights of sovereigns and conduce to 
 the welfare of the French nation." On the 7th of February, 
 1792, Leopold concluded a definitive treaty of alliance with 
 the court of Berlin, and on the ist of March he died suddenly, 
 leaving to his son Francis II. the inheritance of the most 
 formidable struggle which the Austrain empire has ever had 
 to maintain. On the 20th of the April following, France 
 declared war against the king of Bohemia and Hungary.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 FRANCIS II. (l 792-1835) — WARS AGAINST THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 A 71 stria in 17 g2. 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to give a short account, which we 
 shall endeavour to make as complete as possible, of the extent 
 of the dominions and the military resources of Austria at the 
 moment when she was about to take part in the great Euro- 
 pean war. 
 
 " If we omit Tuscany and Modena," says M. Himly, 
 " territories where the younger branches of the family were 
 either already reigning or were expecting to reign, the empire 
 of the Habsburgs covered an extent of 11,600 square leagues 
 (German), and contained about 24,000,000 of inhabitants. 
 It might be divided into two almost equal portions, according 
 to the nature of the territories. The country which more or 
 less closely belonged to the German empire contained a popu- 
 lation of more than 10,500,000 on about 86,000 square miles ; 
 the provinces outside the empire had a Uttle less than 14,000,000 
 on nearly 164,000 square miles. Each of these two great 
 divisions contained three groups which were historically and 
 politically distinct. On one side were the two circles of 
 Austria and of Burgundy, and the territories of the crown 
 of Bohemia which were not divided into circles ; and on the 
 other the Hungarian, Polish, and Italian possessions of the 
 monarchy. 
 
 " The kingdom of St. Stephen — that is to say, Hungary, with 
 
 2 D
 
 402 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 the kingdoms of Croatia, Slavonia, Hungarian Dalmatia, and 
 Transylvania — was reckoned at about 125,800 square miles 
 and zx 9.100,000 souls; the kingdom of Bohemia, with 
 Moravia and Silesia, had 4,300,000 inhabitants spread over 
 about 31,000 square miles; Galicia and the Bukovina had 
 3,300,000 on about 33,200 square miles. 
 
 " Milan and Mantua, with the imperial fiefs of Liguria, were 
 reckoned at about 4700 scjuare miles and 1,350,000 inhabi- 
 tants ; and the Austrian Low Countries at 2,000,000 inhabitants 
 on about 10,100 square miles. A sixth group comprised the 
 imperial domains properly so called — that is to say, the circle 
 of Austria and a certain number of unimportant possessions 
 scattered over those of Suabia and the Lower Rhine ; these 
 measured about 45,000 square miles and Avere occupied by 
 4,300,000 souls. 
 
 "The geographers of the eighteenth century divided the 
 German territories of Austria into four graups : — 
 
 " I. Lower Austria, or the archduchy of Austria properly 
 so called, v/hich included the lands below the Enns with 
 Vienna, and the lands above the Enns with Linz, to which 
 were attached the Salzkammergut (Hallstadt) and the district 
 of the Inn, which had been annexed in 1779. These provinces 
 were entirely German. 
 
 " 2. Inner Austria, including the four duchies of Styria, 
 Carinthia, Carniola, and Friuli. The Austrian dominions on 
 the Adriatic, the counties of Gorica and Gradiska, and the 
 districts of Aquileia and Idria, Trieste and Fiume (Rieka), 
 Slav countries with but a slight mixture of Italian colonists, 
 were grouped together in the duchy of Friuli ; this being, 
 however, rather a geographical than a political or adminis- 
 trative arrangement. 
 
 "3. Upper Austria, including the county of Tyrol (Inns- 
 briick) and the Vorarlberg (Feldkirch). The bishoprics of 
 Trent and Brixen, a few bailiwicks on the Adige and in 
 Austria, and the lordship of Tarasp in the Engadine were 
 united to the Tyrol by ties of vassalage, and the county of
 
 EXTENT OF AUSTRIA IN 1792. 403 
 
 Hohenembs on Lake Constance, with the lordship of Kozuns 
 in the Grisons, belonged to the Vorarlberg. 
 
 "4. And lastly, Outer Austria (Vorderoesterreich), which 
 included all the possessions in the west of Germany ; Breisgau 
 with its dependencies on the Rhine, Rheinfelden, Sackingen, 
 Laufenberg, and Waldshut ; and Austrian Suabia, which was 
 made up of a number of domains scattered between the Upper 
 Danube and the Rhine. The only bit of the ancient posses- 
 sions belonging to Lorraine which now remained to the house 
 of Habsburg-Lorraine was the small county of Faikenstein on 
 Mount Tonnerre, on the left bank of the Rhine." ^ 
 
 In fact, the Austrian empire, in 1792, came next in size to 
 Russia and France. It was somewhat larger than the present 
 Austrian empire, but it was so scattered as to be an easy prey 
 to any enemy. One compact group was formed by Bohemia, 
 Galicia, Hungary, and the hereditary provinces; but Milan 
 and Mantua were separated from them by Venetia ; Breisgau 
 and Austrian Suabia were queerly mixed up with the innumer 
 able sovereign states of the Suabian circle, while Belgium was 
 completely isolated from the rest of the Austrian dominions, 
 and was anxious to throw off the foreign yoke. The effects 
 of war were sure to be felt first in these outlying districts. 
 
 At this time the Austrian army consisted of two hundred 
 and seventy thousand men. There were seventy-seven infantry 
 regiments, thirty-nine of which were furnished by the German 
 possessions and by those Slav lands which were not included 
 in Hungary, eleven by Hungary and Transylvania, five by the 
 Low Countries, two by Italy, and seventeen by the military 
 frontiers. Garrisons were supplied from two regiments set 
 apart for that purpose; and there were two regiments of 
 artillery. Altogether there were two hundred and twenty 
 thousand foot soldiers. In the cavalry were eleven regiments 
 of heavy horse, sixteen regiments of dragoons and hussars. 
 and eleven regiments of uhlans ; fifty thousand horse in all, 
 
 ' Himly, Histoire de la Fonnation territoriale des Etats de TEurope 
 Centrale, vol. i. pp. 439-443.
 
 404 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 This army was recruited b}^ conscription, which had been 
 established in all the dominions of Joseph 11. , except Tyrol, 
 the Low Countries, and Hungary. In case of need Hungary 
 voted the insurrection^ and raised by means of it considerable 
 levies. 
 
 Loss of Belgium — Acquisition of Western Galicia 
 (1791-1795). 
 
 The prince who had to play so prominent a part in the 
 coming struggle was twenty-four years of age when he ascended 
 the throne. He had been educated in Tuscany under the 
 patriarchal rule of Leopold, and had afterwards resided at the 
 court of Joseph II., who had endeavoured to instil in him his 
 own ideas of reform. During the short reign of Leopold II., he 
 had seen how the good sense and patriotic feeling of the nation 
 had brought about an inevitable reaction against the excesses of 
 Josephinism. A peaceful reign might have given him an oppor- 
 tunity for displaying those respectable and homely virtues 
 which he owed to nature and education ; as it was, his pro- 
 longed struggle against the Revolution made him in the end 
 gloomy and despotic. 
 
 When the war broke out, Francis II. had been crowned 
 both at Buda and at Prague, but had not yet been elected 
 emperor ; war was, therefore, declared against the king of 
 Bohemia and Hungary. It is not always easy in this gigantic 
 struggle to separate the military history of Austria from that 
 of her Prussian and German allies. The utmost that can 
 be done is to recall the names of the principal generals, and 
 so try to discover the share taken in the war by the various 
 Austrian nationalities. It is needless to say that success was far 
 rarer than defeat. The French first invaded Belgium, and after 
 the battle of Jemmapes (6th November, 1792) the Austrian 
 Netherlands as far as Luxemburg fell into their hands. The 
 victory of Clerfayt atNeerwinden on the iSth of March, 1793, 
 opened France to the imperialists for a moment, and that 
 ' Vide Siipra, p. 233.
 
 LOSS OF BELGIUM. 405 
 
 of Wurmser at " the lines of Weissenburg " gave Alsace to 
 them ; but they were soon obliged to recross the Rhine. In 
 1794, the emperor came himself to Belgium, and tried to recall 
 victory to his side, but the battle of Fleurus, on the 26th of 
 June, 1794, definitely secured the Low Countries for France. 
 
 The judicial murder of Louis XVI. had been an act of- 
 defiance to the kings of Europe in general ; the execution 
 of Marie Antoinette was an act of defiance to the house of 
 Austria in particular. But Francis II. had no power either to 
 rescue or to avenge the unfortunate sister of his father. He 
 had been abandoned by the king of Prussia, who signed the 
 treaty of Basle with the French republic in 1796, and all he 
 could do was to seek for some compensation for the loss 
 of the Low Countries in the neighbourhood of the Austrian 
 dominions. 
 
 This compensation he found on the side of Poland; by 
 the treaty of St. Petersburg and special agreements with the re- 
 public, Austria secured the palatinates of Sandomir and Lublin, 
 together with some portions of those of Cracow, Masovia, 
 Podlachia, and Brest, as far as the junction of the Bug with the 
 Vistula. This territory received the ofticial name of Western 
 Galicia, and was united to Eastern Galicia. The reasons 
 given for this fresh partition of Poland were poor enough. 
 It was argued that Poland had become the home of revolu- 
 tionary and republican ideas which might prove dangerous 
 to the adjacent countries, and that Austria's first duty was 
 to watch over its own interests, as the aggrandisement of the 
 two neighbouring powers could not be prevented. No pre- 
 tended ancient right was invoked as at the time of the first 
 partition ; ambition alone justified the inglorious conquest. 
 But it was only needful to look at a map to see that the new 
 gain could not be lasting. A wedge had been thrust into the 
 very heart of ancient Poland, to the centre of the lands which 
 Russia and Prussia had set apart for themselves. "Sooner or 
 later," says Himly, " it was quite certain that one or other of 
 these powers must be tempted to round off their possessions
 
 406 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 at the expense of Austria, by applying to her that system of 
 spoliation which had already succeeded so well with regard to 
 Poland." The new territory added about eighteen hundred 
 square miles and eleven hundred thousand inhabitants to 
 Austria, but this was but an insufficient compensation for the 
 loss of the Low Countries. 
 
 Loss of Lombardy — Acquisition of Vetiice a7id Dalmatia (1797). 
 
 Abandoned by Prussia, Austria was not more fortunate in 
 Italy than in Belgium. Bonaparte's victories at Montenotte 
 and Millesimo (April, 1796) led to the conquest of Lombardy 
 and the establishment of the Cisalpine republic. Bonaparte 
 had announced to the Italians that he only made war on the 
 "tyrants who enslaved them." Who could have guessed that 
 one of these tyrants was the future father-in-law of Napoleon I.? 
 The troops of Francis II. made heroic efforts against the re- 
 publican army, but they were beaten ; defeated at Lonato 
 Castiglione, and Bassano (August and September, 1796), 
 Wurmser was obliged to shut himself up in Mantua, The 
 Hungarian general Alvinzy came down from Friuli to his 
 assistance, but suffered great defeats, first at Areola and then 
 at Rivoli, and Wurmser was obliged to capitulate at Mantua 
 in February, 1797. The road to Vienna lay open to the 
 conqueror. In this position of affairs the aristocratic republic 
 of Venice believed that it could best secure its independence 
 and prevent the spread of revolutionary ideas in its territory 
 by coming to terms with Austria and suddenly attacking the 
 PVench. This course of action cost the republic its freedom, 
 and led to its being reduced to such a state of servitude as 
 has furnished one of the saddest episodes in contemporary 
 history. After the fall of Mantua the emperor saw that his 
 southern frontiers were in great danger, and he determined 
 to make a desperate effort to save them. His first step was 
 to recall his brother, the archduke Charles, who was con- 
 sidered to be the ablest of the Austrian generals, from the
 
 VICTORIOUS MARCH OF THE FRENCH. 407 
 
 army of the Rhine, with which he had been fighting gloriously 
 against Moreau and Jourdan ; the inhabitants of Tyrol and of 
 Bohemia were levied en masse, and the insurrection was voted 
 by the Hungarian nobles. The archduke endeavoured to 
 improve the organization of the Austrian army, and took up 
 his position behind the Tagliamento in order to defend Trieste. 
 But meantime Massena had obtained possession of the Col 
 de Tarvis, over which the main road from Verona to Venice 
 passes, and which forms the key to the passage of the Alps. 
 The first battle between Bonaparte and his able adversary 
 took place on the i6th of March. The archduke doubled 
 back on the Isonzo and tried to drive Massena from the 
 Tarvis, but he was obliged to withdraw to Klagenfurt, and 
 Bonaparte continued his victorious march, sending two bodies 
 of troops to capture Trieste and Idria, while he himself pushed 
 on to Klagenfurt. Meantime Joubert, on the left of the 
 French lines, marched up the Adige and, in spite of all the 
 efforts of Loudon and Kerpen, entered Tyrol by the Pusterthal. 
 Vienna was now in great danger, but the patriotism of the 
 luxurious city rose to the occasion. All the male population 
 took up arms ; the students enrolled themselves and formed a 
 regiment of their own, the fortifications were repaired, and 
 the war, which had hitherto been one only of political principles, 
 became, on the approach of the enemy, a nation's struggle 
 for independence. And with the Viennese patriotism was 
 blended loyalty to the sovereign. Bonaparte soon saw that it 
 would be dangerous to venture into a country which was so 
 deeply roused, while he left Italy behind him in a doubtful 
 condition, and before he had brought about a junction with 
 the armies on the Rhine. On the 31st of March, 1797, he 
 wrote to the archduke Charles from Klagenfurt, proposing 
 peace. He still, however, continued his advance and entered 
 Styria, and it was at Jiidenburg that he received lieutenant 
 field-marshal Bellegarde and major-general Merfeldt, the 
 envoys of the Austrian court, and concluded an armistice. 
 The conditions of peace were discussed in the castle of Gos,
 
 408 niSTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 not far from the small town of Leoben, and there the pre- 
 liminaries were signed by Bonaparte on behalf of France and 
 the marquis of Gallo on that of Austria. 
 
 Austria gave up to France Belgium and her Italian 
 possessions on the right bank of the Oglio, and received in 
 exchange a portion of the Venetian territory on the shores of 
 the Adriatic. Venice obtained Romagna, Bologna, and Ferrara 
 as compensation. 
 
 It was while Bonaparte was signing these preliminaries 
 that a movement against France broke out in the republic of 
 Venice, which led in the end to the loss of her independence. 
 On hearing of les Fdqties Veronaises^ the French troops again 
 invaded Venetia and besieged the city of the doges, which, 
 although protected by the sea, was quite incapable of defending 
 itself against generals who possessed not a single vessel. By 
 the 17th of May Venice was occupied by the French, who 
 planted a tree of liberty in her midst, and by the 24th of 
 May the preliminaries of Leoben were ratified. 
 
 The Austrian government lost no time in taking possession 
 of the newly acquired territory. The towns of Pirano, Citta 
 Nuova, Parenzo, and Rovigno in Istria were first occupied, and 
 then the islands Cherso, Arbe, and Pago. Austrian troops 
 next entered Zara, and were gladly welcomed by a population 
 that had grown w'eary of the rule of Venice. Meantime 
 conferences for concluding a definite peace between Austria 
 and the French republic were held at Udine, count Cobenzl 
 being sent there on the 26th of September as Austrian pleni- 
 potentiary. It was during these conferences that Bonaparte, 
 who was but little accustomed to control the violence of his 
 temper, is said to have broken in pieces some glasses as he 
 exclaimed, " Thus will I shatter your monarchy ! " Peace was 
 signed at the castle of Campo-Formio on the 17th of No- 
 vember, 1797. In it Austria renewed her concessions and 
 
 ' See Histoire dc N^apoleon i^f, par P. Lanfrey, tome i. chaps, vii., 
 viii., edition 1869, Charpentier, where the narrative diflers considerably 
 from that in the text.
 
 PEACE OF CAMFO-FORMIO. 4O9 
 
 recognized the Cisalpine republic. France kept the Ionian 
 Isles and the Venetian possessions in Albania ; while Austria 
 received as compensation the whole of Venice with her 
 dependencies. The duke of Modena, who had been deprived 
 of his lands for the benefit of the Cisalpine republic, was to be 
 indemnified for the loss of his duchy by the cession of the 
 Breisgau, which Francis II. gave up to him. 
 
 Secret articles were joined to this treaty by which the 
 emperor engaged to help France to obtain possession of the 
 left bank of the Rhine, and for this service he demanded in 
 exchange the help of France to enable him to get the district 
 of Salzburg and that part of Bavaria which lay between the 
 Inn and the Salza and intercepted communication with the 
 Tyrol. La Fayette, who had been a prisoner at Olomouc 
 (Olmutz) ever since 1792, obtained his liberty as one of the 
 consequences of the treaty of Campo-Formio. 
 
 On the whole, notwithstanding her defeats, Austria was the 
 gainer by the war. She had held her own against France when 
 Prussia had already abandoned the struggle, and she was less 
 enfeebled by the loss of the Netherlands than strengthened by 
 the addition of Venice and Dalmatia. Her new territories 
 contained sixteen thousand six hundred and twenty-five square 
 miles, and about three million inhabitants. Although the 
 French had destroyed the Venetian fleet before evacuating 
 Venice, the maritime importance of the new acquisition was 
 very great. The Adriatic thus became almost wholly an Austrian 
 sea, and the men of Dalmatia were skilful mariners and brave 
 soldiers. This province, which had formerly been an object of 
 so much desire to the Hungarian kings, now belonged to their 
 successor, who had not even had the trouble of conquering it, 
 and from this time it shared the fate of Austria. Let us 
 briefly recall its history. 
 
 We have already seen how this Roman province became 
 part of the kingdom of Croatia after its colonization by the 
 Slavs. As early as the tenth century the Venetians had begun 
 the conquest of the islands and the Dalmatian coast, but it
 
 410 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 was not till the beginning of the fifteenth century tliat they 
 completed it, the republic of Ragusa being alone able to 
 maintain its independence owing to the protection of the 
 Porte. The interior remained united to Croatia, and even- 
 tually fell into the hands of the Turks. Thanks to Venetian 
 colonization, the Slav towns were greatly influenced by Italy, 
 and traces of this influence remain even lo the present day. 
 Their aristocratic constitution was modelled on that of Venice ; 
 the land was in the hands of a io."^ families ; public offices 
 were filled only by Venetians ; and the native population was 
 both pillaged and persecuted. A decree of the republic 
 forbade the marriage of Venetians with Slav women. 
 
 The administration of the province was entrusted to a 
 provveditore, who was always a Venetian senator and who held 
 office for three years. The civil, judicial, and military power 
 was in his hands. He resided at Zara. The country was 
 divided into twenty-two circles {reggimenti), which were all 
 governed by Venetian nobles, whose rule was at once servile and 
 corrupt. The army was composed of natives {git Schiavoni, the 
 Slavs), and twenty towns were garrisoned by them, but all the 
 officers were Venetians. Venice did little for public instruction 
 in the conquered land ; she was not anxious to develop any 
 independent civilization, and used all her efforts to Italianize 
 her Slav subjects. It was, however, only out of hatred to Turkey 
 that the Dalmatians allowed themselves to be attached to 
 Venice, and, in spite of Italian influence, a national literature 
 struggled into existence, though it succeeded in finding a real 
 home only in Ragusa. 
 
 Marengo— Treaty of Luneville (iSoi). 
 
 The work of Austrian diplomacy did not end with the 
 treaty of Campo-Formio. The next business was to settle 
 the affairs of Germany. Three Austrian diplomatists were 
 sent to the congress of Rastadt, one of whom was Metternich, 
 the father of the man who afterwards became the evil genius 
 of Europe. Cobenzl was another. The Rastadt conferences
 
 ALLIANCE WniL RUSSIA. 411 
 
 made but little progress, and were ended abruptly by the 
 assassination of the French representatives in April, 1799. 
 This strange event has given rise to many conjectures. Those 
 who are anxious to clear Austria at any cost attribute the act 
 to the brutality of the Szekler hussars and their exasperation 
 against the Jacobins. Others believe that the minister 
 Thugut was the instigator. It is true that he caused colonel 
 Barbaczy and captain Burkhardt to be arrested and thrown 
 into prison, but two years afterwards they were set at liberty 
 and the whole affair was quashed. It is probable thai 
 Austria only wished to obtain possession of certain papers 
 and had no wish to take the lives of the envoys, but the 
 brutal hussars exceeded the instructions they had received. 
 Another event occurred about the same time, w^hich helped to 
 complicate matters and made the establishment of a definite 
 peace between France and Austria almost imposssible. France 
 had sent general Bernadotte as ambassador to Vienna, and his 
 behaviour was little likely to conciliate a populition irritated 
 by recent defeat. He took upon himself to prevent the 
 celebration of a military /^/^ in the town, and above the balcony 
 of his hotel in the Wallnerstrasse he displayed the tricoloured 
 flag, the flag of that revolutionary party which had beheaded 
 Marie Antoinette. It was torn down by the infuriated populace, 
 whereupon Bernadotte demanded his passports and quitted 
 Austria, and the French asked for an apology which was not 
 granted. In view of the forthcoming struggle, Cobenzl, who 
 had succeeded Thugut as minister of foreign affairs, tried to 
 obtain allies by every possible means. The king of Naples 
 was able to help no one after the victories of Championnet 
 and the institution of the Parthenopian- Republic (January, 
 1799), but Russia could be of more use ; and an alliance with 
 her was followed by the appearance of a Russian army in 
 Galicia and Moravia towards the end of 1798. The Directory 
 in vain asked for some explanation of this violation of the laws 
 of neutrality, and on the 12th of March, 1799, declared war on 
 Austria.
 
 412 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 The struggle began at the same moment in Southern Ger- 
 many, Switzerland, and Italy. The coalition had got together 
 an army of three hundred and sixty thousand men, Piedmont 
 and England having joined Austria, Russia, and Prussia. 
 
 We can only mention the principal exploits of the Austrian 
 generals. Kray and Melas beat the incapable Scherer in Italy 
 at Pastrengo, Verona, and Magnano, and after Suvorov had 
 taken the command of the combined Russian and Austrian 
 troops, he obtained the victories of Cassano, Trebbia, and Novi 
 in the summer of 1799. 
 
 The return of Bonaparte to Italy restored victory to .the 
 French flag, and the triumphant progress of Melas Avas stopped 
 by the battle of Marengo on the 14th of June, 1800. After the 
 capitulation of Alessandria he was forced to retreat as far as 
 the Mincio. In Southern Germany, Kray was defeated by 
 Moreau at Engen, Moeskirch, Biberach, and Memmingen. 
 Tired of the useless struggle, Austria seemed to be now ready 
 for peace, and general Saint-Julien and Talleyrand drew up the 
 sketch of a treaty in Paris in July, 1800, which had the stipu- 
 lations of Campo-Formio as its basis, only adding a secret 
 agreement that the compensation to Austria which had formerly 
 been guaranteed in Germany should now be taken from Italy. 
 
 But Saint-Julien had gone beyond his powers, and Austria, 
 with the support of subsidies from England, continued the war. 
 Melas and Kray, guilty of having been defeated, were displaced, 
 and their posts were given to Bellegarde and the archduke 
 John. By this time the war had become exceedingly unpopular 
 in Austria, and Thugut, who was the representative of English 
 interests, was obliged to resign, and his post was filled by 
 Cobenzl, who had represented Austria at Leoben. On the 
 3rd of December, 1800, came the defeat of Hohenlinden, which 
 was a cruel blow to the Austrian army. On that day, it lost 
 four thousand seven hundred dead and wounded, seven 
 thousand prisoners, and eighty cannon ; while their allies, the 
 Bavarians, lost five thousand men and twenty-four guns. 
 
 The archduke Charles had taken no part in the war since
 
 PEACE OF LUNEVILLE. 413 
 
 his victory over Jourdan at Stockach on the 25th of March, 
 1799 ; he now once more took the command, in the hope of 
 saving Austria, but he found only the wreck of the army which 
 he had formerly led to victory. The French had reached 
 Steyer, and were as close to Vienna as they had been when 
 they were at Leoben. Austria had no choice. An armistice was 
 concluded (20th October, 1800), by which Wiirzburg, Braumau, 
 Kiifstein, Peschiera, Legnago, Verona, Ferrara, Ancona, and 
 Mantua were all abandoned to the French, while a line of 
 demarcation was drawn between the two armies which gave 
 them also the whole of the Tyrol, together with some portion 
 of the archduchy of Austria, Styria, and Illyria. Austria also 
 undertook to make peace, whatever might be the decision of 
 her allies. 
 
 Cobenzl was sent to Luneville to settle the terms of the 
 treaty with Joseph Bonaparte. France insisted that the 
 emperor should treat not only on his own behalf, but also 
 for the whole of Germany, and, though he had no right to do 
 this, he was obliged to agree. The conditions of the peace of 
 Luneville (9th February, 1801) were almost the same as those 
 of the treaty of Campo-Formio. Francis II. gave up to France 
 or to her ally, the Helvetian repubhc, the county of Falkenstein 
 in Mount Tonnerre, the lordship of Tarasp in the Engadine, 
 and Frickthal, Laufenburg, and Rheinfelden, old possessions 
 of the Habsburg family on the left bank of the Rhine. In 
 exchange, the western boundary of his Venetian territory was 
 moved forward as far as the Adige ; but he had to give up 
 Artenau to the duke of Modena-Breisgau. The archduke 
 Ferdinand III. was called upon to exchange his duchy of 
 Tuscany for the new electorate of Salzburg, which had been 
 formed out of the archbishopric of Salzburg, the district of 
 Berchtolsgaden, and some portions of the bishoprics of Passau 
 and Eichstadt. The formation of this new electorate deprived 
 Austria of almost a million subjects. 
 
 Thus we see that Francis II. had failed in what was his 
 first duty as emperor, the preservation of the integrity of
 
 414 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Ciermany. The dispossessed princes turned their attention 
 to Paris, in the hope of obtaining some compensation for their 
 losses. The prince-bishops, who had been the most zealous 
 supporters that the essentially Catholic Habsburgs possessed 
 in Germany, had disappeared, owing to the secularization of 
 the ecclesiastical states. It is true that Austria had obtained 
 possession of the bishoprics of Trent and Brixen ; but for 
 some time past these places had recognized the suzerainty of 
 Tyrol, and the acquisition was one only in name. The 
 position of the Habsburgs in Germany had become extremely 
 precarious, and we shall soon see Francis deciding to add to 
 the pompous but empty title of Roman emperor the new and 
 more real title of emperor of Austria. Before, however, reach- 
 ing that important event, we must spend a short time in 
 studying the condition of the Austrian dominions during the 
 troublous times of his reign. 
 
 Austria after the Peace of Luneville. 
 
 Perhaps the most important result of the long war was that 
 it had led the subjects of Austria,, and especially the army, 
 to a keener sense of the unity of the monarchy. The soldiers, 
 who belonged to so many different nations, but who for almost 
 ten years had fought side by side in the Low Countries, Italy, 
 Germany, and the Austrian fatherland {Gesammivaterland), 
 became united in the brotherhood of arms. A body of officers 
 grew up embodying in itself the principle on which the Austrian 
 state rested. A Viennese poet, writing to Radetsky in 1848, says, 
 " It is in your camp that Austria is to be found." This was true 
 almost as early as the year 1800. Austria was at this time before 
 all things a military empire, and the strange assemblage of its 
 divergent peoples was alone kept in stable equilibrium by the 
 army. But for the very reason that it is composed of men belong- 
 ing to different nations, the Austrian army has never been a Pre- 
 torian band, affecting a disdainful superiority over civilians, as 
 was the case in Prussia and in France under Napoleon I. The 
 nobles of the various countries rivalled each other in their
 
 CONDITION OF AUSTRIA. 415 
 
 enthusiastic struggle against the French Revolution. Twice 
 the Magyars "raised the insurrection!'' In 1796 and 1797, both 
 the Tyrolese and the inhabitants of Lower Austria took up 
 arms en masse ; in 1796, the national militia was organized in 
 Bohemia; in 1800, a regiment of chasseurs was formed in 
 Moravia and Silesia ; and in the same year a special legion was 
 organized in Bohemia, under the influence of the archduke 
 Charles. 
 
 The direction of military affairs still remained in the hands 
 of the Hofkriegsrath at Vienna, composed partly of officers and 
 partly of civilians. In spite of the zeal of its members, the 
 council did but little good, and was indeed a mistake, only 
 serving to prove the impossibility of directing military opera- 
 tions from a government office; during the campaign of 1789, 
 Suvorov refused to communicate his plans to it. In 1801, 
 tlie emperor appointed the archduke Charles to be its presi- 
 dent. In 1802, the military service of the common soldiers, 
 which had hitherto had no limit, was reduced to fourteen 
 years. 
 
 Foreign affairs were in the hands of the celebrated Thugut 
 during almost the whole of this stormy period. Kaunitz, who 
 had been at the head of the chancery during three reigns, and 
 who had once had the satisfaction of bringing into alliance the 
 hostile courts of Vienna and Paris, had given in his resignation 
 in 1796. Thugut was born at Linz in 1736. His earliest im- 
 portant employment had been on diplomatic missions to the 
 East and as internuncio at Constantinople, and from the East he 
 had brought back the habit of court intrigue. Sent to Paris at 
 the beginning of the Revolution, he had played an important 
 part in the negociations between Marie Antoinette and Mira- 
 beau. He was violently opposed to the French republic, and 
 his resignation had been made one of the secret conditions of 
 the treaty of Campo-Formio. He retired into private life after 
 the 1 8th of October, 1800. 
 
 Joseph Cobenzl was born at Brussels in 1753, and re- 
 ceived his political education in the government of Galicia,
 
 41 6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 and in the post of ambassador at the courts of Berlin and St. 
 Petersburg. To his ability it was due that Austria and Russia 
 remained on good terms for sixteen years. He took part in 
 the treaty of Campo-Formio and the negociations of Rastadt, 
 and it was he who persuaded Russia to set on foot her army 
 in 1798. He remained at the head of foreign affairs after 
 the peace of Luneville down to 1805 ; but he was an agreeable 
 and clever courtier rather than an able statesman. He must 
 not be confounded with his cousin, John Louis Cobenzl, who 
 was Austrian ambassador in Paris after the peace of Luneville, 
 and who had more than once to suffer from the insolence of 
 Napoleon. 
 
 In the management of home affairs, the struggle still went 
 on between the partisans oi Josephinism and its adversaries. 
 Under other circumstances the former might have adopted the 
 principles of the French Revolution, for that they had been to 
 some extent adopted in Hungary is proved by the Martinovic 
 conspiracy. In Vienna only one plot against the existing govern- 
 ment was discovered. An officer named Franz Hebenstreit 
 was accused of having betrayed the secret of a line of march 
 to the French and Poles, and of having been the author of 
 some seditious songs ; he was condemned to death, and his 
 accomplices to various other punishments. Foreign wars 
 prevented almost all attempts at reform. A special depart- 
 ment for finance and for Galicia was formed, and a new commis- 
 sion of instruction, but no plan for uniting the administration 
 of the various countries was adopted. 
 
 We are enabled to judge of the confusion which prevailed 
 at the time from the following extract from a memorandum 
 addressed to the emperor by count Chotek : — " The reign of 
 your Majesty has been one long list of changes. A special 
 department I^Hofstelle) has been made of the police ; the 
 chamber of accounts, which was founded in 1761, and which 
 was made completely independent in 1782, has been dissolved. 
 The affairs of each country have once more been first treated 
 separately, and responsibiUty thrown on the local government ;
 
 COUNT CHOTEICS MEMORANDUAf. 417 
 
 and now they have again been placed under central control. A 
 new commission of instruction has been established, and the 
 two legislative commissions which formerly existed have been 
 made into one. Since the peace of Campo-Formio a number 
 of other changes have been made. The finances have been 
 withdrawn from the control of the united Hofsfelle, and count 
 Saurau has been appointed president of the court chamber 
 and minister of finance. The supreme control of justice has 
 been vested in the Austro-Bohemian chancery, and a special 
 department created for Galicia, which includes both justice 
 and political matters. These two changes are evidently a 
 mistake. On the one hand, two new departments are created 
 for provinces whose constitution is the same ; and, on the 
 other, a minister is overwhelmed with duties which are absolutely 
 heterogeneous. In 1801, after count Saurau was appointed 
 to a new office, a ministerial board of control for the bank and 
 a secret board of credit were created, and the Camerale 
 (finances) was once more joined to the department of political 
 affairs. There was only one minister for the two departments 
 of justice and political affairs ; as head of the ministry, he had 
 the control of justice, and, as minister, of the finances ; an 
 amount of work which no man could get through. And the 
 administration of the finances was put out of joint at the very 
 moment when their precarious condition demanded central 
 and united control. 
 
 " As soon as peace was restored," continues Chotek, " the 
 emperor tried to establish an organization likely to last. He 
 instituted the Confereiizt/iinisierium as a central point in which 
 all the branches of the administration should meet, and from 
 that time the home, foreign, and military affairs of the 
 monarchy have been conducted in unison. A special docu- 
 ment, drawn up by the minister of war, has stated what 
 matters were to be brought before the conference, what were 
 to be submitted to the emperor, what were to be decided by 
 himself, and what were to be brought before the council of war. 
 
 In civil affairs it was necessary to bring all government 
 
 2 E
 
 41 8 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 officials throughout the country into relations with each other 
 in such a way that each one should immediately depend on 
 the responsible minister. It was necessary to determine the 
 powers of each official, from the village magistrate to the 
 minister, in such a way that it might be impossible for any 
 one of them to overstep the limits of his authority, that each 
 official should know at once what matters he could decide and 
 what must be referred to a higher office, and that in the end the 
 emperor should always be in possession of complete knowledge 
 of important matters without being troubled with useless details. 
 
 " This result has not yet been attained. . . . The internal 
 administration has been badly organized. Matters of small 
 importance are continually brought before the notice of the 
 emperor and the conference. The proposals that have been 
 made have gone no further than fragmentary attempts at 
 legislation and temporary measures concerning the finances 
 and other matters. No attempt has been made to organize 
 the departments ; to study the wants of the estates as a whole, 
 or the means of satisfying those wants; to improve the 
 condition of the country by trade and commerce, or to found 
 really useful schools. For these matters there has been none 
 of that unity of action for which the Couferenzmiiiisterium was 
 created. The division of the conferences into two categories — 
 conferences limited to the consideration of internal affairs, 
 and grand conferences — has been opposed to the views of your 
 Majesty, and has led to collisions between the departments." 
 What count Chotek went on to ask for, as popular parlia- 
 mentary government was not to be had, was such a council of 
 ministers as exists now in all European countries. The re- 
 forms he wanted were achieved later on. 
 
 Eight years of war could not fail to exhaust the finances of 
 an empire as poor as Austro-Hungary was at that time. The 
 emperor mortgaged his private estates in order to obtain 
 money, and the various provinces and corporations, and even 
 private persons, rivalled each other in their zeal and their 
 sacrifices. All sorts of expedients were had recourse to ; the
 
 REACTIONARY POLICY OF FRANCIS II. 419 
 
 quantity of paper money was increased, forced loans were 
 raised, the duties on merchandise were maintained at a height 
 which was absolutely intolerable to trade, and the protective 
 system continued in full force with all its abuses. Internal 
 freedom of trade, which Joseph I. had introduced, was de- 
 stroyed, and a line of custom-houses was once more established 
 between Hungary and the rest of the Austrian dominions. 
 
 The construction of roads was pushed on with great 
 activity, especially in Carniola, Croatia, Bohemia, and Moravia, 
 and a canal was made between the Danube and the Tisza. 
 The emperor was proud of his fondness for agriculture, and 
 founded several special schools for the study of it. He took 
 great pains to develop the rural economy of Galicia, where, it 
 must be owned, Polish neglect had left much to be done, and 
 in 1799 serfdom was abolished; gradually some degree of 
 order was introduced into that province. Many charitable 
 institutions were founded in this reign. 
 
 The work of codification, which had been begun in the reign 
 of Maria Theresa, continued, and volumes i., ii., and iii. of the 
 code were published in 1794, 1795, ^^<^ '^19^- Unfortunately 
 Francis H. did nothing for public instruction ; he had neither 
 time nor wish to do so. The dread lest the ideas of the 
 French Revolution should make their way into x\ustria led him 
 to apply to freedom of thought a prohibitive system even more 
 strict than that which weighed so heavily on trade. The 
 censorship of the press was taken out of the hands of the 
 professors, to be placed in those of the police, and a tax 
 on printed matter was introduced. In many ways the reign of 
 Francis II. was the opposite of that of Joseph II. In his horror 
 of liberal ideas, Francis believed that he could not combat 
 them better than by strengthening religious institutions and the 
 influence of the clergy throughout his dominions, and he took 
 every possible means of doing so, although he did not revoke 
 the laws establishing religious toleration. A commission was 
 appointed in 1795 to inquire into the condition of education, 
 but the alterations proposed by it showed but little liberal feeling
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 FRANCIS II. WARS AGAINST NAPOLEON TO THE TREATY OF 
 
 SCHONBRUNN (1801-1809). 
 
 Francis II., Emperor of Austria (1804). 
 
 After the peace of Lun^ville, the most important act of the 
 reign of Francis II. was his adoption of the title of emperor 
 of Austria. The house of Habsburg-Lorraine had by this time 
 lost all its German possessions outside the archduchy of 
 Austria, and the authority of the emperor over the German 
 states had become absurdly unreal. In fact, Austria was out- 
 side of Germany ; all the power she possessed she derived 
 from her own dominions. These were henceforth divided 
 into five principal groups, the Hereditary Provinces, the king- 
 dom of Bohemia, the kingdom of Hungary, Galicia, and Venetia. 
 The three first belonged to the sovereign by hereditary right, 
 or by contracts voluntarily entered into by both parties ; the 
 two last had been recently conquered, and were maintained 
 in a state of obedience by force. It seemed as if the old titles 
 of archduke of Austria, of king of Bohemia and of Hungary, 
 had become insufficient for the owner of so many posses- 
 sions, and Francis II. wished to add to them one which would 
 be more elastic and more capable of impressing Europe and 
 the countries he had recently conquered. The reigning 
 dynasty had long been known by the name of the house of 
 Austria, and though the countries governed by the Habsburgs
 
 FRANCIS, EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA. 42 1 
 
 were still far from being a homogeneous whole, they had been 
 definitely grouped round the Austrian dynasty by the Prag- 
 matic Sanction. Notwithstanding their inflexible attachment 
 to the privileges of their nation, the Magyars had accepted 
 the principle of hereditary succession, and an exhausted 
 Bohemia had long, at least in appearance, been pacified. It 
 was on the nth of August, 1804, that Francis II. took the 
 title of emperor of Austria. On the i8th of the preceding 
 May, the imperial title had been declared hereditary in the 
 family of Napoleon I., and this event had certainly not been 
 without its influence on the decision of Francis. On the 
 loth of August he assembled a Staatsconferenz extraordinary, 
 to which were summoned the archduke Charles, the archduke 
 Joseph as palatine of Hungary, the ministers of state, the 
 chancellors of Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, and Transylvania, 
 the taverm'cus, or chief minister of finance in Hungary, and the 
 Kafnmerprdsident. He announced his decision to them, and 
 the next day issued a letter-patent to his people, of which the 
 following are the principal passages : — 
 
 "Although by the grace of God, and the choice of the 
 electors of the Romano-Germanic empire, we have been raised 
 to such a degree of splendour as leaves us no title to desire, 
 nevertheless our solicitude as ruler of the house and monarchy 
 of Austria induces us to insist on the maintenance of complete 
 equality between our imperial title and hereditary dignity, and 
 those of the other sovereigns and illustrious powers of Europe, 
 in such fashion as befits the ancient splendour of our house 
 and the greatness and independence of our kingdoms and 
 principalities. We have, therefore, been induced, after the 
 example of the imperial court of Russia in the last century, and 
 of the new sovereign of France, to claim for the house of 
 Austria an hereditary imperial title for its own states. For 
 these reasons we have determined, after mature deliberation, 
 to take solemnly for ourselves and our successors, for the whole 
 of our kingdoms and lands, the hereditary title of emperor of 
 Austria after the name of our house. At the same time, we
 
 422 niSTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 declare that each one of our kingdoms, our principaUties, and 
 our provinces shall nevertheless preserve its title, constitution, 
 and privileges." 
 
 This measure crowned the patient work of the house of 
 Austria, but it made no change in the condition of any 
 of the various provinces. Francis II. and his successor, 
 Ferdinand IV., were both crowned kings of Bohemia and 
 Hungary, and renewed the engagements taken by their 
 predecessors towards the kingdoms of St. Vacslav and St. 
 Stephen ; but no Austrian sovereign has ever been crowned as 
 emperor of Austria. The new title was recognized by foreign 
 courts without demur. Francis 11. made no attempt to break 
 the ties which attached some of his domains to Germany, and 
 solemnly declared to the German Reichstag that he would not 
 do so. He seems never to have lost the hope of one day 
 ruling Germany, and it was his interest to appear to possess 
 as large a number of German states as possible. The solemn 
 act of the nth of August, 1804, made but little impres- 
 sion on the people, who had always been accustomed to see 
 the title of emperor joined to that of king on all public docu- 
 ments ; but by thus declaring the historical unity of the 
 Austrian dominions, Francis added a corollary to the Prag- 
 matic Sanction, which Charles VI. could not have ventured 
 to hope for in the first half of the eighteenth century. 
 
 PYancis was thirty-six years old when he took the imperial 
 title. Events had aged him before his time, and he had 
 become timid and suspicious. He knew no science except 
 natural science, no art except music, the only great art which 
 has ever flourished in i^ustria. He was a complete stranger 
 to all the new ideas of the eighteenth century. His power lay 
 in that patient persistence which is looked upon as the special 
 characteristic of the Habsburgs, and he affected that patri- 
 archal mode of life and that popularity which is sometimes 
 to be found combined with ideas of absolutism and love of 
 tyrannical power. He wished to be the father of his people, 
 but a father who would not willingly allow his children to
 
 NEW WAR AGAINST NAPOLEON. 423 
 
 argue with him. He meant his power to be uncontrolled, and 
 the trials which he met with in his life only served to confirm 
 him in his ideas of absolutism. He took for his motto the 
 words '■''Justitia regnoriim fundamentiim" but he explained 
 their meaning in his own fashion. The only power which 
 rivalled that of the emperor was that bureaucracy which had 
 been made the motive power of all government by Joseph II. 
 The Hungarians preserved their old independence, but Bohemia 
 had not yet awakened from her state of torpor, and the 
 Austrians proper prided themselves on seeing in their emperor 
 absolutism incarnate. " Es giebt nur ein Kaiserstadi, es giebt 
 nur ein Wien " (" There is only one imperial city, there is only 
 one Vienna") — this popular saying of the Viennese sufficed to 
 flatter their self-love, just as music sufficed to lull to sleep 
 their indolent minds. 
 
 New War against Napoleon — Treaty of Pressbiirg (1805), 
 
 From 1 80 1 to 1805 the direction of foreign affairs was in 
 the hands of the vice-chancellor, Louis Cobenzl. He was a 
 politician of the old school, tricky and courteous, and the 
 young ambassadors who served under him, Stahrenberg in 
 London, ]\Ietternich in Dresden, and Stadion in Berlin, were 
 all abler men than himself. From the year 1803 he secured 
 the services of Frederick Genz, the most powerful political 
 writer of Germany, and one of the most formidable of the 
 opponents of the French Revolution. Genz was a Silesian, 
 born after the conquest of that province, and he had studied 
 at the university of Konigsburg. Owing to the miserable 
 state of public education, and the antagonism of her divers 
 nationalities, Austria could rarely find the men she needed 
 among her own subjects, but was forced to seek them in 
 foreign lands. This strange state of things has been seen 
 even down to our own day, when Beust was invited to come 
 from Dresden to reconstruct the empire after the battle of 
 Sadowa. Cobenzl's ministry contained no man of mark ; the 
 archduke Charles, the victor of Neerwinden and Stockach, was
 
 424 HISTORY OF A USTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 the only one of real worth. In 1801, he was made field-marshal 
 and president of the council of war, and introduced some 
 ideas of reform into his own department. He was really 
 popular in Austria, and was the only general who could be 
 opposed to the armies of Napoleon with any chance of success. 
 Since 1801 the relations between Austria and France had 
 in appearance been cordial, and the Austrian ambassador in 
 Paris had been most attentive to the new emperor. A saying 
 of Cobenzl's was quoted in Vienna : " The monarchs of 
 Europe have in Napoleon a colleague for whom they need 
 not blush." But, in reality, the heir of the revolution could be 
 nothing but the enemy of Austria, and " Buonaparte " inspired 
 in the court and among the nobles a hatred which longed to 
 express itself in a renewal of hostilities. England and Russia, 
 therefore, had no difficulty in drawing Austria into a new 
 alliance to curb the encroachments of France. In case of 
 success she was promised the Po and the Adda as her frontier, 
 the annexation of Salzburg, and the restoration of the right of 
 the second son of the house of Habsburg to reign in Tuscany, 
 while England undertook to pay ^1,250,000 for every hundred 
 thousand men under arms ; on these conditions Austria fur- 
 nished three hundred and thirty-five thousand troops. The 
 archduke Charles was opposed to the idea of fighting Napoleon 
 when he was intoxicated by success and had Prussia and 
 Germany ready to help him; he consequently gave in his 
 resignation as president of the high council of war, and his 
 place was filled by general Latour, whom the Viennese called 
 the old War-Drum. Prince Charles of Schwarzenburg was 
 made vice-president, and Mack major-general. Great con- 
 fidence was felt in the talents of Mack. He was at this 
 time fifty-three years of age, and had fought under Loudon 
 and Lascy. It was true he had not always been successful, 
 having been beaten by Championnet in the kingdom of 
 Naples, when his forces were four times as great as those of 
 his opponent, but he was a clever officer though he was only 
 familiar with the old modes of warfare, and never under-
 
 CAPITULATION OF ULM. 425 
 
 Stood those of Napoleon. The plan of campaign for 1805 
 was elaborated in consultation with the Russian general 
 Winzingrode, and was to consist, as in 1799, in simultaneous 
 attacks on Suabia and Italy, three armies acting at once, one 
 in Italy, one in Tyrol, and another in Bavaria. The war 
 was exceedingly popular in Vienna. " It is both touching and 
 consoling," writes Genz to John Miiller, "to see the good 
 feeling which animates the whole country; at the present 
 moment our cause is so good, so just, so holy, that no one 
 dare murmur. Each one feels that the present state of things 
 cannot last." The army in Italy was commanded by the 
 archduke Charles, that of Tyrol by the archduke John. The 
 emperor in person led the army in Germany, but he left the 
 general direction of the troops to Mack, who displayed the 
 greatest energy. Austria, however, was deficient in cannons, 
 in horses, and in money, and how Mack led them to the 
 disastrous capitulation of Ulm (20th October, 1805) is well 
 known. It was a terrible catastrophe for Austria. INIack was 
 summoned before the council of war, deprived of his com- 
 mand, and condemned to ten years' imprisonment. " The 
 blow which has fallen on us," writes Genz, "is one of those 
 which break the heart and crush the mind." The emperor 
 took every possible means to encourage his people. In a 
 manifesto of the 28th of October, 1805, he said, "The Aus- 
 trian monarchy has always risen triumphant from every mis- 
 fortune that has befallen it in times past ; its strength is still 
 unconquered ; in the hearts of the brave men for whom I 
 fight the old spirit of patriotism still lives." Negociations 
 were entered into with Prussia, in the hope of obtaining her 
 mediation and perhaps her help. But further defeat awaited 
 Austria. In Italy the archduke Charles had accepted the 
 command of the troops who were to oppose the army of 
 Massena, and with them he fought the glorious but useless 
 battle of Caldiero (30th October, 1805). He was obliged 
 immediately after the fight to march to the help of the threat- 
 ened German provinces, in order to prevent, if possible, the
 
 426 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 French army in Italy from joining Napoleon in his march on 
 Vienna. Tyrol and Vorarlberg were at the time in the occupa- 
 tion of Austrian troops. The archduke united this force to his 
 OAvn, gave orders that Tyrol should be abandoned, and then 
 retreated towards Carniola and Carinthia. Ney immediately 
 occupied Tyrol. Charles now had twenty-four thousand men 
 under his command, who, in case of need, would weigh heavily 
 in the balance, and when the news of the occupation of Vienna 
 reached him he pushed on into Hungary by way of Styria, and 
 encamped near Koermend, on the very spot where the battle 
 called the battle of St. Gothard had been fought against the 
 Turks in 1664. 
 
 The Russian troops under Kutuzov were too weak to be 
 able to protect Vienna. It had early been abandoned and all 
 the art treasures and money belonging to the state sent into 
 Hungary, but the arms and munitions of war had been 
 negligently allowed to remain. On the 3rd of November, 1805, 
 Murat entered the city, and he was soon followed by Napo- 
 leon, who established his head-quarters at Schonbrunn, while 
 general Hulin was appointed commandant of Vienna and took 
 up his abode in the palace of Lobkowitz. The Viennese 
 showed an utter want of courage ; they not only sent a depu- 
 tation to Napoleon praying him to spare the city, but actually 
 presented him with a service of plate, a course of action 
 which did not save them, however, from having to pay a 
 heavy fine, besides the usual requisitions of war. This was the 
 first time since the days of Mathias Corvinus that a conqueror 
 had entered Vienna. 
 
 Meanwhile, the emperor of Austria had joined the Russian 
 troops of Alexander in Moravia, and had added fifteen 
 thousand Austrians to an army of sixty-two thousand Russians. 
 On the 14th of November, Napoleon left Vienna to meet 
 this army, having with him only seventy thousand men. On 
 the 15th, he reached Znoymo, on the 20th, Brno (Briinn), and 
 on the 2nd of December, 1805, a battle took place near the 
 village of Slavkov, which the Germans call Austerlitz, in which
 
 AUSTERLITZ. 427 
 
 he was completely victorious. The allies lost fifteen thousand 
 killed, ten thousand prisoners, two hundred and eighty can- 
 nons. The fate of the campaign was decided by this Battle 
 of the Three Emperors, after which Francis II. had an interview 
 with Napoleon near Spaleny Mlyn (Burnt Mill), where the 
 conditions of peace were discussed. " After what I have seen, 
 there is nothing left for me to suffer," said Francis to prince 
 Lichtenstein on his return. 
 
 On the 6th of December, hostilities ceased, and the Russians 
 retired by way of Galicia, but in accordance with the terms of 
 the armistice, the French troops continued to occupy all the 
 lands they had invaded, Austria, Tyrol, Venetia, Carniola, 
 Carinthia, and Styria ; within Bohemia they were to have the 
 circle of Tabor, together with Brno and Znoymo in Moravia 
 and Pozsony (Pressburg) in Hungary. The Morava (March) 
 and the Hungarian frontier formed the line of demarcation 
 between the two armies. A definitive peace was signed at 
 Pressburg on the 26th of December, 1805. Austria recognized 
 the conquests of France in Holland and Switzerland and the 
 annexation of Genoa, and ceded to the kingdom of Italy 
 Friuli, Istria, Dalmatia with its islands, and the Bocche di 
 Cattaro. A little later, by the explanatory Act of Fontaine- 
 bleau, she lost the last of her possessions to the west of the 
 Isonzo, when she exchanged those portions of the counties of 
 Gorica and Gradisca which are situated on the right bank of 
 that river for the county of Montefalcone in Istria. The new 
 kingdoms of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg were aggrandized at the 
 expense of Austria. Bavaria obtained Vorarlberg, the county 
 of Hohenembs, the town of Lindau, and the whole of Tyrol 
 with Brixen and Trent. Austrian Suabia was given to ^^'i^rtem- 
 berg, while Breisgau and the Ortenau were bestowed on the 
 new grand-duke of Baden. One compensation alone, the duchy 
 of Salzburg, fell to Austria for all her sacrifices, and this has re- 
 mained in her possession ever since. The old bishopric of W'iirz- 
 burg was created an electorate and granted to Ferdinand III. 
 of Tuscany and Salzburg. Altogether the monarchy lost about
 
 428 HISTORY OF A US TRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 twenty-five thousand four hundred square miles and nearly 
 three millions of inhabitants. She lost Tyrol with its brave 
 and loyal inhabitants and the Vorliinde which had assured 
 Austrian influence in Germany; every possession on the Rhine, 
 in the Black Forest, and on the Lower Danube ; she no longer 
 touched either Switzerland or Italy, and she ceased to be a 
 maritime power. Besides all this, she had to pay forty millions 
 for the expenses of the war, while she was exhausted by con- 
 tributions and requisitions. Vienna had suffered much, and the 
 French army had carried off the two thousand cannons and 
 the hundred thousand guns which had been contained in her 
 arsenals. 
 
 On the i6th of January, 1806, the emperor Francis returned 
 to his capital. He was enthusiastically received, and the 
 Viennese returned to the luxurious and easy way of life which 
 has always characterized them. To charm their leisure and to 
 console them in their misfortunes, had they not the greatest 
 musicians the world has produced, Haydn and Beethoven, 
 Salieri and Clementi? 
 
 Surrefider by Francis II. of the title of Roman Emperor (1806). 
 
 Austria seemed no longer to have any part to play in 
 German politics. Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, and Baden had been 
 formed into a separate league — the Confederation of the Rhine 
 — under French protection. On the ist of August, 1806, these 
 states announced to the Reichstag at Ratisbon that they 
 looked upon the empire as at an end, and on the 6th, 
 Francis H. formally resigned the empire altogether, and 
 released all the imperial officials from their engagements to 
 him. Thus the sceptre of Charlemagne fell from the hands of 
 the dynasty which had held it without interruption from 1438. 
 Francis most certainly did not give up Germany without regret. 
 Although in his hereditary dominions he ruled over more than 
 fifteen millions of subjects who were not Germans, his 
 education had been entirely German, and for centuries the 
 kings of Bohemia and of Hungary had been accustomed to
 
 SURRENDER OF TITLE OF ROMAN EMPEROR. 429 
 
 look upon those countries merely as nursery-grounds for 
 soldiers who would help to secure their power in Suabia and 
 along the banks of the Rhine, the Scheldt, and the Po. The 
 duties which they owed to the kingdoms of St. Vacslav and 
 St. Stephen had been sacrificed to their German sympathies 
 and ambitions. Now they found themselves driven out of 
 Germany, and left alone with Bohemia, Hungary, Galicia, and 
 the Hereditary Provinces. Happy would it have been if, 
 ceasing for the future to let go the substance for the shadow, 
 they had known how to arrive at a clear idea of the rights and 
 duties imposed upon them by their new position ! 
 
 The internal policy of Austria was at this time directed by 
 count Philip Stadion, chancellor of the empire, and the arch- 
 duke Charles, who had been war minister since the month of 
 February, 1801. Both ministers thought only of a new war 
 against Napoleon. Stadion was a German of INIaintz, and 
 continued the old German policy, striving to restore the 
 position of Austria by diplomacy. The archduke set to work 
 to reorganize the army. Genz was Stadion's official publicist ; 
 although he was a German and full of German prejudices, he 
 felt that circumstances had changed the destinies of Austria, 
 and that the enfeebled empire could only be restored to 
 vigorous life by altering its centre of gravity. On the 4th of 
 August, 1806, he writes to his friend John Midler, "Vienna 
 ought to cease to be the capital. The German dominions 
 ought to be looked upon as secondary provinces, and the seat 
 of government ought to be removed to the heart of Hungary, 
 and a new constitution drawn up for that country. With 
 Hungary, Bohemia, Galicia, and what remains to us in Germany, 
 we could hold our own against the universe if we Avished. We 
 ought to reconquer Fiume and Trieste at any cost, in order to 
 have access to the sea, and the other frontiers should be so 
 strongly fortified that the devil himself could not cross them. 
 If we were to do this, Prussia and Germany would soon be 
 obliged to ask help of us." 
 
 But these ideas made no way with the court of Vienna,
 
 430 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 where every effort and every hope turned towards Germany and 
 Italy. It was besides exceedingly difficult for Austria to remain 
 neutral, silent, and disinterested in the presence of Napoleon's 
 ceaseless efforts to secure for himself the lead in Europe. Then 
 again, most of the noble families who surrounded Francis 
 II. had possessed lands in Germany, and their only thought 
 was how to reconquer them. Under these circumstances it 
 was not surprising that Metternich's relations with Napoleon 
 in Paris became exceedingly strained. Austria dared not come 
 to the aid of Prussia and Russia during the disastrous cam- 
 paign of Jena and Eylau, but Napoleon felt no gratitude for 
 that. He knew too well the hostile intentions of Francis II. 
 "What does your sovereign want?" he had asked bluntly of 
 Metternich at an audience on the 15th of August, 1808. 
 " He wants his envoy to be respected," the diplomatist had 
 answered drily. At the congress of Erfurt, when Vincent, 
 the Austrian general, brought him a letter of congratulation 
 from Francis, he had roughly reminded him that he had been 
 in a position in which he could have utterly destroyed Austria, 
 and that she owed her existence to his mercy. All this irrita- 
 tion was caused by her warlike preparations. 
 
 The archduke Charles applied himself energetically to the 
 equipment of the army, while he did all he could to raise the 
 tone of the troops and to fortify the frontier on the side of 
 Germany. He abolished corporal punishment, and organized 
 a territorial militia as a reserve force. This landwehr was 
 drilled on holidays, and met in full force once a month (patent 
 of the 12th of May, 1808). The Bohemian diet voted a million 
 and a half of florins for the maintenance of this militia, and the 
 Hungarians were ready to make the necessary sacrifices for it. 
 Measures were taken at the same time to bring about a national 
 rising in the north of Germany, and Tyrol, which had always 
 been devoted to the dynasty, only awaited the signal to throw 
 off the rule of Bavaria. The enthusiasm became great through- 
 out all the provinces of the empire ; warlike fetes were held 
 in many places; Arndt, Korner, and other less illustrious
 
 CAMPAIGN' OF 1809. 43 I 
 
 poets wrote patriotic hymns, which soon became popular. 
 One by the poet Colhn was a kind of monarchical Marseillaise : 
 "The throne of the Habsburgs must remain fixed for ever, — 
 Austria shall not perish. Rise, O people ; form your battalions ! 
 To arms ! To the frontiers ! " Napoleon's foolish expedition 
 against Spain had helped once more to raise the highest hopes. 
 It was on the 27th of March, 1809, that war was declared 
 against France, and the archduke Charles named generalissimo, 
 with fuller powers than had been granted to any general since 
 the days of Wallenstein or prince Eugene. He commanded an 
 army of two hundred and ninety thousand men, thirty thousand 
 horse, and eight hundred cannons. The landwehr and the 
 Hungarian insurrection could, according to the most trustworthy 
 calculations, furnish two hundred and twenty-four thousand 
 more, and would thus make a total of more than five hundred 
 thousand. 
 
 Campaign <?/"i8o9 — Iitsurrection of Tyrol. 
 
 Again it was decided that Napoleon should be attacked at 
 the same moment by three different armies. The first, under the 
 orders of the archduke Charles, was to march against Bavaria ; 
 the second, under the archduke John, was to attack Italy \ while 
 the archduke Ferdinand, with thirty-five thousand men, was to 
 invade Poland. Less important bodies of troops were to drive 
 the French from Dalmatia and Istria. Never had Austria set 
 on foot such a force. She represented herself as the champion 
 of the independence of nations. " The freedom of Europe has 
 sought refuge beneath your banner," said the archduke Charles 
 in one of his proclamations. " Soldiers, your victories will 
 break her chains ; your German brothers who are now in the 
 ranks of the enemy wait only for their deliverance." There is 
 no evidence that the Chekhs, Slovenes, Hungarians, Croats, 
 Roumanians, and Poles had any great interest in the deliverance 
 of their German brothers ; but the archduke only repeated the 
 traditional formulas of his house. All he cared about was to 
 persuade Europe and Germany herself that the destiny of the
 
 43 2 HISTORY OF AVSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 German race was bound up with that of the house of Austria. 
 " We fight for the maintenance of the independence of the 
 Austrian monarchy," said a manifesto addressed to Germany, 
 " to recover that independence and that national honour which 
 belong to her. Our resistance is her last hope of safety; our 
 cause is hers. With Austria Germany has been independent 
 and happy, and only through Austria can she become so again." 
 The first episode in the war was the insurrection of Tyrol 
 against Bavaria. These rude mountaineers had remained faith- 
 fully attached to the house of Austria, and had known how to 
 preserve, during a long series of reigns, their privileges and 
 patriarchal customs. At the time of their annexation to 
 Bavaria, Maximilian Joseph had promised " not to change one 
 iota " of their laws ; but a year had scarcely passed before the 
 Bavarian ministers set to work to assimilate the new province 
 of Southern Bavaria, as it was called in ofificial documents, to 
 the rest of the kingdom. On the ist of May, 1808, the estates 
 of Tyrol were dissolved, the administration of religious matters 
 altered completely, the pastors driven from their churches 
 without reason assigned, and pilgrimages and festivals sujj- 
 pressed. Some of these reforms would have been excellent 
 had they been undertaken under other circumstances and with 
 due precaution ; harshly insisted upon by a foreign government, 
 they drove the simple folk to desperation. They had always 
 kept up their old connection with Vienna, and their interests 
 had been bravely maintained there by the Tyrolese Hormayr. 
 In the beginning of 1809, three patriots, Andrew Hofer, Peter 
 Huber, and Nessing, went to Vienna to arrange a plan of 
 insurrection with the archduke John, and on their return the 
 revolt was organized. Innkeepers, pedlars, and labourers were 
 the principal agents, and the secret was kept with admirable 
 resolution. Among the rustic heroes of this struggle three 
 deserve to be specially remembered by the historian — Andrew 
 Hofer, the innkeeper of Passeyer; Joseph Speckbacher ; and 
 Joachim Haspinger, the Capuchin. The innkeeper and horse- 
 dealer, Andrew Hofer, was known throughout the whole of Tyrol.
 
 INSURRECTION IN TYROL. 433 
 
 He had been a member of the diet, and in 1796 he had com- 
 manded a body of his countrymen in Italy against the French. 
 The father of seven children, he never hesitated a moment to 
 leave them for the service of his country. Speckbacher had 
 fought in the campaigns of 1797, i8oo, and 1805, and possessed 
 real military talent. Haspinger, the Capuchin, who was better 
 known by the name of Father Joachim of the Red Beard, had 
 accompanied the Tyrolese in all their expeditions as their 
 chaplain. He never shed blood himself, but no man knew 
 better how to excite the soldiers to battle and heighten their 
 patriotism by their religious faith. 
 
 On the 9th of April, 1809, the Austrian general, Chasteler, 
 crossed the Tyrolese frontier and was received with triumph. 
 On the same day, Hofer called his countrymen to arms, and 
 when Chasteler entered the Pusterthal not a single Bavarian 
 was to be found, Hofer and his peasants having driven every 
 foreign soldier out of the country. A few days later they 
 captured Innsbriick, but their victory was tarnished by the 
 pillage of the houses of the Jews and of the Bavarian officials. 
 The next day three thousand five hundred Frenchmen, com- 
 manded by Bisson, surrendered to the rough mountaineers, 
 and seven cannons fell into their hands. Hormayr, who had 
 arrived with the Austrian army, at once restored the old form 
 of government throughout Tyrol. In the south the struggle 
 was harder, and general Baraguay d'Hilliers with eight 
 thousand French troops was able to hold his ground for some 
 time, but finally fell back into Italy before the army of Hofer 
 and the soldiers of Chasteler. By the end of April the whole 
 of Tyrol, with the single exception of the fortress of Kufstein, 
 was in the hands of the Austrians, and this unexpected success 
 filled the Austrian troops with confident hopes which after 
 events by no means justified. 
 
 On the 13th of April, Napoleon left Paris, and hastened to 
 meet the archduke Charles, who had entered Bavaria and was 
 marching on Landshut. The Austrian troops stretched from 
 Munich to Ratisbon. By the victory of Abensberg (20th 
 
 2 F
 
 434 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 April) Napoleon divided them, got possession of Landshut, 
 and crushed the main body at Eggmiihl and before Ratisbon 
 (22nd-23rd April). The Austrians fought heroically, but in 
 spite of all their efforts sixty thousand men and a hundred 
 cannons fell into the hands of the enemy. The success 
 obtained in Italy, where Friuli was occupied by Austrian 
 troops, and in Poland, where Warsaw had capitulated to the 
 archduke Ferdinand, could not atone for this terrible defeat. 
 
 The archduke Charles was obliged to retreat into Bohemia 
 to reorganize his army, while the archduke Maximilian 
 endeavoured to defend Vienna ; but the city was bombarded 
 and forced to surrender. For the second time the French 
 took possession of it (13th May), and the famous proclama- 
 tion of Napoleon to the Hungarians, of which we must shortly 
 speak-, was dated thence. 
 
 Aspern and Wagram — Treaty of Schonbrutin (1809). 
 
 The fall of Vienna placed the right bank of the Danube, 
 from Linz to the Hungarian frontier, in the hands of the 
 French, while the left bank was guarded by Austrian troops. 
 In order to dislodge the enemy. Napoleon threw bridges 
 across the river near the island of Lobau, and the villages of 
 Aspern and Esslingen were captured by Massena and Lannes. 
 The archduke Charles awaited the French close by, and on 
 hearing that they had passed the river, he issued an order of 
 the day to his troops which reminds us of that of Nelson at 
 Trafalgar : " To-morrow we must fight ; the fate of the 
 monarchy depends on you. I shall do my duty, and I 
 expect the same of the army." He had seventy-three 
 thousand men and three hundred cannons under his com- 
 mand. For two successive days he tried unsuccessfully to 
 force the French back upon the Danube. Napoleon was 
 quite unable to break the Austrian lines, and narrowly escaped 
 being blockaded in the island of Lobau. These two days cost 
 the two armies more than forty thousand killed and wounded, 
 marshal Lannes being among the killed. Victory seemed to
 
 BATTLE OF ASPERy. 435 
 
 hesitate between the two adversaries, and Napoleon was 
 obliged to own that he had at last found a rival worthy of him. 
 The battle of Aspern (22nd May, 1809) is looked upon in Austria 
 as the greatest victory gained since the days of Zenta and 
 Kolin. The emperor Francis wrote to the archduke Charles 
 to congratulate "the worthy pillar of the throne, the saviour 
 of his country ; " and Napoleon once said, " He who has not 
 seen the Austrians at Aspern has seen nothing." 
 
 After the battles of Aspern and Esslingen, Napoleon 
 fortified the island of Lobau and transformed it into a kind of 
 entrenched camp, from whence either bank of the river could 
 be reached at will. Here he awaited the arrival of the 
 archduke John. John had been defeated in Italy and had 
 been forced to take refuge in Hungary, where he was pursued 
 by the troops of Eugene Beauharnais. Driven out of Friuli, 
 he had at first fallen back upon Griitz, and from thence 
 entered Hungary, hoping to join forces with the msiirrection. 
 Eugene, however, did not follow him into Hungary, but 
 marched to join Napoleon at Vienna, and the archduke John 
 set to work to restore order among his troops in that camp at 
 Kormend which had already sheltered the army of the arch- 
 duke Charles. The archduke Ferdinand had met with no 
 better fortune in Poland, but had been forced to retreat, 
 abandoning Galicia and taking refuge also in Hungary. 
 
 The position of Austria had never before been so bad. 
 The whole of the right bank of the Danube, from the frontiers 
 of Bavaria to the frontiers of Hungary, and the whole of Inner 
 Austria were in the hands of the French ; they occupied the 
 towns of Vienna, Salzburg, Linz, Gratz, Ljublanja (Laybach), 
 Klagenfurt, and Trieste. One effort more and the whole 
 empire would be at the mercy of the conqueror. This effort 
 Napoleon made on the 5th of July, when he quitted the island 
 of Lobau with one hundred and fifty thousand men and five 
 hundred cannons. The archduke Charles had an equal number 
 of men and guns, but he dared not dispute the passage of the 
 river, and awaited the French on the heights of Wagram. The
 
 436 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 result of that bloody battle is well known. Aspern was avenged ; 
 once more forty thousand dead and wounded were left on the 
 field, and the archduke, forced to abandon his position, retreated 
 into Moravia. When he reached Znoymo (Zna'i'm) he demanded 
 and obtained an armistice for six weeks, and this, after some 
 hesitation, was ratified by Francis II. The emperor had at first 
 taken refuge in Hungary, and had only joined his army in time 
 to witness the defeat at Wagram. He entrusted the execution 
 of the armistice to the archduke John, whom he also made 
 commander-in-chief, on which the archduke Charles, deeply 
 wounded, resigned. From this time he lived in retirement, only 
 re-entering public life for a moment in 1815. Since the days 
 of Wallenstein and prince Eugbne no Austrian general had had 
 so great an influence over the army. The conditions of peace 
 were discussed by Champagny and Metternich at Altenburg, 
 and finally decided at Schonbrunn, where the treaty was signed 
 on the 14th of October. On the following day the fortifications 
 of Vienna, Gratz, Gyor (Raab), Klagenfurt, and Brno (Briinn), 
 were all destroyed by Napoleon's order, and it was in vain that 
 the Viennese begged to be allowed to keep the walls which had 
 formerly protected them from the Turks. 
 
 By the treaty of Vienna, or rather of Schonbrunn, Francis 
 II. ceded to Bavaria the territory of Salzburg and Berchtols- 
 gaden, the district of the Inn and that of the Hausruck above 
 the Enns, which had always belonged to Austria. He gave uj) 
 to Napoleon that portion of Gorica which had hitherto re- 
 mained in his hands, the county of Montefalcone, Trieste, the 
 whole of Carniola, the upper portion of Carinthia (circle of 
 Villach), and all the land on the right bank of the Save from 
 its rise in Carniola to the Turkish frontier, that is to say, the 
 greater part of Croatia, Fiume (Rieka), and Austrian Istria. 
 The Bohemian territory in Lusatia, which was, however, of but 
 small importance, finally became the property of Saxony ; 
 Western Galicia went to enlarge the duchy of Warsaw ; and 
 the circle of Tarnopol was given up to Russia. 
 
 The kingdom thus lost about forty-three thousand square
 
 CAPTURE OF HOFER. 437 
 
 miles and three million five hundred thousand subjects. It 
 now contained only twenty-one million of inhabitants and 
 about two hundred thousand square miles of territory. The 
 treaty also contained secret clauses which limited the army to 
 one hundred and fifty thousand, and bound the nation to pay 
 a contribution of eighty-five million francs. 
 
 But the most painful sacrifice of all was that of Tyrol. 
 Notwithstanding all the engagements he had entered into with 
 its brave inhabitants, Francis II. was forced to leave that 
 country in the hands of Bavaria. The disappointment of the 
 Tyrolese was bitter. Hofer and his companions had never 
 given up hope ; they had held their own against Wrede the 
 Bavarian, and Lefebvre the French general ; alone, unaided, 
 sometimes without even news from the capital, they had placed 
 their country in a state of defence, manufactured arms, con- 
 structed cannon, and forced the French to abandon Innsbriick. 
 They now resolved to continue the struggle on their own 
 account. But Bavaria was not likely to allow so rich a prize 
 to escape, and thirty thousand French, Bavarians, and Wiir- 
 tembergers entered the valley of the Inn. These were 
 repulsed by the patriots and crushed beneath the rocks which 
 were hurled upon them from the sides of the narrow mountain 
 passes. Tyrol defended itself even more desperately than did 
 Spain, and in August, 1809, Lefebvre was forced to retire into 
 Carinthia, leaving Hofer sole master of the country. He 
 took up his residence in the imperial palace, with the title of 
 commander-in-chief. Never was chief more implicitly obeyed. 
 But on the arrival of troops sent by the viceroy of Italy, he 
 saw that further resistance would be useless, and had retu'ed to 
 his inn at Passeyer, when the news of a victory on the part 
 of the Austrians led him again to take up arms. This time the 
 struggle proved too unequal ; the Tyrolese were defeated and 
 their leaders forced to fly or to conceal themselves. Speck- 
 bacher and Haspinger succeeded in crossing the frontier. One 
 hundred thousand florins were offered for the head of Hofer. 
 In 1810, he was caught and taken to Mantua, where the com-
 
 438 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 mandant of the fortress was, at the time, that Bisson who had 
 already had an opportunity of testing the military talents of the 
 intrepid soldier in the campaign of the Tyrol. He tried to 
 gain him over to the service of Napoleon. " I remain true 
 to my emperor Francis," was the sole answer of the patriot. 
 He was tried on the charge that " a sabre and two pistols had 
 been found in his house." The majority of his judges con- 
 demned him to perpetual imprisonment, but a special order 
 was received from Napoleon, in consequence of which he was 
 shot on the 20th of February. His remains were buried in 
 a garden, whence in 1823 they were carried by some Tyrolese 
 officers to Innsbruck, where they now lie by the side of those 
 of Speckbacher and Haspinger in the church of the Franciscans. 
 The tragic death of Hofer had the curious effect of rousing 
 the sentiment of nationality in Germany. Germans have tried 
 to make the Tyrolese chief their own and look upon him as a 
 national hero. A popular song, '^ Zu Mantua in Banden der 
 treue Hofer war," represents the whole of Germany plunged 
 in grief and despair on the death of Hofer. This is making 
 small account of history. Hofer detested the Bavarians at 
 least as much as he detested the French ; and as for the 
 Prussian " heretics," it is probable that he barely knew of their 
 existence. 
 
 The heroic death of Hofer did not put an end to the 
 hatred of the conquerors, and Tyrol had to be dismembered 
 before an end could be put to Tyrolese resistance. The 
 A'''orarlberg was separated from it ; Southern Tyrol was given 
 to Italy, the Pusterthal to Illyria, and the rem.ainder became 
 the spoil of Bavaria. The university of Innsbruck was closed, 
 and the Tyrolese youths were enrolled under the flags of foreign 
 nations. 
 
 The French in the Illyrian Provinces. 
 
 Napoleon revived the old classical name of Illyrian 
 Provinces for the countries on the shores of the Adriatic, 
 Carinthia, Carniola, Gorica, Istria, and part of Croatia and
 
 REPUBLIC OF FAG US A. 439 
 
 Dalmatia, and here his government was more successful than 
 in Tyrol. These districts belonged to the Slavonic race ; 
 the people of the north spoke the Slovenish, those of the 
 south (Croatia and Dalmatia) the Croato-Servian language. 
 The influence of the German dynasty had been less felt here, 
 where the lands were occupied by people more alien to the 
 German race than in the rest of the empire. 
 
 On the 15th of October, 1808, Napoleon annexed the 
 ancient republic of Ragusa ^ to Dalmatia ; it had been 
 conquered by general Lauriston two years earlier. On the 
 15th of April, 181 1, an imperial decree divided Illyria into 
 six civil provinces and one military : Carinthia (chief town 
 Villach), Carniola (chief town Ljublanja, Laybach), Istria 
 (chief town Trieste), Civil Croatia (chief town Karlovac, 
 Karlstadt), Military Croatia (chief town Karlovac), Dalmatia 
 (chief town Zadar, . Zara), and Ragusa (chief town Ragusa). 
 Marmont, duke of Ragusa, took up his residence at Laybach. 
 
 * The republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) was founded about the seventh 
 century by Italian colonists and Servians. Like the Italian republics, it 
 early became an aristocracy. From the ninth century onwards its manu- 
 factures and trade were in a very flourishing condition. The Ragusans 
 learned how to steer their course cleverly between the Servian princes and 
 the Venetians, In the Middle Ages they were obliged to submit to the 
 protectorate of Venice, and afterwards to that of Hungary, and later on 
 they had to pay tribute to the Turks, when they became their neighbours. 
 In the fifteenth century they had agents and consuls along the whole of the 
 Levant, and maintained three hundred ships for trade in distant lands. At 
 that time Ragusa contained about forty thousand inhabitants. The earth- 
 quake of 1667 destroyed about five thousand persons and struck a cruel 
 blow at the republic, while the intolerance of her senate towards those 
 merchants who were members of the Greek Church c<mipleted her ruin. 
 In order to avoid the dangerous proximity of \'enice, the Ragusans ceded 
 the two districts of Klek and Sutorina to the sultan, thus completely 
 separating the republic from Dalmatia. From the fifteenth to the seven- 
 teenth century Ragusa was the seat of a school of Slav poetry whose works 
 are still classical. The principal representatives of this school are Mincetic 
 and Darzic, who are lyric poets ; John Gundulic, the author of the epic 
 poem, " Osman ; " and Palmotic, author of "The Christiade," and 
 " Gjorgjic." Among the learned men she has produced we may mention 
 Banduri, author of the " Imperium Orientale," and the mathematician 
 Boskovic. At the present time, though Ragusa contains only a few 
 thousand inhabitants, she is still one of the literary centres of '.he southern 
 Slavs.
 
 440 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 The magic name of Illyria excited the most Uvely enthusiasm 
 among the Slav peoples. Hitherto oppressed by the influence 
 of Germany, they now found themselves for the first time united 
 in a way which they had never dared to hope for under the 
 Austrian government. The nationjil language was encouraged 
 in the schools and the literature of the country began to make 
 progress. " The people, " says a Slovene historian, " learned to 
 have a great respect for the exact and speedy justice which was 
 accorded to them by the French courts ; public security had 
 never before been so great. The French gendarmes are still 
 remembered kindly by the Slovenes. Taxes were well regulated 
 and collected in a better way ; communal liberties were in- 
 creased. It would take long to relate the good which the 
 French government did to the country. During the four years 
 it lasted, the French language spread through the land with 
 great rapidity, and at Lay bach there was hardly an educated 
 man who had not learned French." Charles Nodier, who was 
 appointed librarian at Laybach, edited a polyglot newspaper 
 there, called the Illyrian Telegraph. The poet Vodnik trans- 
 lated the grammar of Lhomond into Slovene, and celebrated 
 Napoleon in a well-known ode, " Risen Illyria," in which he 
 records in a poetic form the hopes and aspirations of his native 
 land : — 
 
 " Napoleon has said, ' Awake ! arise, Illyria ! ' She wakes, 
 she sighs, ' Who recalls me to the light ? O great hero, is it 
 thou who wakest me ? Thou reachest to me thy mighty hand ; 
 thou liftest me up. 
 
 " ' Our race shall be glorified, I dare to hope. A miracle 
 shall take place, I dare to prophesy. 
 
 " ' Napoleon penetrates into the land of the Slovenes, a 
 whole generation springs from the earth. 
 
 " ' Resting one hand on Gaul, I give the other to Greece 
 that I may save her. At the head of Greece is Corinth ; in 
 the centre of Europe is Illyria. Corinth is called the eye of 
 Greece ; Illyria shall be the jewel of the whole world." 
 
 In Dalmatia also the national language, which had been
 
 THE FRENCH IN ILLYRIA. 44 1 
 
 crushed by every possible means by the Venetians, was 
 encouraged by the French government, the official journal 
 being published both in Slav and in Italian ; and in many 
 other ways the country was improved. Schools were estab- 
 lished, and a great high-road was constructed by marshal 
 Marmont which long bore the name of " Napoleon's Road." 
 It is owing to this French occupation that Austria now owns 
 Ragusa, and that she has always since retained the name of 
 the kingdom of Illyria in her public documents, though that 
 name has no foundation in fact.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 FRANCIS II. — AUSTRIA AFTER THE PE.ACE OF SCHONBRUNN 
 (1809-1815). 
 
 Alliance with Napoleon. 
 
 The end of the struggle found Austria a diminished and ruined 
 empire. A policy of patience and wise moderation could 
 alone enable her to recover a sound financial position or to 
 reconstitute her army. During the negociations for the peace 
 of Schonbrunn Francis had appointed Clement Metternich 
 his prime minister, and when Stadion sent in his resignation 
 he made him minister of foreign affairs. Like so many among 
 the public men of Austria, Metternich belonged to a family 
 which had originally nothing to do with Austria The name 
 of Metternich was taken from a small village in the Rhenish 
 Provinces. One branch of the family had settled in Bohemia 
 in 1630, the period when that country was the gathering-ground 
 and the prey of the German nobles. The father of Clement 
 Metternich had been Austrian minister at the electoral courts 
 on the Rhine. This son, who was born in 1773, had married 
 a grand-daughter of Kaunitz, had entered the diplomatic 
 service early, and had represented Austria in Paris after the 
 peace of Pressburg. He had arranged the campaign of 1809, 
 and, notwithstanding his then want of success, the emperor 
 thought it wise to entrust the direction of affairs to the man 
 who best knew Napoleon. 
 
 It was Metternich who negociated the marriage of Napoleon
 
 AUSTRIA AFTER THE PEACE OF SCHO.VBRUNN. 443 
 
 with the archduchess Maria Louisa, for he saw in it the best 
 hope of gaining for Austria the aUiance of her powerful enemy, 
 and Francis II. found himself obhged to give his daughter to 
 this upstart Caesar, to the man who had described him in one 
 of his letters as " this skeleton, Francis II., whom the merits 
 of his ancestors have placed upon the throne." The people of 
 Austria bitterly felt the humiliation. An emperor of Austria 
 to give his daughter to the man who owed his crown to the 
 revolution which had beheaded Marie Antoinette ! On the 
 evening of the marriage by proxy — at which Napoleon had 
 been represented by the plebeian Berthier — the " Sacrifice of 
 Iphigenia " was acted in the court theatre at Vienna, and the 
 courtiers could not help comparing their sovereign to the 
 cruel Agamemnon and the archduchess to the unfortunate 
 Iphigenia. Maria Louisa's meanness of character has deprived 
 her fate of some portion of the pity which it well deserved. 
 Metternich accompanied the princess to Paris, and was able 
 to obtain for his country better terms for the payment of the 
 war indemnity, and a withdrawal of that humiliating clause 
 of the treaty wdiich reduced the Austrian army to one hundred 
 and fifty thousand men. 
 
 The financial situation of Austria was at this time exceed- 
 ingly grave. The price of food had increased greatly, and the 
 blockade of the continent added to the public misery by de- 
 priving people of coffee, sugar, and cotton. From 1793 to 1810 
 the public debt rose from three hundred and seventy-seven 
 millions to six hundred and fifty-eight millions of florins ; it had 
 been found necessary to have recourse to forced loans, and 
 even at times to suspend payment of the salaries of public 
 officials. In September, 1809, a letter patent ordered all men 
 to give up whatever precious metal they possessed in exchange 
 for government bonds and lottery tickets. The issue of paper 
 money increased continually; in 1792 it represented a value of 
 tw^o hundred millions, by 181 o it had risen to a thousand 
 millions. Bank-notes for thirty and even for fifteen kreutzers 
 were in circulation, and, the value of this paper money
 
 444 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HLNGARY. 
 
 decreasing in proportion to the quantity issued, by the year 
 1809 a bank-note for four florins was actually worth only one. 
 This depreciation was increased by the bank-notes which 
 came in from the ceded provinces. In order to pay Napoleon 
 the indemnity of eighty-five millions, it had been necessary to 
 melt down the precious vessels of the churches. In 18 10, a 
 sinking fund had been created, and a tax of a tenth on all 
 property, real and personal, had been levied. By 181 1, the total 
 amount of the bank-notes issued had reached 1,060,798,753 
 florins, and there was nothing left to the government but bank- 
 ruptcy. It was on the 20th of February of this year that a 
 patent reduced all notes to one-fifth of their nominal value. 
 This was a terrible catastrophe, and many families were com- 
 pletely ruined by it. A special order of this patent fixed the 
 value of money from 1799 to 1810, taking into consideration 
 the date at which debts had been incurred. Any person who 
 had borrowed one hundred florins, in 1803 had to pay back 
 one hundred and twenty-nine in paper; in 1806, one hundred 
 and forty-eight florins; and in 1809, two hundred and thirty- 
 four florins. In 181 1, he had to pay five hundred florins. 
 The diet of Hungary agreed to a reduction of fifty per cent., 
 but refused to accept the scala, which, however, was insisted 
 upon by the government. It was only after the peace of 18 16 
 that order was restored to the finances. 
 
 The legislative work of the reign of Francis II. was more 
 successful than the financial. The penal code was published 
 on the 3rd of September, 1803, and the civil code on the 
 ist of July, 181 1. Both were animated by the spirit of 
 humanity and justice to which the eighteenth century had 
 given birth. The penal code suppressed confiscation, the 
 galleys, and the halage, or dragging of boats, a punishment 
 which had been as harsh as the galleys. It retained the 
 punishments of death by hanging, and imprisonment of three 
 degrees of severity, hard labour, the pillory, and fasting, 
 which is even now sometimes inflicted It did not provide for 
 the appointment of a minister of justice, nor allow prisoners the
 
 LEGISLATIVE WORK OF FRANCIS IL 445 
 
 help of advocates ; but this penal code is considered one of 
 the best of those in use at the time, and remained in force 
 down to 1852. 
 
 The civil code of 181 1 was the result of fifty years of 
 labour, and was the completion of what Maria Theresa had 
 begun. On the ist of January, 181 2, it came into use 
 throughout the whole empire, with the exception of Hungary 
 and Transylvania. This code did not do away with all pre- 
 vious legislation like the Code Napoleon. It recognized a 
 special legislation for the Church, for Jews, and for large 
 landed estates ; it also recognized the subjection of the 
 peasants. At the same time, it did not recognize serfdom, 
 and admitted that every citizen was capable of enjoying civil 
 rights. 
 
 The fact that all the provinces except Hungary were now 
 governed by the same code must have helped to bring about 
 that political unity which had always been the aim of the 
 government. The Magyars, jealous of their independence, 
 refused to adopt it, and were right in so doing in spite of 
 its superiority to theyV« tripartitum ; its adoption would have 
 been the first step towards the absorption of the kingdom of 
 St. Stephen. 
 
 Russia7i Campaign — Reaction against Napoleoi — Austria in 
 Alliance ivith his Enemies (18 13). 
 
 As long as Napoleon remained at the head of the French 
 empire there could be no peace in Europe ; each nation was 
 forced to be either his ally or his enemy. Francis had chosen 
 to be his ally, and it was not long before he was dragged into 
 new wars. He had to submit to the humiliation of helping 
 his son-in-law against Russia, as he had had to submit to the 
 humiliation of giving to him his daughter ; he was entirely at 
 the mercy of France. Austria, reduced to the condition of 
 an ordinary continental power, was surrounded on all sides by 
 states which had been formed by the conqueror — Switzerland, 
 the Confederation of the Rhine, Italy, and the grand-duchy of
 
 446 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Warsaw — all of them creations of Napoleon, and Austria was 
 equally in a state of vassalage. "God and His destroying 
 angel are upon us," wrote Genz. When Radetsky was the head 
 of the staff, he formed a plan for making the permanent army a 
 body in which the whole male population should be trained, 
 as was done in the Prussian landwehr, and Metternich had 
 approved of the plan ; but count Wallis, president of the Hof- 
 kammer, opposed it, saying, "Austria was in so enfeebled a 
 condition that she could not dream of going to war for the 
 next ten years — perhaps not for thirty." 
 
 But Metternich and prince Schwarzenberg, his agent in 
 France, were both determined that the most intimate relations 
 should be maintained between the two empires, and conse- 
 quently, in spite of his wish to remain at peace, Francis was 
 forced to march against his old ally, the czar Alexander. He 
 promised to furnish thirty thousand soldiers and thirty thousand 
 reserves to Napoleon, and, in case of success, was to receive 
 in return some addition to his territory. Considering the 
 position of Austria, these were very good conditions, and put 
 her in a position to com-e forward as mediator, if circumstances 
 allowed of it. But the nation was discontented with any 
 alliance with Napoleon, and plots were organized to deprive him 
 of the lUyrian Provinces, while English and Prussian agents 
 travelled throughout the land, rousing the people against 
 France. 
 
 In the month of May, 1811, Francis H. and his son-in-law 
 met at Dresden. Metternich, who accompanied his master, 
 endeavoured to dissuade Napoleon from an expedition which 
 he saw to be full of danger. All his efforts were useless. The 
 Austrian army assembled at Lemberg (Lwow) under the com- 
 mand of Karl Schwarzenberg, and the reserves were called out 
 in Transylvania. There was but little enthusiasm among the 
 Austrian soldiers for the expedition, and the proclamation of 
 prince Schwarzenberg expresses clearly enough his per- 
 plexity : " We are fighting for an object which is common 
 to us and to the other powers. These powers are our allies.
 
 ALLIAXCE WITH NAPOLEON: 44/ 
 
 We are fighting with them, not for them. The army will 
 display that virtue which is the best of all military virtues 
 — that which consists in sacrificing itself in order to fulfil 
 the aim which the sovereign, under existing circumstances, 
 has proposed to himself." The army did fulfil its duty, and 
 marched into the duchy of Warsaw. Reynier's corps had 
 been placed by Napoleon under the command of Schwarzen- 
 berg. He penetrated as far as Brzesc in Lithuania, but he 
 neither took part in the expedition against Moscow nor in the 
 disastrous retreat that followed, and, owing to this, was able to 
 bring back his troops almost intact. 
 
 It was evidently not the business of Austria to carry on the 
 struggle in which the " grand army " had failed. The war had 
 been unpopular froiai the beginning \ it now became still more 
 so, and Metternich, who was looked upon as the author of it, 
 was loaded with abuse. Public opinion called upon the 
 government to enter into open alliance with Napoleon's 
 enemies. The Russians, obeying the orders of the emperor 
 Alexander, declared that they did not look upon the Austrians 
 as enemies. " We make war," they said, " only against French- 
 men and Poles." A diplomatic agent was even sent to 
 Schwarzenberg to propose that his neutrality should be recog- 
 nized, and, though he refused this offer, he wiUingly consented 
 to cross to the left bank of the Vistula. 
 
 Great was the excitement in Vienna when it was known 
 that the king of Prussia had left Berlin and entered into open 
 alliance with the enemies of France. The hotel of baron 
 Humboldt, the Prussian ambassador, became the meeting- 
 place of all who rejoiced over the humiliation of France. A 
 large number of emigrant Prussians had found refuge in 
 Vienna, and among them the poet Theodore Korner, the 
 Tyrtaeus of Germany, who had become attached to the theatre 
 at Vienna as dramatic poet. Even at the time of the French 
 alliance Korner had composed songs which could not fail to 
 rouse hatred against France, as, for instance, one on the 
 victory of Aspern, which, according to him, was a German
 
 44^ HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 victory: "■ Diese Schlacht hat Deutsches Volk geschlagen " (" This 
 battle has the German nation fought "). He had addressed most 
 enthusiastic verses to the archduke Charles : " My pride as a 
 (ierman bows down before that German hero who has kindled 
 the spark and the flame on the altar of victory." He invoked 
 the shade of Hofer, the Tyrolese hero, in ardent terms : " They 
 have captured thee, the slaves of the tyrant; but thou hast 
 looked up to heaven as to the place of victory ; the path of 
 freedom runs through the bitterness of death." He celebrated 
 the burning of Moscow : " The Phoenix of Russia flung itself 
 into the flames only to come out of them young and glorious; 
 already does St. George brandish his victorious lance." 
 
 The emperor Francis H. dared not show sympathy with the 
 passions raging around him, but he proposed that Napoleon 
 should make peace, and offered his mediation, which was 
 accepted. Metternich was becoming anxious about the growth 
 of Russia, which had quite recently annexed Finland and 
 Bessarabia, and also he did not think the time had yet come 
 when Napoleon could be attacked safely. In order that Austria 
 should be able to interfere with any chance of success it was 
 necessary that she should be well armed ; seventy thousand 
 men were therefore sent to occupy Bohemia. Schwarzenberg 
 went as ambassador to Paris. He was not to offer Napoleon 
 merely the mediation, but rather, said Metternich, " the interven- 
 tion of an ally who was weary of the war and desired to put an 
 end to it." The meeting of the Corps Legislatif in February, 
 1813, was opened by so arrogant a speech from Napoleon as left 
 but little hope of success from this intervention. Meantime, 
 public feeling grew more and more violent in Vienna, and when 
 the king of Prussia finally declared war against Napoleon, it 
 could no longer be restrained, and the government entered into a 
 secret agreement with him, in consequence of which the Austrian 
 troops in Poland remained neutral and fell back into Galicia. 
 Napoleon tried to persuade Austria to make war against 
 Prussia by offering her Silesia and allowing it to be understood 
 that he would also give back the lUyrian Provinces on demand.
 
 MEDIATION OF AUSTRIA. 449 
 
 But his offers were of no use ; the marriage between ]Maria 
 Louisa and Napoleon was the only tie, and that but a frail one, 
 which at this time united France to Austria. When Napoleon 
 quitted Paris he was anxious to find out what was the worth of 
 his Austrian alliance, and sent orders to the auxiliary Austrian 
 troops to march with Poniatowski. These orders received no 
 attention, and the Austrians, who had begun the retreat from 
 the left bank of the Vistula, continued it. Francis, however, 
 would not make up his mind — wanted even to the very end to 
 save appearances to the uttermost — and therefore he obliged 
 the agents of England to quit Austrian territory, and ostenta- 
 tiously refused even to receive at Vienna the Prussian general, 
 Scharnhorst, who was coming to propose an alliance with 
 Russia and Prussia. Secretly, however, he sent Stadion to the 
 Russian camp. He congratulated Napoleon on the victory at 
 Liitzen, but at the same time he levied a special tax, called an 
 anticipatory tax, on all landed property in Galicia, Bohemia, 
 and the Hereditary Provinces, which amounted to twelve times 
 the value of the ordinary tax — say, forty-five million florins. 
 Never did the old adage, " Si vis pacefti para bellujfi" receive a 
 more complete application. 
 
 The command of the army now assembled in Bohemia was 
 given to Karl Schwarzenberg, and his principal staff-officer was 
 Joseph Radetsky, a man who was to have a prolonged military 
 career. The emperor, accompanied by Metternich himself, 
 set out for Bohemia in order to be near the centre of military 
 operations. On the 3rd of June, they reached Jicin, and 
 Metternich, after an interview with the emperor Alexander and 
 the king of Prussia at the castle of Opocno, went on to Dresden 
 to see Napoleon (28th June). Arrived there, he endeavoured 
 to make the French emperor entertain proposals for a European 
 peace. He demanded that Napoleon should give up the 
 Hanseatic towns, the Illyrian Provinces, the duchy of Warsaw, 
 Spain, and the Rhenish Confederation, and that he should allow 
 the pope to return to Rome. Intoxicated by victory, the con- 
 queror refused to listen to such terms; the utmost that he 
 
 2 G
 
 450 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 would yield in order to preserve the neutrality of Austria was 
 lUyria ; but after Metternich had left he authorized Maret, his 
 minister of foreign affairs, to enter into negociations with 
 Austria, and even to accept proposals for a congress which was 
 to meet at Prague to arrange peace. Meantime, while Metter- 
 nich was at Dresden, a secret treaty had been signed at 
 Reichenbach by Austria, Prussia, and Russia (27th June). 
 
 The conference at Prague did no real work. The armistice 
 which Napoleon had agreed to was only meant to give him 
 time in which to reorganize his army ; and while the congress 
 limited itself to empty discussion, the military representatives 
 of Russia, Sweden, and Austria were at Trachenberg in Silesia, 
 agreeing on a plan of operations against him. The general 
 direction of affairs was entrusted to Karl Schwarzenberg. At 
 this time he was in the prime of manhood. He had entered 
 the army at the age of fifteen, and had fought against the 
 Turks under Joseph II., and had shared the campaigns of the 
 Low Countries and the Rhine, and all the wars against France. 
 He well knew the enemy he had to fight, and Napoleon 
 recognized in him a worthy adversary. " You carry the mar- 
 shal's wand," he said to him one day ; " the use of a wand is 
 to beat all who are in the way." "Sire," modestly replied the 
 marshal, " that is what I should hope to do ; the power alone 
 is wanting." The choice of Schwarzenberg as leader of the 
 allied army was due to his own military talents, as much as 
 to the wish to show deference to Austria. 
 
 Two Austrian armies now took the field, one on the 
 frontier of the lUyrian Provinces, the other on the side of 
 Bavaria. Meantime, after hesitating long. Napoleon had 
 decided to send a courier to Prague bearing the conditions 
 on which he was prepared to make peace. He offered to 
 give up the duchy of Warsaw to Prussia, demanded the in- 
 crease of Saxony at the expense of Prussia, who was to give 
 up to her all the right bank of the Oder, and agreed to restore 
 to Austria the Illyrian Provinces, with the exception of Istria 
 and Trieste. The courier bearing these proposals arrived at
 
 CAMPAIGN OF \%\2,. 451 
 
 Prague on the morning of the i ith of August. On the evening 
 of the loth, Metternich had placed in the hands of Caulaincourt 
 a note which announced the aUiance of Austria with Russia 
 and Prussia against Napoleon, and on the 15th of August the 
 emperor Alexander arrived in Prague, and the French am- 
 bassador quitted Bohemia. The Austrian army had an im- 
 portant part to play in the campaign which was thus opened. 
 
 Campaign ^1813. 
 
 Protected on every side by mountains, Bohemia offered the 
 allied armies a safe meeting-place and a secure base of opera- 
 tions. On the 17th of August, the army under Schwarzenberg 
 marched through the passes of the Erzgebirge into Silesia. 
 The Russian allies were commanded by Barclay de Tolly, 
 whose insubordination caused much difficulty to the generalis- 
 simo. " Russians, Prussians, Austrians, you fight only for 
 the freedom of Europe and the independence of your native 
 lands. All for one, one for all ! Let this be your battle-cry, 
 and victory must be yours" — thus ran the proclamation of 
 Schwarzenberg, and thus was ushered in the campaign of 18 13. 
 Throughout the whole of it the military history of Austria is 
 closely connected with that of France and Germany, and there 
 is no need for us to do more than recall the chief stages of the 
 war — the battle of Leipzig (i3th-i5th October, 1813); the 
 retreat of Napoleon to the French frontier ; the campaign in 
 France; and the taking of Paris in March, 1814. 
 
 We shall only describe in detail that part of the war which 
 was fought on the soil of the Austrian empire. At the begin- 
 ning of the campaign a division of the French army entered 
 Bohemia, and penetrated as far as Kulm, where it was beaten 
 by the allies and forced to recross the frontier. On the 9th 
 of September, by the treaty of Teplitz, the emperor Francis 
 renewed and confirmed the alliance between Russia, Prussia, 
 and Austria. Each of the three powers agreed to maintain 
 a body of one hundred and fifty thousand troops ; Prussia was 
 restored to the position she had occupied in 1805, Austria to
 
 452 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 that she had held in 1806; the fate of the grand-duchy of 
 Warsaw was left for future decision. After the defeat of Kulm, 
 Napoleon made a second attempt to enter Bohemia on the 
 17 th of September, but he was repulsed by Schwarzenberg. 
 The two adversaries met again at Leipzig. 
 
 The military operations to the south-west of the monarchy 
 had immediate results for Austria, At the beginning of the 
 campaign, the viceroy of Italy took up his quarters at Gorica, 
 his troops being scattered around Trieste, Ljubljana (Laybach), 
 and A^illach. Klagenfurt was the head-quarters of Hiller, the 
 Austrian general. Hostilities began on the i8th of August, 
 when the Austrians took Karlovac and Rieka (Fiume) without 
 resistance. As soon as the Croatian shores were reconquered, 
 a division of the army was sent into Dalmatia, while the 
 Austrians at the same time invaded Tyrol by way of the 
 Pusterthal, and Istria was at the same time attacked by 
 the Slav Lazaric, a brave soldier who managed to arm the 
 peasants and to get possession of Pola and Trieste. 
 
 In Upper Austria, the Bavarian general Wrede and the 
 Austrian Reuss confronted one another, but nothing serious was 
 done. The king of Bavaria had been invited by the emperors of 
 Austria and Russia to join their alliance, and prince Reuss 
 had been authorized to treat with his adversary \ the Bavarians 
 in consequence were of no real assistance to prince Eugene. 
 On the 8th of October, the convention of Ried, which placed 
 the Bavarian army at the service of the allies, was signed by 
 general Wrede, and Eugene found himself forced to retire at 
 every point. On the 29th of September, he abandoned Laybach 
 to the enemy ; and before long he was obliged to recross the 
 Isonzo and to abandon the fortified camp at Tarvis (8th 
 October). Fouche, the governor-general of the Illyrian Pro- 
 vinces, took refuge on Venetian territory. 
 
 When the news of the treaty entered into by Austria and 
 Bavaria reached Tyrol, it was received with the greatest enthu- 
 siasm, and the Austrian troops who arrived at Innsbruck on 
 their way into Italy were welcomed with joy. They continued
 
 RECOVERY OF TYROL AND DALMATIA. 453 
 
 their march southwards, took Trent, and then entered the 
 peninsula. Southern Tyrol was now entirely in the power of 
 the Austrians, and the Tyrolese of Innsbruck, jealous of the 
 happier fate of their fellow-countrymen, rose against the Bava- 
 rians and drove them away. The Austrian general, Bellegarde, 
 had great difficulty in restoring order. He had replaced 
 Hiller in the command, and as soon as he could he pushed 
 on the campaign into Italy, while general Tomasic occupied 
 the town of Knin, in Dalmatia, and blockaded Zadar, Spljet 
 (Spalato), and Lesina. Tomasic had the assistance of troops 
 furnished by an English squadron which was cruising in the 
 Adriatic. The native soldiers in the besieged cities of Dal- 
 matia soon laid down their arms, less out of sympathy for 
 Austria than from a wish to make common cause with their 
 Slav compatriots who were attacking them. General Roise 
 at Zadar, after having in vain tried to restore discipline by 
 terror, was obliged to allow his Dalmatians to leave the town, 
 and had himself to capitulate on the 6th of December. The 
 Servian Milutinovic was sent against Ragusa. The French 
 only had possession of the citadel, the rest of the town 
 being in the hands of the inhabitants, who cared nothing 
 for the Austrians and were only desirous of recovering the 
 independence of their ancient republic. They received 
 assistance from Peter Petrovic Niegosh, the celebrated prince 
 or vladyka of Montenegro, who hoped to be able to annex the 
 harbour of Cattaro to his little principality. Milutinovic 
 arrived before Ragusa, bombarded the citadel with cannon 
 supplied him by the English, got possession of it, and, as soon 
 as he had the town under the fire of his artillery, displayed the 
 Austrian flag. Thus by the beginning of the year 1S14 
 Austria was mistress of the whole of the coast of the Adriatic. 
 The reannexation of Dalmatia and the Illyrian Provinces 
 and the restitution of Tyrol were to her the most important 
 results of that gigantic struggle which was only to be finally 
 closed on the field of Waterloo.
 
 454 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Battle of Leipzig (1813) — The Austrians in Paris. 
 
 Success in Dalmatia had been rendered much more easy 
 by the disasters which befel Napoleon at the beginning of his 
 German campaign. The battle of Leipzig had been gained by 
 the allies under the command of Schwarzenberg, and the French 
 army had been obliged to fall back on the Rhine. All the 
 more credit was due to Schwarzenberg because he had only 
 been able to carry out his plans after a long struggle with the 
 emperor Alexander, the king of Prussia, and the emperor 
 Francis himself. The evening before the battle he wrote to 
 his wife, " When I look out of my window I think that I have 
 before me the greatest general of our time, a very emperor of 
 battles. It seems to me as if my shoulders were far too weak 
 and must give way under the gigantic burden they have to 
 bear. But when I look up to the stars I say to myself that He 
 who directs their course has also traced my path. If it is His 
 will that the just cause shall triumph, His wisdom will en- 
 lighten me and strengthen my weakness. Should it be the 
 will of Providence that we should fail, my personal loss will be 
 the smallest of our misfortunes, and, whether we fail or succeed, 
 I have already conquered all self-conceit, and the judgment 
 of the world can bring me neither reward nor punishment. " 
 
 Quite early in the day Napoleon saw what Schwarzenberg 
 was worth. " It was I," he said to the Austrian Merveldt, who 
 was brought to him as a prisoner — " it was I who called the 
 attention of your sovereign to Schwarzenberg. Does he wish 
 to beat me ? Truly, he is going the right way to work ; " and 
 he sent Merveldt back to propose an armistice. The Austrians 
 were to fall back into Bohemia, the Prussians and Russians 
 to retire behind the Oder, and the French behind the Saale ; 
 Saxony was to remain neutral. But it was too late. Francis 
 refused to listen to these conditions, and his audacity was 
 justified by victory. After the battle was over he sent Schwar- 
 zenberg the grand cross of the order of Maria Theresa. The 
 field-marshal presented _his commander's cross to Radetsky,
 
 NEGOCIATIONS WITH NAPOLEON. 455 
 
 saying, " Loudon wore this, but I could not give it to any one 
 more worthy of it." The diplomatist who had brought about 
 the coalition was not forgotten in the distribution of imperial 
 favours. On the 20th of October, 1813, Metternich received 
 the title of hereditary prince. Among the Austrian officers 
 who especially distinguished themselves on the memorable 
 days of the battle of Leipzig, the generals Nostitz and Bianchi 
 ought to be mentioned, as well as Stephen Szechenyi, a young 
 Hungarian who was afterwards known as the Great Magyar. 
 The Austrian army lost four hundred and thirty-five officers 
 and fifteen thousand four hundred and eighteen men killed, 
 wounded, or taken prisoners, being a third of the total loss of 
 the allies, which amounted to forty-seven thousand men. 
 
 The Austrian troops also took part in the battle of Hanau, 
 when, with the help of the Bavarians, they tried to cut off 
 the retreat of Napoleon. The coalition was gradually joined 
 by the countries belonging to the Federation of the Rhine, 
 Wiirtemberg and Hesse-Darmstadt, and on the 5th of De- 
 cember Francis H. entered the town of Frankfort, where, 
 twenty years before, he had received the imperial crown. 
 There Schwarzenberg established his head-quarters. 
 
 The army of the allies was now on the borders of France. 
 Metternich thought that the humiliation of Napoleon ought not 
 to be carried too far, and tried to enter into negociations from 
 Frankfort. He sent for Saint-Aignan, who was French minister 
 at the court of Weimar, and dictated to him the terms on 
 which a treaty might be arranged. France was to give up 
 Holland, Italy, and Switzerland, and was to accept the natural 
 frontiers of the Pyrenees, Alps, and Rhine as her boundaries. 
 
 On the 14th of November, Saint-Aignan carried these pro- 
 posals to Paris. Napoleon would return no decided answer, and 
 proposed that a conference should meet at Mannheim. This the 
 allies refused, and emboldened by the success which met them 
 on all sides, especially in Spain and Holland, the march on 
 Paris was decided upon in a council of war presided over by 
 Francis H. Still, even when the first battles of the campaign
 
 456 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HVNGARY. 
 
 in France were being fought, Caulaincourt and Metternich con- 
 tinued their negociations. On the 5 th of February, 18 14, a 
 conference was opened at Chatillon-sur-Seine, where the aUies 
 demanded that France should return to what had been her limits 
 in 1790. Napoleon was intoxicated at the moment by the 
 temporary triumphs of Champaubert (loth February), Mont- 
 mirail (nth February), and Vauxchamp (14th February), and 
 endeavoured ^to enter into direct negociation with Francis, 
 offering to divide with him the empire of Europe. He thought 
 victory had once more returned to his banner. " I am nearer 
 to Vienna than they are to Paris," he exclaimed in his infatua- 
 tion. But on the ist of March a treaty was signed at Chau- 
 mont by the representatives of the allies — Metternich, 
 Nesselrode, Hardenberg, and Castlereagh — by virtue of which 
 the allies undertook not to lay down arms until peace and 
 the balance of power in Europe had been established on a 
 firm basis. This treaty was to last twenty years. It stipulated 
 that each of the continental powers was to furnish fifty thou- 
 sand men, while England should contribute five millions 
 sterling. None of the powers signing the treaty was to make 
 peace on its own account. It was on the 1 9th of March that 
 the congress of Chatillon broke up without coming to any 
 conclusion, and Schwarzenberg, without troubling himself 
 further about Napoleon, decided to march directly on Paris. 
 On the 30th, the allies entered the French capital. Their 
 success was due to the wise temerity of Schwarzenberg. 
 Napoleon once said to Koller, the Austrian who accompanied 
 him to the island of Elba, "An ordinary general would have 
 been anxious about his return, and troubled as to how he 
 should keep up his line of communication ; a good general 
 could do nothing but just what Schwarzenberg did. I knew 
 he was capable of doing it, but I believed that he would wait 
 to ask the consent of the sovereigns, and would thus lose 
 the favourable moment." Bliicher confirmed the judgment 
 of Napoleon when, years later, during a visit to Carlsbad, 
 he drank to " the hero who, in spite of the presence of three
 
 TREATY OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 457 
 
 kings, led us to victory." All the courts of Europe loaded 
 the happy conqueror of Paris with distinctions. The city of 
 London voted him a sword of honour, the university of Oxford 
 made him a doctor of civil law, Bohemia erected a statue 
 to him, and the emperor of Austria granted him permission 
 to quarter the arms of the house of Austria with his own. 
 
 Francis 11. did not enter Paris at the same time as his two 
 allies, but he gave them full powers to arrange the position of 
 his son-in-law and his daughter, and did not allow his feelings 
 as a father to interfere with reasons of state. He reached 
 Paris on the 15th of AikH. On the nth had already 
 been signed the treaty of Fontainebleau, Avhich gave Parma, 
 Piacenza, and Guastella to Maria Louisa, and the isle of Elba 
 to Napoleon. The daughter of the Caesars did not go into 
 exile with her husband. After an interview with her father 
 and the emperor Alexander, she returned to Austria, accom- 
 panied by her son, the king of Rome, who was henceforth 
 known by the name of the duke of Reichstadt. Little interest 
 attaches to Maria Louisa ; she was not true to her husband 
 even during his lifetime. When she passed through Inns- 
 briick on her way to Austria, the Tyrolese received the 
 daughter of their emperor with an enthusiasm she little 
 deserved. She retired to Schonbrunn, and died at Vienna 
 in 1847. 
 
 In Italy, the two kings who had been created by Napoleon 
 — Eugene at Rome and Murat at Naples — were unable to 
 unite for the defence of their thrones against the coalition. 
 Whilst Eugene fought the Austrian troops under Bellegarde on 
 the Adige, Murat tried to obtain possession of Rome, Bologna, 
 and the whole of Central Italy. The English and Austrians 
 got hold of Tuscany. Bellegarde marched into Milan, and by 
 the 12th of June the treaty of Paris was able to restore to the 
 Austrian monarchy the whole country from the Po to the 
 Ticino. Austria was consequently in a position to decide 
 the fate of the peninsula, and did so by placing the old rulers 
 on the thrones of the various states — Francis IV. in Modena
 
 458 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 and Reggio, Ferdinand in Tuscany, Ferdinand IV. in the 
 kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The history of Austrian rule 
 in Italy is tolerably well known, and is not included in the 
 scheme of this work. 
 
 The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815). 
 
 On the 2nd of May, 18 14, Louis XVIII. entered Paris 
 and the war was at an end. Schwarzenberg laid down his 
 command and the work of diplomacy began. It was not an 
 easy matter to settle the division of the spoils of conquest. It 
 had been agreed, for example, that the grand-duchy of 
 Warsaw should be shared among the three monarchs, but the 
 emperor Alexander wanted the whole of Poland, and now 
 objected to this arrangement. He had gained the king of 
 Prussia over to his views by promising that he should have 
 Saxony, whose king had been taken prisoner after the battle of 
 Leipzig. Metternich showed great perseverance and ability 
 in his defence of his sovereign's interests, and at last succeeded 
 in gaining the agreement of the allies that peace should first of 
 all be made with France, and that all other questions should 
 be postponed to the decision of a congress which was to meet 
 at Vienna. The choice of Vienna as the place of meeting was 
 an act of homage to the leading part which had been played 
 by Austria in the coalition, and also to the military talents of 
 the generalissimo. On the 30th of May, the peace was signed 
 with dismembered France. On the 14th of June, another 
 treaty was signed by Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and 
 Russia, by which the Low Countries, which had long ceased 
 to belong to Austria, were annexed to Holland. Before this 
 date Francis II. had returned to his own kingdom, and had 
 made a solemn entry into his capital. Never had Austrian 
 monarch descended so low to raise himself again so high! 
 Twice he had seen the enemy in the very heart of his country ; 
 twice he had left as a fugitive that capital to which he now 
 came as a conqueror and the arbiter of the peace of Europe, 
 with Austria again in possession of almost the whole of her
 
 CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 459 
 
 ancient frontier. The allies had promised to her the restitu- 
 tion of Lombardy, Venice, Southern Tyrol, and Dalmatia, 
 and the last-mentioned province was, in fact, already in the 
 hands of her troops. On the 7th of June, Francis had signed 
 a secret treaty with Bavaria, which restored to him Northern 
 Tyrol, Vorarlberg, and Salzburg, together with the districts of 
 the Inn and Hausruck, on condition that he should in some 
 way indemnify Bavaria. The return of the Habsburgs was 
 hailed with delight by the Tyrolese, but at Milan and in 
 Ragusa again discontent broke out. The old capital of the 
 Cisalpine republic and of the kingdom of Italy, and the mari- 
 time republic which had enjoyed centuries of prosperity and 
 independence, could not resign themselves to becoming merely 
 chief towns in Austrian provinces. 
 
 With the exception of those countries which had been the 
 subject of the secret treaty with Bavaria, Austria had already 
 obtained possession of all her old dominions before the 
 congress met. She had nothing more to do but to make 
 a formal renunciation of the Low Countries and of the 
 Vorldnde in the Breisgau and Suabia. 
 
 In the month of September, the crowned heads met at 
 Vienna. The kings of Wurtemberg, Denmark, Bavaria, and 
 Prussia, and the emperor of Russia all attended the congress ; 
 business, however, went on but slowly, as most of the time was 
 given up Xo fetes. The saying of the prince de Ligne is well 
 known — " Le congres ne marche pas, il danse." ^ The first 
 anniversary of the battle of Leipzig was celebrated by a gigantic 
 review, at which Alexander paid solemn homage to the military 
 skill of Schwarzenberg. " 'Tis to you, after God," said he, 
 "that we owe our success." 
 
 The preliminary arrangements were not easy, Poland, which 
 was coveted by many, gave rise to more than one disagreement; 
 and Metternich, though he was supported by Castlereagh and 
 Talleyrand, had to overcome a good deal of opposition on 
 
 ' An untranslatable play on the two senses of marcher — to walk and 
 to advance.
 
 460 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. ■ 
 
 the part of the representatives of the other powers. Finally, 
 however, the congress was officially opened on the ist of 
 November, with Metternich as its president and Talleyrand as 
 secretary. It was never a real congress, but rather a series of 
 meetings or committees where questions which were specially 
 interesting to particular countries were discussed by the repre- 
 sentatives of those countries. The subjects of discussion were 
 not only the results of the great struggle which had shaken the 
 whole of Europe, but general questions, such as the navigation 
 of the rivers of Central Europe, the slave-trade, and the pirates 
 of the Mediterranean. The congress was divided into a 
 number of sections, and was treated as if it were a European 
 tribunal, before which all who had suffered in the revolution 
 came to demand redress for their injuries. The order of the 
 Knights of St. John appealed to it for the restitution of the 
 island of Malta, which they had lost twenty years before, and 
 all the tiny German princes urged upon it their claims to 
 sovereign power. 
 
 The greatest stumbling-block was the Polish question, and 
 more than once it threatened to break up the assembly. 
 Russia had taken possession of the grand-duchy of Warsaw 
 and treated it as a conquered country. At one moment it 
 seemed as if Metternich must break off negociations and 
 declare war with the help of Bavaria \ but at last Nesselrode 
 worked out a plan which seemed to satisfy every one, and 
 which divided Poland almost as she is now. Another difficulty 
 was caused by the ambition of Prussia, which was fast becom- 
 ing a most formidable neighbour to Austria, and whose king 
 insisted on the possession of Saxony. In consequence of this, 
 a defensive alliance was secretly entered into by Austria, 
 England, and France. The situation was indeed very difficult, 
 but a way was at last found out of it by the formation of a 
 committee of five, made up of the representatives of Austria, 
 France, England, Prussia, and Russia, who were to settle all 
 disputed points, and this committee became the real congress. 
 Here we see the beginning of that system of the five great
 
 NAPOLEON'S RETURN. 46 1 
 
 powers which directed the destiny of Europe up to the time 
 when, in the presence of German supremacy, " Europe has 
 ceased to exist." This committee persuaded Prussia to give 
 up her claims to Saxony (except to Torgau), and arranged the 
 final partition of Poland. 
 
 It was on the 7th of March, in the midst of all the nego- 
 ciations and fetes, that news reached Vienna that Napoleon 
 had landed on the coast of Provence. Metternich and the 
 emperor immediately gave orders that the troops should march 
 towards France. On the very evening that the news arrived, 
 a comedy, entitled "The Interrupted Dance," was being 
 played at the court theatre. A {&\n days later, the congress 
 publicly declared that Napoleon Bonaparte, having violated 
 all law, was an enemy to the public peace, and was placed 
 under the ban of the nations. 
 
 On the 25th of March, the allies renewed the treaty of 
 Chaumont, and declared themselves resolved to carry on the 
 war until Napoleon should be deprived of all power to do 
 harm. The plan of the campaign was drawn up at the house 
 of Schwarzenberg, and the sovereigns of Russia and Prussia 
 and Wellington took part in the deliberations. Three great 
 armies w^ere formed — one in the Low Countries, of English, 
 Prussians, and Dutch, who were under the command of 
 Wellington and Bliicher ; another on the Rhine, of Austrians, 
 Russians, and Germans, commanded by Schwarzenberg ; 
 while a third, composed of Austrians, marched to meet Murat 
 in Italy. Maria Louisa remained at Schonbrunn while the 
 allies were on their way to fight her husband, and the war in 
 no wise interrupted the negociations of the congress. It was 
 on the 3rd of April that the act deciding on the final partition 
 of Poland was signed. The constitution of Germany was 
 drawn up during the month of May, and on the nth of June 
 the sittings of the congress terminated. 
 
 The war began in Italy in the month of April, when 
 Joachim Murat advanced as far as the valley of the Po, 
 but he was defeated at Rimini, at Ancona, and finally at
 
 462 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Torentino, by the imperial troops. He fled to Naples ; but 
 the Austrians pursued him, and he was forced to take refuge 
 in France (25th May). On the Rhine there was not much 
 for the Austrians to do. They entered Alsace, blockaded and 
 took Huningue, and held in check near Strasburg the small 
 army of Rapp. On the 30th of June, the allied monarchs took 
 up their quarters at Haguenau, where they received a deputa- 
 tion from the French chambers, headed by Lafayette. He was 
 told that no steps towards peace could be taken until Napoleon 
 was given up to the allies. The main body of Schwarzenberg's 
 army marched to Paris and entered the city without resistance. 
 No Austrian fought at Waterloo. Once more the three allies 
 found themselves in Paris, and it was during this second visit 
 that Alexander proposed that Holy Alliance the idea of which 
 is said to have been inspired by Madame de Krudener^ 
 (26th September). The second treaty of Paris was signed on 
 the 20th of November, 1815. By it France was required to 
 pay an indemnity of seven hundred millions of francs, and to 
 submit to the occupation of her eastern provinces by one 
 hundred and fifty thousand men. 
 
 Austria after the Treaty of Vienna. 
 
 What were the results of so many battles and so much 
 diplomacy ? No Austrian monarch had ever passed through 
 such a series of reverses and triumphs as Francis II. Four 
 times had he been obliged to accept a humiliating peace from 
 the hands of the conqueror. Twice he had seen him enter his 
 capital. He had lost one after another the Austrian Low 
 Countries, the lands in Suabia, and the duchy of Milan ; he had 
 
 ' " In this period of mystical fervour the idea of the Holy Alliance 
 . . . was formulated by Alexander in the act of the 26th of September, 
 1815. . . . This act was submitted to Madame Krudener for revision, 
 who adopted it with enthusiasm, but who had not inspired it " (" Nouvelle 
 Biographic Universelle "). Madame Krudener — Julie de Wietinghoff, 
 Baronne de Krudener, born at Riga 1764, died 1S24. Russian romance 
 writer and mystic. Married Baron de Krudener, ambassador first at 
 Venice, then at Copenhagen.
 
 CONDITION OF AUSTRIA. 463 
 
 received as compensation Venice, Dalmatia, Salzburg, and 
 Western Galicia ; then again he had lost all these possessions ; 
 he had had to sacrifice the Hereditary Provinces, the faithful 
 Tyrol, Istria, which secured the possession of the Adriatic, 
 Trieste, Gorica, half of Carinthia, Carniola, and part of Croatia ; 
 and he had had to lay down that imperial crown which had been 
 for centuries the ornament and the glory of his house. After 
 the treaty of Vienna, he found himself at the head of an empire 
 vigorous, compact, and with better boundaries than the 
 Austria of the days before the revolution had ever possessed, 
 with an army and a diplomatic corps which excited the envy 
 of Europe. He had the hegemony in both Germany and 
 Italy. The younger branches of his family had been restored 
 to their thrones in Tuscany and Modena. And the empress 
 Maria Louisa was to have the investiture of Parma, Guastella, 
 and Piacenza for her life. In Germany, he had recovered all 
 the lands of which Bavaria had deprived Austria, with the 
 exception of Berchtolsgaden, which remained part of the new 
 kingdom. The Low Countries, Suabia, the Breisgau, Switzer- 
 land, and Western Galicia, which he had been forced to 
 abandon, had always been troublesome possessions. To sum 
 up briefly, instead of the twenty-four millions of inhabitants, 
 spread over 266,000 square miles between the North Sea 
 and the Danube, which Austria had possessed in 1792, in 
 1 8 15 she had twenty-eight millions, dwelling on a compact 
 space of 277,637 square miles. Every portion of the empire 
 was contiguous, excepting at one corner, where the Turkish 
 district of Klek and the Sutorina interrupted the coast line of its 
 Dalmatian possessions. The empire of Austria now included 
 five kingdoms of various origin — Bohemia; Hungary; Galicia; 
 Illyria, which was made up of lUyrian Provinces speaking the 
 Slovene tongue, but was in no real sense a kingdom ; and the 
 Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, whose symbol was the iron 
 crown of Lombardy. 
 
 Francis II. declined the proposals of those who wished 
 him to accept once more the imperial crown in Germany, but
 
 464 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 he by no means wished to give up his position as leader of the 
 German world. Modern Germany may be said to have been 
 made by Austria ; the final construction of the German states 
 had taken place in Vienna ; and, in exchange for these services, 
 Metternich claimed that his sovereign should be president of 
 the diet at Frankfort, and had his claim allowed. But in order 
 that the supremacy of Austria should be maintained in Germany, 
 it was necessary that the largest possible num.ber of her German 
 subjects should belong to the German confederation ; Francis 
 therefore declared that every one of his provinces which had at 
 any time belonged to the German empire now formed part of 
 that confederation. Amongst these provinces the only ones 
 which were purely German were Austria, Salzburg, the Northern 
 Tyrol, and the Vorarlberg, which countries contained at most 
 some three or four millions of Germans. In order, therefore, 
 to make up the number needful to maintain the position of 
 Francis, to these were added the kingdom of Bohemia, of 
 whose population two-thirds were Slavs ; Moravia, with four- 
 fifths of hers Slavs ; Styria, whose people were half of them 
 Slovenes ; Carinthia, Carniola, Gorica, and Gradiska, which 
 were entirely Slovene ; Istria and Trieste, half Slovene, half 
 Italian; the Tyrol, Italian; Austrian Silesia, half Slav; and the 
 Polish duchies of Osviecim (Auschwitz) and Zator in Galicia. 
 By the help of this diplomatic fiction Austria forced six or 
 seven millions of pseudo-Germans into the German confedera- 
 tion, and from the point of view of numbers could make 
 a good show at Frankfort. 
 
 But it was not long before she had to regret that she had 
 ever sought her centre of gravity outside her own boundaries. 
 From this time, to justify her claim to be a German power, she 
 had to try harder than ever to Germanize her people, and in 
 so doing to place every possible hindrance in the way of the 
 development of their natural genius and political freedom. 
 And when, in the end, a more fortunate rival had driven 
 Austria out of the German confederation, German ambition 
 still laid claim to those lands which had so long been
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE ARMY. 465 
 
 represented as part of the empire, and to which she was 
 accustomed to consider she had an absolute right. 
 
 The consolidation of her territory was not the only result 
 of the twenty years' war which Austria had had to wage. 
 She had strengthened her internal organization by the creation 
 of an army such as had never been known to Joseph 11. or 
 Maria Theresa. There had been developed in this army a 
 spirit of discipline and a brotherhood in arms which had 
 mastered, drawn together, and inspired with the same feelings 
 soldiers from countries the most unlike — Germans, Slavs, and 
 j\ragyars. This army was able to save the empire on more 
 than one occasion, and to enforce the obedience which comes 
 from fear on all sorts of subjects, as well as to spread ideas of 
 fidelity to a flag and to the monarchical principle which have 
 given Austria new vigour. But in spite of this, the govern- 
 ment has been unable to stifle the aspirations of the various 
 states towards liberal and national development, or to refuse 
 the gradual restoration of those historical rights which, though 
 they may be ignored by the sovereigns, are sure to be some 
 day claimed by the nations.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 FRANCIS II. AND METTERNICH (1815-1835). 
 
 Metternich. 
 
 The treaties of 1815 seemed to have put an end to the era 
 of revolutions. The years which followed were years of steady 
 reaction, in which the European sovereigns, who had been so 
 fortunate as to save their crowns and their dominions from the 
 hands of France, united in one common effort to resist the ideas 
 of 1789. 
 
 Amongst the princes who set to work to bring back their 
 subjects to the sound doctrine of the old mode of government, 
 no one laboured with greater zeal than Francis II., and he 
 found a worthy auxiliary in Metternich. The mind of Francis 
 w^as commonplace, and his character mean ; he could not 
 understand great things, and attached extreme importance to 
 trivial ones ; he had a passion for writing useless documents, and 
 a mania for holding audiences. His ambition, as he loved to 
 say himself, w^as to be a good Aulic counsellor. Fond of games 
 and chamber-concerts, in which he liked to take part himself, 
 " he was always," says M. Springer, " on the look-out for some 
 one among his courtiers who would be of use as a member of 
 a quartette, and a good musician would be received at court even 
 if his character were infamous." He was envious of any one 
 like the archduke Charles and Radetsky, who had deserved 
 the popular favour by their services. Once, in a fit of suspicious 
 jealousy, he even went so far as to have the private drawers of 
 the archduke broken open. His suspicious character, moreover,
 
 ABSOLUTISM RESTORED. 467 
 
 made him cruel. In 1820, when there was a riot among the 
 students at Prague, and it was found impossible to discover 
 the authors of it, the emperor forced every student who had 
 had bad marks from the professors to enter the army. One 
 consequence of his theories of absolutism was a harsh selfish- 
 ness, which led him to look upon his people and provinces as 
 private property, of which he could dispose as he pleased ; but, 
 like some of his predecessors, he knew how to clothe his 
 despotism with patriarchal forms, which charmed simple folk, 
 and easily gave occasion to flattery. Instead of a representa- 
 tive system and assemblies duly consulted, an inquisitorial 
 police was the hnk between the sovereign and the nation. Like 
 Louis XV., he was fond of scandal, both as a means of amuse- 
 ment and an instrument of government. In his eyes there was 
 no surer support to monarchical power than Catholicism ; he 
 believed that Josephinism in shaking religion could not fail to 
 destroy monarchy. The speech the emperor made to the pro- 
 fessors of the Gymnasium at Laybach, in 182 1, has been often 
 quoted : " Keep yourselves to what is old, for that is good ; 
 if our ancestors have proved it to be good, why should we not 
 do as they did ? New ideas are now coming forward, of which 
 I do not, nor ever shall, approve. Mistrust these ideas and 
 keep to the positive. I have no need of learned men ; I want 
 faithful subjects. Be such ; that is your duty. He who would 
 serve me must do what I command. He who cannot do this, 
 or who comes full of new ideas, may go his way. If he does 
 not go, I shall send him." He said one day to the French 
 ambassador, " My peoples are foreigners to one another ; so 
 much the better. They will not catch the same illnesses at the 
 same time. In France, when you are attacked by fever, you all 
 catch it on the same day. I send Hungarians to Italy, and 
 Italians to Hungary, and each one looks after his neighbour. 
 They do not understand one another, they hate one another, 
 but their antipathy gives birth to order, and their mutual hatred 
 secures the general peace.'' 
 
 With principles such as these the emperor was sure to leave
 
 468 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 nothing undone to keep foreign ideas and science out of the 
 empire. The censorship of the press was ruthlessly enforced, 
 and literature was treated as an enemy. It is true that some 
 remarkable men had been taken into the service of x\ustria ; 
 Genz, for instance — a person, however, of but low morality, 
 whose great idea was to live " furiously well " — Frederick 
 Schlegel, and Adam Miiller ; but their works as publicists were 
 intended for foreigners, and remained almost unknown to the 
 subjects of the empire. The few men of ability there were, 
 and they were very few, were looked upon with suspicion. 
 Only one man succeeded in obtaining the entire confidence 
 of the sovereign, and that was Metternich. The time of war 
 was over, and Francis had no longer any need of his generals, 
 but the precarious state of Europe still assured the diplo- 
 matist who had negociated the treaties of Vienna the first 
 place in the councils of his sovereign. It is true that Metternich 
 had nothing to do with the internal government of the empire, 
 but his foreign policy had, certainly, considerable influence on 
 the home policy of Austria. Metternich was born in 1773, at 
 Coblentz. He did not come to live in Vienna till the year 
 1809. He knew very little of the history of the odd medley of 
 states over which his sovereign ruled, and cared less about 
 those difficulties of administration which were the natural re- 
 sults of the constitution of the empire ; completely a man of 
 the eighteenth century, he despised history, and never guessed 
 what germs of revolution were fermenting in the confused ele- 
 ments floating around him. His high position and continued 
 prosperity he owed less to his talents than to the tenacity of 
 his ambition and a fortunate chain of circumstances. The 
 military success of Austria in 1813 and 1815 was ascribed to 
 him, and he was credited with results which were really owing 
 to the sword of Schwarzenberg. The two monarchs whose 
 foreign policy he directed were too feeble to be able to do with- 
 out him, and he knew better than any one how to flatter his 
 master. " These two men," says the German historian Springer, 
 "were the complements of each other. Metternich knew nothing
 
 CHARACTER OF METTERNICH. 469 
 
 about the details of government, and never interfered in them ; 
 the emperor, on the contrary, attached the greatest importance 
 to them. The emperor had entered into an engagement with 
 the princes of Europe to maintain order, and aimed at carrying 
 out this engagement by maintaining in his own empire a state 
 of perfect tranquillity. Metternich insisted on the passive obe- 
 dience of all Austrian subjects in order to be able to employ the 
 whole power of the empire abroad. For the former, absolutism 
 was a matter of sentiment ; for the latter, of reason. They 
 gradually came to substitute their personal interests for the 
 good of the state, and to believe that the state was satisfied 
 when they were, and in time to look upon a political con- 
 spirator as no better than a parricide. Neither of them had 
 the slightest feeling of responsibility as stewards of the national 
 wealth." It has been said, in excuse for the absolutism of 
 Metternich, that his dread of parliamentary government was 
 not so much due to hatred of liberty, as to a fear of arousing 
 the feeling of nationality in the various parts of the empire. 
 
 We must add that Metternich's devotion to his sovereign 
 was not altogether disinterested. He was not above receiving 
 gifts from foreign princes, and managed the public funds in such 
 a fashion as showed that he believed no account could ever be 
 required of him. His gallantries more than once scandalized 
 the good town of Vienna, that luxurious and corrupt city in 
 which, according to the saying of a contemporary, the life of 
 the inhabitants " resembled that of hibernating animals." 
 
 Austria at the Head of the React urn in Europe — Meetings of 
 Congress. 
 
 Even immediately after the congress of Vienna it was very 
 easy for any one to see that Europe, after her twenty-five years 
 of conflict, had not reached the Golden Age which had been 
 hoped for. The internal condition of Austria was far from 
 being prosperous, and the splendid fetes which took place 
 during the congress could make no one forget for a moment 
 the exhausted condition of the country or the misery of its
 
 470 HISTORY OF A USTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 inliabitants. The government, for whom the people had made 
 so many sacrifices, rewarded them by stiflhig their growing wish 
 for liberty and a free constitution ; and, in order to maintain in 
 the eyes of Europe the position which it had acquired by the 
 success of its armies, the cabinet at Vienna turned all its atten- 
 tion to the maintenance of the various states in a condition of 
 complete subjection. 
 
 Metternich and his sovereign set to work to manage the 
 police of the whole of Europe. It seemed to them that every 
 revolution which broke out in foreign lands must threaten the 
 peace of Austria, for by its German, Italian, and Polish pos- 
 sessions their country was especially exposed to the contagion of 
 liberal ideas. As early as the year 1815, the Italians began that 
 covert war of conspiracy and secret societies which ended, after 
 so many years of painful struggle, in the regeneration of their 
 land ; while in Germany, generous spirits, especially among the 
 students, began to demand intellectual freedom and consti- 
 tutional government. In August, 1819, the sovereigns of 
 Austria and Prussia met in a congress at Carlsbad, and deter- 
 mined to keep down Germany, and to put an end to all 
 dangerous manifestations. In 1820, the king of Naples 
 having been obliged to give way to a military insurrection, 
 and to grant a constitution to his subjects, a congress was 
 opened, first at Troppau (1820J, and then at Laybach (1821), 
 to consider the best means of suppressing the revolutionary 
 spirit in Italy ; and this time Austria and Prussia were joined 
 by Russia. Thus, notwithstanding the protests of England 
 and France, the three cabinets of Vienna, Petersburg, and 
 Berlin took upon themselves to settle the destinies of Europe. 
 The king of Naples was summoned before the congress at 
 Laybach, and an Austrian army, commanded by the Baron 
 de Frimont, entered the kingdom of Naples and brought the 
 liberals to reason. Shortly after, a similar rising in Piedmont 
 was put down by the Austrian general Bubna. An army of 
 occupation remained in Italy. It was about this time that the 
 amiable and gentle Silvio Pellico was thrown into the prison
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 47 1 
 
 of Spielberg, convicted of patriotism. His book, " I miei 
 Prigioni," translated a hundred times and read throughout 
 Europe, remains to this day as the accusation of oppressed 
 Italy against Austrian rule. 
 
 Francis II. rewarded his minister by granting him the title 
 of chancellor of the kingdom (1821). " Europe," says a con- 
 temporary, "praises, envies, or curses the power of Austria, 
 but no one thinks of the Austrian people. They think only of 
 the prince and his minister." " Now you see what a revolution 
 is, if it is taken in time," Metternich once joyfully exclaimed 
 to the emperor of Russia. He thought that all the affairs of 
 Europe would henceforth be managed by congresses, at which 
 Austria would of course take the lead and decide the fate of 
 the nations. The congress of Verona (1822) was especially 
 directed against the revolution in Spain, and this time the 
 France of the Restoration became the instrument of Austrian 
 policy, and gained the honour of being the executioner of the 
 decrees of the Holy Alliance against Spain. This congress 
 also decided that the Austrians should evacuate Piedmont, and 
 should maintain only a small garrison in the kingdom of 
 Naples. In both these states the reaction had been terrible, 
 and Austria had become an object of horror to the Italians. 
 The cry, ^^ Fuori t tedesc/ii" ("Away with the Germans!") 
 became the watchword of the patriots. These " Germans " 
 were for the most part Magyars, Slovenes, Servians, Poles, 
 and Chekhs, the unconscious instruments of a policy of 
 oppression of which they also were the victims. 
 
 The Eastern Question (182 0-1829). 
 
 The friendly relations of Austria and Russia, attested by 
 so many instances of joint action, was soon, however, to receive 
 a rude shock from the Eastern question, that question which 
 seems likely to prove the despair of diplomatists. General 
 attention had been attracted to Greece by the first beginning 
 of the Hellenic insurrection. The former struggles of Austria 
 against the Porte, her close neighbourhood to Turkey, and the
 
 4/2 HISTORY OF AUSTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 race-affinities of her inhabitants, all seemed to point to her as 
 the protectress of the Turkish Christians and the future 
 possessor of any Christian province which might be separated 
 from Turkey. The successor to the kings of Hungary could 
 bring forward claims on Bosnia and Bulgaria which were at 
 least as good as those which she had succeeded in enforcing 
 in the case of Galicia. But, unfortunately for Austria, she had 
 been too much occupied with western affairs for the last 
 century or two to take proper care of her interests in the east, 
 or to carry out the policy which her geographical position 
 seemed to impose upon her. Joseph II. had announced " that 
 he was going to avenge humanity, and purge the earth of the 
 barbarians who had so long been its scourge." But he died 
 before he could carry out this dream, and whilst Austria had 
 been absorbed by her struggles against the French revolution, 
 the influence of Russia had gradually spread over the peninsula, 
 among her Slav kinsfolk and her brethren of the Orthodox 
 faith. 
 
 In the beginning of the nineteenth century (1804-1815), 
 the Servians had risen against the Turks, driven them out, and 
 formed an independent principality on the borders of Hungary. 
 The Greeks — both those dwelling in ancient Hellas, and those 
 who were scattered along the coasts of the ^gean Sea and the 
 banks of the Danube — next began to dream of the enfranchise- 
 ment of their race. Metternich and his master felt that they 
 were not strong enough to carry out the plans of Joseph II., 
 and were well aware they could not attack Turkey unless they 
 first of all abandoned that guardianship of the peace of Europe 
 to which they laid claim. Besides, they were in the habit of 
 looking upon all nations who dared to think of freedom as 
 their enemies, and as such would have willingly fought against 
 the Greeks. But their great difficulty was how to help the 
 sultan without wounding the feelings of the czar Alexander, 
 who had imbibed humanitarian ideas and was favourable to 
 Greece. At the congress of Laybach, Metternich had taken 
 great pains to show the czar how dangerous it would prove to
 
 INSURRECTION OF THE GREEKS. 4/3 
 
 Europe should the revolutionists all make common cause 
 together. 
 
 On the 29th of March, 1821, the official gazette of Vienna 
 ostentatiously announced that the emperor Alexander by no 
 means approved of the enterprise of prince Upsilanti, that he 
 had caused his name to be struck off from the lists of the 
 Russian army, and that he had given instructions to his am- 
 bassador at Constantinople to disown all sympathy with pro- 
 jects intended to disturb the peace of the Ottoman empire. 
 An occasion soon offered for the Viennese cabinet to show 
 what were the sentiments that animated it towards Turkey 
 and the Greeks. Upsilanti crossed the frontier of Transyl- 
 vania ; he was arrested and thrown into prison, and most of 
 the boyars who had been his accomplices were confined 
 within the limits of their own estates (August, 182 1). Diplo- 
 matic relations between Russia and the Porte were soon 
 afterwards interrupted, the Porte accusing the cabinet at St. 
 Petersburg of favouring the rebels. Metternich and his master 
 were able to see nothing in the Greeks but subjects who had 
 revolted against their lawful sovereign, but the cause of the 
 Hellenes found enthusiastic champions even among bigoted 
 legitimists, men who were influenced by their classical educa- 
 tion, and many of whom thought that Austria might have 
 covered herself with glory had she taken part in the expulsion 
 of the Turks, liberated the oppressed peoples, and created a 
 strong maritime power on the shores of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Metternich, however, would have nothing to do with such 
 projects, though he dare not publicly avow the real reason for 
 his policy, which was a dread of Russia. He once owned that 
 " the Greek insurrection had been the most disagreeable inci- 
 dent of his whole tenure of office." The emperor Alexander 
 had had entire confidence in the Austrian alliance ; he thought 
 his services to Austria in Italian affairs had deserved gratitude, 
 and was most cruelly disappointed when he discovered his 
 mistake. He complained bitterly of the ingratitude of his 
 allay. " Austria," says a Russian despatch, " is the last power
 
 474 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 from whom Russia could have expected what she has received. 
 Restored to his throne in a great measure by the efforts of the 
 emperor Alexander and the Russian army, the emperor 
 Francis had accepted immense benefits from the magnanimity 
 of his greatest ally." The mistaken policy of Austria at this 
 period brought her neither honour nor profit. 
 
 Anxious for peace, Metternich's first effort was to enter into 
 an understanding with England, and in 182 1, when on a visit 
 to Hanover, he met Castlereagh and secured his co-operation. 
 England was to use all her influence at St. Petersburg, and 
 Austria hers at Constantinople, to restore moderation to men's 
 minds. At first Alexander seemed to yield to the influence of 
 Metternich, and the Greek delegates who presented themselves 
 at the congress of Verona were not received. In 1823, the 
 two sovereigns met at Lemberg, and about the same time 
 Metternich had an interview with Nesselrode. Unfortunately, 
 however, for Metternich's wishes, the Greeks gained ground, 
 and Alexander, in spite of the influence of the Austrian 
 minister, would neither sacrifice the interests of Russia nor give 
 up his romantic and humanitarian ideas. In 1824, a conference 
 was held at St. Petersburg whose object was the pacification of 
 Greece, but though Austria took part in it, all she did was to 
 retard business and delay any definite decision. The death of 
 Alexander I. (ist December, 1825) made no change in the 
 position of affairs, Nicholas showing himself disposed to settle 
 the questions of the Danubian Provinces and the alteration 
 of boundaries in a friendly way with Turkey. At one time 
 Austrian diplomacy seemed as if it were about to succeed in 
 putting an end to the disturbance. " The hopes of that 
 faction which is the enemy of public peace are destroyed." 
 Exclaimed the Augsburg Gazette, " All princes ought to unite 
 to crush the revolution under whatsoever form it may present 
 itself; they ought to give up all temporary advantages and hold 
 firm to the Holy Alliance. Every statesman who shall abandon 
 that course is an enemy of both thrones and nations. The 
 greatest statesman of Europe, the man whose wise counsels
 
 BATTLE OF NAVARINO. 475 
 
 have so often secured peace, who has always remained equal 
 to every occasion, who has never been tempted to leave the 
 right way by the attacks of his enemies, has once more defeated 
 the hopes of the Liberals." 
 
 But at the very moment when Metternich received or even, 
 perhaps, dictated this praise, and when he believed himself the 
 master of all Europe, he was completely tricked by Russia and 
 England. A protocol was signed in London on the 4th of 
 April, 1826, in which these two powers took upon themselves 
 to put an end to the Greek revolution, and in the following 
 July they were joined by France. England had already recog- 
 nized the Greeks as belligerents, and even the cabinet of Vienna 
 had been obliged to admit that they had the right to capture 
 Austrian vessels carrying contraband of war. Austria had been 
 punished for her ambiguous attitude by the loss her commerce 
 had sustained in the Levant, Greek corsairs attacking her 
 merchant-vessels in preference to all others, and in the year 
 1826 capturing as many as two hundred of them. 
 
 The battle of Navarino (1827) struck the last blow to the 
 chancellor's hopes. Europe made common cause with the 
 revolutionists, and at last (April, 1828) war broke out between 
 Russia and Turkey. It caused immense terror in Vienna, 
 where every one was convinced — as Genz wrote to Lord Stan- 
 hope — that the czar would march right up to Constantinople. 
 Austria was without financial resources, and her generals, 
 grown old in times of peace, were quite incapable of managing 
 a campaign. France showed herself hostile, Charles X. saying, 
 " If the emperor Nicholas attacks Austria, I shall hold myself 
 in readiness and act according to circumstances; but if Austria 
 begins the attack, I shall at once march against her." For- 
 tunately for her, Russia met with greater difficulties between the 
 Danube and the Balkans than had been expected. The war 
 lasted for nearly two years, and ended in the treaty of Adria- 
 nople (15th September, 1829), which recognized the indepen- 
 dence of Greece, placed the Danubian Provinces under the 
 influence of Russia, and left in her hands the mouths of the
 
 476 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Danube, with the control over the commerce of the river which 
 such a position implies. 
 
 Polish, Italian, and German Affairs. 
 
 The defeat of Turkey was a great misfortune for Austria. 
 The credit of the Viennese cabinet was shaken, and its influ- 
 ence over Europe seriously diminished. Even diplomatists 
 began openly to blame the narrowness of view which led 
 Francis, Metternich, and their ministers to declare themselves 
 the friends of any sovereign who announced himself the enemy 
 of modern ideas, such as duke Charles of Brunswick and Don 
 Miguel of Portugal. When the constitution -was declared in 
 Lisbon in 1821, the Austrian ambassador refused to illuminate 
 his house, for even on the distant shores of the Atlantic, a con- 
 stitution seemed a danger to Francis II. The establishment 
 of parliamentary government in France had been looked upon 
 with grave uneasiness, and the minds of Austrian reactionaries 
 had been disturbed by the feeble echoes of parliamentary 
 eloquence. When, therefore, the news of the revolution of 
 1830 reached Vienna, the terror it inspired may be imagined. 
 If Austria had been provided at the time with money and 
 soldiers, war might have broken out ; as it was, she had to make 
 the best of a bad bargain and to recognize the government of 
 Louis Philippe. Next came the revolutions of Brussels and 
 Warsaw. Austria had grown indifferent to the fate of the Low 
 Countries, but events in Poland touched her interests more 
 closely. Not long before, at the congress of Vienna, Metternich 
 had protested against the cession of the grand-duchy of Warsaw 
 to Russia. That secret hatred of Russia, which had been 
 nourished ever since the Turkish war, was far from being 
 appeased, and when disturbances broke out in Galicia, Hungary 
 in alarm declared her future compromised by the development 
 of the Muscovite nation and called for an armed intervention 
 in favour of Poland. The Slavs also were excited by the idea 
 of a war between their brother Slavs ; while the Germans
 
 AFFAIRS IJV POLAND AND ITALY. ^"JJ 
 
 themselves, some from their Liberal opinions and others from 
 their religious convictions, were favourable to the revolution. 
 The action of the Austrian cabinet was as blundering in the 
 Polish question as it had been mean in regard to the Eastern 
 question. Francis placed a body of troops on the Galician 
 frontier to prevent the insurgents from entering Austrian terri- 
 tory, and he forbade the exportation of arms into Poland (25th 
 December, 1830), but he allowed his minister to continue to 
 reside at Warsaw, although Prussia, with more strict observance 
 of diplomatic forms, recalled hers. He did not announce his 
 intention of interfering, as he had done in Italy and Spain, 
 against the rebels, and Genz was allowed to express sentiments 
 of generous sympathy with them in the Augsburg Gazette. In 
 the political circles of Vienna the placing of an Austrian arch- 
 duke on the throne of Poland was urgently discussed, and when 
 the struggle was at its height Metternich offered his mediation, 
 only to meet with refusal on the part of Russia. 
 
 Meanwhile affairs in Italy demanded instant attention. The 
 I^egations and the Marches had already thrown off the papal 
 authority, and in the first days of February, 1831, the inhabi- 
 tants of Modena and Parma rose against their Austrian rulers. 
 Austria had no money with which to make war ; her finances 
 were in so wretched a condition that the relative value of paper- 
 money to coin, which had been one to five, in 1831 fell to one 
 to ten. Francis, however, dare not leave Italy alone ; he was 
 always in fear lest the revolution should spread to Lombardy 
 and Venetia, and these fertile provinces were his best sources 
 of revenue, producing each year from fifty-seven to fifty-eight 
 million of francs. The Austrian troops therefore entered 
 Modena and Parma, and proceeded to occupy the Legations, 
 but these they were obliged to abandon in consequence of the 
 protestations of France. The following year a new insurrection 
 broke out there, and the papal government asked the Austrians 
 to return. France immediately replied by the occupation of 
 Ancona, and it was in vain that Metternich complained that 
 France had violated the rights of nations.
 
 478 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Thus Austria was always making a wrong choice, clutching 
 hold of Italy, which detested and would have nothing to do 
 Avith her, and leaving Poland to her fate — Poland, which would 
 have accepted her rule with enthusiasm had the heir of the 
 Jagellons of Bohemia and Hungary only been wise enough to 
 arouse memories of the past and the ancient alliance of the 
 three kingdoms, and had he at the same time appealed to the 
 Catholic sentiments of the Poles. 
 
 Austrian influence still remained strong in Germany, but 
 the revolutionary spirit of the time found its best ally in the 
 multiplicity of principalities and powers which divided the 
 land. Metternich often groaned over the feebleness of govern- 
 ments which allowed their people to impose laws upon them, 
 and on the errors of nations which were carried away by the 
 example of the revolution of July, " out of a spirit of imitation, 
 copying events which had taken place in foreign countries, 
 whose history and character were quite different from those 
 of their German fatherland." Those rulers who found them- 
 selves called upon to make humiliating concessions gladly 
 turned for assistance to the powerful chancellor, and he, by 
 the help of the Austrian ambassadors, was able to exercise 
 over them the authority of a guardian. Springer cleverly 
 says, " The cabinets of Vienna treated all the neighbouring 
 states as if they were an esplanade, on which no one might 
 build, lest the fortress should suffer." Meanwhile, the three 
 northern courts were drawn more closely together by fresh 
 congresses, similar to those held at Laybach and Troppau. 
 The king of Prussia and the emperor Nicholas met Francis II. 
 in Bohemia, and a treaty, signed on the 15th of March, 1834, 
 confirmed the alliance — perhaps it would be nearer the truth 
 to say the conspiracy — of the three sovereigns. No political 
 refugee was to find shelter within the three kingdoms, and each 
 state undertook to deliver up all proscribed persons. Thus did 
 the three powers take precautions against the wind of liberty 
 which blew towards them from France. If the French govern- 
 ment should prove unable to suppress revolutionary plots
 
 FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES OF AUSTRIA. 479 
 
 against foreign countries contrived on French territory, the 
 three monarchs reserved to themselves the right to interfere. 
 On the occasion of this declaration, the duke de Broglio sent 
 a dry and dignified despatch, to which Metternich made a 
 miserable reply. If war had really broken out at this time, 
 Austria would have cut but a sorry figure. She was in great 
 financial straits, and, notwithstanding all the efforts of Francis 
 and his minister to stifle every sign of political life among the 
 people, grave problems were debated in the very centre of the 
 empire. 
 
 Austria had paid dearly for the glorious position of arbitress 
 of Europe and restorer of legitimate sovereignty. The patent 
 issued in 181 1 had practically proclaimed the bankruptcy of 
 the government, and the issue of forty-five millions of Antici- 
 patio7ischeine in 181 3 had not succeeded in raising the value 
 of her paper-money. Stadion had been chosen to reorganize 
 the finances, and he found a difficult task before him. The 
 cost of the war of 18 15 had been met by a loan of fifty 
 millions, but this had brought the state scarcely more than 
 forty millions. Taxation was exceedingly heavy. It is true 
 that Austria had received nearly fifty millions of florins as a war 
 indemnity, but England had demanded payment of the various 
 subsidies which she had advanced since the beginning of hostili- 
 ties, and that sum had risen, from 1792 to 1814, to ;!£"r 1,051,547. 
 A new loan was needed to pay off this debt, which the Austrian 
 statesmen would have gladly forgotten. Stadion elaborated a 
 plan which was to cure everything. No more paper-money was 
 to be forced into circulation, and a National Bank of Austria 
 was to be established, which was to administer a sinking fund, 
 supplied by the war indemnity. But the notes of this bank 
 were refused, and fell into the hands of stock-jobbers ; and 
 other expedients had to be tried, and new loans raised to pay 
 old ones. It was at this time that the famous banking-houses of 
 Vienna, the Barings, Laboucheres, Parishes, and, above all, the 
 Rothschilds, took their rise and began to dictate to every 
 European capital. As has been justly remarked, Vienna
 
 480 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARV. 
 
 became the centre of a financial aristocracy which administered 
 the whole European public debt as if it were its estate. 
 
 Hungary never lent herself willingly to any rational system 
 of taxation, and down to the year 1827, custom-houses were to 
 be found along the frontiers of every province in the monarchy, 
 and the prohibitive system paralyzed all industries. From an 
 economical point of view, the most important event of the 
 reign of Francis II. was the establishment of the Austrian 
 Lloyd at Trieste, which has become an important marine navi- 
 gation company. 
 
 We have already said something of the system of repression 
 which weighed upon every one. An inquisitorial police watched 
 over the lives of the citizens, and the censorship of the press 
 interfered with every expression of opinion. Liberty of con- 
 science was subject to most annoying restrictions ; public 
 education was placed entirely in the hands of the clergy, and 
 no one was allowed to study in a foreign university ; and the 
 central government persisted in refusing to recognize the 
 political powers of the diets. And yet, in spite of all this, 
 public opinion was working its way towards freedom with 
 irresistible energy.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 HUNGARY AND THE SLAV COUNTRIES (179O-1835). 
 
 Himgary frofti 1790- 1815. 
 
 At the time of the death of Joseph II. Hungary was in a 
 state of violent disturbance. The comitat of Pesth proclaimed 
 that the rule of the Habsburgs was at an end, and others 
 threatened to do the same unless the national liberties were 
 restored by the new sovereign. All united in demanding the 
 convocation of the diet in order that the long-suppressed 
 wishes of the people might be heard. The revolutionary 
 wind which had passed over France had been felt even by 
 the Magyars, but there was this great difference in its effect 
 upon France and upon Hungary — in France, ideas of equality 
 had guided the revolution ; in Hungary, the great nobles and 
 the squirearchy who formed the only political element claimed, 
 under the name of liberties, privileges which were for the most 
 part absolutely opposed to the ideas of the Revolution of 1789. 
 " Some of the comitats," says M. Sayous, " declared that it 
 was not the peasants who had any reason to complain of the 
 conduct of their lords, but rather the lords of the serfs, and 
 that instead of passing laws to make serfdom less harsh, a 
 return to the strict rules of ancient times was needed. Others 
 dogmatically declared that Providence had willed that there 
 should always be kings, nobles, and serfs." Among the late 
 reforms only one had found favour in the eyes of the Magyars, 
 and that was toleration towards Protestants, and the reason of 
 
 2 I
 
 482 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 ihis was to be found in the fact that the small landowners of 
 Hungary were themselves to a large extent Protestant ; yet a 
 democratic party was gradually coming into existence which 
 appealed to the masses. 
 
 It was under such circumstances that Leopold II. deter- 
 mined to convoke the diet. A preliminary meeting was held 
 in the castle of Buda. " O blessed day, day of resurrection ! " 
 cries the poet Baroti. "I hear the old language, the old 
 costumes rejoice my eyes." And Peczely, another poet, says, 
 " We swear that so long as the blood of Attila flows in our 
 veins, so long as the name of Magyar remains, this day shall 
 be blessed in our memories." As was sure to be the case, 
 the nobles had a majority in both chambers. Grave recrimi- 
 nations were to be heard the moment the session opened. 
 Some of the orators accused the king of treason ; others 
 claimed an independent position for Hungary as regarded 
 foreign affairs, and demanded that a Magyar ambassador 
 should be sent to Constantinople. They even went so far 
 as to ask that only Magyar regiments should be quartered 
 within the national frontiers in time of peace, and that they 
 should be commanded solely by native officers. 
 
 Leopold II. took refuge behind the Pragmatic Sanction, 
 and refused to recognize any other contract between himself 
 and Hungary; but he ended by getting himself crowned on 
 the 15th of November, 1790. He restored the office of 
 palatine ; but the diet chose his son, the young archduke 
 Alexander, for the post, and it was evident that the office 
 was now nothing more than a name, and that there was but 
 small chance of the young archduke maintaining the rights 
 of the kingdom against his father. These various concessions; 
 however, were enough to fill the Magyars with delight after the 
 harsh reign of Joseph II. " My beautiful Fatherland," sang 
 Peczely, " thou hast a king whom the whole universe envies 
 thee ! " The laws which were adopted by the diet sum up 
 well the wishes of the country. The coronation of the 
 sovereign must take place at latest within six months after his
 
 CONDITION OF THE PEASANIS IN HUNGARY. 483 
 
 accession ; the crown of St. Stephen must always remain at 
 Buda ; the king must from time to time reside in the country ; 
 Hungarian affairs must be settled with the help of Hungarian 
 counsellors alone ; the laws of the other states were not to 
 be applied to Hungary ; the diet must be summoned at least 
 every three years, and it alone must possess legislative 
 power, manage the finances of the country, and levy troops. 
 These important measures were completed by a law for liberty 
 of conscience more liberal even than that of Joseph H. 
 
 The question of the amelioration of the condition of the 
 lower classes, the peasants, serfs, Servians of the Banat, and 
 citizens of free cities, was more difficult to settle. The nobles 
 were little inclined to deprive themselves of any of their 
 privileges, and in this matter it was Leopold who represented 
 liberal ideas. The diet granted the peasants the right of 
 changing their residence, but refused the abolition of corporal 
 punishment. The inhabitants of the towns were most of 
 them of foreign origin, and had always been looked upon with 
 suspicion ; they had adopted the principles of the French 
 Revolution, in the hope of obtaining by means of them access 
 to public employment and real representation in the diet, and 
 the king tried to reconcile their interests with those of the 
 nobles. He also protected the Servians, and allowed them to 
 meet in congress for the discussion of Servian interests ; 
 established a Servian chancery, in spite of the objections of 
 some of the Magyars, who dreaded the dismemberment of 
 the kingdom ; and recognized the Orthodox Greek Church. 
 Death carried off Leopold IL when he was at the height of 
 his popularity. 
 
 When France declared war against Francis H. the Magyar 
 nobles showed themselves quite ready to support their 
 sovereign ; they asked for nothing better than to fight the 
 revolutionary democrats of Paris. Francis was crowned very 
 soon after his accession, and was able to obtain both men 
 and money from the diet ; but before long, the reactionary 
 measures carried by Thugut his minister, lost him all the
 
 484 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 popularity which had greeted him at the beginning of his 
 reign. The censorship of the press, the employment of spies, 
 and the persecution of the Protestants — a persecution, how- 
 ever, in which the Hungarian Catholics themselves took an 
 active part — all helped to create discontent. 
 
 The policy of the court being thus reactionary, the Magyar 
 Jacobins tended to become the representatives of the senti- 
 ment of nationality. Adherents of the French Revolution 
 multiplied in the land, and some of them — as, for example, 
 Martinovics, Hajndczy, Laczkovics, and Szentmariai, who was 
 the author of a political catechism for the spread of French 
 doctrines — were arrested, and were found to have numerous 
 accomplices. Fifty citizens accused of high treason were 
 thrown into the fortress of Buda. It was difficult to prove the 
 existence of any plot, but the writings of the accused showed, 
 at any rate, that they held opinions hostile to monarchy and 
 aristocracy ; one among them, Bacsany by name, had even 
 translated the " Marseillaise." They were brought to Vienna 
 to be tried; but the Hungarians protested, and they had to 
 be sent back to Buda, where, however, the trial was so 
 conducted that their condemnation was certain. Five of them 
 were put to death on the scaffold (20th of May, 1795), and 
 the others were imprisoned in the fortress of Kufstein in 
 Tyrol. Many of their publications were burned by the exe- 
 cutioner, and among them the translation of the " Marseil- 
 laise." Bacsany was among the prisoners who were sent to 
 Kufstein, and there the translator of the revolutionary hymn 
 atoned for his imprudence by nine years of captivity. 
 
 Meanwhile Hungary was taking its part in the wars against 
 France, and important posts in the Austrian army were held by 
 Magyar nobles, among whom Austria found some of her best 
 generals, as, for instance, Alvinzy. In 1796, the diet voted all 
 that was asked for — 50,000 soldiers, 20,000 oxen, and 2,400,000 
 measures of corn with which to feed them. Her poets 
 encouraged their countrymen during the war, and compared 
 the soldiers to the warriors of Hunyadi and Arpad. By the 
 
 i
 
 SELFISHNESS OF MAGYAR NOBLES. 485 
 
 time that the peace of Campo-Formio was signed, Hungary- 
 had lost more than 100,000 men and 30 milUons of florins. 
 
 In the campaigns which followed history mentions among 
 the Hungarians the names of Kray, Jach, Ott, Palfify, Splenyi, 
 Haddik, and Esterhazy. The Hungarian generals covered 
 themselves with glory, but their land, deprived of men and 
 money, and badly cultivated, was reduced to a state of terrible 
 misery. Foreign affairs had made men forget the true interests 
 of the kingdom, and the diet of 1796 had only busied itself 
 with questions concerning subsidies and soldiers. 
 
 The diet of 1802 found things in a most critical state. 
 It ought to have been its first duty to reform the system of 
 customs throughout the land, as they interfered most seriously 
 with the economical interests of the people. But quite 
 another question occupied the Austrian government. It asked 
 that the army should be maintained in complete fighting order 
 in time of peace, and that a supplementary vote of one million 
 florins should be granted. The troops furnished by Hungary 
 were composed of two bodies, the regiments and the insurrec- 
 tion, a body of cavalry raised among the nobles at the outbreak 
 of a war. The government wished to strengthen the regular 
 army at the expense of the insurrection, and wanted the 
 assembly to give up for the future the right of voting the 
 contingent. It failed in this, but it obtained six thousand 
 recruits a year in time of peace, and twelve thousand in time 
 of war, the time of service being settled at twelve years, and it 
 also secured two millions for the war budget. The same diet 
 tried in vain to have Dalmatia annexed to Hungary. All the 
 debates of this period which bear upon the privileges of the 
 nobles, especially in the matter of taxation and the game laws, 
 show how a selfish aristocracy clung obstinately to its privileges, 
 and how little it had been affected by the ideas of equality 
 which had spread from France over the rest of Europe. This 
 selfishness of the governing classes proved of the greatest help 
 to the kings when they sought to keep the nobles in check 
 by the aid of the peasants and citizens. While steering its
 
 486 HISTORY OF A USTRO' HUNGARY. 
 
 course carefully as regarded the diet, the government still 
 continued its Germanizing policy. It granted a considerable 
 yearly payment to the German theatre at Pesth. But the Hun- 
 garians also built a theatre, and opened a national museum ; 
 and their national poets, Csokonai, Verseghy, Berzsenyi, and, 
 above all, the immortal Kisfaludy, showed that the Magyar 
 tongue could be adapted to the noblest forms of European 
 poetry, and thus secured the future of the national language. 
 
 The most important event of 1802, after the convocation 
 of the diet, was the creation of the official title of emperor of 
 Austria. In spite of the assurances of Francis that he meant 
 to make no change in the position of his various kingdoms, 
 the Hungarians felt themselves injured by the new title, as 
 implying that the kingdom of St. Stephen was in future to hold 
 a place subordinate to the empire. Notwithstanding this, how- 
 ever, their old spirit of loyalty prevailed, and when, after the capi- 
 tulation of Ulm, Napoleon appeared before the gates of Vienna, 
 there was no sacrifice they were not ready to make. Napoleon 
 was the representative of victorious revolution, and the Magyar 
 nobles were ready to prove their fidelity to the hereditary 
 dynasty in the face of all his successes. " This is the moment 
 of thy true greatness, O Magyar," sang the poet Berszenyi. 
 "... Thy arm in battle has the strength of a giant. Go ! 
 show that thou hast the soul of Zrinyi ; imitate him in what 
 was his highest claim to glory — his death." But the diet would 
 not consent to the levy en masse which was called for by the 
 government, and it asked for some new concessions in favour 
 of the national language, among others, permission to the 
 comitats to correspond with the central government in Magyar. 
 Before long the frontiers of Hungary lay open to the enemy ; 
 Napoleon was in Vienna, and French troops upon the banks 
 of the Raab. The palatine Joseph thought that he ought not 
 to draw down on the country all the horrors of an invasion ; 
 he therefore retired to Buda-Pesth, and sent the holy crown 
 to Munkacz, leaving general Palffy at Pozaony (Pressburg), with 
 orders to obtain the consent of the French to the neutrality
 
 DIET OF 1807. 487 
 
 of Hungary. Davoust agreed to this willingly, and contented 
 himself with occupying Pressburg, without taxing its inhabi- 
 tants with either contributions or requisitions. It has been 
 proved by the letters of Napoleon at this time that he caused 
 an inquiry to be made into the grievances of the Hungarians 
 against the Austrian government, hoping to make use of them 
 to his own advantage. 
 
 The diet of 1807 was given up entirely to questions of 
 internal government, every means being taken to obtain the 
 resources that were needed for the future war. It was pro- 
 posed to settle once for all what number of troops should be 
 permanently kept up, and that an extraordinary tax should be 
 granted for mihtary needs. The lower chamber refused a 
 permanent grant of troops, and maintained the right of Hun- 
 gary to raise soldiers only when she wished, and as many as 
 she wished. The chamber of nobles was more conciliatory, 
 and disposed to make greater sacrifices of money. It granted 
 one-sixth of the revenues of nobles, merchants, and citizens, 
 and one per cent, on the value of all immovable property. 
 There was a hard struggle over the question of the permanent 
 levies, the diet being most unwilling to give up the right of 
 determining from time to time the number of the armed force. 
 It was usual, when the contingent had been voted, for it to be 
 divided among the towns and the comttats, and the troops 
 were got together in a somewhat unsystematic and arbitrary 
 fashion. After prolonged debate, twelve thousand conscripts 
 and a sum of twenty thousand florins for the encouragement 
 of voluntary enlistment were granted by the assembly. The 
 great orator, Paul Nagy, appeared for the first time at this 
 debate, and spoke noble words in defence of the national 
 independence and the Magyar tongue. In spite of the court, 
 the diet energetically defended the autonomy of Hungary 
 within her own borders. 
 
 In order to conciliate the Magyars, Francis II. determined 
 to have the new empress, Maria Louisa, his third wife, whom 
 he had just married, crowned queen of Hungary. The cere-
 
 4H8 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 mony always excites great enthusiasm among the Hungarians, 
 and the dynasty has not failed to turn this enthusiasm to its 
 own advantage. At the same time a strong feeling of indigna- 
 tion had been roused among the Magyar nobles by the war in 
 Spain, during which both royal rights and national sentiments 
 had been held so cheap by Napoleon. 
 
 During the campaign of 1809 the diet added twenty 
 thousand conscripts to the twelve thousand already voted, and 
 decreed the hisurrcction. The nation was called to arms by 
 the poets Verseghy and Kisfaludy. Enormous sacrifices were 
 made by some of the nobles, prince Esterhazy supplying two 
 hundred horses to the army, and the archbishop of Kalocsa 
 one hundred and twenty. The popular enthusiasm increased 
 when the empress-queen and the young archduke, heir to the 
 throne, left Vienna, which was threatened by the enemy, and 
 took refuge in the imperial castle at Buda. Napoleon, who never 
 understood popular feeling in Hungary, believed the moment 
 had now come to strike a heavy blow at Austria by separating 
 Hungary from her. From his head-quarters at Schonbrunn he 
 addressed a proclamation to the Hungarians which was imme- 
 diately spread throughout the kingdom. It was translated by 
 the poet Bacsanyi, who, during his imprisonment at Kufstein, 
 had become acquainted with Maret, then ambassador from the 
 French republic, who had been arrested by the Austrians. 
 Maret, now duke of Bassano and one of Napoleon's ministers, 
 came across his old companion in captivity in Vienna, and 
 no doubt obtained his aid in the composition of the original 
 as well as in the translation. 
 
 " Hungarians ! " ran the proclamation, " it is the emperor 
 of Austria, and not the king of Hungary, who has declared war 
 against me. Your constant maintenance of a defensive posi- 
 tion, and the measures passed by your last diet, testify suffi- 
 ciently to your desire for peace. The moment has come in 
 which you may recover your independence. I offer you peace, 
 the integrity of your land, your freedom, and your constitution, 
 either as it now exists or with such modifications as you may
 
 NAPOLEON'S PROCLAMATION TO HUNGARY. 489 
 
 think either the demands of the age or the welfare of your 
 countrymen render advisable. I want nothing from you. I 
 only desire to see your nation free and independent. Your 
 union with Austria has been your misfortune. Your blood 
 has been shed for her in far distant lands, and your dearest 
 interests have been continually sacrificed to those of the 
 Hereditary Provinces. You form the finest portion of her 
 empire, and you are only treated as a province that can be 
 used as the instrument of passions to which you are strangers. 
 
 " You have national customs and a national language ; you 
 pride yourselves on your ancient and illustrious origin. Take 
 again your position as a nation. Choose a king for yourselves 
 who shall reign for you alone, who shall dwell in your midst, 
 who shall be surrounded only by your citizens and your 
 soldiers. Hungarians, this is what all Europe who is watch- 
 ing you demands, and what I join her in asking of you. A 
 lasting peace, commercial relations, and a secured independence 
 are the rewards that await you if you will be worthy of your 
 ancestors and of yourselves. You will not refuse these offers, 
 so liberal and so generous ; you will no longer shed your blood 
 for feeble princes, who have always been the slaves of corrupt 
 ministers and in the pay of England. . . . Assemble in your 
 national diets on the field of Rakos, as your ancestors did 
 before you, and then let me know your decision." 
 
 But notwithstanding the skill with which it was drawn up, 
 this proclamation made but little impression in Hungary. 
 The msiirrectio7i rose in arms, met at Raab (Gyor), and then 
 took up its position in an entrenched camp, under the com- 
 mand of the archduke John. It was badly equipped and 
 armed, and the valour of the Hungarian cavalry was of little 
 use among the inequalities of a boggy soil and against the 
 terrible fire of the French artillery. Gyor was taken, and the 
 Austrians did not spare their raillery against the fine gentle- 
 men who allowed themselves to be beaten on the soil of their 
 native land. After this defeat, the government demanded 
 forty thousand more men from Hungary, and voluntary
 
 490 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 enlistment soon supplied the number, which went to reinforce 
 the army of the archduke Charles. Besides this, the country 
 had to suffer from the requisitions as well as the military 
 excesses of the French, whose memory is by no means 
 popular in the country of the Magyars. By the treaty of 
 Vienna some parts of Croatia were detached from Hungary, 
 and this loss increased the popular resentment. 
 
 The Hungarians had never been sparing of their lives in 
 the cause of Austria, but they would have nothing to do with 
 those miserable schemes by which the government at Vienna 
 believed itself able to remedy the bad state of its finances. 
 The emperor, supported by his lieutenant, the palatine Joseph, 
 had recourse to all kinds of violent measures. The recalci- 
 trant deputies were summoned ad audiendutn verbum regiuni, 
 and one of them, Joseph Dessewffy, was excluded from the 
 diet. In the end, however, they were obliged to yield to 
 force. The Hungarians were, indeed, had always been, but 
 ill rewarded by Austria for their fidelity, but they nevertheless 
 furnished a numerous and brave contingent to the campaign of 
 1813-1814. They fought, but it was not with the old enthu- 
 siasm, and poets and publicists no longer celebrated the great 
 duel against the Tyrant of Europe nor the victories of the 
 Austrian army. 
 
 " We are happy in the victories of your majesty," said an 
 address to Francis ; " they will give you time to think of the 
 welfare of your subjects. Up to this time dread of the enemy 
 has made all our wishes of no effect." Hungary had fought 
 rather for the dynasty than for her own independence ; she 
 had put off the consideration of all questions touching her own 
 essential interests, and now greeted the peace with joy, in the 
 hope that at last the sovereign would be able to busy himself 
 with the affairs of his faithful Magyars — a dream, however, 
 which was of but short duration.
 
 PROTEST OF THE CO MIT AT OF BARS. 49 1 
 
 Development of Public Spirit in Hungary — The Diet 0/182^ — 
 Szechenyi, Deak, Kossuth. 
 
 After the year 181 5, Francis II. for some time refused to 
 convoke tlie diet. While poets such as Kolcsey and Alex- 
 ander and Charles Kisfaludy were recalling the memory of the 
 ancient glories of the nation, the Viennese government was 
 doing its best to stifle political sentiment by a strict censure of 
 the press. But though there w-as no diet to interfere with its 
 plans, the comitats proved a hindrance. That of Bars, for 
 instance, gave utterance to a strong protest. "We have no 
 doubt," it said, " that this rigorous censure which weighs 
 down our literature appears of great use to his majesty. That 
 ignorance of all contemporary events which we owe to it doubt- 
 less renders the exercise of power more easy. We only ask if 
 manly minds can put up with such repression. In wdiat way 
 have we sinned ? Why must the fountains of civilization be 
 closed to us ? Why are we to be cut off from the society of 
 our fellow-men ? " 
 
 In the face of an adversary so tenacious of its rights as was 
 the Hungarian aristocracy, the convocation of the diet could 
 not be indefinitely postponed. The royal chancery at Pesth 
 was powerless to govern without the aid of the country as repre- 
 sented in the diet, and the archduke Joseph, who had been 
 palatine for so many years, had himself felt the influence of 
 the Magyar ideas of self-government. Austria wanted soldiers 
 for the occupation of Italy, and in order to obtain them the 
 king first tried to disarm the opposition of the Hungarians by 
 flattery. After a military review, which took place in 1820, 
 he made a speech in which occurred the following words, 
 which have since become famous : " Totus mundus stultizat 
 et, relictis antiquis suis legibus, constitutiones imaginarias 
 quserit. Vos constitutionem a majoribus acceptam illcesam 
 habetis ; amatis illam et ego illam amo et conservabo et ad 
 Haeredes transmittam." But this declaration did not have 
 much effect. The comitats refused to pay the taxes or to
 
 492 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIUNGARY. 
 
 raise the soldiers. The sovereign then replaced the Fo /span 
 (Obergespann) by royal administrators ; but it was of no use, 
 the body of the comitats resisted, and all the public officers 
 gave in their resignation. The magistrates refused to take any 
 steps to carry out the prosecutions for treason which were 
 ordered by the government of Vienna ; and it was at last 
 evident that the royal authority could not be maintained except 
 by means of the national parliament. The diet of 1825-1829 
 marks, accordingly, an important stage in the constitutional 
 history of Hungary. It met at Pozsony on the nth of Sep- 
 tember, 1825. The king's speech contained a sort of apology, 
 and he undertook once more to preserve the constitution, and 
 to transmit it intact to his successors. In order to please the 
 people he again made use of the ceremony which has always 
 had so great an effect on the Hungarian mind, and had his 
 fourth wife, Charlotte of Bavaria, crowned queen. Among the 
 deputies in the diet of 1825 might be seen in the upper chamber 
 Szechenyi, who had been named by his countrymen the Great 
 Magyar ; and in the lower house, Paul Nagy, whose stormy 
 eloquence had been heard in earlier assemblies, and also a 
 young advocate from the comitat of Zala, named Francis Deak. 
 The debates were very noisy, and the court probably found 
 the chambers less docile than it expected. Time was taken 
 up by a series of recriminations against the violent actions of 
 government, the misdeeds of royal officials, the attempts 
 against public liberty, and the long delay in summoning the 
 national representatives. These gravaini7ia were made in 
 speeches full of wordy eloquence, and in the doubtful Latin 
 which was still used in the Magyar assemblies. The emperor 
 had to listen to some harsh truths, some violent speakers 
 going so far as to declare the house of Habsburg the here- 
 ditary enemies of Hungary. He was obliged to promise satis- 
 faction to the gravamhia, and to declare that he had never 
 had any intention of violating the constitution. The Hun- 
 garians demanded that certain territories, such as Dalmatia, 
 which, in virtue of historical rights, made part of their kingdom,
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAGYAR LANGUAGE. 493 
 
 should be united to it again ; but their wishes were not 
 attended to. The financial measures of 181 1 and 18 16 were 
 also made the subjects of furious debate. 
 
 One of the most important results of this diet was the 
 development of the Magyar language and literature. Szechenyi 
 used the national tongue in debate, and subscribed sixty 
 thousand florins towards the foundation of the Hungarian 
 academy. A national theatre was before long built at Pesth, 
 No less able as a writer than eloquent as an orator, Szechenyi 
 undertook to make economic truths known to his countrymen, 
 and his book on " Credit " marks an epoch in the study of the 
 science. The old Magyar world was at last shaken by the 
 breath of modern ideas, and the years which followed 1830 
 were marked by the construction of several important public 
 works ; the bridge at Pesth and the tunnel at Buda were 
 made, and the course of the river Tisza was regulated. 
 
 Francis 11. had his successor, the archduke Ferdinand, 
 crowned in his lifetime, in the hope of attaching the Hun- 
 garians more strongly to the dynasty. After the revolution 
 of July he wanted to be able to dispose of the whole strength 
 of Hungary, and convoked a diet in order to obtain new 
 levies of troops. It granted him twenty thousand men, but 
 they were only to be raised in case the monarchy should be 
 directly attacked. The diet of 1833 had some grave questions 
 to solve ; the subjects under discussion were not now only the 
 relative position of the crown and the aristocracy, the taxes, 
 and the constitution, but also the emancipation of the peasant 
 class, and the economical transformation of the country. 
 
 The Magyar nobles had often made generous sacrifices in 
 the defence of their own interests, but they had always shown 
 most deplorable selfishness as regarded the condition of the 
 peasants, and had thus given the Austrian government plenty 
 of opportunity to play the part of the peasants' friend. 
 Peasant wars had more than once devastated the provinces, 
 and even as late as 183 1, at the time of the great outbreak of 
 cholera, the peasants in the comitat of Saros had put some of
 
 494 HISTORY OF AUSTRO'HUNGARY. 
 
 the lords to death, accusing them of having poisoned the wells. 
 The emperor now invited the diet to discuss a measure of 
 agrarian reform, the basis of which had been drawn up by 
 himself. The upper chamber, however, would have nothing 
 to do with its liberal concessions, while the lower chamber 
 went even beyond the sovereign in the reforms they proposed. 
 The debate was a long one, for the nobles of Hungary had no 
 wish to repeat the doings of the French constituent assembly 
 on the 4th of August, 1789.^ Eloquent speeches were made 
 in the lower chamber by Deak, Balogh, and Kolczey, on 
 liberty and the dignity of man, but it was not until after two 
 years of discussion that the following reforms were carried. 
 The peasants were no longer to be tried before the seigneurial 
 courts in which the lord was at the same time judge and party 
 to the action ; they were no longer to be arrested at his com- 
 mand ; they were to have the right to leave their land and to 
 sell their interest in it, or to become complete owners of it by 
 an arrangement with the lord, without, however, completely 
 putting an end to the feudal tie ; and they were no longer to 
 bear the sole cost of the diets, which, up to this date, they had 
 had to do. This latter was the first step towards equality of 
 taxation — an equality which had always been especially repug- 
 nant to the old Magyar spirit. It was looked upon as a great 
 event when Szechenyi was able to insist that nobles should be 
 obliged to pay the same toll as every one else on crossing the 
 new bridge of Buda-Pesth. The supreme judge of the king- 
 dom, Cziraki, declared with tears that nothing should ever 
 induce him to cross a bridge which was to him the symbol of 
 the ruin of the old national constitution. 
 
 The Magyar language first entered into parliamentary life 
 in the diet of 1833, the lower chamber obliging the upper to 
 carry on all its correspondence with them in it. Louis Kossuth, 
 a young advocate, edited a Gazette of the diet in Magyar, and 
 published it secretly, in order to avoid the official censorship 
 of the press, getting it distributed by the officials in the various 
 ' See Carlyle's French Revolution, bk. vi. chap. ii.
 
 REVIVAL OF THE SLAVS. 495 
 
 comifats, in spite of every hindrance. This paper interested the 
 whole land in the parliamentary debates, so that the most dis- 
 tant frontiers shared in the political discussions which took place 
 in Pressburg. The affairs of Poland were the subject of debate 
 in some of the meetings of the assembly. The revolution of 
 Warsaw had been unsuccessful, but it had roused much 
 sympathy in Hungary, and some of the Polish refugees who 
 had taken shelter in France did their best to persuade the 
 Hungarians to interfere on their behalf. Violent speeches 
 were made in the diet, and one orator went so far as to 
 reproach the government for having employed Hungarian 
 subjects in the oppression of Italian patriots. All the tact 
 and all the popularity of the palatine Joseph were needed to 
 prevent an open rupture. There is no doubt that the revolu- 
 tion of Warsaw, in 1S30, to some extent prepared the way for 
 that of Pesth in 1848. 
 
 Revival of the Slavs — Bohemia — Kollar, 
 
 Certainly from the year 1825 to that of 1835 no other 
 portion of the empire presents so interesting a study for the 
 historian as Hungary, with its parliamentary and provincial 
 institutions, its eloquent debaters, and its endless struggles 
 between retrograde and liberal ideas. But the life of a people 
 is not to be found only in their official manifestations ; some- 
 times it spends itself in the development of private opinions 
 which lead in the end to sudden explosions. The first thirty 
 years of the nineteenth century were not less fruitful for the 
 Slavs of Austria than for the Magyars, and the changes which 
 occurred among them, though they involved moral develop- 
 ment only, deserve our serious attention. 
 
 In Bohemia the diet had been convoked by Leopold II. 
 immediately after his accession, and its members had 
 presented a long memorandum to him in which, their 
 grievances were enumerated, and he was asked to recall all 
 measures passed in the two preceding reigns which infringed 
 either the rights of the kingdom or the institutions of the
 
 496 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Church. Among others, they demanded the restoration of 
 their right to take part in legislation, of which they had been 
 deprived in 1627 by the new constitution of Ferdinand II. 
 Leopold yielded on some points of detail, but on none which 
 really affected the authority of the central power, and he 
 refused to modify in the smallest particular the state of things 
 previous to 1765, when Joseph II. had been first associated 
 in the government. The diet only recovered the right of 
 levying the taxes, of arranging the mode in which they should 
 be collected, and of discussing laws proposed to them by the 
 king. The permanent committee was also restored, but with 
 much enfeebled powers. The crown of St. Vacslav was sent 
 back to Prague, and the emperor paid homage to the historical 
 traditions of the country by having himself crowned with it. 
 His successors Francis I. and Ferdinand IV. followed his ex- 
 ample. The present emperor and Joseph II. are the only two 
 kings who have broken through this ancient custom. 
 
 But the efforts of the diet to recover their old privileges 
 were only feeble signs of that intellectual movement which at 
 the end of the eighteenth century prepared the way for the 
 revival of national life in Bohemia. 
 
 In the seventeenth century a voice here and there had 
 been raised, even among the Jesuits, to protest against the 
 persecution of the Chekh nation and language. One of the 
 Jesuits named Balbin was the author of a curious work called 
 '■'■ Dissertatio Apologetica Linguce Sloveniccz.^'' He pointed out the 
 danger lest his nation should disappear, as formerly the 
 Slavs of the Elbe had disappeared, swallowed up by the ocean 
 of Germans. " St. Vacslav, patron of Bohemia," he cries, 
 " leave us not to perish, us and our descendants ! Restore 
 their ancient glory to the Chekhs. Should we perish, thou 
 wilt look in vain from the hands of strangers for the honours 
 which thy Bohemian land has paid to thee during so many 
 centuries." The ^^Dissertatio Apologetica " remained unpublished 
 down to the year 1775, when it was brought out by the learned 
 Pelcel on the eve of the accession of Joseph II. A year
 
 LITERARY REVIVAL IN BOHEMIA. 497 
 
 before Count Kinsley, one of the few remaining representatives 
 of the old native aristocracy, had demanded the maintenance 
 and development of the national language in a pamphlet 
 written in German. In 1784, the Royal Society of Prague was 
 founded. Painstaking historians such as Pelcel, Dobner, and 
 Prochazka, set themselves to work to study the early history 
 of Bohemia, and this study could not fail to bring Slav 
 questions prominently forward among the learned ; archaeology 
 led to studies in philology, and it became no longer possible 
 to treat with contempt a language which was found to possess 
 a curious interest of its own, a rich literature, and a close 
 connection with that wide family of Slav tongues which spread 
 from the Adriatic to the Arctic Ocean. In 1793, a Chair of 
 the Chekh Language was founded in the university of Prague, 
 where so shortly before Joseph II. had ordered all teaching 
 should be carried on in German. The great linguist Do- 
 brovsky (1753-1829) by his travels and his writings laid the 
 foundation of Slav comparative philology. Hitherto Chekh 
 had been treated as a dead language ; now young poets re- 
 stored it once more to life, and made it the organ of their 
 patriotic aspirations. In 181 8, thanks to the generosity of the 
 counts of Sternberg, the Chekh Museum was founded at Prague, 
 and excited much sympahetic interest by its curious collections. 
 Archives and libraries were eagerly examined, and the 
 discovery of such poems of the Middle Ages as " The 
 Judgment of Libusa " and " The Manuscript of Kralove-Dvor " 
 was received with enthusiasm. The authenticity of these poems 
 has been doubted. This is not the right place in which to 
 discuss such a question ; but one thing at least is certain — 
 whether true or false, they are a complete expression of the 
 popular opinions of the time, and have exercised considerable 
 influence on the Bohemians.^ " It would be disgraceful in us 
 to go for justice to the Germans," said the "Judgment of Libusa ;" 
 "among us justice is determined by the laws which our fathers 
 
 ' See M. Leger's Chants Ileroiques el Chansones Populaires des Slaves 
 de Boheme. 
 
 2 K
 
 498 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 of old brought into these lands." " The foreigner has entered into 
 our heritage by force, and orders us about in a foreign tongue, 
 and the things that he does in his foreign land fronm morning 
 till night, those things he forces our wives and our children to 
 do," says " The Manuscript of Kralove-Dvor." Most assuredly 
 if these poems are either forged or falsified, the forger was a 
 man of genius, and even if they are condemned by impartial 
 science they still deserve the gratitude of Chekh patriots. 
 From this time forward some new publication appeared every 
 year, and the progress made by the nation surpassed even the 
 hopes of those by whom it had most been furthered. 
 
 Bohemia was well aware that, alone, she was too feeble to 
 hold her own at the same time against both Austria and 
 Germany ; but she could help to form a union of the Slav 
 peoples which might hope to do so. It was true that the Slav 
 language was only spoken by some five or six millions of men, 
 but these men could claim relationship with Russians, Poles, and 
 Croatian-Servians, who all spoke languages akin to theirs. The 
 union of the Slavs {Slovanska Vzajemnost) became the motto of 
 the thoughtful patriots, and added greatly to their power. It 
 was celebrated by the poet KoUar in a well-known pamphlet, 
 and in the fine poem which he dedicated to his race under the 
 name of " Slavy Dcera, the Daughter of Slava," or the Daughter 
 of Glory (1824). "We have been born to a new life," sings 
 [•Collar, '.' we have entered on a wide desert which Heaven has 
 not yet made fertile. The Romance and the Teutonic nations 
 walk along a beaten path, while we follow with slow and 
 lingering steps. But we are a young race, we know what has 
 been done by others, while they are ignorant of what we are 
 to be in the annals of humanity. We do not desire a victory 
 which shall fall from the skies without the work of our hands 
 or the sweat of our brows." Elsewhere he recalls the memory 
 of the fate of the Slavs of the Elbe. " It lies yonder ; I see 
 it through my tears, that wide land which was once the cradle 
 and is now the tomb of a great nation. , . . From the sources 
 of the Elbe to the Baltic sounded a fine and noble language.
 
 /COLLAR. 499 
 
 Why is it not to be heard any longer there ? Shame on thee, 
 Germany ! Thou who art envious and grasping ! Thou hast 
 caused torrents of our blood to be shed, and now thou con- 
 tinuest to pour forth floods of calumny, hoping to drown in 
 them our memories of the days of old. Only he who knows 
 how to respect the liberty of other men deserves liberty 
 himself. He who can keep slaves in irons is himself a slave." 
 Again, he takes shame to Bohemia that she should have 
 allowed herself to be invaded and colonised by the Germans. 
 " Who is this young and beautiful girl who runs along the 
 fields ? Very poor must she be to wear a dress patched about 
 with divers colours. It is our own Bohemia, dotted over with 
 foreign colonies." Then he summons the Slavs to enter into 
 a definite alliance. " Let there be no more discord ! Russians, 
 Servians, Chekhs, and Poles, unite ! Let other nations raise 
 their thrones on crumbling or on solid ground ; you, my 
 brothers, you shall raise your arch on the ancient ruins of a 
 melancholy past. From Athos to Pomerania, from the fields 
 of Silesia to the plain of Kosovo, from Constantinople to the 
 Volga, everywhere where the Slav tongue may be heard, rejoice 
 and embrace, happy in your immense Fatherland, the home of 
 the Slavs. Believe me, my brothers, we have all which goes to 
 make the durability of a great nation. Continents and oceans 
 lie at our feet, gold and silver, strong and vigorous hands, 
 and a rich and powerful language — we possess all but concord 
 and liberty." And then, still pursuing his dream of unity, he 
 sketches a fine image of the land of the Slavs : " I have said to 
 you a hundred times, and I say to you again to-day, O scattered 
 Slavs, be a whole, and no longer scattered groups ! Be a whole 
 or nothing ! Ah ! how have I thought at times, when my mind 
 was sore perplexed, if our Slav nations were but gold and silver 
 and copper I would mould them into one statue. Of Russia I 
 would make the hands, of Poland the body, of the Chekhs the 
 arms and the head, and of the Servians the feet, and the 
 smaller nations, the Wends, the Lusatians, Silesians, Croats, and 
 the Slovaks should be the vestments and the weapons. And
 
 500 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Europe should bow down before this image, whose head should 
 touch the clouds, and whose steps should reach across the 
 world." 
 
 A whole school of patriot poets grew up round Kollar ; 
 Celakovsky, author of "Russian Echoes "and "The Rose with 
 a Hundred Leaves;" Hanka, and Vocel. In 1837, Safarik, a 
 Slovak, wrote a great work on Slav antiquities, and Palacky, 
 a Moravian, who was appointed historiographer of the kingdom 
 of Bohemia, began a history of his adopted country, which is 
 one of the most remarkable books of our time, and has taken 
 more than half a century to complete. Thanks to the talents 
 and patriotism of this chosen body of her sons, Bohemia has 
 not only recovered her old feeling of nationality, but has also 
 been able to place herself at the head of all the Slav peoples 
 in the empire, while the southern Slavs have not been slow in 
 following her example. 
 
 The Southern Slavs — Ljiidevit Gaj — Panslavism. 
 
 AVe have already seen with what enthusiasm the Slovene 
 Vodnik greeted the awakening of Illyria at the time of the 
 French occupation, but the revival of the sense of nationality 
 among the southern Slavs was destined to come, not from the 
 action of the French, but from that of the Croats. The 
 impulse was given by the revolution in Servia ; Croatia was 
 deeply moved by it, and the writings of the first literary men of 
 the new principality, the Karadj itches and the Obradovitches, 
 met with a sympathetic echo among the Croatians. In 1826, 
 a Servian Literary Society {Matilsa) had been founded by the 
 Servians of Hungary, and soon after Zagreb (Agram), the 
 capital of Croatia, made an effort in the same direction. Up • 
 to this time the diversity of dialect in the various provinces 
 had proved an obstacle to the union of their literature, but 
 now an eminent publicist, Louis Gaj, undertook to form an 
 harmonious whole out of the scattered literary forces of Illyria. 
 He began by publishing two newspapers, the one called The 
 Croat Gazette, and the other The Croat, Dalmatian, and
 
 LOUIS GAJ. 501 
 
 Slavonian Dawn (1835). His motto was, "A people without 
 nationality is a body without bones." He proposed that 
 instead of the local names of Servians, Croats, Slovenes, 
 and Dalmatians, should be substituted the common denomi- 
 nation of Illyrians, a name which had been brought back 
 into use by Napoleon. In the following year, he called 
 his two papers The lUyrian Gazette and The Illyrian Dawn. 
 " Europe," he said in poetical language, " leans upon a triangular 
 lyre. This lyre is Illyria. It stretches from Villach to Varna 
 and Scutari, and the cords of this lyre are Carinthia, Gorica, 
 and Istria, Carniola, Styria, Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, Ragusa, 
 Bosnia, Montenegro, Herzegovina, Servia, Bulgaria, and 
 Southern Hungary. These cords are not in tune together. 
 What we desire is to make them sound in harmony." lUyrism, 
 which was at first received with enthusiasm, soon met with 
 violent opposition, first from the Hungarians, who did not 
 wish to see the Slavs escape from Magyar tutelage, and next 
 from the Servians, who feared lest their tisaditions and their 
 hopes should be absorbed in those of the Croats. The 
 movement gradually changed its character, and the very 
 name has now disappeared ; but it has left among the southern 
 Slavs a strong feeling of their literary solidarity. It had also 
 given a fruitful impulse to intellectual effort ; the ancient 
 monuments of Ragusa and the early efforts of the Servian 
 muse became the objects of study, and a school of poetry 
 arose, less brilliant perhaps than that of Prague, but not less 
 patriotic. Stanko Vraz and Preradovic are the best represen- 
 tatives of this school. The literary movement spread from the 
 Croats to their neighbours the Slovenes, and Vodnik found 
 worthy successors in Presern and Koseski. About the same 
 time Bleiweis founded political journalism in Ljublanja. 
 
 Thus at the two extremities of the empire the Slavs awoke 
 and claimed their share of the sunshine, ready to fight for it 
 here against the Magyars and there against the Germans. 
 Though they were separated both by their history and their 
 geographical position, they had learned to recognize their
 
 502 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGAKY. 
 
 solidarity, and from the thought of it gathered strength for the 
 struggle which they had to face. 
 
 In western Europe we often talk of Panslavism, and we 
 picture to ourselves the Russians as constantly occupied in 
 endeavouring to obtain influence over the Slavs by means of 
 political or literary emissaries. This idea is absolutely false. 
 The Slavs have watched the growth and progress of Russia 
 with natural interest. Reduced themselves to a most pre- 
 carious existence, they have sometimes hoped that the great 
 Northern nation would not remain indifferent to their fate ; 
 they have rejoiced in its progress and have found in it some 
 consolation for their own misfortunes. Isolated and feeble, 
 they have founded their hopes on memories of the ancient 
 union of their race or on dreams of its future. But these 
 hopes do not date from our century ; they were uttered long 
 ago by Slavs of all the various nations. As early as the 
 seventeenth century Krizanic, a Croat priest, went to beg for 
 the protection of the czar iVlexis Mikhailovitch for his people, 
 and made himself the interpreter of their needs. "The Slavs 
 of the Baltic, of Poland, Silesia, Bohemia, and Moravia," he 
 says in a curious work, "have fallen into a miserable state of 
 serfdom. They have Germanized themselves until they are 
 neither Slavs nor Germans. The peoples of the Danube have 
 lost their national language, and there is no Slav sovereign 
 except in Russia. It , is thou, therefore, O great czar, who 
 oughtest to watch over the Slavs, and, like a good father, take 
 care of thy scattered children. . . . God has given us thee, O 
 czar, that thou mayest come to the help of the Slavs of the 
 Danube, the Poles, and the Chekhs, to make them see the 
 oppression and humiliation which weigh them down. Thou 
 alone canst teach them how to avenge their nation and shake 
 off the German yoke which crushes them. The Slavs of the 
 Danube can do nothing of themselves ; a force outside them- 
 selves is needed to raise them once more on their feet, and 
 to make them to be counted once more among the nations." 
 
 Many other Slavs besides Krizanic, both before and after his 
 
 i
 
 PANSLAVISM. 503 
 
 time, have praised the greatness and the unity of their race, 
 and in their dreams of a united kingdom of the Slavs, the 
 Illyrians of Zagreb and the Chekhs of Prague only returned 
 once more to their old traditions. Their German and Magyar 
 enemies pretend that these dreams were not spontaneous, but 
 prompted from outside. This is a pure calumny. The Slav 
 movement of which we have traced the principal phases was 
 absolutely original, and the Russians, far from having helped 
 it, remained for a long time quite unaffected by it. What the 
 Slavs want above all things, and what they dream of to-day, is 
 to reach the full development of their national life and to 
 obtain complete recognition of all their ancient rights. If they 
 appeal to the greatness of their race, it i§ only by so doing 
 to oppose moral force to the greed of their neighbours. They 
 have no idea of throwing themselves into the arms of Russia. 
 Despair alone could lead them to such an extremity.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 FERDINAND IV. — AUSTRIA ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 
 (1835-1848). 
 
 The Staats-conferenz. 
 
 Francis died on the 2nd of March, 1835. He was regretted 
 by the people of Vienna. The memory of the many trials 
 they had passed through together and the genial manner of 
 the sovereign had attached them to his person. In the 
 provinces a report was spread that he had acquired a gigantic 
 fortune, and that he had left the whole of it to his subjects. 
 The opening of his will was, consequently, awaited with the 
 greatest impatience. The following lines, which deserve 
 quotation, were found in it : " To my subjects I bequeath my 
 love. I hope to be able to pray for them. I beg them to 
 show to my lawful successor all that fidelity and devotion 
 which they have shown to me. I thank all those public 
 officials who have served me well." Louis XIV. might have 
 spoken these words. Ferdinand IV., the successor of Francis, 
 was but ill fitted to bear the heavy burden of the monarchy. 
 He was very delicate and subject to attacks of epilepsy, and 
 was hardly capable of ruling himself When he was well he 
 possessed neither a clear mind nor a firm will, and he found 
 even the royal signature a piece of hard work. Metternich 
 retained all his influence. According to his partisans, Francis II. 
 had recommended him to his son as the best of his ministers. 
 " Do not meddle with the foundations of the political edifice,
 
 FEED IX AND IV. 505 
 
 alter nothing ; have full confidence in prince Metternich, my 
 best friend and most faithful adviser. Undertake nothing 
 without him." But Metternich could not take upon himself 
 to govern instead of the real sovereign, and it was soon needful 
 to organize a kind of regency. The czar Nicholas urgently 
 advised this measure during a visit which he paid to Teplitz, 
 in September, 1835. A council of regency was consequently 
 formed of Clam Martinitz, who was the emperor's aide-de-camp 
 and head of the military department of the council of state, 
 Metternich, minister of foreign affairs, Kolovrat, and the arch- 
 dukes Louis and Francis-Charles; these formed the Staats- 
 conferenz and were the real organs of executive power. Their 
 exact position was never determined ; chosen to govern until 
 the monarch should be restored to health, the regency was 
 always looked upon as a temporary arrangement ; but, in fact, 
 they exercised full power up to the time of Ferdinand's abdi- 
 cation. Their government has been accused of great want 
 of unity and a curious insensibility to the real wishes of the 
 nationalities, and there is no doubt most of the mistakes of 
 this period were due to them. 
 
 There were, however, a few liberal measures passed at the 
 beginning of this reign. On the accession of Ferdinand an 
 amnesty was granted to all political prisoners. A consul was 
 established in Servia, in spite of the fact that the young prin- 
 cipality owed its existence to an insurrection against legal 
 authority, and a treaty of navigation was entered into with 
 Greece, which was in the same position. Diplomatic relations 
 with Portugal were also resumed. At the same time the 
 cabinet of Vienna supported the Carlists in Spain against the 
 Christinos, and even sent them some small help in money. 
 The alliance between the three Northern powers still con- 
 tinued, the conduct of Austria towards Poland sufficiently 
 proving its existence.
 
 506 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. ' 
 
 Polish Affairs — Occupation of Cracow — The Galician Massacres 
 
 (1846). 
 
 By the treaties of 181 5 the town of Cracow had been con- 
 stituted an independent repubhc ; it had since become the 
 centre of conspiracy to the PoHsh patriots, and was looked 
 upon with suspicion by all the three Northern powers. In 
 183 1, the Russians had taken possession of it in order to 
 deprive the insurgents of one of their chief bases of operations, 
 but they had been obhged to evacuate it on the representations 
 of Austria, and the town remained the centre of disturbance 
 and the refuge of all the revolutionary Poles. At last the 
 three powers determined to interfere ; in the first instance 
 they contented themselves with demanding the expulsion of 
 all who had taken any part in the revolution of 1830, but in 
 1836 they resolved to occupy the town. This time it was 
 Austria who undertook to reduce the republic to order, and she 
 did so in spite of the repeated protests of both England and 
 France. This was the first step towards the final occupation. 
 
 Meantime the Poles of Galicia had begun to feel the 
 influence of those ideas of nationality and of revenge which 
 had been spread by refugees from the other districts of Poland. 
 The sympathies of the whole of liberal Europe had been 
 enlisted on the side of this oppressed race, and it would have 
 been difficult for Austria openly to have opposed these efforts 
 towards liberty on the part of Galicia. It was, however, found 
 possible to paralyse them by tactics similar to those which 
 had so often been successfully applied to Hungary — by making 
 use of the conflicting elements of society in the distnrbed dis- 
 tricts. The Polish szlachta, harsher towards the peasants than 
 even the Magyar nobility, had excited the intense hatred of 
 the people by the mode in which it had treated them and the 
 ignorance in which it had kept them. The government had 
 also largely contributed to the increase of ill-feeling between the 
 classes by its opposition to all agrarian reform, and its practice 
 of making the nobles its recruiting officers and its collectors of
 
 INSURRECTION IN POLAND. 507 
 
 taxes, while it left the task of redressing what abuses were re- 
 dressed to its own officials. It must also not be forgotten that 
 in the greater part of Galicia the peasants were not Poles, In 
 the whole of the eastern portion of the province most of them 
 are Ruthenians, and these men had far more to suffer from 
 the Galician magnates than the Polish peasants. They were 
 members of the Uniate Greek Church, and often had to 
 suffer from the fanaticism of their masters, who made them 
 pay a tax for permission to worship in their churches, or 
 farmed these buildings to Jews. Stadion, who was governor 
 of Galicia, knew of these grievances, and had taken careful note 
 of them. 
 
 The Galician nobles could not remain ignorant of the 
 claims which were to be raised against them, and in the diet 
 which met in 1843 at Lwow (Lemberg), though it was very 
 far from being a liberal diet, they had asked to be allowed to 
 consider the condition of the peasants. But the Austrian 
 government refused ; it was by no means anxious to put an 
 end to a state of things which allowed it to apply the old 
 maxim, Divide ut impe7-es. 
 
 Soon everything was prepared for a Polish rising in Galicia 
 and the duchy of Poznan, and on February 28, 1846, the 
 Austrian government announced that a plot had been dis- 
 covered, of which Cracow was the centre. Upon this the 
 Austrian general Collin proceeded to occupy the town with 
 about one thousand men and three cannons. For two days 
 the town seemed quiet, but on the 31st the people rose, the 
 senate and other officials of the republic resigned their 
 authority, and the Austrian troops were attacked by the Poles 
 and forced to retreat. On the 2nd of March, however, colonel 
 Benedek hastened from Lwow, and, with the help of the 
 peasants, beat the revolutionary committee and recovered the 
 town. Thus did Benedek, " the Falcon of the Vistula," 
 begin a career which was to end at Sadowa. The brief success 
 of the people of Cracow caused great terror at Vienna ; arrests 
 took place all over the empire, and especially in Galicia, and
 
 508 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 these prompt measures put a stop to the insurrection, which 
 otherwise would soon, no doubt, have reached Russian Poland. 
 The peasants were not inclined to take the side of their lords, 
 and either denounced them to government or themselves cap- 
 tured them and delivered them up to the authorities. A 
 regular peasant war broke out, and the circle of Tarnow was 
 wasted by murder, pillage, and conflagration. It has been 
 asserted that the Austrian government encouraged the mur- 
 derers by rewards, and that men employed in the custom- 
 houses and in the offices of the tax-collectors joined the peasants, 
 who declared that they pillaged and killed by order of the 
 emperor. Ferdinand of Este, a man of high position, told 
 the wife of a Pole who had been assassinated " that the death 
 of her husband had been a mistake ; it had been intended that 
 his brother should be killed." It was at this time that the 
 poet Ujejski wrote the hymn which is still popular in Poland, 
 ^' Z Dymem Pozarow'''' : "This song rises to Thee, O Lord, with 
 the smoke of our burning homes, with the blood of our 
 brothers ; it is a bitter cry, a groan from out of the depths. 
 Such prayers make the hair grow white ; the crown of thorns 
 has pierced our heads. O Lord ! Lord ! what is this that 
 time has brought us ? The mother is killed by her son, the 
 brother by the brother. Amongst us there are many Cains. 
 But, nevertheless, O Lord, these men are innocent ; they have 
 been led on by demons. Oh, punish the hand, and not the 
 sword that is blind !" 
 
 The peasants believed that the emperor would relieve 
 them henceforth from all their obligations to their lords, as the 
 reward of their devotion to him. Their hopes were but par- 
 tially fulfilled by the patent of April 13th, which abolished com- 
 pulsory cartage and forced labour during harvest, and decreed 
 that the peasants were in future to bring their grievances before 
 the captains of circles. It was in vain that the nobles pro- 
 tested against these changes, which had been made without 
 consulting them. 
 
 The town of Cracow remained in the hands of the Aus-
 
 OCCUPATION OF CRACOW. 509 
 
 trians. The foreign powers were told that its occupation was 
 a temporary measure for miUtary purposes ; that the Austrian 
 troops only remained there to enable the little republic to 
 establish a regular government. But before long Austria took 
 permanent possession of it, with the consent of Russia and 
 Prussia, and the government officials in those districts where 
 the peasant war had been carried on with most energy were 
 promoted. The Polish gentry were filled with despair, and some 
 of them, as is proved by a curious pamphlet, "The Letter 
 of a Polish Gentleman to Count Metternich," even thought of 
 throwing themselves into the arms of Panslavism. France 
 and England protested in vain. Austria was thus the first to 
 violate the treaties of 1815, of which for the last thirty years 
 she had been the self-constituted and intolerant guardian. 
 This territory is the only land acquired by Austria between 
 the Congress of Vienna and the Congress of Berlin ; it com- 
 prises about tw'enty-two square miles and 160,000 inhabitants. 
 The annexation of Cracow served to render closer than ever 
 the union of the three powers who were parties to it, and 
 other events soon helped to prove how close this union was. 
 For example, in 1832, when the king of the Belgians offered 
 the command of his army to the Polish general Skrzyniecki, 
 the courts of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, together recalled 
 their ambassadors from Brussels. 
 
 Yet in the time of Ferdinand, as in the time of Francis, it was 
 hard for Austria and Russia to agree about the Eastern question. 
 The Porte, enfeebled as it was at this time by the success of 
 its rebellious vassal, Mehemet Ali, seemed as if it might more 
 easily become the prey of Russia than of Austria, whose Eastern 
 policy had always been so blundering. Metternich determined, 
 unhappily, to assist the sultan against Mehemet Ali, and, 
 as a result of a conference held at Vienna, persuaded the 
 representative of the czar, Buteniev, to sign a collective note 
 of the European powers undertaking to support Turkey. 
 Buteniev believed himself secure of the czar's approval, but 
 instead Nicholas was much irritated, disavowed his am-
 
 5 I O HISTOR Y OF A USTRO-HUNGA R Y. 
 
 bassador, and proceeded to treat directly with England (July 
 15, 1840), without consulting Austria, who was obliged to 
 follow the lead of the two powers. They were soon joined 
 by Prussia. The peaceful France of the days of Louis 
 Philippe was excluded from the European concert. Mehemet 
 Ali was forced to restore the greater part of his conquests, 
 and Syria was taken from him by the help of the Austrian 
 squadron, Austria now for the first time taking rank among 
 the maritime powers of Europe. In the month of July follow- 
 ing, the treaty was signed which forebade entrance into the 
 Straits of Dardanelles to all ships of war unauthorized by the 
 sultan. 
 
 Progress of Public Opinion — The Bohemian Diet — Havlicek. 
 
 Poland and the East provided the only two questions of 
 importance which mark the foreign policy of Ferdinand IV. 
 The whole interest of his reign lies in the increasing rapidity 
 with which ideas of liberty and nationality spread among the 
 different races in the Austrian empire, and in the more or less 
 manifest excitement of the public mind, which was sure to land 
 the government in the midst of a revolution directly any great 
 event should suddenly shake Europe. 
 
 The various diets could not be regarded as much more 
 than mere exponents of official opinion. In Galicia they 
 were cowed ; in some of the provinces, such as Upper Austria, 
 Moravia, Silesia, and Carinthia, they were silent ; yet in Lower 
 Austria, Bohemia, and, above all, Hungary, they began to 
 manifest liberal tendencies even under the Gothic and feudal 
 forms which they still preserved. 
 
 In the diet of Lower Austria the citizens were not even 
 represented ; their only right was that of giving their assent, 
 standing, to the voting of the taxes. But, nevertheless, the 
 new ideas which had invaded the capital had their influence 
 on the decisions of that assembly. It showed a certain 
 amount of independence on economic questions ; vigorously 
 demanded that the diet should have some share in the
 
 STATE OF BOHEMIA. 51I 
 
 government, and blamed Francis II. for having reigned with- 
 out its help. Among the Tyrolese, on the contrary, clerical 
 and ultramontane ideas still prevailed ; public education was 
 almost entirely in the hands of the priests, and the popular 
 mind was occupied by missions and miracles. In 1837, the 
 Jesuits were recalled by the diet to this province, which they 
 had never dared to enter since the preceding century. The 
 Tyrolese obstinately refused to allow railways in their land. 
 
 In Bohemia the earlier debates in the diet gave evidence 
 of but little public energy. The Estates met on the 13th of April, 
 1835, and their first act was to vote a monument to Francis 
 II. They gradually, however, set to work to restore the old 
 parliamentary forms, which had strangely fallen into disuse 
 since the time of Joseph II., and the assembly busied itself with 
 reducing its privileges into an authoritative form, in order to 
 find out what belonged to them as a whole, and what belonged 
 to the permanent committee {^Landesatischuss, Zcmsky Vybor), 
 which had become an organ of mere government. These 
 attempts at independence were reprimanded by the emperor, 
 who expressed his displeasure at them on the 15th of October, 
 1842. New taxes were levied on the country by the Landes- 
 auschuss and the government, without the help of the diet, and 
 a serious dispute arose between Vienna and Prague. The high 
 burgrave of the kingdom, count Chotek, was dismissed, and 
 his post left vacant. In the hope of his being better able to 
 restrain the turbulent nobles, the archduke Stephen, son of the 
 palatine Joseph, was placed at the head of Bohemia ; but the 
 officials who were sent to assist him were foreigners, and they 
 were received with violent protests. The Estates demanded the 
 restoration of all the privileges secured to the diet in 1627, and 
 thus proclaimed the continuity of the old rights which had 
 been lost sight of since the end of the preceding century. 
 Unhappily, the claims of the Chekh nobles were limited by a 
 narrow spirit of caste ; they were selfish and jealous, defended 
 their feudal privileges to the uttermost, and showed but little 
 desire to admit the townspeople to their deliberations. Only
 
 5 1 2 HISTOR Y OF A VSTRO-HUNGA R V. 
 
 four royal towns were represented in the diet, which contained 
 fourteen bishops, one hundred and fifty-one lords, forty-three 
 knights, and only seven citizens. Still their disputes with the 
 sovereign prove that public opinion had made some progress. 
 In 1847, the leaders of the opposition in Bohemia determined 
 to come to an understanding with the diets of the other German 
 provinces, and with that of Hungary. When the year 1848 came, 
 all the desiderata of the diet were limited to demands for the 
 representation of towns in the parliament, and the use of the 
 Chekh language in the higher schools. The assembly had 
 grown almost powerless, because it was composed of the 
 privileged classes alone, and did not rest on the main body of 
 the people. But beneath this worn-out parliament there was 
 the people, who in the last half-century had made gigantic 
 progress, and who had made a successful beginning in the 
 direction of intellectual and moral emancipation before at- 
 tempting to emancipate themselves politically. 
 
 The new literary life of Bohemia, during the first forty 
 years of this century, had taken almost entirely the direction 
 of poetry and archaeology. But in a state like Austria, based 
 on historical rights, it was impossible but that the study of 
 history should have considerable influence on men's minds. 
 When they read the treaties concluded between the kingdom 
 and the princes of the house of Habsburg, patriots could not 
 lielp asking what had become of the various stipulations. The 
 events of the Thirty Years' War recalled the memory of rebel- 
 lions, prompted by generous motives, and stifled in blood. 
 The Hussite wars reminded them of a great epoch of moral 
 and intellectual development, of the abolition of liberty of 
 conscience, and of the religious heroism which for the space 
 of half a century had made a small people into a great 
 nation. The study of the national language and its ancient 
 literature caused a fatal reaction against Austrian Germanism. 
 
 The citizen class now began to take a pride in cultivating 
 the language it had formerly despised, and generous minds 
 found a wide field of action in national life, since political life
 
 HA VLICEK. 5 1 3 
 
 had no existence for them. Some few members of the aris- 
 tocracy joined the movement. The spirit of association, 
 appHed to purely Hterary matters, spread with astonishing 
 rapidity. The Matitsa Ceska (Society of Popular Literature) 
 became the centre of literary reform. It was founded in 1831 
 with fifteen members; by 1846 it had sixteen hundred and 
 sixty-seven. But the press is the real organ of political life, 
 and down to 1840 Bohemia had only possessed literary news- 
 papers. In 1846, Charles Havlicek, a man of great talent, 
 began to edit the Official Gazette of Prague. He united to 
 sincere patriotism a keen and biting wit, which occasionally 
 recalls that of Voltaire and Heinrich Heine. He well under- 
 stood that his country, in order to get on, must learn to do 
 without the governing classes and the feudal system, of which 
 the ruins still remained. He appealed directly to the towns- 
 people and peasants. When he first arrived in Prague there 
 was only one political paper, and that was in the hands of 
 government. But Havlicek found means to plead the cause 
 of his native land. He chose as the constant subject of his 
 articles a country whose fate resembled in more than one 
 particular that of Bohemia; he painted in lively colours the 
 woes of Ireland, and her struggles with England for self- 
 government. He was understood by the whole of Bohemia, 
 and the word " Repeal " became the watchword of the patriots. 
 Havlicek's position in Prague was much the same as that of 
 Kossuth in Pesth and Ljudevit Gaj at Zagreb. 
 
 The agitation which began in Prague spread as far as 
 Moravia, and even to the Slovaks of Hungary. It was not 
 only a political, but also a social and religious movement. 
 The patriots interested themselves less about the privileges 
 of the nobles than the wants of the peasants, who had so 
 faithfully guarded the treasures of the national language and 
 popular poetry, and they were the apostles of all measures 
 which had for their aim the amelioration of the condition of 
 the people. At the same time the memory of the Thirty Years' 
 War or of the Hussite War alone sufficed to make them 
 
 2 L
 
 514 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-IIU.VGARY. 
 
 hostile to the spirit of religious intolerance which still pre- 
 vailed in Vienna in official circles. 
 
 Public Opinion in Hungary — The Magyars and Slavism. 
 
 There are two opposite tendencies to be noticed in the 
 history of modern Hungary ; one the real and generous 
 patriotism which animates the Magyars and leads them to 
 make the greatest sacrifices for the maintenance of their 
 natural and acquired rights ; and the other the blind egotism 
 which prevents them from recognizing the same rights in 
 others. This double aspect of their character explains both 
 their triumphs and their reverses. 
 
 By the end of 1825 public opinion had made great pro- 
 gress in Hungary. Since the national language had acquired 
 the right to be spoken on the tribune, eloquent orators had 
 become numerous. The opposition was far bolder in its 
 attacks on government than was the case either at Vienna 
 or Prague. Wesselenyi, Deak, Szechenyi, Boethy, Kossuth, 
 Eotvd, and Tel^ki, rivalled the political speakers of London 
 and Paris, and these eminent men added a real knowledge 
 of the wants of the nation to their ardent patriotism. The 
 session of 1836 was one of the most remarkable; in it the 
 opposition vigorously attacked the government for its attempts 
 to place hindrances in the way of popular education. " In 
 future the nation must depend upon itself alone," cried Deak 
 and Beszeredy. " We have the right and we have the power," 
 added the latter, " to work out the salvation of our country 
 for ourselves." When the diet was closed, Kossuth undertook 
 to supply public opinion with a regular account of all the de- 
 liberations of the various comitats, and for this he and some 
 of his friends were arrested and thrown into prison. The 
 Royal Table, the supreme court of justice, sided with the con- 
 servative government, but liberal ideas gained ground daily 
 among the young nobles, some among whom went so far as 
 to declare themselves republicans. 
 
 When the diet met again in 1840, the government
 
 ALEXANDER PETOFI. 515 
 
 offered to set free the political prisoners in return for some con- 
 cessions from the opposition. Deak, who from this time began 
 to be called " the Wise," refused the offer in a noble speech. 
 " Our duty to our country," he said, " is greater and holier 
 than our sympathies for our friends. Liberty gained at such 
 a price would be more painful to them than all their suffer- 
 ings." An amnesty was temporarily concluded between the 
 parties. Government obtained the soldiers it wanted, and agreed 
 that the Magyar language should be introduced into financial 
 and church matters, and used in all communications with the 
 court. The diet also gave its final consent to the measures 
 for the redemption of land by the peasants which had been 
 introduced in the previous assembly. After 1840 democratic 
 ideas gained ground rapidly. Kossuth started the Pesth 
 Gazette {Festi-Hirlap), which advocated the doctrines of equality 
 in eloquent terms ; and in some of the comitats something very 
 like revolutionary clubs began to spring up. And yet social 
 progress was slow \ and the law^ for taxing all citizens alike, 
 which was proposed to the diet in 1843, notwithstanding all 
 the efforts of Szechenzi, failed to pass. 
 
 It was now that Alexander Petofi, a young poet born 
 among the people, began to publish his ardent odes, inspired 
 by an intense love for his country and an unbridled passion 
 for liberty. " In times of old, Hungary was a sea in which 
 were extinguished the stars which fell from the north, the east, 
 and the south. The glory of Hungary is like the comet which 
 disappears, and at the end of centuries returns shining and 
 terrible." Another poet, Vorosmarty, who was more of a con- 
 servative than Petofi, exclaims in his famous " Szozat" ("The 
 Appeal "), " My people wishes for either life or death ; it 
 has suffered for a thousand years, and if death must come it 
 will be buried in a land bathed in blood." Arany, Kisfaludy, 
 and others also roused patriotic feeling by their poems on the 
 past history of Hungary. 
 
 " We must form the nation anew out of fresh elements," 
 wrote Kossuth in his paper ; and yet, strangely enough, one of
 
 5l6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 the strongest complaints against the government among the 
 patriots was the progress of Slavism among the Croats and 
 Slovaks ; their selfishness led them to blame in others the 
 very aspirations which they honoured among themselves. It 
 was they who, together with the Polish refugees and the 
 Germans, invented the red spectre of Panslavism in order to 
 supply themselves with a reason for fighting it, and for per- 
 secuting their Servian, Slovak, and Croat fellow-countrymen. 
 It was by no means the interest of Austria to create a state 
 of things which might turn to the advantage of Russia • and 
 yet, with the possibility before it of a struggle with the 
 Magyars, it could not lend its aid to crush the peoples 
 who simply claimed a right to exist. Nothing, however, 
 could have been less wise than the efforts of government to 
 thwart liberty, trade, and commerce among the Hungarians. 
 At one time they hoped to put an end to Hungarian obstinacy 
 by attacking the freedom of the country at its very source, the 
 institution of the comitats. The foispan, or chief count, was 
 often a great noble, who, away for part of the year, appointed 
 an alispan, or administrator, to act for him during his absence. 
 The chancellor, Apponyi, replaced \\\t's,& foispanak dwelling in 
 the country by royal officials. But this attack on the ancient 
 privilege of self-government roused the greatest irritation 
 throughout the land ; the new officials were compared to the 
 captains of Austrian circles {Kreis-Hanptmcinfier) and to French 
 prefects, and such language was considered the height of abuse 
 in the parliament of Pozsony (Pressburg). But the comparison 
 was unjust, for these administrators possessed unlimited power, 
 and did not depend on responsible ministers as do the French 
 prefects. Some among them were guilty of acts of unjustifiable 
 violence. The task of the new officials was made extremely 
 difficult by the obstinate patriotism and the love of legality 
 which has always characterized the Hungarians. Deak, at Zala, 
 was one of the first to organize a resistance to them. Follow- 
 ing ancient precedent, he wrote to all the comitats of the king- 
 dom, and got them to vote that the appointment of these
 
 DEAR'S PROCLAMATION. 517 
 
 royal commissioners was illegal, and that the diet should 
 decide what should be done about them before proceeding 
 to any other business. 
 
 The diet of 1847 opened in tolerable quiet, although 
 Kossuth, in spite of government opposition, had been elected 
 at Pesth. The emperor and his family were present at the 
 first debate, and showed an affection for the Magyar language 
 which touched the hearts of the patriots. The palatine Joseph 
 had died recently in the enjoyment of great popularity, and 
 his son Stephen was now chosen palatine in his stead. The 
 debate on the speech from the throne gave rise to animated 
 discussion. The opposition was anxious first of all to secure 
 the autonomy of the co?nitats by depriving the crown of its 
 power of appointing the royal administrators ; the upper 
 chamber wished to treat the king more courteously. It was 
 finally decided that there should be no reply to the king's 
 speech. While Kossuth inflamed men's minds by his 
 eloquence, Szechenyi did his best to keep his countrymen in 
 the paths of law and moderation. 
 
 The opposition programme drawn up by Deak, who had 
 received from his countrymen the name of "the Wise," clearly 
 describes the position of the kingdom towards the rest of the 
 empire. 
 
 " Hungary," says this remarkable document, " is a free 
 country, independent in its whole system of legislation and 
 administration ; it is subordinate to no other country. '\\'e 
 have no wish to oppose the interests of our country to the 
 unity of the monarchy or the security of its existence. But 
 we consider that it is contrary to law and justice that the 
 interests of Hungary should be made subordinate to those of 
 any country whatsoever. . . . We will never consent that they 
 shall be sacrificed to the unity of the system of government. 
 . . . Our constitutional life is a treasure which we cannot 
 sacrifice either to foreign interests or to material advantages, 
 howsoever great. Our first duty is to preserve and strengthen 
 It. \Ve are convinced that if the Hereditary Provinces were
 
 5 1 8 HISTOR Y OF A USTRO-HUNGAR Y. 
 
 now in the enjoyment of their ancient freedom, or if, in 
 obedience to the needs of the time and of justice, they could 
 take their place among constitutional governments, our 
 interests and theirs, which are now so often divided, and 
 even at times opposed, would be found to agree more easily. 
 . . . The monarchy, growing in both material and intellectual 
 strength, would be able to resist more surely those storms 
 which time and the course of events may some day bring." 
 
 Men's minds were also passionately excited about the 
 language to be used by government. A bill was submitted 
 for the royal sanction containing the following proposals : — 
 Magyar shall in future be the official language of the king- 
 dom ; documents written in any other shall not be legal. 
 In the Slav comitats of Pozega, Virovitica, and Syrmia, Latin 
 shall be tolerated for the next six years; Croatia must use 
 Magyar in all its communications with the central govern- 
 ment ; and this language shall be taught in all schools through- 
 out the kingdom. Hungarian publicists meant to imitate the 
 example of France, which had made the dialect of the capital 
 take the place of patois and of all the provincial dialects ; but 
 they forgot that Magyar was not yet so cultivated a language as 
 French, and that those who spoke it were only a minority in 
 the kingdom. The French of Paris had only had to absorb 
 and master similar dialects, just as Castilian has overcome 
 other dialects in Spain and Tuscan in Italy, Such alien 
 languages as survived, as the Basque, Bas-Breton, and the 
 German of Alsace, were only spoken by minorities. Besides, 
 France was a country where centralization had long prevailed, 
 where provincial autonomy had long ceased, and where, finally, 
 the French revolution had come to fuse the various historical 
 elements into one whole. The example of France was, there- 
 fore, scarcely to the point.
 
 STATE OF CROATIA. 519 
 
 The Races in Hungary. 
 
 The moment has now come in which we may usefully 
 recall how Hungary had been formed, and what elements 
 were grouped around the Magyars hostile to their supremacy. 
 
 Croatia had been annexed to Hungary for many centuries, 
 but formed no integral part of it. With the provinces of 
 Slavonia and Dalmatia, it looked upon itself as a threefold 
 kingdom {Troj'Jedina Kraljevimi), whose capital was Zagreb 
 (Agram). But, in fact, Dalmatia was a separate province, 
 since Austria had captured it from the Venetians, and had 
 always refused to give it up either to the Hungarians or to the 
 Croats. At the head of Croatia and Slavonia there was a high 
 official called the ban, who was a viceroy invested with 
 civil and military power, and with the right of summoning 
 the diet or general assembly. This was composed by the 
 orders of the comitats of Croatia (Varazdin, Krizevac, and 
 Zagreb) and the delegates of the three Slavonian comitats of 
 whom we have already spoken. In its turn this diet sent into 
 Hungary one deputy to the Table of Magnates and two to the 
 Table of Estates, The four free towns of Croatia were also 
 represented in the Table of Estates, and a certain number of 
 Croat and Slavonian magnates had seats in their own right in 
 the upper house. The diet of Agram reserved to itself the 
 right of sanctioning the laws voted at Pressburg. The link 
 which united Croatia to Hungary was ill-defined. Hungary 
 looked upon Croatia as a conquered land, but Croatia con- 
 sidered that no tie but a personal one bound her to Hungary, 
 and she never forgot that the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VI. 
 had been voted by Croatia before it was voted by Hungary. 
 As long as Latin had been the language in use between the two 
 states there had been no antagonism ; but the struggle began 
 the moment that the Magyars tried to force the Magyar language 
 into use, and the Croats, throwing off Latin, succeeded in creating 
 an independent literature of their own. We have already seen 
 what were the character and influence of this literature.
 
 520 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 The Illyrian or Jougo-Slav movement could not but be 
 disagreeable to the Magyars, but they made a great mistake 
 when they opposed it, pretending to see in it the hand of 
 Russia, and denouncing it as the work of a Panslavist move- 
 ement which had no existence in reality. They paid dearly 
 for their blindness. 
 
 The grievances of the Servians were still more serious than 
 those of the Croats. In 1792, the Magyars had had the Illyrian 
 chancery done away with, and the Servians, looked upon with 
 suspicion, were deprived of all political employment, and only 
 allowed to occupy public positions in the camp or in mon- 
 asteries. The emancipation of their relatives who had risen 
 against the Turks under Milosh Obrenovitch, and had formed 
 themselves into an independent principality, had helped to 
 rouse their patriotism, and as early as 1826 they had founded 
 a literary society at Pesth called the Matitsa^ which served as 
 a model for a number of similar institutions in the Slav 
 countries. 
 
 The military frontier was chiefly inhabited by Slavs and 
 Roumanians who were subject, as we have already seen, to a 
 separate form of government, and were ready, either out of an 
 instinct of military obedience to the claims of the dynasty, or 
 out of a feehng of patriotism, to join in the demands of their 
 Slav or Roumanian fellow-countrymen. 
 
 In the northern comitats the Slovaks had long been treated 
 as if they were Helots. '•'■ Toth ember nem ember" ("The 
 Slovak man is not a man "), said the Magyar proverb. But the 
 Slovaks could not remain indifferent to the movement which 
 stirred Bohemia. Two of its best writers, Safarik, the author 
 of " Slav Antiquities," and Kollar, the poet of Panslavism, were 
 both Slovaks. They hoped to be able to create a national 
 literature apart from that of Bohemia. Stur, Hodza, and 
 Urban, all men of ability, were at the head of the movement, 
 which claimed a place for their race among civilized nations, 
 and from the year 1843 they sent up their claims to the courts 
 of Vienna with energy, but with no effect. Their neighbours,
 
 TRANS YL VANIA. 5 2 I 
 
 the Ruthenians, or Little Russians, began also to awake under 
 the influence of the Slav movement. 
 
 Ever since its re-annexation in 1699 the principality of 
 Transylvania had been governed directly from Vienna, but had 
 had a diet of its own which sat at Kolosvar (Klausenburg). 
 There was a Transylvanian chancery at Vienna and a Giibernium 
 regium at Szeben (Hermannstadt). In this province, as in all the 
 rest of the kingdom of St. Stephen, with the exception of 
 Croatia and the purely Magyar lands, the majority of the 
 nation was crushed by the ruling minority. The Hungarians 
 who numbered 500,000, the Szeklers who were 170,000, and 
 the Saxons who were 300,000, were all represented in the diet, 
 where the 1,250,000 Wallachians had not a single representa- 
 tive ; but the time was not far off when these Wallachians were 
 to claim their political rights. In 1834, the Magyar deputies 
 in the diet of Transylvania uttered words bolder perhaps even 
 than those used by their colleagues at Pozsony. " We are here 
 as the representatives of a free people !" exclaimed Charles 
 Huszar. "Who is above us? No one. In front of us there 
 is the sovereign, but above us, I repeat, there is no one." 
 Wesselenyi himself undertook to print a report of the stormy 
 discussions, in defiance of the censorship of the press. The 
 emperor Ferdinand dissolved the assembly angrily, while the 
 Hungarians, on their side, continued their demand that the 
 principality should be reunited to the mother-country from 
 which it had been so long separated. There was no want of 
 pretexts for a quarrel ; the slightest breath of revolution would 
 suffice to kindle the flames of discord in the Magyar Orszag. 
 
 Ptiblic Opinion ifi Vienna. 
 
 In Vienna also liberal opinions began to be heard ; 
 popular education had made progress, in spite of all the 
 hindrances put in its way by government ; bureaucracy had 
 become the object of hatred to the people, and all the internal 
 miseries of the empire were attributed to it. Metternich, too, 
 was growing old, and since the difficulties in the East had
 
 522 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 shown himself weary of his post. Down to 1830, Vienna 
 had been a luxurious and indolent city, devoting itself to 
 music and sensual pleasure — the Capua of the mind, as it had 
 been called by the Viennese poet, Grillparzer. But gradually 
 the minds of the people had been awakened, in spite of the 
 detestable system of education which prevailed even in the 
 higher schools, the sole result of which was to teach boys how 
 to read Latin but indifferently. The number of distinguished 
 men produced by Austria during this period is certainly very 
 small; a Karajan, a Ferdinand Wolf, Hammer-Purgstall the 
 orientalist, and a i^vj doctors. Palacky and Safarik cannot be 
 counted in the list because, though they occasionally wrote in 
 German, they belong to the race of the Slavs and are com- 
 pletely Slav in feeling. In literature, properly so called, with 
 the exception of a few Viennese song-writers who composed 
 in the dialect of the capital, only three names can be quoted 
 — Grillparzer, the author of " Die Ahnfrau," who belonged to 
 the romantic school without knowing it ; the lyric poet Anthony 
 Auersperg, better known as Anastasius Griin ; and the elegant 
 writer Lenau. But not one among them can be considered a 
 man of genius. In his "Walks of a Viennese Poet," Anastasius 
 Griin gave the emperor some wise though useless advice. He 
 says, "Open thy heart to thy people. Give them weapons 
 bright and steel-pointed, the right to speak and to write freely \ 
 give them gold pure and unalloyed, liberty under the protection 
 of law. Thy people would become as rich as the soil of 
 Austria had it only liberty." 
 
 In 1847, the Academy of Sciences at Vienna was founded 
 by Ferdinand ; it is now one of the most flourishing in Europe. 
 In order to gain some literary credit for Austria in foreign 
 countries, the government supported the Viennese Literary 
 Review (" Wietier Jahrhi/cher der Literatur"), the only publi- 
 cation which never had to complain of the censors, and that 
 because it was edited in great measure by them. Up to 
 1848, the censorship of the press was the greatest scourge to 
 the country ; its power had never been defined by any law.
 
 CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS. 523 
 
 The contraband sale of books, however, proved an antidote 
 to it, and was largely carried on, prohibition only exciting 
 public curiosity, and calling attention to the forbidden fruit. 
 Pamphlets introduced in this way made up for the silence of 
 the press. It was quite evident to any attentive observer that 
 the people which had been so long kept down would rise 
 at the first opportunity, and must commit grave mistakes when 
 first they were called upon to enjoy the liberty of which they 
 had been so long deprived.
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. 
 
 Fall of Metternich — The First Ausirian Constitution. 
 
 No country has so tangled a history to offer us of any period 
 of its existence as Austria during the years 1848-49. In a 
 united country revolution has but one centre towards which 
 all the provincial movements gravitate ; but here we have to 
 follow popular risings in Vienna, Venice, Pesth, Prague, 
 Zagreb (Agram), and Lwow (Lemberg), all at the same time. 
 Within this empire three great races felt simultaneously the 
 sudden shock, and rushed towards liberty by three different and 
 opposite paths, and their various interests and old rivalries led 
 to conflicts among themselves, which rendered their generous 
 efforts of no avail and for a long time destroyed their hopes. 
 
 If ever sovereign was unfit to hold his own against the 
 passions of the populace, assuredly Ferdinand IV., surnamed 
 the Beneficent, was he. The news of the 24th of February 
 struck him and his councillors like a thunder-clap. Austria 
 was not now, as in 1830, separated from revolutionary France 
 by a reactionary Germany. The German princes, either 
 affected by the current or overwhelmed by it, were granting 
 constitutions on all sides to their subjects, whether those 
 subjects were in revolt or not, and the new ideas which came 
 from Paris were passed on to Vienna by Germany herself 
 
 On the nth of March, an address was presented in the 
 diet of Lower Austria which demanded the immediate publi-
 
 FALL OF METTERNICH. 525 
 
 cation of the budget ; the convocation at regular intervals of 
 an assembly composed, not only of the privileged orders, 
 but of representatives of all classes of the community ; the 
 liberty of the press ; the publicity of courts of justice ; and 
 new municipal and communal institutions. Two days later 
 the students of the university went in procession to carry this 
 petition to the Estates, and the troops tried to disperse them 
 in vain. The crowd, with cries of " Down with Metternich ! " 
 burned the house of the man who had so long controlled 
 the destinies of the empire, and the diet itself demanded the 
 dismissal of the chancellor. He quitted the town in a washer- 
 woman's cart and fled to England. 
 
 " The last beam of the old system has given way ; or, to 
 speak more respectfully of so experienced a statesman, prince 
 Metternich has been compelled to retire from a contest which 
 he can no longer wage with the world, or even with the public 
 opinion of the pacific inhabitants of Lower Austria. . . . 
 
 " Indeed, whilst the changes and perils of the most extra- 
 ordinary half-century in the history of mankind have rolled to 
 and fro upon the tides of time, the spectacle of that old man, 
 whose reign commenced when our fathers were still young 
 men, seated in immutable decrepitude at his wonted seat, 
 seemed the sole remaining thing of an age that is past, and 
 was itself the empire in the eyes of a younger race. That, too, 
 is gone — the oldest minister of the oldest court has been 
 driven from office — even the cabinet of Austria must be 
 renewed. . . ; After forty years of this unlimited sway he leaves 
 an empire by so much in arrear of the rest of Europe — im- 
 poverished in its finances — divided in its provinces — and not 
 obscurely threatened in its most important possessions. . . ." 
 (The Times, Monday, March 21, 1848. First leader.) 
 
 The emperor found himself obliged to authorize the arming 
 of the students, and their formation into a regiment, and the 
 establishment of the national guard. He invited the various 
 provinces of the empire to send delegates to Vienna on the 
 following 3rd of July, and announced the suppression of the
 
 526 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 censorship of the press and the publication of a liberal press 
 law; but at the same time he ordered a state of siege to be 
 proclaimed by Windischgratz. His promises of reform were 
 believed, and Vienna was illuminated. Kolovrat was named 
 president of the council, and count Ficquelmont minister of 
 the interior. On the ist of April, Ficquelmont became head 
 of the cabinet. Little confidence was felt in this pupil of 
 Metternich, but he seemed to be in earnest in playing his part 
 as a reforming minister, and it was he who prepared the con- 
 stitution which was published on the following 25th of April. 
 It was mainly copied from the Belgian Charter, and it paid no 
 attention to the peculiar construction of the Austrian empire, 
 and the conflict between the various historical rights and 
 nationalities. It left out Lombardy and Hungary, and 
 established two houses — a senate composed of the princes 
 of the royal family, members nominated for life by the sove- 
 reign, and the owners of large landed estates ; and a lower 
 house, or chamber of deputies, which was to contain three 
 hundred and eighty-three elected members. This consti- 
 tution also secured what have been called the three neces- 
 sary liberties — liberty of conscience, liberty of the press, and 
 the right of public meeting. It paid no attention to the 
 various races, nor to the engagements so lately entered into 
 by the emperor with Bohemia (8th of April). This charter 
 was proclaimed with great pomp, but it did not succeed in 
 calming the distrust which was felt towards Ficquelmont ; 
 a popular rising on the 4th of May obliged him to give in his 
 resignation, and he was replaced by Pillersdorf. This minister 
 drew up an electoral law, which carefully excluded all the 
 working-classes. Public excitement increased in Vienna, and 
 the emperor seemed inclined to give way, for on the 16th of 
 May he agreed to the establishment of one chamber to be 
 elected by universal suffrage. The next day, however, he 
 left Vienna and fled to Innsbruck. The inhabitants of the 
 capital were both surprised and puzzled by this flight of the 
 sovereign ; they were still too much influenced by old ideas
 
 CONCESSIONS TO BOHEMIA. 527 
 
 about the monarchy to venture to possess themselves of the 
 administrative. Besides, the various nationaUties which made 
 up the empire were not wiUing to follow the lead of the capital 
 like the people of most other countries. There were a few 
 barricades erected and a few lives lost, but on the whole the 
 emperor's rule may be said to have remained unquestioned. 
 
 Pillersdorf remained at his post, and the archduke John 
 was empowered to form a ministry at Vienna. He chose 
 one of slightly more liberal opinions than the preceding one, 
 having Doblhofif as minister of the interior, and Alexander 
 Bach as minister of justice. By the beginning of July, the 
 delegates from the states which were to be represented in the 
 parliament began to arrive; but, meantime, events had 
 occurred in the provinces which left no doubt that this 
 assembly was not destined to play an important part or to 
 restore peace to Austria, now shaken to her very foundations. 
 
 Concessions to Bohemia — Palacky and the Frankfort 
 Farliafnent. 
 
 In Bohemia the revolution broke out two days earlier than 
 in Vienna. The signal had been given by a liberal club, which 
 bore the significant name of Repeal. A meeting was held on 
 the nth of March, in the Baths of St. Vacslav, when a petition 
 was drawn up which demanded that Moravia and Silesia should 
 be united to Bohemia under one administration, that the position 
 of the peasants should be improved, and also public education. 
 These were very moderate demands, but the news of the rising in 
 Vienna soon made the Bohemian patriots bolder. The Chekh 
 students formed themselves into a regiment ; a committee 
 which called itself the Petition Committee sat continually, and 
 national life developed in all manner of ways with unexpected 
 vigour. Soon a second petition was drawn up, which called 
 for the reconstitution of the kingdom of Bohemia, with one 
 single and central diet meeting at Prague, the appointment of 
 a responsible ministry for the country of St. Vacslav, and the 
 recognition of equal rights (gleich-berechtigung) for the Bohemian
 
 528 HISTORY OF AUST^O-HUNGARY. 
 
 and German races. A deputation went to Vienna to represent 
 the wishes of the Chekhs, and was not unfavourably received. 
 The question of the annexation of Moravia and Silesia was 
 adjourned to the meeting of the central parliament, but the 
 government guaranteed the equality of the two races, promised 
 to convoke a diet for the kingdom based on universal suffrage, 
 and offered to pass a certain number of laws giving them 
 control over their own aflfairs (April 8th). A national com- 
 mittee was appointed to prepare these measures of reform ; 
 but the autonomy of Bohemia, however restricted, by no means 
 pleased the Germans at Vienna, who meant to remain at the 
 head of the empire, nor the Hungarians, who were at constant 
 variance with the Slavs and terrified by the mere idea of Pan- 
 slavism. Still less did it satisfy the Germans within Bohemia, who 
 maintained that the kingdom belonged to Germany by virtue of 
 the treaty of Vienna and ancient right, and who looked forward 
 to its forming one of the columns of their great German empire. 
 The committee of fifty, which met at Frankfort, to prepare for 
 the convocation of the German parliament, had invited Palacky 
 to take part in their deliberations, and the national historian 
 replied by a celebrated letter which clearly explains the situa- 
 tion of Bohemia and Austria as regarded the new Germany. 
 
 " The aim which you propose to yourselves," said Palacky, 
 " is the substitution of a federation of peoples for the old federa- 
 tion of princes, to unite the German nation in a real union, to 
 strengthen the sentiment of German nationality, to secure the 
 greatness of Germany within and without. I honour your 
 efforts and the feelings by which you are inspired, but at the 
 same time I cannot share them. I am not a German, or at 
 least I do not feel as if I were one, and, assuredly, you have 
 no wish that I should join you merely as a supernumerary, with 
 neither opinion nor wish of my own. ... I am a Chekh, of 
 Slav origin, and whatever I am worth is at the service of my 
 country. It is true that my nation is small, but from the be- 
 ginning it has possessed an historical individuality. Its princes 
 have acted in concert with the German princes, but the people
 
 SLAV CONGRESS AT PRAGUE. 529 
 
 itself has never been considered German. . . . Besides, you wish 
 to enfeeble Austria for ever, to make it impossible for her to 
 exist as an independent nation. Now, the maintenance of the 
 integrity and the development of Austria is of vast importance, 
 not only to my people, but to the whole of Europe, to civiliza- 
 tion, and the human race." 
 
 The Germans have never forgiven the Chekh historian for 
 declaring that he did not belong to their race. Pillersdorf was 
 either less Austrian in feeling than Palacky or else understood 
 the interests of the monarchy differently, for he gave orders that 
 the elections for the parliament at Frankfort should be pro- 
 ceeded with. The Bohemian Germans wished to obey, the 
 Chekhs energetically refused ; hence arose disputes which led 
 to grave disturbances and to an acute crisis between the two 
 races who unequally divided Bohemia between them. 
 
 The Slav Congress at Prague. 
 When the Austrian constitution was published on the 25th 
 of April, popular irritation rose to its height, for no reference 
 was made in it to the engagements entered into by the govern- 
 ment with Bohemia only a few days before. On the flight of 
 the emperor to Innsbriick, the Chekhs, not wishing to obey his 
 ministers, had appointed a sort of provisional government, a 
 " Lieutenant's Council," to aid the imperial lieutenant, count Leo 
 Thun ; and when Leo Thun summoned the diet of the kingdom, 
 some of the most illustrious of the patriots joined together in 
 convoking a Slav congress at Prague. It was the counterpart 
 of the German parliament at Frankfort. The Slavs from all 
 parts of the monarchy met there for the first time in common 
 action. The proclamation of the committee was signed, 
 among others, by Safarik, Mathias Thun, Rieger, Miklosich, 
 and Lubomirski, and ran as follows : " Brothers, who has not 
 looked on the past history of our race with sorrow? Who 
 does not know that our sufferings have been the result of the 
 ignorance in which we have all remained, of our quarrels, and 
 of our scattered position ? After centuries of misery we have 
 
 2 Vi
 
 530 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 at last become aware of our unity, our responsibility for each 
 other." The congress was divided into three sections — the 
 Chekh (Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovak territory), the Polish- 
 Ruthenian, and the Croats and Servians. What are the rela- 
 tions of the Slavs of Austria among themselves? What are 
 their relations with the Germans, the Magyars, and the Slavs 
 under Turkish rule ? What ought to be their attitude towards 
 other nations and towards the parliament of Frankfort? On 
 what conditions would it be possible to form Austria into a 
 Federal State ? Ought the decisions of the German congress 
 at Frankfort to be accepted by the Slav countries of Austria ? — 
 such were the questions which the congress had to consider. 
 
 It was also proposed to address a manifesto to the nations 
 of Europe which should make them acquainted with the 
 opinions of a race which had been hitherto too little con- 
 sidered, and which was known almost entirely in foreign lands 
 through the calumnies of its enemies. The number of Chekh, 
 Moravian, and Slovak delegates was two hundred and thirty- 
 seven ; of Poles and Ruthenians forty-one ; of Croats and Ser- 
 vians forty-two. Unfortunately, while the congress was occupied 
 with its peaceable discussions a riot broke out at Prague. The 
 cause of this riot has always remained unknown, and the Hun- 
 garians, who were anxious, at any cost, to bring about the 
 failure of the congress, have been accused of having excited it. 
 However that may be, shots were exchanged between the 
 students and the soldiers on the 12th of June; the wife of 
 prince Windischgratz, the military commandant, was killed in 
 her own house ; barricades were raised, and the commando, 
 firmly established in the higher part of the town, in which 
 stands the well-known fortress of Prague (Hradschin or 
 Hradcany), bombarded the lower town, which surrendered 
 at discretion. The congress was dissolved and Prague pro- 
 claimed to be in a state of siege. Councils of war sat 
 continually, and the diet of the kingdom was not convoked. 
 Very soon after this the elections for the assembly at Vienna 
 took place, and the Germans in Bohemia sent as their repre-
 
 G ALICIA AND ITALY, 53 I 
 
 sentatives those amongst their compatriots who were known to 
 be most opposed to Slav interests. They were thinking more 
 of a greater Germany than of Austria, and seemed to consider 
 every effort of the Chekhs to arrive at poHtical freedom as 
 directed against themselves. On their side the Chekhs elected 
 those among their fellow-citizens who had taken the largest part 
 in the national movement. They reached Vienna, determined 
 to claim constitutional liberty, to preserve the integrity of the 
 empire, which was threatened alike by Germans and Hun- 
 garians, and to obtain the widest powers of self-government 
 possible for their native land. The Germans of Bohemia, on 
 the contrary, turned their eyes towards Frankfort, and would 
 have willingly given up one half the kingdom to the Hungarians 
 if by so doing they could have secured a dominant position in 
 the other. 
 
 Galicia and Italy. 
 
 Galicia had not remained unaffected by the revolution in 
 March. The Poles of Lwdw (Lemberg) had quite early sent 
 in their demands to government. They did not ask to be 
 separated from Austria ; they were willing to remain united to 
 the monarchy ; but they asked that unpopular officials should 
 be dismissed, that the secret police should be suppressed, that 
 the administration should be carried on by natives, and that 
 the Polish regiments should not be required to leave Galicia. 
 The Galician nobles dared do nothing, restrained as they were 
 by their fears both of Russia and of the peasants. But the 
 minds of the people were excited by political refugees who had 
 returned to the country ; a kind of provisional government was 
 formed in Cracow, and on the 26th of April an insurrection 
 broke out, to be quickly put down by a bombardment. A (ew 
 days before, Stadion, who was the governor, had proclaimed 
 the final suppression of all forced labour, and had thus deprived 
 the nobles of the credit of a measure which they had, however, 
 had the good sense to propose ; and by granting the wishes of 
 the Ruthenians, who had demanded that their nation should
 
 532 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 be put upon an equality with the PoHsh nation and the clergy of 
 the Uniate Greek Church made equal to those of the Catholic 
 Church, he cleverly put a stop to the complaints of the Poles, 
 and made the Austrian government take up the position of 
 arbitrator, a position which doubled both its moral and 
 material power in the old Polish province. From this time 
 Galicia gave Austria no more trouble. 
 
 Before passing on to Hungary, let us briefly recall the events 
 which had taken place in Italy. Milan had risen on the 1 9th 
 of March ; it had been abandoned by Radetzky on the 22nd. 
 The Austrians had been also driven out of Venice, Brescia, and 
 Bergamo. On the 6th of April, Charles Albert, king of Pied- 
 mont, had declared war on Ferdinand IV. After an able cam- 
 paign, Radetsky had reoccupied Lombardy (August 3-10). 
 "Austria is to be found in thy camp alone," said the Viennese 
 poet Grillparzer to Radetsky in his celebrated verses. "We 
 others are but lonely ruins." A long series of wars was needed 
 before these lonely ruins could be restored to that condition 
 of apparent union in which for more than half a century they 
 had been held by the force of absolute power.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION. 
 
 The First Hungarian Ministry — The i^th of March — The 
 Croats and Servians. 
 
 As early as the 3rd of March Kossuth had persuaded the 
 chamber of deputies at Pozsony (Pressburg) to vote an address 
 demanding the appointment of a responsible ministry. The 
 upper chamber was more timid, and had refused to join in 
 this vote; but the news of the disturbances in Vienna 
 emboldened men's minds, and on the 15th the address was 
 sent up to Vienna. In it a whole series of radical measures 
 were proposed — the reform of public education, religious 
 equality, trial by jury, the liberty of the press, annual con- 
 vocation of the diet, union of Transylvania with Hungary, 
 participation of the nobles in the taxes, and the abolition 
 of forced labour and of all other feudal dues on payment 
 of compensation by government to those who would suffer 
 from this law. But whilst these resolutions were being passed 
 at Pozsony an event took place at Pesth which may be con- 
 sidered the first symptom of the Hungarian revolution. A 
 number of young men, among whom were the well-known 
 poet Petofi, the novelist Jokai, and Vasvary the stormy and 
 popular speaker, got possession of a printing-press, and, in 
 defiance of the censorship of the press, had the famous pro- 
 gramme of the 15th of March printed. This programme was 
 divided into twelve sections, and demanded the greater number
 
 534 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 of those liberal measures which had just been voted at Pozsony ; 
 but besides these it also asked that the diet should meet 
 annually at Pesth, that the ministers should reside in that 
 town, that a national guard and an Hungarian bank should 
 be established, and that all political prisoners should be set 
 at liberty. The emperor-king yielded to the demand of the 
 diet, and the palatine called upon count Bathyany to form 
 the first Hungarian ministry. He made Kossuth minister of 
 finance, Eotvos minister of public education, Szechenyi of 
 public works, and Deak of justice. At the same time the diet 
 passed a new electoral law on the base of a limited suffrage, 
 the number of the electors being raised to one million two 
 hundred thousand. 
 
 Up to this time nothing had occurred which seemed to 
 show any wish on the part of the Hungarians to break with the 
 government. When Ferdinand came to close the sitting of 
 parliament on the i6th of April, he was enthusiastically 
 received. But, unfortunately, although the majority of the 
 Magyars were content with the dynasty, the non-Magyar races 
 were far from being satisfied with their position. The Croats 
 and Servians were greatly irritated by the laws concerning the 
 Hungarian language; and the Servians also demanded that they 
 should be released from the inferior position in which they 
 had hitherto been kept. As early as the 8th of April they had 
 sent a deputation to the diet, where they had in vain claimed 
 their recognition as a nation, and the right of being admitted to 
 public employment, and to hold synods or national congresses. 
 
 There was the same excitement at Zagreb (Agram) as at 
 Pesth. The diet there had drawn up a programme giving the 
 peoole so much self-government that only the army, finance, 
 and foreign affairs were left in the hands of the central govern- 
 ment. It demanded that Croat troops only should be 
 quartered in the country, and that an archbishopric and a 
 supreme court should be granted to Croatia. It consented 
 to send deputies to the two chambers of the Hungarian diet, 
 but stipulated that the laws voted at Pesth should only become
 
 JELACIC. 535 
 
 binding upon Croatia after they had been ratified by the diet 
 at Zagreb. 
 
 Jelacic, the new ban, was devoted both to the Slav cause 
 and to the dynasty, and immediately after his installation he 
 had declared his intention of defending the Croat nationality 
 energetically. As regarded Hungary, Croatia already posessed 
 an ancient organization more or less definitely defined, and the 
 Servians now set to work to form one. In an assembly which 
 was held at Karlovci (Karlowitz) on the 13th of May, they voted 
 the re-establishment of the offices of patriarch and voievode, 
 the formation of the Servians into an independent nation, and 
 their union with Croatia. On hearing of these measures, the 
 Hungarian ministry collected troops against those whom they 
 looked upon as rebels, and dismissed Jelacic, though he had 
 had nothing to do with these measures. 
 
 On the 30th of May, the diet of Transylvania met at 
 Kolosvar (Klausenburg) and voted the uuion of that 
 principality with Hungary ; but even here an unrecognized 
 race was about to claim its rights. Hitherto the fate of the 
 principality had been decided by the Magyars, the Szeklers, and 
 the Saxons ; but now the long-oppressed Roumanians raised 
 their voices, and in a large assembly held at Blasin (Blasen- 
 dorf, Balasfalva), they also drew up a list of their demands. 
 These included their recognition as a race, religious equality, 
 the suppression of all offensive expressions against the 
 Roumanians contained in the Hungarian laws, and the 
 adjournment of the vote of union with Hungary until they 
 should be represented in the diet. But the Magyars 
 refused to listen to these just demands, and they were harshly 
 rejected. 
 
 Jelacic. 
 
 The Servians were the first to begin the struggle. After 
 coming to an understanding with Jelacic, they seized the 
 arsenal at Titel and established a camp at Karlovci. They 
 were commanded by Stratimirovic, an improvised general,
 
 536 HISTORY OF AUSTKO-HUNGARY. 
 
 who showed remarkable abUity. In his manifesto he said, 
 " We fight against those who violate the laws, who would 
 keep liberty for themselves alone, and who use for the good 
 of the Magyar minority the treasure which has been amassed 
 by the labour of Slavs, Germans, and Roumanians." The 
 soldiers on the military frontier made common cause with 
 their fellow-countrymen, and a large number of volunteers 
 joined them from Servia. The court, which had taken refuge 
 at Innsbruck, entered into secret negociations with Jelacic, 
 and took care not to interfere in a movement which enabled 
 them once more to act on the old principle of the monarchy, 
 " Divide et itupera^ 
 
 The Hungarian diet which met at Pesth on the 5th of 
 June, met therefore under gloomy auspices. On the nth of 
 July, Kossuth made a remarkable speech, in which he pointed 
 out the danger to Hungary from the southern Slavs, and 
 asked for a levy of men and a loan of forty-two million 
 florins. Conferences between the Hungarians and Croatians 
 were opened at Vienna, but they came to nothing. " We 
 shall meet again on the banks of the Drave," said the president 
 of the Hungarian ministry to the ban. " No," replied Jelacic ; 
 " I will come to seek you on the Danube." He crossed the 
 Drave on the 9th of September. 
 
 On his side Stratimirovic had collected thirty thousand 
 men and one hundred cannons. On the 19th of September, 
 the Magyars sent a deputation to the parliament at Vienna ; 
 but the Slavs predominated there, and, irritated past en- 
 durance by the injustice of the Hungarians, they persuaded 
 that assembly to refuse to receive it. The palatine, 
 divided between the duties imposed upon him by his office 
 and his position as a prince of the imperial family, quitted 
 Pesth, pretending that he was going to place himself at the 
 head of the national army. Instead, he journeyed to Lake 
 Balaton (Plattensee), where he demanded an interview with 
 Jelacic, which was refused. He then left Hungary to its fate 
 and retired from office. Louis Bathyany also resigned, and
 
 WA/? BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY. 537 
 
 a committee of safety, presided over by Kossuth, was appointed 
 by the diet on the 25th of September. But now the Rou- 
 manians and Slovaks took up arms. An imperial decree, 
 dated September 25, appointed general count Lamberg com- 
 missary-royal and commander of the military forces of Hun- 
 gary, only to be murdered by the angry people the day after 
 his arrival at Buda. The emperor replied to this act of 
 rebellion by nominating Jelacic commissary-plenipotentiary 
 of Hungary and commander of all the forces of the kingdom. 
 The rupture between Hungary and the sovereign was now 
 complete. 
 
 The War. 
 
 The Magyars began to make preparations for the defence 
 of their country. Kossuth, who had become head of the 
 ministry on the resignation of Bathyany, summoned the people 
 to act as volunteers and recalled all the national troops who 
 were in garrison in Bohemia and Galicia. Jelacic marched 
 against Pesth, but he was repulsed and fell back upon Vienna, 
 to which city the emperor had returned on the 12 th of August. 
 The diet which was being held there took the part of the 
 dynasty against the Hungarians, but the Viennese people, out 
 of hatred to the Slavs and from their own revolutionary 
 instincts, professed passionate sympathy with the Magyars. 
 On the 7th of October, they rose against the government to 
 prevent the sending of reinforcements to Jelacic, and called 
 on the Hungarians to come to their assistance. They came, 
 but too late, and were forced to recross the Leitha, while the 
 capital had to open its gates to prince Windischgratz. We 
 shall return later on to this bloody episode of the revolution. 
 Oddly enough, the Hungarian ministers who thus attacked the 
 troops of the emperor they hated, asserted that they remained 
 true " to the beloved king of Hungary." But suddenly there 
 was no such king, as on the 2nd of December Ferdinand ab- 
 dicated in favour of his nephew Francis Joseph. The Mag}'ars 
 declared that they could not recognize this abdication, and
 
 538 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 while they were in revolt against the king who governed, 
 professed to preserve a platonic fidelity to the king who 
 governed no longer. Kossuth put the kingdom in a state 
 of defence, organized the famous battalions of the Honveds, 
 or " defenders of their country," and raised some foreign regi- 
 ments in which there were many Poles. At first, Gorgey, 
 Meszaros, Perczel, and Kis were the principal generals. A 
 terrible struggle began. Austria attacked Hungary by way of 
 Galicia, Moravia, Croatia, and the Banat, while the Roumanians 
 in Transylvania seconded the imperial troops energetically, 
 less out of love to the emperor than out of hatred to their 
 old oppressors. In such an unequal fight it was quite certain 
 Hungary must be beaten. Kis was obliged to abandon ■ 
 the Servian voievodina and to fall back on the Maros ; 
 Windischgratz entered Pozsony on the i8th and Gyor on 
 the 27th of December; Meszaros was beaten at Kaschau 
 (Kasso); Perczel had to retire before Jelacic. On the ist 
 of January, 1849, the committee of defence which had been 
 organized by Kossuth left Pesth and retired to Debreczen, 
 a marshy district which was almost impregnable. A few days 
 later the Hungarian troops quitted Pesth, and it was imme- 
 diately occupied by Windischgratz. Bathyany was arrested, 
 courts-martial established, and terror reigned in the wretched 
 capital. 
 
 Unfortunately, union was very far from reigning between 
 Kossuth and general Gorgey. This officer was a German by 
 birth, and may have embraced the Magyar cause rather from 
 motives of ambition than from any feeling of patriotism. He 
 pretended to recognize no orders except those issued by the 
 minister of war who had been appointed by the king, and 
 played the absurd part of a man who, believing the sovereign 
 to be deceived by a wretched set of advisers, fought against his 
 soldiers while all the time pretending to obey him. A Polish 
 emigrant, named Dembinski, had received the supreme com- 
 mand, but owing mainly to the disobedience of Gorgey he 
 failed to recapture Pesth. Then Gorgey again became gem-
 
 RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 539 
 
 ralissimo and defeated the Austrians at GodoUo on the 6th of 
 April, 1849. 
 
 During this time, Bern, a Pole, who had formerly commanded 
 at Vienna when it was in revolt, carried on a marvellous cam- 
 paign in Transylvania. It was in this that the poet Petofi, 
 still quite a young man, perished. For a long time his country- 
 men refused to believe in Petofi's death, and even quite lately 
 Hungary has been stirred by a report that he was kept prisoner 
 in Siberia by the Russians, and that after a captivity of thirty 
 years he was about to return to his native land. A Russian 
 army interfered to prevent Bem from occupying Nagy-Szeben 
 (Hermannstadt), but, in spite of it, that town fell, and the 
 Russians had to beat a retreat. Perczel in the meantime re- 
 conquered part of the Servian territory. 
 
 The Russian Interoention. 
 
 Fortune seemed to smile once more on the Hungarians. 
 VVindischgratz had been dismissed, and Kossuth believed him- 
 self strong enough to strike a decisive blow. On the 14th of 
 April, the diet of Debreczen voted the deposition of the house 
 of Austria and the independence of Hungary, the form of 
 government being reserved for future decision. Hungary was 
 far too aristocratic a country and too much imbued in monar- 
 chical opinions for any one to dream of proclaiming a republic. 
 Kossuth was created president, and proceeded to form a 
 ministry ; count Bathyany was to be minister of foreign affairs, 
 Gorgey minister of war. But in the whole of Europe there was 
 only one power which was willing to recognize the new Hungarian 
 government, and that was the short-lived republic of Venice. 
 Hungary, which had seemed up to this time firmly attached to 
 all the forms of law, now finally broke through its old traditions. 
 The declaration of independence was followed by a great suc- 
 cess, the capture of the fortress of Buda from the Austrians 
 on the 2ist of May. About three weeks before this event the 
 Official Gazette of Vienna had announced that in consequence 
 of the solicitations of the emperor Francis Joseph, the czar
 
 540 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 M'icholas had placed the Russian army at his disposal, in order 
 to crush his revolted subjects. This was an avowal of Austrian 
 weakness, but it was also, as has been well remarked, a recog- 
 nition of Russia as the natural protector of the Slavs against 
 their Hungarian oppressors. It was in vain that Ladislaus 
 Teleki in Paris, and Julius Andrassy in Turkey tried to bring 
 about a counter-intervention in favour of the Magyars. On 
 the 4th of June, the Russians reached Pozsony. Haynau, who 
 had already made himself notorious in Italy, beat the Hungarian 
 generals on the Danube and then marched on Pesth ; one 
 hundred thousand Russians entered Galicia, commanded by 
 Paskievitch, while fifty thousand pushed their way into Tran- 
 sylvania. Meantime the conduct of Gorgey was ambiguous, 
 and somewhat resembled that of the French general in com- 
 mand after the battle of Metz, in 1871; he pretended to be 
 fighting the enemy, while all the while he meant to enter into 
 negociations with him and to restore the monarchy. Kossuth was 
 in the greatest difficulties. He gave the supreme command to 
 the Pole Bern, and the equality of the races was proclaimed by 
 the diet of Debreczen on July the 28th. But this step was 
 taken too late to be of use, and on August the nth Kossuth 
 surrendered his dictatorship to Gorgey, and on the day follow- 
 ing the latter capitulated at Vilagos, and gave up twenty-three 
 thousand men and one hundred and thirty cannons to the 
 Russians. Bem and Kossuth took refuge in Turkey ; Kis 
 surrendered Petervarad (Peterwardein) on the 27th of August; 
 Klapka defended Komarom (Comorn) till the 25th of Sep- 
 tember, when he too was forced to surrender. " Hungary," 
 wrote Paskievitch to the czar, " lies at the feet of your 
 majesty," for the last rampart of Hungary fell with Komarom. 
 It would have been wise and fitting to have celebrated 
 with clemency a victory which had, in truth, been gained at 
 the cost of foreign intervention, but this was far from being 
 the case ; the vengeance of the conqueror was pitiless. Louis 
 Bathyany, the first president of the first Hungarian ministry, 
 was shot dead at Pesth ; the generals who had given them-
 
 HARSH REVENGE OF AUSTRIA. 54 1 
 
 selves up were some of them shot, others hanged hke male- 
 factors, and the executions that followed recalled the bloody 
 days of Eperjes. Thousands of patriots were condemned to 
 imprisonment more or less harsh, and among them were women 
 of gentle birth. The property of all the condemned was con- 
 fiscated. Gorgey alone was exempted from the penalty of 
 death, and he was confined in Klagenfurt. Those who had 
 taken refuge in Turkey were not safe from persecution even 
 there, for Austria and Russia demanded their extradition. 
 The sultan, however, refused to comply, and from this time 
 may be dated the affection of the Magyars for the Turks, an 
 affection which was increased by their hatred of Russia and 
 of everything Slavonic. It was, however, agreed that the 
 Hungarian refugees should not be allowed to leave Turkey ; 
 many of them became Mahommedans, and among them the 
 Pole Bem, who died shortly after at Aleppo. Who would 
 have imagined at that time that the count Julius Andrassy, 
 who was then hanged in effigy, would one day be called upon 
 to direct the fate of the Austro-Hungarian empire ? 
 
 A fortnight after the capitulation of Vilagos, Venice fell. 
 King Charles Albert, defeated at Novara on the 23rd of March, 
 abdicated, and left to his son Victor Emmanuel a kingdom in 
 difficulties ; the Austrians returned to Florence, and absolutism 
 was restored. Italy and Hungary were at peace because they 
 were vanquished ; and the reaction could now have full play 
 till the time when it should have either worn itself out, or till 
 events should occur which should give the conquered races an 
 opportunity of once more making themselves heard.
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE REVOLUTION IN VIENNA. 
 
 The Parliamefit of Vietina — The Days of October — Repression. 
 
 We must now speak of the first attempts at constitutional 
 government in the Austrian countries outside Hungary. The 
 diet at Vienna was composed of one hundred and eighty-three 
 deputies, of whom fifty-three were sent by Upper and Lower 
 Austria, forty-eight by Moravia, ninety-one by Bohemia, nine- 
 teen by Styria, etc. The deputies from the rural districts 
 formed a large part of the whole, and many of these, especially 
 among the Ruthenians of Galicia, could not speak German. 
 The Austrian nobles had either refused to stand or had obtained 
 no votes, and the Germans were consequently in a minority. 
 The Radical newspapers, which were the organs of the German 
 party, spoke of the coming of the deputies as an invasion of 
 the barbarians, and denounced them with terror; some of these 
 papers were even printed with a black border. The Viennese 
 went so far as to ill-treat the Chekh deputies, who, from their 
 intellectual superiority, were the leaders of the Slav majority, 
 and it became necessary to threaten to remove the parliament 
 to another city before they could be brought to reason. On 
 the loth of July the members met in the imperial riding-school, 
 to decide upon the rules which were to guide the assembly. 
 There were present the representatives of eight different 
 nationalities : Germans, Chekhs, Servian-Croats for Dalmatia, 
 Slovenes, Poles, Ruthenians, Italians from Istria, and Wal-
 
 REVOLUTION IN VIENNA. 543 
 
 lachians from the Bukovina. The first question which pre- 
 sented itself was, In what language should the discussions take 
 place? It was decided that interpreters should be supplied to 
 those who could not understand German ; but no one dared to 
 declare German the official language. An advocate of Vienna, 
 Schmidt by name, was chosen president, Strohbach a Chekh, 
 and Smolka a Pole being the vice-presidents. At first it was 
 hardly possible to divide the chamber into fixed parties ; their 
 tendency was to break up into nationalities. The Chekhs, 
 with the Ruthenians, occupied the right ; the Tyrolese and the 
 Austrian Conservatives — the Schwarzgelber, as they were called 
 (black-and-yellows)— sat in the centre, while on the left was the 
 German and democratic party. The session was opened on 
 the 22nd of July. The speech from the throne said that it had 
 been convoked " to finish the great work of the revival of the 
 Fatherland and to secure freedom." The archduke John read 
 the speech in the absence of the emperor, but he soon after 
 had to leave for Frankfort, where he had been proclaimed vicar 
 of the empire. The assembly then begged the sovereign to 
 return, and he came back to Vienna on the 12th of August. 
 
 The chamber lost no time in appointing a committee to 
 draw up a new constitution. The question of the condition 
 of the peasants was the first which occupied them, and the 
 assembly was harassed by petitions to which not infrequently 
 threats were added. The debates over this grave question 
 were all the longer and all the more vehement because there 
 were so many peasants present among the members of the diet. 
 At the end of August the purchase at a reasonable price of the 
 rights of the lords to dues and forced labour was voted, and 
 it was decided by 224 votes to 125 that a separate indemnity 
 fund should be raised in each province. This was the first 
 step towards federation. 
 
 Meantime, while the parliament, a regular Tower of Babel, 
 carried on its deliberations with a wise but somewhat grotesque 
 slowness, the apostles of radicalism and of an universal republic 
 were at work in the capital. The working-class had become
 
 544 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 excited, and the Aula — as the students' club was called — and 
 the artisans exchanged fraternal greetings. The ministry had 
 been paying workmen who did, however, but little work, at 
 the rate of fifteen kreutzers per day, on the same system as 
 had been adopted in France in the national workshops ; and 
 a reduction of wages led to a riot which had to be put down 
 by force. The committee of safety which had been established 
 in March was dissolved, and thereupon the populace, which 
 was suffering great distress from want of work and was irritated 
 by its dissolution, demanded the dismissal of the ministers, 
 Latour, Schwarzer, and Alexander Bach. In face of the 
 growing disturbance, the parliament declared itself in con- 
 tinuous session, but it could not even succeed in maintaining 
 order within its own walls, as the re-establishment of the com- 
 mittee was being clamorously demanded by the Radicals. A 
 central committee of all the Radical associations was formed, 
 and popular excitement reached its height when the Hungarian 
 deputies arrived at Vienna to plead the cause of their country 
 before the central diet. We have already narrated how that 
 body, under the influence of the Slav majority, refused to 
 receive them ; but the democrats of Vienna gave the Magyars 
 an ovation and promised them their brotherly assistance. 
 They kept their word, and early in October succeeded in 
 preventing the departure of the imperial troops which were 
 to have been employed against Hungary. But it was only 
 done by violence. The crowd demolished the bridge by 
 which the troops were to have crossed the Danube, and 
 the minister of war, Latour, was attacked and taken prisoner 
 in his own house, and after being brutally ill-treated was 
 hanged as general Lamberg had been hanged at Pesth. 
 Notwithstanding the heroic efforts of some of its members, 
 the diet could not prevent the deeds of violence which dis- 
 graced these " October days." It formed a new committee 
 of safety, and endeavoured to interfere as peace-maker and 
 arbitrator between the government and the Viennese populace, 
 and in an address to the emperor it proposed that a popular
 
 CAPITULATION OF VIENNA. 545 
 
 ministry should be formed, and that the policy towards 
 Hungary should be altered. The emperor graciously received 
 the deputation at Schonbrunn, but the next day he fled to 
 Olomouc among the Slavs, who alone seemed to him safe 
 from the spirit of revolution. He left behind him a mani- 
 festo in which he harshly reproved the excesses of the preceding 
 days, and announced that he was about to take measures for 
 the deliverance of the people of Vienna and the maintenance 
 of liberty. 
 
 Left to itself, the capital could not hold out against the 
 three armies which now attacked it under Auersperg, Win- 
 dischgratz, and Jelacic. But it did its best, and Bern, the 
 Pole, was appointed commander of the place. It was at this 
 time that, in order to encourage their co-religionists in politics, 
 the republicans of Frankfort sent a deputation to Vienna, at 
 the head of which was Robert Blum, a bookseller of Leipzig, 
 who was one of the leading agitators of Germany. After the 
 departure of the emperor, the conservative members of the 
 diet, with the Chekhs at their head, quitted the assembly 
 and retired to Prague, whence they issued a protest against 
 all the later disturbances which had occurred among their 
 colleagues in Vienna. The diet was now nothing more than 
 a Rump Parliament, powerless and at the mercy of the events 
 of the hour. But the capital had no time to enjoy its triumph. 
 It was attacked by Windischgratz and Jelacic on the 28th of 
 October, and capitulated on the 30th. The Hungarians 
 arrived too late to be of any use to their allies, and were 
 defeated at Schwechat by Jelacic, and forced to recross the 
 Leitha in disorder. Windischgratz entered Vienna and pro- 
 ceeded to take terrible vengeance. Messenhauser, the com- 
 mandant of the national guard, was shot, and Robert Blum 
 also (November 10). His position as deputy to the diet at 
 Frankfort proved no protection to him ; but the German 
 parliament protested Avith energy, and the Austrian minister, 
 Schmerling, was forced to disavow Windischgratz at the very 
 time when the emperor Nicholas was thanking the terrible 
 
 2 N
 
 546 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 general for the services which he had rendered to the peace 
 of Europe. Among the victims we have still to name Becker, 
 chief editor of The Radical, and his assistant Jellinek. The 
 death of Latour was avenged. 
 
 The Diet of Kromerice — Abdication of Ferdinand IV. 
 
 The emperor did not wait for the submission of the capital 
 before summoning the diet to meet him in a spot where its 
 deliberations could be carried on in needful calm and security. 
 A rescript dated the 22nd of October suspended the sittings 
 of the assembly, and invited it to meet again on the 15 th of 
 November in the Moravian town of Kromerice (Kremsier). 
 In this little town it might hope to escape from all 
 demagogic influence. Brno had been first proposed, but 
 it contained a working population which was liable to be 
 affected by the excitement in Vienna, and Prague was hated 
 by the Germans. Smolka the Pole was now elected president, 
 and on the 21st of November a new cabinet came into office. 
 The minister Dobhloff had worn himself out in the struggle 
 against the Viennese democracy, and the new leader was 
 prince Felix Schwarzenberg, " the soldier-statesman," who 
 had learned how to master revolutions in a long career in 
 Italy. He had served first at St. Petersburg, then in 
 London, Turin, and Naples, and had proved himself the 
 staunch friend of absolutism ; he had also held an important 
 position in the camp of Radetsky. Count Francis Stadion, 
 who had shown great powers of administration, was made 
 minister of the interior. This new cabinet without a 
 moment's hesitation decided in favour of constitutional govern- 
 ment, and declared that Austria should remain closely united 
 to Germany without at the same time sacrificing her interests 
 to those of Germany. They announced these intentions on 
 the 27 th of November, and on the 2nd of December an 
 extraordinary meeting of the diet was convoked, at which, 
 to the great surprise of the meeting, the president announced 
 that the emperor Ferdinand had abdicated, that his brother,
 
 ABDICATION OF FERDINAND IV. 547 
 
 the archduke Francis Charles, renounced all right to the 
 crown, and that in consequence the son of the latter, the 
 young prince Francis Joseph, had succeeded to the imperial 
 throne. The day before, which had been his eighteenth 
 birthday, the young prince had been declared of age. This 
 grave decision had been arrived at in a family gathering at 
 which the ministers, the privy council, Windischgratz, and 
 Jelacic had alone been present. The very day of his abdi- 
 cation Ferdinand left for Prague, where he lived in retirement 
 till his death. For a long time his feeble health had not 
 allowed him to fulfil the duties of his imperial position, and 
 he had only delayed his abdication till he could leave his 
 people in the hands of his nephew.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 FRANCIS JOSEPH THE REACTIONARY PERIOD. 
 
 The New Constitution [Afarch 4, 1849). 
 
 Francis Joseph began his reign by declaring himself a con- 
 stitutional monarch. In his proclamation at his accession he 
 said, " Firmly resolved to preserve the splendour of the crown 
 without a blemish, but prepared to share our rights with the 
 representatives of our people, we hope, by the help of God and 
 in united action with our subjects, to be able to make all the 
 nations and all the races of the empire one compact state." 
 This announcement seemed to point to a determination to 
 make of Austro-Hungary a centralized state. As soon as the 
 constitution of the monarchy, or rather, to speak more exactly, 
 of the Polyglot Polyarchy, had become the question of the day, 
 the attention of statesmen had been turned to three different 
 systems — centrahzation, which would place all the kingdoms or 
 provinces, all the various languages, under one sole government, 
 either parliamentary or absolute, with its seat at Vienna; dualism, 
 which would leave Hungary its old constitution, and group all 
 the other States, from the Gulf of Cattaro to the frontiers 
 of Bukovina, into one factitious whole ; and federalism, which 
 would endeavour to satisfy both the national aspirations and 
 the old rights of the different groups of which the Austrian 
 empire was composed. No principle had up to that time been 
 brought forward as a solution of the problem. Practically, 
 dualism had already come into existence, since Hungary had
 
 DEMAND FOR FEDERATION. 549 
 
 never been invited to send deputies to the deliberations of the 
 assemblies at Vienna and Kromerice. 
 
 The Slavs and some of the German provinces, among 
 which was Tyrol, demanded a federation, as they knew that 
 this system alone would give them independence and the self- 
 government which they so much desired. The Chekh historian, 
 Palacky, was asked to draw up a scheme which should contain 
 the expression of their wishes. According to it there were to 
 be four governmental departments for those interests which 
 were common to the whole empire, namely, war, marine, 
 finance, and foreign affairs, and in all other matters each 
 province was to enjoy complete autonomy. The various 
 national diets were to choose a certain number of deputies, 
 who were together to constitute the central diet. Palacky 
 counted seven nationalities : the German, Bohemian, Polish, 
 Italian, Yougo-Slav, Magyar, and Wallachian. Each of them 
 was to be represented in Vienna by its own chancery. When 
 this scheme was submitted to the diet, it naturally met with 
 much opposition from the German advocates of centralization, 
 who wished to Germanize the empire, and it was evident that 
 there would be many difficulties in carrying it out. One of the 
 gravest was the impossibility of disposing of Hungary without 
 the help of her representatives, but it was hoped that before 
 long the emperor would summon them to the parliament, and 
 that the deputies would obey the summons. Three months 
 passed in empty discussion, during which the government never 
 interfered in the debates nor gave. any sign of its intentions. 
 The task before parliament was not that which had been before 
 France in 1789, the division of provinces into administrative 
 divisions subject to one uniform government ; it was, on the 
 contrary, to restore the balance between countries of different 
 races and histories, and to create a new Eastern empire 
 (Oesterreich) on the banks of the Elbe and the Danube on the 
 same principles which had secured prosperity to Switzerland 
 and the United States of America. A delicate task, indeed, 
 if ever there were one ! But at any rate the delegates succeeded
 
 550 HISTORY OF AVSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 in coming to an agreement, and by the 2nd of March this part 
 of their work of making a constitution seemed to be finished. 
 
 It was hoped that after coming to an understanding with 
 the government, it would be possible to get the constitution 
 finally adopted, and that on the 15th of March, the anniversary 
 of the revolution of 1848, it could be solemnly proclaimed. 
 But the deputies at Kromerice had neglected to take into 
 account the influence of the German policy — that fatal element 
 which for so many centuries has weighed so heavily on Austria. 
 During their deliberations Pillersdorf had allowed members 
 to be elected for the German parliament at Frankfort, an 
 Austrian archduke had been appointed vicar of the empire, 
 and Schmerling, an Austrian, had been sent to represent the 
 empire at Frankfort. This parliament of Frankfort looked 
 upon Austria merely as an annex of Germany, whose mission 
 was the Germanizing of all refractory bodies, and the putting in 
 practice of the motto, " Drang nach GLsten " (" Press on to the 
 East "). Under this impression, the two following articles 
 which affected Austria had been voted at Frankfort : No part 
 of the German empire can be joined with any non-German 
 country in a single state ; if a German country has the same 
 sovereign as a non-German country, all relations between the 
 two countries can only be regulated according to the prin- 
 ciples of a purely personal union. This meant that Germany 
 claimed the right to interfere in the relations of Bohemia, a 
 German, or so-called German country, with Hungary. " When 
 Austria and Germany," said a manifesto published on the 
 27th of November, "with renewed vigour shall each have 
 decided on some new and definite form, then, and not till 
 then, can the nature of their political relations be settled." 
 The Federalists, and especially the Slavs, had accepted this 
 declaration as a promise of emancipation from the yoke 
 of Germany. The leaders of the party of Greater Germany 
 had replied (January 14, 1849) by excluding Austria from the 
 Germanic union ; but this did not suit the Austrian cabinet, 
 which persisted in considering Austria as the first of the great
 
 THE NEW CONSTITUTION. 55 I 
 
 German powers. A parliamentary coup d'etat was decided 
 upon. On the 6th of March, Stadion assembled some of the 
 deputies, and told them that in the absence of the Hungarians 
 the assembly could not legally vote a constitution which could 
 be appUed to the whole empire. In vain the deputies protested ; 
 the diet was dissolved, and the so-called constitution of March 
 4 was granted to the people by imperial decree. This was 
 hardly more than a copy of those of Belgium and Berlin, and 
 the Griindrechte of Germany. It declared the Austrian empire 
 to be independent, indivisible, and indissoluble; proclaimed the 
 equality of all the nations whose diets now became simply 
 provincial councils ; two chambers were to assist the monarch, 
 and he announced his intention of having himself crowned 
 emperor of Austria. The Hungarian constitution was to be 
 maintained only so far as it did not conflict with the authority 
 of the empire. A special statute was to settle the position 
 of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. The censure of the 
 press was abolished and free exercise of domestic religion 
 authorized. Of the old rights of the various provinces and 
 of their equality not one word was said. 
 
 Towards the end of 185 1 a circular issued by Schwarzen- 
 berg said, " The constitution granted on the 4th of March was 
 only meant for a foundation on which to build up the authority 
 of the throne. There was no time then to study the funda- 
 mental principles of a constitution ; we took those of foreign 
 nations as our models. Such a law could have no result, and 
 it has had none." It was never indeed put into serious 
 practice.* 
 
 * " Free institutions are next to impossible in a country made up of 
 different nationalities, . . . the united public opinion necessary to the 
 working of representative government cannot exist. The influences which 
 form opinions and decide political acts are different in the dift'erent sections 
 of the country. An altogether different set of leaders have the confidence 
 of one part of the country and of another. The same books, newspapers, 
 pamphlets, speeches do not reach them. One section does not know what 
 opinions or what instigations are circulating in another. The same 
 incidents, the same acts, the same system of government affect them in 
 different ways ; and each fears more injury to itself from the other 
 nationalities than from the common arbiter, the state. Their mutual
 
 552 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 But though it was powerless and useless at home it played 
 an important part in the relations of the monarchy with 
 Germany. The parliament of Frankfort offered the imperial 
 crown to the king of Prussia. Thereupon the emperor of 
 Austria declared that *' he was sovereign of a single and united 
 state ; that he would allow the interference of no sovereign 
 and of no foreign parliament in any portion of his dominions," 
 and thus breaking with the parliament of Frankfort, he recalled 
 his deputies from that assembly, which very soon after was 
 dissolved. Its offer had meantime been refused by Prussia. 
 
 The Reactionary Period (1850-1860) — The Coficordaf {1S55). 
 
 The ten years which followed on the pacification of 
 Hungary and Northern Italy were ten years of pitiless reaction. 
 By the end of 1849 order was restored everywhere, and there 
 was no reason why the constitution should not at once have 
 been put in practice. An imperial decree dated the 4th of 
 August had said, "It shall not remain a dead letter; it shall 
 serve as a rampart to liberty, as a guarantee of the power, glory, 
 and unity of the monarchy." Stadion, who had helped to draw 
 it up, would no doubt have felt bound in honour to put it in 
 practice, but he became mad in May, 1849, ^"^ ^^is post was 
 filled by Alexander Bach. Bach was a Viennese advocate, 
 who had been formerly remarkable for his stormy radicalism, 
 but as soon as he attained power he became the strong advocate 
 of absolutism and a reactionary policy, and of all the gains of 
 
 antipathies are generally much stronger than jealousy of the government. 
 That any one of them feels aggrieved by the policy of the common ruler is 
 sufficient to determine another to support that policy." — ^John Stuart Mill, 
 Essay on " Representative Government." 
 
 During the height of the reactionary government of Metternich and 
 Francis II. the German pamphleteer, Ludwig Borne, wrote, "It would be 
 a double misfortune to Europe and to all oppressed nations if that inert 
 machine should one day be forced to move along the path of modern con- 
 stitutional government. Up to this time Austria has been looked upon as 
 a mouse-trap, only dangerous to those who allow themselves to be caught 
 in it. He who is free and outside the trap can easily keep away from it. 
 But w-oe to all if she should one day be obliged to take apart in the Comedy 
 of Liberal Ideas.'
 
 ABSOL UTISM RESTORED. 553 
 
 the revolution he only preserved the laws concerning the 
 condition of the peasants and those which proclaimed the 
 equality of persons and estates in the eyes of the law. The 
 delusive constitution of the 4th of March was suppressed by 
 letters patent (January i, 1852); the various provinces of the 
 empire were divided into circles, whose heads were nominated 
 by the central government, and the powers of the diets were 
 reduced to a minimum. A centralizing bureaucracy became 
 the willing instrument of a pitiless Germanizing policy, which 
 weighed equally heavily on the Hungarians who had wished to 
 dismember the empire, and on the Slavs who had maintained 
 its integrity. " ' A temporary arrangement ' — such was the 
 watchword which ruled all things for ten whole years," said 
 Springer ; " and if the thing had been possible they would have 
 made a temporary arrangement for the temporary arrangement." 
 " Distrust of the governed became a state maxim," said another 
 publicist, "and a remedy for this distrust was only to be found 
 in material force." 
 
 The blows of absolute power fell first on Hungary, and 
 every possible means were taken to deprive her of the last 
 vestige of self-government. A royal-lieutenancy was established 
 at Pesth, and the kingdom divided into five circles ; government 
 appointments were bestowed in preference on German officials ; 
 the German language was used in all public offices, courts of 
 justice, and schools ; and the people were under the strict sur- 
 veillance of the police. A state of siege continued down to 
 1854, and it was not till 1857 that a general amnesty was 
 proclaimed. Transylvania, which had been lately reunited to 
 the mother-country, was again separated from her ; the Backa 
 was made a Servian Voievodina, and the Banat a separate 
 province ; the three races who dwelt in these districts — the 
 Roumanians, Germans, and Servians — were to be allowed to 
 govern themselves. The Servians and Roumanians were 
 Germanized just as had been the Magyars, against whom they 
 had so lately been fighting. Croatia, Slavonia, and the 
 Hungarian sea-board had formed a threefold state independent
 
 554 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 of Hungary ; but they were now placed under the Magyar 
 yoke. The same policy was followed in Bohemia and Galicia, 
 especially when the death of Schwarzenberg in 1853 left Bach 
 more powerful than ever. " Trial by jury and the right to 
 public trial were both suppressed," says Tomek, " the election 
 of municipal bodies was suspended, and the equality of the 
 German and Chekh languages in the schools ceased ; at the 
 same time the police acted most harshly and interfered with 
 the power of the ordinary courts. Thus, in 1851, Karel 
 Havlicek, who was accused of having attacked the government 
 in some satirical writings, was confined to Brixen in Tyrol by 
 order of the ministry, after he had been acquitted by the jury. 
 The liberty of the press so far as concerned political matters 
 was completely at an end, and not a single newspaper was 
 allowed to be published in Chekh. . . . The Austrian govern- 
 ment was solely occupied with securing Austrian influence in 
 Germany, and hoped to please the Germans by maintaining 
 the supremacy of the German party over all the other races of 
 the empire. ... It seemed at first as if the national movement 
 in Bohemia, which had begun in the years previous to 1848, 
 would be arrested by all this oppression. It did produce 
 a kind of pause, but very soon the spirit of the people 
 recovered its spring, especially among the rural classes. Freed 
 from their old state of subjection, they began to make rapid 
 progress, both moral and economical." If Bohemia — perhaps, 
 with Tyrol, the most patriotic of all the Austrian states — was 
 treated in this fashion, it is easy to understand what was the 
 condition of the Italian possessions and of Galicia. 
 
 When the government had once entered on its career of 
 absolute rule, it believed that its own power could only be in- 
 creased by adding to it that of the Church, for it seemed as if 
 the pope and the bishops were its natural allies. At a meeting 
 held in Vienna in 1849, the Austrian prelates had entered an 
 energetic protest against all national movements. They 
 declared that " they were a remnant of Paganism ; that 
 difference of language was the consequence of sin and the fall
 
 THE CONCORDAT. 555 
 
 of man." The government decided that every effort should 
 be made to get rid of the last trace oijospehism, and after long 
 negociations concluded a concordat with the Holy See in 1855. 
 This concordat declared Roman Catholic worship privileged, 
 and authorized the publication of all pontifical documents with- 
 out the control of the civil power. It placed both public and 
 private education under the supreme control of the bishops, 
 and the state undertook not to allow the circulation of any 
 books censured by them. It invested them with the power 
 of inflicting punishment, as, for instance, of imprisoning 
 refractory priests, and undertook to assist them in carrying 
 out such punishments. These examples are enough to show 
 the spirit which animated the clerical policy. Strangers who 
 visited Austria during the time which followed on the 
 conclusion of the celebrated agreement were struck with the 
 intellectual torpor of the country. Added to all this, there 
 was great misery throughout the land, as the events of 1848- 
 1849 had exhausted the treasury. By the end of 1850 the 
 government owed the bank of Vienna the sum of 231 millions 
 of florins, by 185 1, 371 millions. Loans were raised year after 
 year. 
 
 Ever since the year 17 81, the Austrian budget had always 
 showed a deficit. In i8io, this had amounted to 215,502,220 
 florins; in 1855, it was still 158,319,900 florins; by i860, it 
 had been reduced to 65,662,810. In order to face its diffi- 
 culties, Austria had been obliged to issue paper-money subject 
 to a discount, and bank-notes, down even to the value of 
 twopence halfpenny, were in circulation. 
 
 Austria and Germatiy — The Crimean War (1854-1855). 
 
 At the beginning of the period of reaction, the misery of 
 her people at home had not prevented Austria from presenting 
 a tolerable appearance abroad. Schwarzenberg, whom popular 
 opinion persisted in considering a great minister, had succeeded 
 in maintaining the federal compact with Germany which gave
 
 556 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Austria the lead among the German states, and Prussia was 
 held in check by the princes whom Francis Joseph' had cleverly 
 grouped around him. An insurrection in Hesse breaking out 
 about this time, the elector implored help from the diet, while 
 his subjects appealed for assistance to Prussia. The emperor 
 of Austria thereupon arranged a meeting at Bregenz with the 
 kings of Wurtemberg and Bavaria, and a few days later with the 
 emperor Nicholas at Warsaw. Just at this moment a quarrel 
 broke out between some Austrian troops who were in occupa- 
 tion of Hanau and the Prussians who occupied Cassel, and 
 Austria, collecting a formidable army on the frontiers of Hesse, 
 summoned the Prussians to evacuate the province within 
 twenty-four hours. Prussia was obliged to yield, Manteuffel 
 coming to Olomouc on the 29th of November, 1850, and 
 submitting to the demands of Schwarzenberg. These were 
 that Prussia should undertake to help to reinstate the elector, 
 to do nothing in Holstein without the help of Austria, and 
 to take part in the conferences which had been opened at 
 Dresden to decide on the future organization of Germany. 
 It was long before the statesmen of Prussia forgot this humili- 
 ating conference at Olomouc. It seemed as if Schwarzenberg 
 might now begin to consider himself as the successor of Met- 
 ternich and arbiter of the fate of Europe. 
 
 The Dresden conferences ended in the re-establishment 
 of the old confederation with its central organ, the diet at 
 Frankfort. Austria tried in vain to be admitted into the 
 confederation with all her Italian and Slav provinces ; could 
 she have done so she would have secured the guarantee of 
 Germany for these possessions, and her superiority of numbers 
 over Prussia. But Prussia defeated all her efforts, and herself 
 renounced any claim to the admission of the duchy of Posen 
 into the confederation, in order to prevent that of Venice or 
 Galicia. 
 
 When Schwarzenberg died, the emperor did away with the 
 office of president of the council of ministers, but the same 
 policy was continued towards Germany. He concluded a
 
 CRIMEAN WAR. 55/ 
 
 treaty between Austria and the Zollverein, but did not succeed 
 in getting his empire incorporated with that body. In 1854, 
 he married the Bavarian princess Ehzabeth. 
 
 The Crimean war was a time of trial to Austria. There 
 was no doubt that she owed the emperor Nicholas a great debt 
 of gratitude for his services during the Hungarian revolution, 
 a debt she might now have repaid. " Austria's ingratitude will 
 astonish the world," said Schwarzenberg ; and Count Buol- 
 Schauenstein, who had succeeded the celebrated diplomatist, 
 set himself to work to prove the truth of these words. 
 
 During the whole of our century Austria's policy as regards 
 the Eastern question has been of an entirely negative character. 
 All her energies have been concentrated on Germany and Italy. 
 In the Slav or Roumanian countries subject to the Turks, her 
 interference has at times been received with gratitude, but 
 she could never interfere effectually in behalf of the Slavs of the 
 Peninsula as long as she tried to put an end to Slavism within 
 her own dominions. Hence her action has been undecided 
 and capricious. Not being able to influence Turkey, she has 
 contented herself with doing all she can to destroy the influ- 
 ence of Russia, and to support the Christians under Turkish 
 bondage. 
 
 At first. Count Buol proposed a conference to decide the 
 quarrel between Nicholas and the Porte, and at the same time 
 undertook that Austria should remain neutral on condition that 
 Russia promised to respect the integrity of the Ottoman empire. 
 Afterwards, in the month of August, he demanded that the 
 Danubian provinces should be placed under the protection 
 of the five great powers, that the navigation of the Danube 
 should be completely free, that the treaty of 1841 should be 
 revised by all the contracting parties, and that Russia should 
 renounce the protectorate of the Christians in the Ottoman 
 empire. 
 
 When the Crimean war began, Austria entered into an 
 agreement with France and England to defend the Danubian 
 provinces against Russia. The conferences which were then
 
 558 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 held at Vienna came to nothing, though by them Austria 
 gained time, and was not sorry to see Russia growing weaker 
 without any need for her to take part in the fight. She con- 
 tented herself with occupying the Principalities with the consent 
 of the Porte. One unexpected event, however, disturbed her 
 statesmen seriously. Piedmont, which they knew to be 
 governed by an ambitious and intelligent prince, had entered 
 into alliance with France and England, and had sent a body 
 of troops into the Crimea. In spite of the terror under which 
 Italy lay prostrate, might this not be a sign of some awakening 
 of the national spirit ? It was high time to try to put an end 
 to the war. Austria renewed the propositions she had made 
 in August, and demanded that part of Bessarabia should be 
 abandoned and the Black Sea declared neutral. She even 
 recalled her ambassador from St. Petersburg. Alexander 
 agreed to make peace, and on the 30th of March, 1856, 
 signed the treaty of Paris. The Black Sea was to remain 
 neutral ; the navigation of the Danube was to be free ; Russia 
 renounced the exclusive protection of the orthodox Christians 
 who were the subjects of Turkey, and all Eastern questions 
 were to be submitted to European arbitration. But an incident 
 occurred at the congress of Paris which had most serious results 
 for Austria. Piedmont was represented at the congress by 
 Cavour, and the question of Italy was incidentally brought 
 forward. The abnormal condition of the peninsula, and the 
 dangerous preponderance which Austria had acquired, were 
 pointed out both by Cavour and Walewski. The ItaUan 
 question had crept into the congress under the shadow of the 
 Eastern question, a;id once brought forward, it was not long 
 before it received the solution which had become inevitable. 
 
 The War in Italy, — The Loss of Lombardy (1859). 
 
 The results of the Crimean war were not on the whole 
 favourable to Austria. She had certainly obtained the free 
 navigation of the Danube, but the two provinces of Wallachia 
 and Moldavia had united to form one state, and that state was
 
 WAJ? IN ITALY. 559 
 
 sure to prove a fatal attraction to the Wallachians of Transyl- 
 vania. The friendship of Russia had grown cold, she even 
 accused Austria of treason. Piedmont had entered into the 
 European concert, and, sure of the friendship of Napoleon, 
 was preparing for war. War was, in fact, decided on in July, 
 1858, at a meeting between Cavour and the emperor of the 
 French, and the relations between France and Austria became 
 more and more strained, a fact which was announced some- 
 what brutally by Napoleon at the ofificial reception of the 
 I St of January, 1859. The alliance between France and 
 Piedmont was cemented a few days later on by the marriage 
 of Prince Jerome with the Princess Clotilde, daughter of Victor 
 Emmanuel. 
 
 Count Cavour next obtained the help of Lord Cowley, the 
 English diplomatist, and through him demanded from Austria 
 the creation of a national government for Lombardy and 
 Venice, the abandonment of the Romagna, and the establish- 
 ment of constitutional governments at Parma, Modena, and 
 Florence. On this, Russia proposed a congress such as Austria 
 had formerly proposed at the time of the Crimean war. In 
 reply, Count Buol took up an aggressive attitude, and de- 
 manded the disarmament of Piedmont (April 19), a demand 
 which was followed on the 3rd of May by the official declara- 
 tion of war against Austria by France. Events quickly 
 followed one another. First Leopold IL, duke of Tuscany, 
 fled; then Francis V., of Modena, carrying with him his 
 treasure and his state-prisoners. Radetsky, the victor of 
 Novara, had died the year before, and his successor, General 
 Giulay, showed none of his predecessor's ability ; he did not 
 know how to invade Piedmont or to cut the road between 
 Turin and Genoa, and he was driven back into Lombardy. 
 Then came the victories of Montebello, Palestro, Turbigo, and 
 Magenta, and Lombardy was in the hands of the allies. The 
 Austrian troops were forced to retire behind the Mincio. 
 
 The battle of Solferino (June 23) was a terrible blow to 
 the Austrian army, but Napoleon IIL was ignorant how to
 
 56o HISTORY OF A US TRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 make the most of his success. He had declared that he 
 wished to see Italy free " from the Alps to the Adriatic," but 
 he shrank from the completion of his generous task. Germany 
 had taken up arms, and he was afraid of her ; he dared not 
 rouse an impatient Hungary, and "seek strength from the aid 
 of revolution." On the nth of July, he had an interview 
 with Francis Joseph at Villafranca, which resulted in the 
 termination of the war and the peace of Zurich (November lo, 
 1859) — the most futile peace perhaps that has ever been 
 signed. By it the emperor of Austria abandoned to Napoleon 
 III., that is to say, to his ally, Victor Emmanuel, the whole of 
 Lombardy, with the exception of the fortresses of Mantua and 
 Peschiera. The grand-dukes of Tuscany and Modena were 
 to be reinstated in their dominions, and Italy was to form a 
 confederation of which Austria by right of the possession of 
 Venetia was to be one member. But these were but fantastic 
 dreams which were to fade away quickly before the wily and 
 patient policy of Cavour. Austria was obstinately determined 
 on keeping Venetia, rather from a feeling of pride than from 
 any real interest, and would not allow Italy to obtain possession 
 of it by the payment of a sum of money, a bargain which Italy 
 would willingly have made. She was to pay dearly enough for 
 her obstinacy.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 ATTEMPTS AT CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT — WAR WITH 
 PRUSSIA (1860-1866). 
 
 Return to Constitutional Government — Patents 19/1860 and 1 862. 
 
 We have thus seen how the absolute and centralized govern- 
 ment of Vienna had resulted in the dismemberment of the 
 empire, and even in the partial alienation of the fidelity of her 
 subjects, some among whom openly rejoiced over her misfor- 
 tunes. It has been said that some of the Hungarian or 
 Slavonic regiments were broken up in order that they could 
 not be called upon to fight, and that the Bohemian peasants 
 might be heard saying, " If we are beaten we shall get a 
 constitution, if we beat we shall have the inquisition." At 
 last the emperor began to understand that he had blundered, 
 and dismissed Alexander Bach, the minister whose name is 
 always associated with this time of disaster ; and then, after 
 some hesitation, he introduced certain reforms which tended 
 towards the gradual introduction of constitutional government 
 in his dominions. He first of all (March 6, i860) created an 
 enlarged council of the empire ; that is to say, he added thirty- 
 eight members, chosen from among the nobles, and repre- 
 senting the various countries of his empire, to the usual 
 council. This council was to discuss matters of finance and 
 legislation ; but it was to be a purely consultative body, and it 
 was given no power of initiation. This did not amount to 
 much compared with the claims and the hopes of the people, 
 
 2 o
 
 562 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 but in the end their influence made itself felt. Goluchowski, 
 a gentleman of Galicia, who consequently did not share in the 
 ill-feeling subsisting between the Germans and Magyars, was 
 chosen one of the ministers, and with his help was drawn up 
 the charter or patent of the 20th of October. The following is 
 a list of the principal measures of reform which it contained : 
 For the future the sovereign was to exercise all legislative 
 power only with the help of the diets, or of the council of 
 the empire, composed of delegates from the diets ; the 
 Council of the Empire {Reichsrath) was to enact the laws con- 
 cerning the common interests of all the countries — finance, 
 trade, means of communication, and war — all other matters 
 being left to the decisions of the separate diets ; all men were 
 to be equal in the sight of the law as regarded religion, taxa- 
 tion, and military service ; the number of the members of the 
 Reichsrath was to be raised to one hundred ; there was no 
 longer to be either a minister of the interior, or of public 
 worship, or of justice ; the diets were to retain their mediaeval 
 organization and class distinctions. 
 
 Schmerling was the minister chosen to develop and carry 
 out the principles of the new law, which he completed by the 
 patent of the 26th of February, 1861, But, like Bach and 
 Metternich, his first object was to keep up the influence of 
 the German element, and he tried to apply to Austria theories 
 of parliamentary government such as were only suitable to 
 homogeneous states. He created two Chambers. The Upper 
 Chamber included the princes, the large landowners, the 
 bishops, and some eminent men chosen by the sovereign. 
 The Chamber of Deputies contained more than three hun- 
 dred members, who were elected by the provincial diets. 
 Hungary sent eighty-five ; Transylvania, twenty ; Croatia and 
 Slavonia, nine ; Dalmatia, five ; Bohemia, fifty-four ; Moravia, 
 twenty-two ; Silesia, six ; Upper and Lower Austria, twenty- 
 eight ; Salzburg, three ; Styria, thirteen ; Carinthia, five ; 
 Carniola, six ; Istria and Triest, six ; Galicia, thirty-eight ; 
 Bukovina, five; and Tyrol and Vorarlberg, twelve. He
 
 SCHMERLING'S WAR. 563 
 
 restored the offices of the ministers of the interior, public 
 worship, and justice, and strengthened the authority of the 
 central parliament at the expense of the provincial diets. 
 The hopes which had been raised among the federalists by 
 the patent of October, i860, soon vanished before measures 
 like these; even the government could not expect that the 
 Hungarians would consent to give up their autonomy, and 
 to discuss the interests of their kingdom with Venetians, Slo- 
 venians, and Poles. Accordingly it was agreed that their 
 deputies should not take their seats except when the common 
 interests of the whole empire were concerned ; their presence 
 constituted a Reichsrath with full powers, while their absence 
 made the parliament an assembly of limited powers, in which 
 the various groups busied themselves with questions which 
 were beyond the competency of the several diets. In this way 
 the centralizing minister managed to get rid of the principle 
 of a dual government. At the same time he arranged all 
 the provincial diets on one model, and cleverly managed the 
 right of voting in such a way as to stifle the Slav majority 
 under the German minority. His law substituted the repre- 
 sentation of interests for the representation of countries. He 
 admitted three classes of electors — large landowners, the 
 inhabitants of towns, and the peasants. He granted especial 
 privileges to those large landed estates which belonged to 
 the nobility who were vassals of the sovereign, and to the 
 towns where the German settlers were especially numerous. 
 The electoral divisions Avere arranged in most arbitrary 
 fashion; for example, in Bohemia the Slav towns had a 
 deputy for every 12,020 electors, while the German towns 
 had one for every 10,315. In rural districts the Slavs had 
 a deputy for every 53,200 inhabitants, while the Germans 
 had one for 40,800. The German town of Reichenberg, 
 containing 19,000 people, had three deputies, while the Slav 
 town of Prague, with 150,000, had only ten. Some of the 
 German towns were indeed nothing but rotten boroughs. 
 The German hamlet of Parchen, containing 500 inhabitants,
 
 564 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 had a deputy; the Slav town of Kladno with 8000, had none. 
 In a word, the whole of this electoral system was a lie, and 
 ever since the law was passed the non-German inhabitants 
 have never ceased to demand its revision. But it is still in 
 existence, and, although it has been modified, so long as it 
 remains Austria cannot be looked upon as a state possessing 
 real representative government. 
 
 Opposition of the Nationalities to the Centralizing Reforins — 
 In stirred ion in Poland {i%6t,). 
 
 When the constitution of February had become law, the 
 various nations of the empire had to make up their minds 
 if they would accept it and send deputies to the new 
 Reichsrath. Venetia, Hungary, Transylvania, and Croatia 
 refused to do so. One hundred and forty deputies — more 
 than one-third of the whole number of three hundred and forty- 
 three — were missing. " We can wait," said M. de Schmerling 
 proudly ; but his diplomacy failed to make any impression on 
 Hungarian obstinacy. " I know nothing of any constitution 
 except the Hungarian constitution ; I can only treat on the 
 basis of the Hungarian constitution," was the invariable 
 answer of Deak to all the proposals of the Viennese states- 
 men. The Hungarian diet was convoked at Pesth in the 
 month of April, 1861, but it refused to enter into any com- 
 promise, and some of the Magyar lawyers went so far as to 
 assert that Francis Joseph was not king of Hungary, as he had 
 never been crowned. In a country whose rights are historical 
 the coronation is not merely a religious ceremony, but a 
 bilateral contract. In it the king takes an oath that he will 
 recognize all the ancient rights of the kingdom. Hence the 
 importance attached to the rite of coronation by the Chekhs 
 and Magyars. Those legists who did not recognize an un- 
 crowned king wished to pass a resolution only ; but Deak 
 persuaded them to vote an address. It was a document 
 remarkable for its lucidity and logic, and thus stated the 
 historical rights of the kingdom : " The fundamental condition
 
 INSURRECTION IN POLAND. • 565 
 
 of our political life and of our national independence is the legal 
 independence and self-government of our land. Our first 
 duty is to consecrate all our faculties to the maintenance of 
 Hungary as Hungary, and to secure to her all her consti- 
 tutional rights. . . . We solemnly declare that we cannot 
 sacrifice any of our rights which have been gained by treaty, 
 law, royal letters, or by the coronation oaths for any con- 
 sideration or any interest whatsoever." It Avent on to demand 
 that the laws of 1848 and the engagements entered into by 
 the Pragmatic Sanction should be carried out. The govern- 
 ment at Vienna, however, believing itself able to overcome 
 Hungary by force, dissolved the diet on the 22nd of August, 
 and forbade the comitat assemblies, substituting royal com- 
 missioners for the refractory Fo'ispanak. But, in spite of all 
 this, the resistance of the Magyars went on even after 
 Schmerling had succeeded in persuading the Transylvanians 
 to send deputies to Vienna. 
 
 Bohemia was hardly more satisfied than Hungary. She 
 rightly complained of the iniquitous electoral law passed by 
 the minister, and though she sent deputies to the Reichsrath, 
 she did so reserving all the rights of the kingdom, and after 
 1863 her deputies ceased to take any part in its deliberations. 
 
 The only liberty granted by Schmerling was the liberty of 
 the press, and the Slavs profited but little by it, as within 
 the space of three years the owners of the fourteen Chekh 
 newspapers published in Bohemia and Moravia were con- 
 demned to sixty-one months of imprisonment, more or less 
 harsh, amongst them, and fines amounting to 21,500 florins. 
 
 The insurrection in Russian Poland in 1863 caused intense 
 excitement in Galicia and serious embarrassment to the 
 cabinet of Vienna. Whilst Prussia concluded a military 
 convention with Russia against the rebels, Rechberg, who 
 was then Austrian minister of foreign affairs, carried on a 
 truly Machiavelian policy towards both parties. Napoleon HI. 
 sympathized with the Poles, and counted on the help of 
 Austria to enable him to fight Russia and Prussia. He was
 
 566 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 ready to help the cabinet of Vienna to recover Silesia and to 
 secure the Danubian principalities in exchange for Venetia, but 
 these projects were neither liked nor understood at Vienna. 
 The government of the emperor Francis Joseph contented itself 
 with addressing diplomatic notes to the court of St. Petersburg, 
 and finally declared Galicia in a state of siege. This conduct 
 succeeded in irritating not only the Poles, but the races akin 
 to them in Bohemia and Moravia, who were more inclined to 
 sympathize with a Polish revolution than with the Muscovite 
 autocrat. Who can say what might not have been the fate of 
 Austria if at this time she had renounced once for all her 
 position in Germany and her possession of Venetia, and had 
 looked for compensation on the side of Poland ? 
 
 It soon became evident that Schmerling's scheme could 
 not be worked, and in 1865 the emperor undertook a journey 
 to Pesth in order to try to come to an understanding with the 
 Hungarians. He decided on dismissing Schmerling, and 
 giving them a new chancellor. The advocates of a 
 Germanizing policy were in despair, but the delight in the 
 provinces was great, and the towns of Prague, Pesth, and 
 Lwow (Lemberg) illuminated. Francis Joseph declared the 
 suspension of the February constitution and the adjournment 
 of the Reichsrath until such time as the diets of Hungary and 
 Croatia should have decided on the form which their con- 
 nection with the empire should take. Schmerling was replaced 
 by Belcredi, who was a Moravian, and cared much less than 
 his predecessor for maintaining the supremacy of the German 
 nationality. The diets of the larger Slav countries, Bohemia 
 and Galicia, were grateful for the change of minister, and at 
 once set to work to undo the Germanizing measures of the 
 previous cabinet. In Galicia, for instance, the Polish language 
 was introduced into all the schools. The diet of Hungary was 
 opened on the 14th of December, 1865, when the extreme left 
 demanded that the whole of the laws passed in 1848 should at 
 once be put into execution. The liberal party, under the 
 leadership of Deak, drew up a programme which endeavoured
 
 tVAJi WITH PRUSSIA. 567 
 
 to reconcile what was possible at the time with the continuity 
 of the old rights of Hungary. To do this it was first needful 
 to restore vigour to the laws of 1848, and then to nominate a 
 responsible ministry which should be able to decide on the 
 necessary modifications. The debates on the subject lasted 
 a long time, and were finally interrupted by the war which 
 broke out between Austria and Italy. 
 
 Wdr against Pr^issia and Italy — Austria excluded from 
 Germany — Loss of Venetia (1866). 
 
 Prussia had never forgotten her humiliation at Olomouc in 
 1850. She was longing to have her revenge, and to place her- 
 self at the head of Germany. It must be allowed that such a 
 position suits her much better than her rival, for with the 
 exception of the duchy of Posen and some parts of Silesia, 
 the Prussian state is purely German. King William, who had 
 been crowned in 1861, had discovered in Count Bismarck a 
 minister whose policy was to place Prussia at the very height 
 of power. While Prussia and Austria were busied about their 
 rival claims. Count Beust set to work to organize an alliance 
 by means of which the smaller kingdoms were to maintain 
 their independence against the two great empires. 
 
 There is no need for us to recount here all the attempts 
 made by Austria to obtain the lead. We will mention only one ; 
 her proposal to draw up a uniform code of civil law for the 
 whole of Germany, a project which came to nothing. In the 
 month of August, 1863, the emperor Francis Joseph summoned 
 all the German princes to Frankfort to draw up a plan of 
 federal reform, and they all, with the exception of the king of 
 Prussia, who refused to appear, met in the Romer Hall. 
 Francis Joseph then endeavoured, though in vain, to secure 
 for his dynasty the perpetual presidency of the German con- 
 federation, and to obtain the guarantee of Germany for the 
 security, in case of war, of all his possessions which were 
 situated outside the confederation.
 
 568 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 This is not the place in which to discuss the Schleswig- 
 Holstein question. Germany had always coveted Schleswig, 
 which was half Danish, half German, and which possessed 
 ports which would have been of the greatest use to her fleet. 
 Up to this time it had formed part of Holstein, but in 1863 the 
 king of Denmark believed himself able to unite it definitely 
 to his kingdom. The diet protested, and the federal troops 
 occupied Holstein. Count Rechberg was at that time the 
 Austrian minister of foreign affairs ; he had declared that he 
 had no intention of raising the question of nationality — a 
 question which was more to be dreaded by Austria than any 
 other power — and yet he allowed himself to be persuaded by 
 Bismarck to take part with Prussia in the federal action. 
 Twenty thousand Austrians assisted the Prussians in their 
 attack on Denmark in January, 1864, and, notwithstanding 
 the valour of the Danes, the two armies had an easy victory. 
 The Austrian flag floated victoriously in the North Sea under 
 Admiral Tegethoff", and by the 30th of October, Christian IX. 
 was obliged by the peace of Vienna to cede to the conquerors 
 all rights over Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg. 
 
 But it proved less easy to divide the spoil than it had been 
 to gain it. Evidently the duchies were situated too far from 
 Austria for it to be wise for her to possess either the whole or 
 part, so when Prussia offered to buy her rights she readily 
 agreed. On the 14th of August, 1865, the convention of 
 Gastein was signed, by which Austria ceded the duchy of 
 Lauenburg to Prussia for 12,500,000 francs, a sum which 
 represented about 149 francs per inhabitant. Holstein still, 
 however, remained in the possession of Austria, while Prussia 
 kept Schleswig. It was in vain that the smaller states of 
 Germany protested against this iniquitous convention, which 
 entirely ignored their rights. Soon after, Prussia off'ered to 
 buy the duchy for 300 millions, an offer which was refused 
 by Austria. But the statesmen at Berlin were not long before 
 they found a pretext for quarrel. They complained that the 
 government of Austria in Holstein was too liberal, and took
 
 BATTLE OF S A DOW A. 5^9 
 
 upon themselves to interfere in it. Austria was in consequence 
 compelled to prepare for war, though the military force of 
 Prussia was far greater than hers, and though Prussia was 
 strengthened by her alliance with the young kingdom of Italy, 
 always longing to get possession of Venetia, and to whom 
 Prussia had promised a subsidy of 120 millions of francs. It 
 was in vain that Napoleon III. tried to settle the questions 
 about the duchies on the Elbe and Venetia in a congress 5 his 
 success was no greater than it had been in the Polish matter. 
 
 Austria felt both her honour and her military pride at 
 stake. General Gablenz was ordered to convoke the diet of 
 Holstein, in order to ascertain the wishes of the country as to 
 their future fate; whereupon Bismarck declared the conven- 
 tion of Gastien violated, ordered Holstein to be occupied, and 
 called out the Prussian army. The smaller German states 
 declared against Prussia ; but, in spite of that, she was soon 
 in possession of Hesse, Saxony, and Hanover (June, 1866). 
 Baden, Bavaria, and Wurtemburg held out against her, but 
 their resistance was feeble. Italy sent her fleet into the 
 Adriatic and her troops against the Quadrilateral, while the 
 Prussians entered Bohemia, and a terrible campaign followed. 
 Instead of occupying Saxony, the Austrian general, Benedek, 
 awaited the enemy below the passes in the Bohemian mountains. 
 His lieutenants, Clam-Gallas and Gablenz, were successively 
 defeated at Jicin and Nachod on the 26th and 29th of June. 
 He himself concentrated his troops near Kralove-Hradec 
 (Koniggratz) and the village of Sadowa, and here a great 
 batde was fought on the 4th of July, which cost the Austrians 
 20,000 prisoners, 160 g^^ms, and 18,000 killed and wounded. 
 Prague and a great part of Bohemia were immediately occupied 
 by the Prussians, and the road to Vienna lay open, the enemy 
 marching upon the capital by the Moravian highway. The 
 preceding year the topography of the whole district had been 
 studied most carefully by staff-officers, who had come into 
 Austria disguised as hawkers or photographers. 
 
 The Austrians were more fortunate in Italy. They were
 
 570 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 commanded by the archduke Albert, the son of the victor of 
 Aspern, and, strongly supported in the Quadrilateral, defeated 
 the Italians at Custozza on the 24th of June, while Admiral 
 Tegethoff, the hero of the young Austrian fleet, defeated them 
 also near the island of Lissa on the i6th of July. But these 
 successes were only a slight consolation to the military pride 
 of Austria. The loss of Venice was inevitable, and on the 
 16th of July the preliminaries of a peace were signed at 
 Mikulov (Nikolsburg), in Moravia, by which Venice was 
 given up to the emperor of the French, who restored it to 
 Italy. 
 
 Peace was signed at Prague on the 3rd of August. The 
 dissolution of the German empire and the exclusion of Austria 
 from the German confederation were acknowledged by the 
 emperor of Austria, who abandoned all his claims to the 
 duchies on the Elbe, and left Prussia to arrange matters in 
 Germany as she pleased. He also paid the conqueror an 
 indemnity of 20 millions of thalers. Thus, after half a 
 century of constant efforts to maintain her supremacy in the 
 one and her power in the other, the monarchy was finally 
 excluded from both Germany and Italy ; and she found her- 
 self, with her army destroyed and her finances ruined, face to 
 face with her Slav and Magyar peoples, of whom for so many 
 years she had made use as the passive instruments of her 
 thoughtless ambition. 
 
 Soon after all these disasters the sorely tried house of 
 Austria was called upon to bear another sorrow. Napoleon 
 III., who was at this time at war with Juarez, president of 
 Mexico, took it into his head to offer the crown of that distant 
 country to the archduke Maximilian, the younger brother of 
 the emperor Francis Joseph. He was a liberal and enlightened 
 prince. As one of the vice-admirals of the Austrian fleet and 
 head of the admiralty, he had done excellent service, while, 
 as governor-general of the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, he 
 had made laudable efforts to render the foreign yoke less 
 heavy on the Italians. In 1864, he quitted his home at
 
 ARCHDUKE MAXIMILIAN. 571 
 
 Miramar, and set out for his distant empire full of the brightest 
 hopes. But the republican party in Mexico defended their 
 native country bravely against the monarch whom France 
 attempted to impose on her, and Maximilian, abandoned by 
 his army, was captured under the walls of Queretaro, con- 
 demned to death, and shot. His high moral and intellectual 
 qualities have made his memory dear to Austria.
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 THE DUAL CONSTITUTION (1867) 
 
 Austria after Sadotva. 
 
 The situation of Austria after Sadowa was truly pitiable. Hun- 
 gary and Bohemia were in a state of profound irritation, many 
 of the Magyars making no secret of their sympathy with Prussia. 
 When, at the beginning of the Italian war in 1859, Kossuth 
 had an interview with Napoleon IH., the latter had hesitated 
 whether or not to accept help from the revolutionary party ; 
 and in 1866, general Klapka, the man who had formerly de- 
 fended Komarom (Comorn) offered to get together a Magyar 
 regiment to help Prussia, and the prompt conclusion of the war 
 had alone prevented him from taking part in the campaign. 
 In Bohemia, the king of Prussia, during his occupation of the 
 province, had published, with more diplomatic skill than 
 honesty, a proclamation to " the proud kingdom " which 
 extolled its past history and recognized its rights, and the 
 officials of the Austrian government being forced to leave their 
 posts, the Chekhs had had at that time an opportunity of 
 trying the autonomy which they had so long desired. Revo- 
 lutionary pamphlets had been scattered by millions over the 
 districts which were occupied by the enemy. The minds of 
 the populace were all the more excited because the Chekhs 
 had, at the beginning of the campaign, asked for arms with 
 which to defend their country — a request which the government 
 at Vienna had refused, because it had so little faith in their
 
 COUNT BEUST. 573 
 
 loyalty. As long as Austria had sought to find her centre of 
 gravity outside her own dominions, in Germany or in Italy, 
 she might defy the aspirations of her people with impunity, 
 and defraud them of their ancient privileges on the plea that 
 the modern empire required their sacrifice. But the moment 
 had now come in which she had to pay for a policy which it 
 had become impossible to maintain. The emperor Francis 
 Joseph did not think there was any one among his subjects 
 who could carry through the measures which had become 
 necessary. Doubtless he feared that no Austrian could be 
 found who would possess sufficient impartiality to enable him 
 to reconcile so many diverse claims and conflicting interests. 
 He therefore summoned Count Beust from Dresden, and made 
 him minister of foreign affairs. Beust had up to this time 
 held the same post in the kingdom of Saxony, and was the 
 inventor of the German alliance to which Prussia had just put 
 an end. Belcredi was still minister of the interior, but it was 
 very well known that the Saxon baron had been sent for to 
 arrange the final position of the Austro-Hungarian States. So 
 we find Austria at the very moment when she was thrust out 
 of the German confederation borrowing from Germany one 
 of her leading statesmen ! 
 
 Agreement with Hungary — The Dual Government (1867.) 
 
 Count Beust was a foreigner, and one fact alone seems to 
 have struck him in the internal history of the country, and 
 that was that in the years 1848 and 1849 the Hungarians had 
 been able to organize a formidable revolt, that they had 
 declared the rule of the Habsburgs at an end, and that with- 
 out their help it would be quite impossible to found any 
 lasting government. As a German, he could not be suspected 
 of any sympathy with the Slavs. His advice was that an 
 understanding should first of all be arrived at with the Mag- 
 yars, and consequently the various diets were convoked for 
 the 19th of November, 1866. The destinies of the empire were 
 decided at Pesth, when the new minister made up his mind to
 
 574 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 treat only with the Hungarians. A saying is attributed to 
 him which, whether it be true or false, exactly describes his 
 policy ; " Take care of your hordes," he said to an Hungarian 
 statesman, "and we will take care of ours." The hordes of 
 the Hungarians were the Croats, Servians, Roumanians, and 
 Slovaks ; the Austrian hordes were the Chekhs, the Slovenes, 
 Dalmatians, Poles, and Ruthenians ; on both sides a majority 
 held in check by the coalition of two minorities. The 
 Aiisgleich, or agreement with Hungary, was arranged by a 
 committee of sixty-seven members of the Hungarian diet, at 
 the head of whom was the Franklin of Hungary, Francis Deak, 
 that true patriot and inexorable legist, who had taken no part 
 in the revolutions, but who had never given up one of the 
 smallest of the rights of his country. 
 
 A committee of sixty-seven first of all demanded that 
 the sovereign should recognize the political individuality of 
 Hungary by giving to her a special ministry, and the con- 
 tinuity of her historical rights by being crowned as his pre- 
 decessors had been. Both these points were granted without 
 discussion. 
 
 On the 1 8th of February, 1867, the diet learned that a 
 ministry had been formed, and that its president was that 
 count Julius Andrassy who had been one of the emigrants of 
 1849. A few days before that date, Belcredi, the federalist 
 minister, had sent in his resignation. On the 8th of June, the 
 emperor Francis Joseph was crowned with great pomp at Pesth. 
 On the 28th of the following June, he approved the decisions 
 of the diet, which settled the position of Hungary with regard 
 to the other countries belonging to his majesty, and modified 
 some portions of the laws of 1848. The following is a short 
 summary of this important document, which officially recog- 
 nized the dual government, and is still the charter of the 
 Austrian empire. 
 
 The first articles enumerate the general rights of the king- 
 dom, as contained in the act of inauguration and the corona- 
 tion oath ; the king excuses himself for not having, "owing to
 
 THE AUSGLEICH. 575 
 
 circumstances," being earlier crowned, and renews the engage- 
 ments of his predecessors m. all that concerns the constitution, 
 independence, privileges, and territorial integrity of Hungary. 
 He then states that he is to exercise the executive power 
 himself, that of the palatine is to come to an end, and the 
 election of a new palatine is to be indefinitely postponed. 
 (The office had become, in fact, a useless piece of machinery, 
 now that there was a responsible cabinet settled at Pesth.) 
 That if the diet shall be dissolved before voting the budget, 
 then a 'new diet must be convoked within the year. That 
 the defence of the integrity of the empire is to be considered 
 the common business of Hungary and all the other states of the 
 empire, just as foreign affairs are common to all ; but that 
 the Hungarian diet alone is to have the right of voting the 
 Hungarian contingent. The finances, so far as concern the 
 army and foreign affairs, are to be common. The relative 
 financial liabilities of Austria and Hungary are to be arranged 
 by negociation between the diet at Pesth and the parliament 
 of Vienna. Hungary is only to enter into relations with 
 constitutional governments, it is therefore necessary that the 
 other nationalities shall be legally represented in a legislative 
 assembly. A special ministry is to be created to deal with 
 affairs common to the whole empire. Hungary does not 
 recognize the central parliament, but is to treat with the 
 other countries on a footing of perfect equality. She is to 
 choose a delegation from her two chambers, who are to arrange, 
 with a delegation from the parliament ^' of the other countries," 
 all common affairs. The two delegations shall meet alter- 
 nately at Vienna and Pesth ; they shall discuss pubhc business 
 in writing, and each shall use whatever language suits it, and 
 the same number of members shall always be sent by the 
 two diets. The common ministry is to be equally subject to the 
 two bodies of delegates, whose special business is the discus- 
 sion of the common budget. The decisions of the delegates 
 are to be published in Hungary by the national ministers. 
 The right of initiative is to belong to both bodies of delegates.
 
 576 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARV. 
 
 If either of the two parliaments is dissolved, its delegation 
 is ipso facto dissolved also. Hungary is not to be responsible 
 for debts contracted without the consent of the diet. The 
 country is to be ready, however, to accept her share of the 
 common debt after free discussion. The Hungarian diet is 
 to have the right of concluding commercial treaties with the 
 other countries of the monarchy ; exercising this power it 
 accepts the Austrian customs union, whose revenues are 
 applied to the common defence of the empire. The coinage 
 is to be uniform, but Hungary reserves the right to use her 
 own language on the coins. 
 
 In virtue of one of the articles quoted above, Hungary took 
 over thirty per cent, of the common debt. 
 
 Such was the agreement {Ausgleich) which the obstinate 
 wisdom of Francis Deak forced the two parties to accept. 
 This upright citizen, whose name is associated with one of the 
 most important documents in the national history, would 
 accept neither dignities nor honours. He even refused a 
 portfolio in the new Hungarian ministry, and contented 
 himself with remaining the leader of the moderate party in 
 the diet, the party desirous of maintaining the privileges both 
 of the Hungarians and of the dynasty, and the integrity of the 
 Austrian empire. 
 
 One consequence of the reconciliation was- a general 
 amnesty for Hungary ; but Kossuth, who had once pro- 
 claimed the fall of the Habsburg dynasty, refused to take 
 advantage of it, and remained a voluntary exile in Italy. 
 
 There is no doubt that the triumph of Francis Deak was 
 the triumph of a good cause, defended with courage, honesty, 
 and perseverance, and liberal Europe did well when she 
 applauded it. But the brilliant picture has more than one 
 shadow. With their usual selfishness, the Magyars thought 
 of no one but themselves. They have had recourse to 
 measures far from legitimate, in order to reduce to obedience 
 some of the races, such as the Croats, who proved refractory 
 to their leadership ; and they used their victory as a means
 
 CJSLEITHANIA AND TRANSLEITHANIA. 57/ 
 
 for enabling them to oppress with harsh laws the Roumanians, 
 Servians, and Slovaks, whose grievances have reached Western 
 Europe repeatedly through the press. All the non-Magyar races 
 have remained in a kind of serfdom, except the Croats, who, 
 thanks to the strength of their historical claims, have succeeded 
 in obtaining a fair share of self-government and a special 
 ministry at Pesth. But to keep these people down, the 
 Hungarians are obliged to ally themselves with the Austrian 
 Germans, for they know that the emancipation of the Slavs of 
 Bohemia, Carinthia, and Carniola would give moral force to 
 the Servians and Slovaks which might be turned against their 
 rulers at any moment. 
 
 Since the Ausgleich the empire has consisted of two parts — 
 the kingdom of Hungary and "the kingdoms and countries 
 represented in the Reichsrath, or the other lands belonging to 
 his Majesty," as is said in official documents. For the sake of 
 clearness, political language has been increased by the inven- 
 tion of two new terms, " Cisleithania " and " Transleithania," 
 to describe the two groups, separated a little below Vienna by 
 a small affluent of the Danube, called the Leitha — a stream 
 which never expected to become so celebrated. The empire 
 possesses three ministries. The Hungarian ministry at Pesth 
 consists of a president of the council, and ministers of the 
 court, of public worship and education, of public works, of 
 finance, of justice, of agriculture, of the interior, and of the 
 defence of the country. The Cisleithanian ministry, which 
 has its seat in Vienna, consists of the same members, with the 
 exception of the minister of the court ; while the common 
 cabinet is made up of the ministers of war, finance, and foreign 
 affairs alone. A special cabinet was created later on for Croatia 
 and Slavonia, as a recognition of their rights of self-government. 
 
 Slav Protests against the Dual Govenu/iefit. 
 
 Though the work of reconciliation between Hungary and 
 the sovereign was accomplished so easily, we must not suppose 
 that it was equally easy in "the other countries belonging to 
 
 2 p
 
 578 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 his Majesty." The diets of Cisleithania had been convoked 
 at the same time as that of Pesth, but they were not consulted, 
 as the Hungarian diet had been, as to the form they would wish 
 to give to their connection with the sovereign and the other 
 nations of the empire, but were simply invited to send deputies 
 to a Reichsrath which was shortly to meet at Vienna. This 
 was deciding the question beforehand. If the Magyars could 
 refuse to allow themselves to be absorbed into one sole 
 monarchy, the Slavs had quite as much right to protest against 
 a government of close centralization, such as was now offered 
 to them. It was quite true that the Germans were sure to 
 like such an arrangement, which favoured their pretensions, 
 especially as the electoral law of Schmerling secured their 
 ascendency in a great part of the empire ; and the Galician 
 Poles, possessing no historical rights, and seeing their fellow- 
 countrymen worse treated in Prussia and Russia, might fairly 
 hope to be better off if they submitted to the laws of count 
 Beust ; therefore both Germans and Galicians consented to send 
 deputies to Vienna. But the Chekhs of Bohemia and Moravia, 
 and the Slovenes of Carniola were desirous of affirming their 
 separate existence, and refused to join the new parliament. 
 In the Bohemian diet Rieger pointed out the dangers of 
 the dual government and a Germanizing policy with talent 
 and energy. The sympathy which ever since the events of 
 1863, had been felt for the Poles by the Bohemians was very 
 much cooled by the adhesion, of Galicia to count Beust's policy, 
 and some of the most eminent men in Bohemia and the other 
 Slav countries, dreading the triumph of the German policy, 
 made advances to Russia, in whom they thought they saw 
 their only possible protector from German greed. When an 
 ethnographical exhibition was held in Moscow, in 1867, and 
 some of the leading Slavs went to it, their journey was much 
 talked of both in the Austrian empire and the rest of Europe. 
 This Slav congress in Moscow was considered by some 
 people ae similar to the one which had been held in Prague, 
 in 1848, but which, owing to the disturbances of the time, had
 
 CISLEITHANIAN MINISTRY. 579 
 
 failed to obtain any results. However that may be, it is 
 certain that had the Austrian empire broken up at that time 
 the Chekhs would not have hesitated to prefer Russia, who 
 had never done them any harm, to Germany, who was their 
 hereditary enemy. Meantime the Slavs of Bohemia and 
 Moravia observed a policy of passive opposition to the parlia- 
 ment at Vienna, obstinately refusing to send deputies to the 
 Reichsrath. Such a policy had been successful with the 
 Magyars, and the Chekhs claimed for the kingdom of St. 
 Vacslav exactly the same rights as those that belonged to the 
 kingdom of St. Stephen. These questions of nationality and 
 historical rights were, however, not well understood in Western 
 Europe, and the abstention of the Chekhs was attributed to a 
 dislike of parliamentary institutions. 
 
 The Cisleithanian ministry, presided over by count Beust, 
 while it entirely ignored the claims of the various nationalities, 
 proceeded to bring forward a series of liberal measures which 
 earned the good opinion of the whole of Europe, and made 
 certain politicians in other lands demand " liberty such as they 
 have in Austria." Foreigners only saw the liberal measures 
 which received the signatures of the new cabinet ; they never 
 troubled their heads to find out whether they were actually 
 carried out in practice, or if they were in accordance with the 
 real wishes of the various nations which made up the empire. 
 The very existence of these nations was hardly known, and 
 generally completely ignored. In the French chamber, in 
 1866, a well-known statesman might be heard pleading the 
 cause of Austria, "which contained," he said, "fifteen millions 
 of Germans." He considered the Chekhs of Bohemia and 
 Moravia as Germans, as Avell as the Slovenes of Styria, 
 Carinthia, Carniola, and Istria, who had been forced into the 
 German confederation against their will, and who j were 
 anxious to leave it at the first opportunity. 
 
 The fundamental law of the 21st of December, 1867, on the 
 rights of citizens in the kingdoms and countries represented 
 in the Reichsrath^ has often been quoted as a model of liberal
 
 580 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 legislation. It confirms all the main rights of citizens before 
 the law, the inviolability of the domicile, the rights of associ- 
 ation, and freedom of conscience ; and it includes one article 
 (No. 19) which runs thus : "All the races of the empire are 
 on a footing of equality, and each one of the nations severally 
 has a right that the inviolability of its nationality and language 
 shall be secured. The equality of all languages used in the 
 empire for purposes of administration, for schools, and public 
 life is recognized by the state. In those countries which are 
 occupied by difierent races, all public educational establish- 
 ments ought to be so arranged that every citizen may be able 
 to make use of all the means necessary for instruction without 
 being obliged to learn a second language." This law, which 
 would never be needed in a country, such as France or Italy, 
 made up of one race only, is most needful in such a polyglot 
 country as Cisleithania. It has never been carried out loyally. 
 The Chekhs of Bohemia asked in vain for a Slav university ; ^ 
 the Slovenes saw their primary schools placed in the hands of 
 German and Italian masters. Such a state of things was all 
 the more surprising because, when the government thus en- 
 couraged the encroachments of one race on another, it really 
 encouraged, without being aware of it, those covetous desires 
 of its German and Italian neighbours of which it could not be 
 ignorant. 
 
 Liberal Reforms. 
 
 The first parliamentary ministry of Cisleithania was formed 
 on the 30th of December, 1867, under the presidency of 
 Prince Charles of Auersperg. It was made up of eight 
 Germans and one Pole, Count Potocki. Its first work was to 
 free Austria from the clerical and ultramontane yoke under 
 which she had lain since 1855. The concordat was denounced. 
 A marriage law decided that marriages could be contracted 
 before the civil authorities, in case of the refusal of a com- 
 petent priest to solemnize them, and that all disputes con- 
 ' Their request has been granted in the last few years.
 
 LIBERAL MEASURES. 58 1 
 
 cerning marriages must be tried before the ordinary courts. 
 Then followed a law concerning schools which freed education 
 from the authority of the Church, but as this law encroached 
 on the powers of self-government possessed by the provincial 
 diets, it was not voted without difficulty, the Federalists, the 
 Poles, Slovenes, and Tyrolese, withdrawing from the Reichsrath 
 on the occasion ; thanks, however, to the electoral system of 
 Schmerling, the German deputies were still sufficiently numerous 
 to enable the assembly to continue its deliberations, 
 
 A law regulating relations between members of different 
 religious bodies, especially in the matter of mixed marriages, 
 was next voted (May 25, 1868). The court of Rome and some 
 members of the higher Austrian clergy protested against these 
 measures, but the government persisted in them, and even 
 summoned before the courts some of the bishops, whose 
 pastoral letters had urged their flocks to disobey them. These 
 energetic measures were accompanied by financial, judicial, and 
 military reforms. Trial by jury was restored, even in cases in 
 which the press was concerned ; but we shall see later on how 
 this great reform was made of no effect among the races who 
 were opposed to the dual government. 
 
 A financial law was also brought forward by one of the 
 ministers, M. Brest), which unified the national debt, and in- 
 creased the tax on coupons twenty per cent. The credit of 
 Austria in foreign countries was seriously injured by this 
 measure. A military law which was passed in November, 
 1868, placed the army on the same footing as that of Prussia ; 
 it was in future to contain 800,000 men in time of war, and 
 255,000 in time of peace. Every citizen, except those on 
 the military frontiers, where the old arrangements still con- 
 tinued, was to have three years of effective service, to be five 
 years in the reserves, and two in the landicchr. A force of 
 volunteers serving for one year was introduced, and the 
 efficiency of the whole army increased by the use of the breech- 
 loading rifle. In the years 1S70-1S71 the war office was 
 completely reorganized.
 
 582 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 The Resistance of Bohemia — The Declaration of \Z(iZ. 
 
 But all these useful reforms must not close our eyes to the 
 prolonged struggle of the races and provinces to preserve their 
 old laws and their right of self-government against the attacks 
 of the new centralized administration of Vienna. Bohemia, 
 which had never been consulted at the time of the agreement 
 with Hungary, and which yet believed itself to possess exactly 
 the same rights, had never ceased to protest against what had 
 been done, and in 1867, as we have already seen, the Chekhs 
 refused to send deputies to Vienna. As soon as the right of 
 public meeting was admitted, enormous gatherings were held, 
 at which they claimed the restoration of their old privileges, 
 and in 1868 the emperor Francis Joseph came to Prague and 
 had interviews with the chiefs of the national party, Palacky, 
 Rieger, and Clam-Martinitz ; these interviews, however, led to 
 no solution of the difficulty. Before the jury law was passed 
 ministers showed themselves without mercy for the Bohemian 
 press, and when it had passed a curious state of things was 
 produced. Juries in Chekh towns did not fail to acquit their 
 fellow-countrymen, so the newspaper-writers were sent by the 
 government to be tried before juries in German towns, such as 
 Reichenberg and Leitmeritz, where the incriminated articles 
 could not even be read in the original. When the provincial 
 diets were convoked, the Chekhs, who, ever since the passing 
 of the electoral law of Schmerling, had been kept in a factitious 
 minority, refused to attend, and issued a manifesto, known by 
 the name of the Declaration, which remains to this day as the 
 expression of their claims. 
 
 This declaration of the Chekh deputies was dated August 
 22, 1868, and is composed of eight articles, which may be thus 
 summed up : I. Between Bohemia and the sovereign there 
 exist mutual rights and duties which are equally binding on 
 both parties. II. Austria is not one undivided kingdom. 
 The kingdom of Bohemia is attached to the rest of the empire 
 by a purely personal tie. III. No alteration in this state of
 
 DECLARATION OF THE CHEKHS. 583 
 
 things can be made except by a new contract between the 
 kingdom and the dynasty. IV. No assembly, Reichsrath^ or 
 chamber of deputies, foreign to Bohemia can impose on 
 the kingdom the debts of the empire or any other pubhc 
 burdens. V. The Hungarians have a right to treat with the 
 sovereign concerning their own interests, but not those of 
 Bohemia. VI. Cisleithania is a division of the country which 
 has no historical foundation, and Bohemia is not bound to 
 send deputies to a Cisleithanian assembly. VII. The con- 
 stitutional questions now pending between the sovereign and 
 the Bohemian nation ought to be regulated by common agree- 
 ment, and the representatives of the political Bohemian nation 
 should be chosen " on the basis of a just electoral law and an 
 honest 'election." The Slav deputies of the Moravian diet 
 published a similar declaration soon after. They declared 
 that the Rcichs7-dth had no power to decide what were the 
 rights of the various races and kingdoms, nor what were the 
 relations which, in accordance with these rights, existed 
 between them. "The dual government," they said, "is 
 founded neither on historical nor political rights. No deputy 
 from the margravate of Moravia has had any right to enter into 
 any arrangement with t\\e. Reichsrath on behalf of this land" — it 
 must be understood that they were German deputies who 
 were in question — " nor to give up the legislative power and 
 political rights of the Moravian diet to the parliament of any 
 other country. The constituent power of the Reichsrath is 
 based on a manifest violation of ancient laws, and its decisions 
 are null and void. No arrangement is possible unless it is 
 founded on our historical rights, and is entered into by the 
 sovereign in agreement with our lawfully constituted and 
 elected diet." In accordance with this declaration, the Chekh 
 deputies of Moravia refused to take any part in the diet held 
 at Brno (Briinn), as they considered that it was not a " law- 
 fully constituted and elected diet." 
 
 The fifth centenary of the birth of John Hus, in July, 
 1 868, afforded an opportunity for further manifestations of the-
 
 584 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HVNGARY. 
 
 national feeling, and the crisis reached such a point that the 
 government proclaimed Prague in a state of siege, and it 
 remained so down to April 29, 1869. Those who had signed 
 the declaration were re-elected in Bohemia as well as in 
 Moravia for the diet of this year. Finding that it was impos- 
 sible to get the Chekhs and Moravians to the parliament at 
 Vienna, the government now hit upon the plan of having the 
 deputies for the Reichsrath elected directly by the electors, and 
 not by the diets ; but this measure was not tried until a good 
 deal later on, and when it was tried it did not produce the 
 desired effect. On several occasions successive cabinets made 
 offers based on the existing constitution to the leaders of the 
 national party, but it was precisely this constitution which the 
 Chekhs refused to accept. They insisted on the terms pro- 
 posed in the declaration, and things remained in this state down 
 to the time of the Franco-German war. 
 
 The Galiciaji Resolution (1868) — The Insurrection of the 
 Bocchese (1869). 
 
 In Galicia, the Poles and Ruthenians possessed no his- 
 torical rights in the monarchy, and had no contract with the 
 dynasty to invoke ; they were consequently more conciliatory 
 than the Chekhs. Notwithstanding the efforts of the Smolka 
 party, which was desirous of entering into a close alliance with 
 the latter, the diet of Lwow (Lemberg), under the influence 
 of Goluchowski, had voted for the sending of their deputies 
 to the Reichsrath, and by so doing had recognized the new 
 constitution. Most of the Poles only looked upon themselves 
 as temporary guests within the Austrian monarchy, and 
 troubled themselves little about the interests of other countries 
 or races. Whilst waiting for better times they did all they could 
 to obtain the best terms possible for themselves, and they 
 looked forward to making Galicia merely the 'basis on which 
 to restore the Poland of their dreams. There was, how- 
 ever, a federalist and democratic party, amongst them, and 
 this party expressed its views in a resolution something like
 
 INSURRECTION OF THE BOCCHESE. 585 
 
 the declaration of the Chekhs. In September, 1868, they 
 drew up the following programme : Deputies to the Reichsrath 
 can be nominated by the diet only; the central government 
 has no power to order direct elections ; the Galician deputies 
 can take no part in the deliberations of the Reichsrath except 
 on matters common to Galicia and the Cisleithanian countries ; 
 the diet alone has power to decide all questions concerning 
 the commerce of the country, its finance, rights of citizenship, 
 laws concerning foreigners, education, justice, and administra- 
 tion ; Galicia must have a supreme court of appeal ; and she 
 demands a separate government, which shall be responsible to 
 her diet, and a responsible ministry. 
 
 There is no need to say that these claims were all rejected 
 by the Germans, who, thanks to the electoral system which we 
 have already explained, formed the factitious majority of the 
 Reichsrath. When submitted to this assembly, in 1869, they 
 were met by the previous question. The Ruthenian deputies 
 also opposed them, because they dreaded lest the Poles should 
 become too powerful, and looked for support from an energetic 
 central power. In the eastern extremity of the empire also, 
 numerous meetings were held by the Slovenes, who demanded 
 the formation of a kingdom of either Slovenia or of Illyria, which 
 should include Trieste, Istria, Gorica, Gradisca, Carniola, South- 
 ern Carinthia, and Southern Styria. The struggle was not less 
 lively in the diet of Zara in Dalmatia, between the Italian 
 ministry, supported by the government which was everywhere 
 hostile to the Slavs, and the representatives of the Servo-Croats. 
 Towards the end of 1869 an insurrection broke out in the 
 Bocche de Cattaro. The Servians of this district are a warlike 
 race, very like the men of Montenegro. They refused to 
 allow the new law about the latidivehr to be carried out. They 
 were ready to take up arms in defence of their mountains, but 
 they refused to allow themselves to be enrolled in the regular 
 army and to be turned into kaiserliks. They took up arms. 
 A state of siege and martial law were in vain proclaimed, 
 nor could the resources of strategy employed by two
 
 586 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Austrian generals succeed in reducing these able marksmen 
 to obedience. General Rodich, a countryman of their own, 
 was, however, more successful ; he subdued the Bocchese 
 more by persuasion than by force, and the revolt, in which 
 many lives had been lost, was terminated by the amnesty of 
 December, 1869. 
 
 Grievances of t/ie Servians, Croats, and Roumanians against 
 the Hungarians. 
 
 In Hungary itself the Magyars displayed great harshness 
 towards the races who had been sacrificed to them by the 
 Atisgleich. M. de Laveleye has said, with great acuteness, 
 " The Hungarians can only see what they wish to see ; 
 to everything else they are blind." The Croats had always 
 been dissatisfied with the conditions which the Magyars 
 endeavoured to impose on them, and in 1866 their diet had 
 passed a number of resolutions declaring that Croatia would 
 give up no portion of her right to self-government, that she 
 had no longer any intention of sending her representatives to 
 the Hungarian diet, but that she should treat directly with the 
 sovereign. In consequence of this they refused to send any 
 deputies to the diet at Pesth, whereupon the Magyars twice 
 dissolved the diet of Zagreb (Agram), first in January, and then 
 in May, 1867. The Croat diet on its side refused to vote the 
 measures proposed at Pesth, and protested against the annexa- 
 tion by Hungary of the port of Fiume, a place which was 
 claimed by each of the kingdoms. Bishop Strossmayer, who 
 was the soul of the opposition in Croatia, and who afterwards 
 took so distinguished a part in the council of the Vatican, 
 w^as in consequence sent into exile ; and a man of doubtful 
 character, whose name had been associated with some scan- 
 dalous speculations,' was appointed locum tenens hanalis of 
 Croatia. The Hungarian government finally had recourse to 
 an expedient which recalls the measures employed by Schmerl- 
 ing ; they altered the law concerning elections for the diet, 
 and so obtained a subservient assembly, which enabled them
 
 GRIEVANCES OF THE SLAVS. 587 
 
 to carry out their designs. The majority which they obtained 
 by this manoeuvre concluded a treaty with the Magyars, which, 
 however, could only be of a merely temporary character and 
 had to be subsequently modified ; by it the Croats agreed to 
 send thirty-one deputies to the parliament at Pesth ; to have 
 no responsible minister of their own at Pesth ; to consent that 
 the ban at Zagreb (Agram) should exercise only executive 
 authority, without adding military to civil power ; and that the 
 Croatian taxes should be paid into the Hungarian treasury, 
 with the exception of 2,200,000 florins, which were to be kept 
 for the needs of Croatia. A certain amount of autonomy was 
 still left to the country, but it felt itself deeply injured by the 
 alterations which had been made in the diet, by the character 
 of the ban appointed to rule over it, and by the persecutions 
 inflicted on every organ of the national party. The reign of 
 terrorism was so complete at Zagreb that independent news- 
 papers had to be published in Vienna. Later on, in 1873, 
 Croatia obtained a more equitable arrangement and a respon- 
 sible ministry at Pesth. 
 
 But even now the grievances of the Croats against the Mag- 
 yars are far from being at an end, and they must exist so long as 
 Hungary continues to treat as she does the Servians, Slovaks, 
 and Roumanians. While the Magyars repress the Slav and 
 Roumanian races they give the Germans complete freedom. 
 What Germans are allowed to do is shown by the fact that 
 immediately after the Franco-Prussian War in 1861, a review 
 clothed in the colours of the German empire made its appear- 
 ance at Pozsony (Pressburg). It was proudly entitled Die 
 Deutsche Wacht an der Donaic (" The German Watch on the 
 Danube"), and was the counterpart of "The Watch on the 
 Rhine." In consequence of the agreement of 1867, the office of 
 the Servian voicvode has been suppressed, and the Servian 
 lands have been incorporated once more in the kingdom of St. 
 Stephen. The Magyars have done everything in their power 
 to make the land Hungarian in feeling, and even pretend that 
 the Servians are nothing more than a religious sect. They
 
 588 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 oblige them to attend Magyar schools, and have persecuted the 
 Servian newspaper, Zastava, whose editor, Miletic, has had to 
 pass part of his life in prison, in spite of his inviolability as 
 one of the deputies to the parliament at Pesth. 
 
 The Omladina, a literary society of Servian students, and 
 the Matiisa, a society for the publication of Servian books, have 
 both been the objects of harsh measures. Among the Slovaks 
 the higher schools have been closed and the Matiisa sup- 
 pressed ; these measures have been justified on the plea of 
 Pan slavism, but they left behind them a feeling of profound 
 irritation. 
 
 The Roumanians have not been any more fortunate than 
 the Slavs. On May 15, 1868, they held a meeting near 
 Blasin, in memory of the one held twenty years before on the 
 same spot. On this occasion they once more demanded their 
 recognition as a nation by the side of the Szeklers, Saxons, and 
 Magyars ; but the diet at Pesth, when it annexed Transylvania 
 to Hungary as a mere province of that kingdom, completely 
 put an end to all their hopes.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 AUSTRO-HUNGARY FROM 1867-1S78. 
 
 Efforts towaj-ds Federation — The Hohenwart Ministry (187 1). 
 
 As might have been expected, the Ausgleich of 1867 only 
 satisfied the Magyars and the German population of Austria ; 
 the Poles of Galicia put up with it as a merely temporary 
 arrangement, while doing all in their power to make it sub- 
 servient to their plans for the future ; all the other races made 
 no secret of their dislike towards it. The position of the 
 cabinet of Cisleithania was extremely difficult, as disputes con- 
 tinually arose in the Reichsrath^ and deputies from Tyrol, 
 Galicia, and Slavonia in turn refused to sit in the assembly. 
 One ministry succeeded another in rapid succession. One of 
 them, under the leadership of Potocki, tried to bring in a 
 measure which was meant to satisfy the federalist party, while 
 at the same time endeavouring to maintain the constitution of 
 1867. It proposed that the upper chamber should be com- 
 posed of members elected by the various diets ; while the 
 Reichsrath should be made up of deputies chosen by direct 
 election. This arrangement would have given some recogni- 
 tion to the sentiment of nationality, but it came to nothing, and 
 the position of affairs was soon still further complicated by the 
 breaking out of the Franco-German War. The military con- 
 dition of Austria at the time was not such as to justify her 
 either in rendering aid to France or in taking revenge on 
 Prussia or Sadowa. The government was left in the hands of
 
 590 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 the German majority, who applauded the success of their 
 Prussian compatriots, and celebrated the praises of the new 
 Germany in newspapers inspired by Berlin. The Magyars also 
 for the most part rejoiced in the Prussian victories, as they 
 believed that if Cisleithania were only once absorbed into the 
 Greater Germany, they would have their hands free for the 
 realization of all their ambitious dreams for their own country. 
 Things were in this position when the emperor deemed it 
 advisable to place at the head of affairs a cabinet which was 
 to attempt to carry out a federalist policy (February, 187 1). 
 Count Hohenwart, governor of Upper Austria, was its leader. 
 He at once proceeded to give two of the portfolios to Chekhs, 
 naming M. Jirecek minister of education, and M. Habetinek 
 minister of justice, two appointments which left no doubt as to 
 the policy of the new cabinet : evidently its first object was to 
 satisfy Bohemia. But the task before them was a hard one ; 
 they had to deprive the Germans of that supremacy which, 
 owing to the actual condition of the law of election, was theirs 
 without dispute, and to do so they must quarrel with Germans 
 at home and abroad. One of the leaders of the German party 
 exclaimed in the very Reichsrath itself, "To grant Bohemia 
 what might be granted to Galicia would be to reduce two 
 millions of Germans to the position of the Ruthenians. But 
 it must not be forgotten that these Germans are the relatives of a 
 great people who are their near neighbours P Another orator 
 said, " We have not conquered at Sedan in order to become 
 the helots of the Chekhs ; " while some of the newspapers drew 
 comparisons between Bohemia and Schleswig, and alluded 
 plainly to the part to be played by Prussia as liberator. 
 
 Negociations with Bohemia — The Fundamental Articles. 
 
 In spite of all this, Count Hohenwart set bravely to work. 
 He placed himself in communication with Rieger and Palacky, 
 the political leaders of Bohemia, and presented to the Reichs- 
 rath a new law, which enlarged the powers of the provincial 
 diets and granted them the initiative in legislative matters. There
 
 NEGOCIATIONS WITH BOHEMIA. 59 1 
 
 is no need to say this proposal was rejected, A little later 
 he proposed a special law for Galicia, which embodied most of 
 the principal points of the Galician Resolution ; and when 
 called upon to state if he intended to bring forward similar 
 measures for the other provinces, he frankly declared that if 
 Bohemia would be satisfied with the same concessions which 
 he was prepared to make to Galicia, he should not hesitate to 
 offer them to her. This was the signal for a general outbreak. 
 The Germans in the Reichsrath voted an address to the 
 emperor, in which they declared that the cabinet no longer 
 enjoyed their confidence (May 26). The sovereign replied by 
 proroguing both the Viennese chambers, and on the 12 th of 
 August the Reichsrath was dissolved. The provincial diets were 
 summoned for the following 14th of September. In the mean- 
 time official negociations were carried on between Vienna and 
 Prague, and a scheme was drawn up by Count Clam Martinitz 
 and Rieger, who has played a part in Bohemia similar to that of 
 Deak in Hungary, and on this scheme the final reconciliation of 
 Bohemia with constitutional government was to be based. Both 
 the emperor and his cabinet showed themselves prepared to make 
 important concessions. On the 14th of September the Bohemian 
 diet was opened with a message from the king. The Chekhs, 
 who had been absent for some years, now took their seats, 
 and, thanks to the new elections, in which for the first time the 
 government had not falsified the votes, they had a majority, 
 even in spite of the electoral law of Schmerling. The royal 
 message promised that the rights of the kingdom of Bohemia 
 should be recognized, and that the coronation should take 
 place ; it then invited the diet to say by what means a cordial 
 agreement could be brought about between the kingdom and 
 the rest of the monarchy. " Recognizing the political import- 
 ance of the crown of Bohemia," said the emperor, " calling 
 to mind the renown and glory which that crown has conferred 
 upon our predecessors, and full of gratitude for the fidelity 
 with which the Bohemian nation has supported our throne, 
 we are ready to recognize the rights of the kingdom and to
 
 592 HISTORY OF AUSTKO-HVNGARY. 
 
 repeat this recognition by the coronation oath." This declara- 
 tion was received with enthusiastic joy by Bohemia, Moravia, 
 and Carniola, but excited great wrath among the Germans. 
 Measures embodying a new law of election, and another con- 
 cerning the various nationalities, were laid before the diet, 
 whereupon the German deputies immediately protested and 
 quitted the house. A commission was, however, appointed to 
 draw up a definite scheme which should settle the relations of 
 the kingdom of Bohemia with the rest of the Austro- Hungarian 
 empire, and the Fundamental Articles were the result of its 
 labours. These were unanimously agreed to by the diet and 
 then forwarded to Vienna, after which the assembly broke up 
 to await the reply of the sovereign. 
 
 According to these Fundamental Articles, Bohemia, like 
 Hungary, was to be represented by delegates, who were to be 
 chosen by the diet at Prague, and not by the Reichsrath, and 
 these delegates were to vote on all the business common to the 
 empire. All communications with the other Cisleithanian states 
 were to be carried on by means of these deputies. Bohemia 
 was to have full powers of self-government, and the only 
 matters which were to be considered the common affairs of 
 the monarchy were war, foreign affairs, and trade. A senate 
 composed of members nominated by the emperor was to settle 
 all differences which might arise between the various kingdoms 
 and states of the empire. And, finally, the representation of the 
 towns and rural communities was to be considerably increased, 
 a measure which would secure to the Chekh nation that 
 influence in the kingdom which belonged to it by right both 
 of its numbers and its past history. The diet of Moravia 
 accepted these Funda?nental Articles, and at the same time 
 demanded the establishment, or rather the re-establishment, 
 of a special chancery for the countries of St. Vacslav. All 
 the Slavs of the empire ardently longed for the success of a 
 policy which must lead Austria towards federation, and put an 
 end to the supremacy of the German and Magyar races. 
 
 It was not surprising that the scheme of Messrs. Rieger
 
 COALITION OF THE EMPEROES. 593 
 
 and Clam Martinitz roused the utmost anger of both the 
 Germans and the Magyars. We have already pointed out why 
 the Magyars dreaded Slavism. As for the Austrian-Germans, 
 there were very few among them who put in practice the old 
 maxim of Francis II., " Justiiia erga omnes nationes est 
 fiindamentum Austricz" Many of them longed for a Greater 
 Germany, and would have welcomed the destruction of that 
 nation of Chekhs which so obstinately stood in the way 
 between Vienna and Berlin, and which, as was often said, 
 was a thorn in the flesh of Germany {ehi Pfahl in deutschen 
 Fleische). 
 
 Federation checked. 
 
 Although, according to the treaty of Prague, Austria was 
 never to meddle with the internal affairs of Germany, the same 
 rule has by no means been observed by Germany as regards 
 Austria ; Berlin statesmen have continued to bestow the 
 same jealous attention on their kinsmen on the Upper 
 Elbe and the Danube as they formerly bestowed on their 
 brethren in Schleswig and Alsace. By the help of a portion 
 of the Viennese press, they had never ceased to advocate 
 the claims of the Germans in the empire, while the numerous 
 interviews between the emperors for which the baths of Gastein 
 offered a convenient excuse, presented opportunities for the 
 interchange of plans in which German interests certainly 
 were less frequently sacrificed than those of Austria. In the 
 summer of 187 1 these interviews were unusually frequent, taking 
 place at Ischl, Salzburg, and Gastein ; the emperor of Austria 
 had repeated conversations with the emperor of Germany, and 
 count Bismarck with count Andrassy. The whole German 
 and Magyar influence was thus brought to bear against the 
 hopes of Bohemia, and to such a coalition the emperor Francis 
 Joseph thought himself obliged to yield. The first step back- 
 wards was taken by the government when it declared that the 
 Fundamental Articles must be submitted to the approaching 
 Reichsrath. To all who knew how that assembly was com- 
 
 2 Q
 
 594 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 posed, the result of such a step could not be doubtful. M. 
 Rieger went to Vienna, and made a final effort to get the 
 sovereign to fulfil his engagements, but, less fortunate than 
 Deak, he failed in his attempt. In spite of this he received a 
 most enthusiastic reception when he returned to Prague. In 
 November, 187 1, the minister Hohenwart sent in his resigna- 
 tion j Count Beust — for reasons which still remain obscure — 
 was relieved of his office of chancellor, and sent as ambassador 
 to London ; and Andrassy, head of the Hungarian cabinet, was 
 nominated to his post, thus securing the preponderance of the 
 Magyar influence in the counsels of the empire. 
 
 All things being now ready, a new German ministry, pre- 
 sided over by A. Auersperg, forced the king to break the 
 promises he had made with Bohemia, and simply invited 
 the diet of Prague to send deputies to the Rcichsrath. Per- 
 secutions of the Slav press began again with renewed vigour, 
 and a spectacle was seen such as had never before occurred 
 in any country in the world — the police publicly destroying 
 copies of the imperial manifesto which recognized the rights 
 of Bohemia and promised to renew them in the coronation 
 oath. The Bohemian diet, refusing to treat with any other 
 person than their lawful king, was dissolved, as were also the 
 other assemblies (November 25), and a new Reichsrath was 
 summoned. Notwithstanding the absence of the whole body 
 of federalists, a large enough number of deputies obeyed the 
 summons to enable the sittings to take place, and the dual 
 government was restored in full vigour. 
 
 Present State of Austro-Hungary — Economical Pivgress and 
 Liberal Pefor?ns. 
 
 Let us for a moment forget these painful and irritating con- 
 flicts between reasons of state policy and historical or national 
 rights. The final conclusion we draw from our study of these 
 conflicts is, that the present sovereign of Austro-Hungary has 
 not yet completely succeeded in bringing to the various nations
 
 PRESENT STATE OF THE EMPIRE. 595 
 
 who compose his empire an era of justice or the satisfaction of 
 their legitimate desires. One great and important fact has, 
 however, been accomplished in his reign : Austria has ceased 
 finally to seek for her centre of gravity outside herself; she has 
 ceased to domineer over Germany or to interfere in the 
 internal affairs of the new German empire. She has left, never 
 more to return to it, the Italian peninsula, in which she used to 
 waste so much of her military strength, her credit, and renown. 
 She has been completely reconciled to the House of Savoy, 
 and the friendly visits which have been exchanged between the 
 monarchs at Venice and Vienna have cemented the friendship 
 between the old monarchy and the new kingdom, whose 
 interests are no longer opposed, and who can only gain by 
 being friendly neighbours. It is quite true that there is still a 
 party in Italy, the Italia irredenta, who demand the restoration 
 of the districts of Trent, Trieste, Istria, and perhaps to-morrow 
 may lay claim to Dalmatia itself. It is quite possible that the 
 Italian portion of the Tyrol may some day attempt to return 
 to Italy ; but as regards her other provinces Austria has one 
 very simple means of holding Italian greed in check ; she has 
 only to develop that Slavonic element which constitutes the 
 numerical majority of the population, and which has no wish 
 whatever to be absorbed into a foreign kingdom. Of all the 
 states round Austria, Italy is the one who has now the 
 strongest interest in the maintenance of the Habsburgs in 
 their empire, and the one to whom their ruin would cause the 
 greatest risk of danger. The renunciation of all claim on 
 Italy by Austria may be looked upon as an event fortunate 
 for both parties. She might be equally congratulated on 
 having finally quitted Germany, if she had not kept in her 
 midst a German minority who are greedy of influence, and 
 who are always ready to sacrifice the interests of the non- 
 German races to their own selfishness. This minority has 
 made terms with the Hungarians because it despaired of ever 
 being able to absorb them. It would be feeble enough if it 
 were left to itself, but the connection, intellectual, political.
 
 Sg6 HISTORY OF A US TRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 and social, which it carefully keeps up with Greater Germany, 
 still gives it a certain amount of vigour. 
 
 We can say nothing of the state of "Austrian civilization," 
 owing to the composite character of the monarchy. The only 
 unity possible to the various parts of the State in their general 
 condition is that of economic situation, and even here w^e 
 cannot describe it as especially Austrian, since it is common 
 to Austria with many other countries, and many of the manu- 
 factures and railroads have, in fact, been set on foot by 
 foreigners. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that for the last thirty years the 
 central government have neglected nothing which could raise 
 the several states to the highest pitch of economical prosperity. 
 Numerous lines of railway have placed Vienna, Pesth, and 
 Prague in communication with the most distant spots in the 
 empire. Treaties of commerce and navigation have been 
 concluded with France, England, and Russia, and international 
 exhibitions have given evidence of the progress of industry. 
 The one which was held at Vienna in 1873 was one of the 
 most interesting of our time. It coincided, unfortunately, with 
 a great financial disaster, a crash by which public credit was 
 considerably shaken. Out of one hundred and forty-seven 
 joint-stock banks, ninety-six failed in less than three years. As 
 we have already said, Vienna had become since 181 5 a city of 
 banks and speculation. The institution of the lottery had 
 encouraged a taste for stock-jobbing and speculation of all 
 kinds among its inhabitants. 
 
 Strangers who have visited the capital both before and 
 since this time have been able, to give evidence of the many 
 improvements which have been made in late years. The old 
 fortifications have been destroyed, wide boulevards and squares 
 have been constructed, and it has become one of the finest 
 cities in Europe. Its example has been followed by Prague 
 and Pesth. The courses of the Danube and of the Tisza 
 (Theiss) have been regulated. The Austrian navy had been 
 greatly improved under the influence of the archduke Maximilian
 
 PROGRESS OF EDUCATION. 597 
 
 and admiral Tegethoff, and obtained, to the surprise of the 
 whole of Europe, an unexpected success at Lissa/ It has 
 since undertaken several scientific explorations, among which 
 the expedition of the frigate Novara deserves especial men- 
 tion. It was carried out under the auspices of the arch- 
 duke Maximilian and the command of Captain Wullersdorft 
 the Novara visited many ports both in the New and Old 
 Worlds, and collected much valuable material for the study of 
 natural science. The steamship Tegethoff also made an 
 expedition to the North Pole, under Messrs. Payer and Wey- 
 precht, which was watched with interest by the whole of 
 Europe. It left in June, 1872, and did not return till October, 
 1874, during which time it made its way to latitude 82° 5', to 
 the north of Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen, to lands whose 
 existence had not before been known. Here it spent two 
 winters in the ice. The brave sailors had been given up for 
 lost, and on their return were received with enthusiastic marks 
 of welcome by their countrymen. 
 
 When once the schools were withdrawn from clerical con- 
 trol, and education was carried on according to liberal ideas, 
 public instruction made rapid progress; but not so rapid, 
 however, as would have been the case had the various national 
 tongues not had to contend against German and Italian, which 
 had a constant tendency to supplant them. Two universities 
 were founded — that of Zagreb (Agram) for the southern Slavs, 
 and that of Czernowitz, which dates its creation from the 
 centenary of the annexation of Bukovina (1875). From this 
 time all the sciences have been taught both in Croatia and 
 Hungary in the national languages. Bukovina, less fortunate, 
 has had a German university bestowed upon it, which now 
 forms the last landmark of German civilization on the borders 
 of Russia. Two academies have also been founded, one at 
 Zagreb, which place becomes more and more the Athens of 
 Jugo Slavonia, and the other at Cracow. The latter owes its 
 existence to the efforts of the minister Jirecek, and has become 
 ■ See p. 570.
 
 598 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 the great centre of literature and science among the Poles. 
 The Faculty of Protestant Theology, the Fine Arts Academy, 
 and the Polytechnic Institution of Vienna have all been reorgan- 
 ized, and treaties concerning copyrights have been signed with 
 other countries. 
 
 If Austria were made up of one nation only, all speaking 
 the same language, this would be a fitting opportunity in which 
 to say a few words about the actual state of its literature ; but the 
 whole of our history of the empire serves to show that there 
 can be no "Austrian " literature. The various languages have 
 made unequal progress and manifested their genius in widely 
 different ways. The German literature which flourishes at 
 Vienna, Prague, and Pesth, is simply an offshoot or reflection 
 of that of Germany. The Hungarian literature, which has its 
 home at Pesth, is an original production of the Magyar soil and 
 the Magyar turn of mind. The various Slavonic literatures, in 
 spite of their common origin, are far from following the same 
 lines. They have but few points of contact, and, as a rule, take 
 very different paths. The Poles and Ruthenians of Galicia 
 hold extremely divergent, and often even opposite, opinions. 
 The Chekhs, whose intellectual superiority is incontestable, 
 have not been able to impose their language on the Slovaks, 
 and they on their part have a hard struggle to hold their own 
 against the Magyars. The Croats try to make friends with both 
 the Catholic Slovenians, and the Orthodox Servians. In the 
 Slav town of Livow (Lemberg) ; in Cracow, among the Poles 
 and Ruthenians ; in Prague and Brno (Briinn), among the 
 Chekhs and Moravians ; Ljublanja (Laybach), among the 
 Slovenians ; Zagreb and Ragusa, among the Croats ; and Novi 
 Szad (Neusatz), among the Servians of Hungary, we find the 
 most active intellectual life. We have already pointed out 
 how much the destinies of the various nations have been 
 influenced by the development of their literature, and we have 
 no space in which to enumerate even the principal names of 
 authors and their works. 
 
 During the second half of the reign of Francis Joseph,
 
 PROGRESS OF LIBERAL IDEAS. 599 
 
 Austria has entirely abandoned the old absolutist principles of 
 Ferdinand IV. and Francis II., and has taken her place among 
 the liberal states of Europe. But, at the same time, it must 
 never be forgotten that a large number of Austrian subjects 
 have been deprived, by an electoral system whose mechanism 
 we have already described, of the rights which seem to belong 
 to them by virtue of the constitutional laws. Austria has pro- 
 claimed the liberty of the individual as a citizen, but not as 
 a member of a particular nation or race. The nobles have 
 lost their old privilege of freedom from military service ; the 
 peasant has ceased to be subject to the lord ; trials are all oral 
 and public; the penal code has been modified; trial by jury 
 instituted ; corporal punishment in the army and in the prisons 
 abolished ; Jews have been placed on an equality with other 
 citizens, though usury has been restrained ; and the military 
 frontier has been deprived of its special government. 
 
 The constitution of December, 1867, in spite of all its 
 defects, has brought with it a large number of liberal laws 
 concerning the general rights of individuals, as, for example, 
 those of individual liberty, the inviolability of the household, 
 the right of association and public meeting, civil marriages, 
 concerning also the relations between the Church and public 
 education, and of the various religious sects among themselves. 
 The Austria of the days of Francis II. and Metternich has 
 passed away ; but it certainly cannot be said that the present 
 Austria is a really liberal empire. Until she has found out 
 some means of granting the free use of the same rights to all 
 her people, and has contrived to harmonize them in a well- 
 balanced state, Austro-Hungary must remain a provisional 
 state, and must possess a negative rather than positive influence 
 on the affairs of Europe.
 
 600 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 The Eastern Question reopened — Uncertain Policy of Austria 
 (1874-1878). 
 
 The weakness of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy has been 
 shown more than once during recent events in the East. In 
 1874, an insurrection broke out among the Slavonic populations 
 of Bosnia and Herzegovina belonging to the Servian and 
 Croat stocks, the causes of which need only be sought in the 
 bad government of the Turks. Austria, instead of boldly 
 taking the part of the Christians and acting as their deliverer, 
 was rendered quite helpless by her internal divisions and the 
 pressure put upon her by her powerful neighbours, Russia and 
 Prussia. The Triple Alliance, which was begun at the time of 
 the first partition of Poland, had been renewed. In 1872, 
 the three emperors had met at Berlin, and since that time the 
 Oriental policy of the three cabinets remained more or less 
 identical, Russia being the most important member of the 
 alliance, and Austria the least important. 
 
 In 1874, the Austrian ministers, after direct negociation 
 with Roumania, concluded a treaty of commerce with that 
 state and an agreement relative to railroads. On the Porte 
 protesting against this as a violation of its sovereign rights, the 
 three governments of Austria, Russia, and Prussia agreed to 
 disregard its remonstrances. " There will come a time," ex- 
 claimed Aarifi Pacha, " when it will become impossible for the 
 will of man to restrain the torrent which a long series of 
 broken treaties will let loose ! " 
 
 From its very beginning the insurrection in Bosnia and 
 Herzegovina caused serious difficulties to Austria. She had 
 to contend with the ill-will of the Magyars and the restless 
 jealousy of her allies. Hungary thought the Slavs already 
 too numerous in the empire, and had no wish to see their 
 numbers increased by the annexation of territory ; they are 
 always in dread of being overwhelmed by the Slavonic majority. 
 It was the interest of Russia and Prussia not to allow their ally 
 to enlarge her borders or increase her armies out of the war-
 
 EASTERN QUESTION REOPENED. 60I 
 
 like inhabitants of new districts. The policy of Austria after 
 1874 was most contradictory. At times she allowed the Turks 
 to violate her territory and ravage the borders of Croatia with 
 impunity; at times she forbade them to disembark arms and 
 troops on their own territory at Klek. Her ambassador at 
 Constantinople, in concert with General Ignatiev, obtained the 
 promise of the Porte to carry out those famous reforms which 
 she is always promising and never granting. The diplomatists 
 who reconmiended them knew perfectly well they could never 
 be carried out. Count Andrassy's note of January, 1876, did 
 but formulate the wishes of the whole of civilized Europe, yet 
 the conference held at Constantinople in December of the 
 same year only served to show the powerlessness of diplomacy 
 and the incorrigible obstinacy of the Porte. It became evident 
 that the sword alone could cut through the difficulty ; but the 
 declaration of war against Turkey on the part of Servia and 
 Montenegro only increased the difficulties of Austria. The 
 Slavs called upon the empire to take part in the struggle, 
 and followed with feverish interest the various phases of the 
 heroic but fatally unequal struggle. The Hungarians on their 
 side lost no opportunity of showing their hatred to the Servians 
 and their sympathy for Turkey. When Abdul Kerim Pacha 
 won the battle of Djunis over the Servians, a subscription was 
 raised in Pesth to present to him a sword of honour. A 
 Magyar deputation was sent to the softas or Mussulman 
 students of Constantinople, to express the enthusiastic friend- 
 ship of Hungary ; and General Klapka, the old defender of 
 Komarom, who had once offered his sword to Prussia against 
 Austria, now placed his military experience at the service of the 
 Porte, Soon after the softas came to Pesth to return the visit 
 of their Magyar brothers, and the sultan, as a testimony of his 
 gratitude to the Hungarians, sent back to the emperor king 
 some remains of the great library of ]\ISS. which had been 
 formed by Matthias Corvinus, and had been pillaged by the 
 Turks.^ These indications of feeling, slight enough in them- 
 ' See p. 243.
 
 602 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 selves, showed what were the feehngs of the Hungarians to- 
 wards Russia, and that the Magyars could not forgive Nicholas 
 for the part he had taken in 1849. They also deeply offended 
 the Slavs, who identified their cause with that of the Servians 
 and Bulgarians. Some counter-manifestations took place at 
 Prague in honour of the Russian general Tcherniaiev, but 
 these were rigorously suppressed by the Austrian police. 
 
 At Pesth M. Andrassy was unable to restrain his violent 
 fellow-countrymen, or make them understand that public 
 demonstrations would not influence the foreign policy of the 
 empire. He could not control the popular excitement, and 
 even encouraged it by his own action. He caused the Servian 
 Stratimirovic, one of the heroes of 1848, who had offered his 
 sword to Prince Milan Obrenovic, to be arrested ; and he had 
 the journalist deputy, Miletic, thrown into prison on the 
 charge of having wished success to his fellow-countrymen, and 
 of having negociated a loan for their cause. In order to justify 
 these extraordinary acts, old laws were appealed to which 
 pronounce all those who shall supply arms to Turks or other 
 infidels guilty of high treason ! 
 
 And thus the monarchy, divided against itself, was forced 
 to follow the lead of its two powerful allies, and, notwith- 
 standing the enthusiasm of the Slavs and the indignation of 
 the Magyars, had to be the passive observer of the triumph 
 of Russia, who, after the fall of Plevna, marched with her 
 victorious troops to the very gates of Constantinople. The 
 treaty of San Stefano, which was afterwards modified by the 
 congress of Berlin, proclaimed the independence of Roumania, 
 Servia, and Montenegro, and increased their territory, while 
 Bulgaria was made an independent principality, under the 
 nominal suzerainty of the sultan, but under the actual control 
 of Russia.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 AUSTRO-HUNGARY FROM 1878 TO 1S89. 
 
 The Occupation of Bosnia. 
 
 In consequence of arrangements which had been secretly 
 entered into before the war, Austria was to receive some 
 compensation for her accommodating neutraUty, and this 
 compensation took the form of that article in the treaty of 
 Berlin (July 13, 1878) which called upon her to occupy the 
 provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina "to restore order in 
 them." These were the provinces which had given the signal 
 for the insurrection throughout the whole Balkan peninsula 
 which had provoked the interference of Russia. They may 
 have hoped that if they could only beat the Turks, they might 
 become, like Bulgaria, an independent principality, or else 
 might be allowed to form part of the neighbouring state of 
 Servia or of Montenegro, either of which was so closely allied 
 to them by race. They were little aware of the fate that 
 awaited them. The preliminary treaty of San Stefano, which 
 was signed on the 3rd of March, 1878, by Russia and Servia, 
 had merely declared that to them should be applied " the 
 ameliorations proposed by the conference of Constantinople, 
 with such modifications as should be unanimously agreed 
 upon by the Porte, Russia, and Austro-Hungary." The treaty 
 of Berlin, which was signed in the July following by the 
 representatives of all the great powers united in congress, 
 decided the matter very differently.
 
 604 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 "The provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina," says Article 
 Twenty-nine, "shall be occupied and governed by Austro- 
 Hungary. The Austrian government, not wishing to under- 
 take the administration of the sandjak of Novibazar, which 
 extends between Servia and Montenegro to the south-east, 
 as far as Mitrovitza, the administration shall there remain in 
 the hands of the Turkish government. Nevertheless, in order 
 that the new political situation may be maintained, and that 
 the means of communication may be free and safe, Austro- 
 Hungary reserves the right of keeping garrisons, and of having 
 military and commercial roads in all this portion of the old 
 vilayet of Bosnia." 
 
 This last clause is of great importance. The sandjak of 
 Novibazar is that portion of Bosnia which separates Servia 
 from the principality of Montenegro. It was very strongly 
 the interest of the government at Vienna to isolate the two 
 Servian principalities whose territory had been increased by 
 the treaty of Berlin, and who might at any moment become 
 desirous of joining forces against the Turks. In consequence 
 of this clause, any such common action, whether against Turkey 
 or Austro-Hungary itself, became impossible. Austro-Hungary 
 held I\Iontenegro by her command of the gulf of Cattaro, and 
 Servia by the Danube ; her occupation of Bosnia and Herze- 
 govina quite put an end to the hopes of those Servian or 
 Montenegrin patriots who had hoped to see a Slav monarch 
 on the throne of the Czar Douchan. Had they succeeded in 
 forming such an empire it must have become the centre of 
 attraction to the Slav provinces of Dalmatia and Croatia, as 
 well as to the Servians of Novi-Szad and Temesvar. Austria 
 thus averted a serious danger by stifling in their germ these 
 hopes of the Servian patriots; but a feeling of deep disap- 
 pointment was produced in Belgrade and Zettinje, Many 
 patriots would have willingly sacrificed all the advantages 
 accorded to the two principalities by the treaty of Berlin, if 
 only they could have seen the statu quo a?ite belluvi re- 
 established in Bosnia and Herzegovina in all its integrity. As
 
 EFFECT OF THE TREATY OF BERLIN. 605 
 
 for the two provinces still remaining to Turkey, the maxim 
 adversus hostein ceterna auctoritas would always have been 
 true ; pretexts would never have been wanting to the Ser- 
 vians and Montenegrins to justify intervention on their parts 
 for the deliverance of their Slav brethren ; but all such oppor- 
 tunities passed away the moment Austria undertook to intro- 
 duce the principles of religious tolerance, of equality of race, 
 and an European administration of affairs. 
 
 Leaving on one side the interests of Servia, Montenegro, 
 and, perhaps, those of the Bosnians and Herzegovinians 
 themselves, this clause in the treaty of Berlin might have 
 consequences of the gravest import to the whole Balkan 
 peninsula and the peace of Europe. Up to that moment no 
 foreign power had inherited the spoils of Turkey — at any 
 rate in Europe. The revolutions of Servia, of Greece, 
 Roumania, and Bulgaria, had profited none but the Servians, 
 the Greeks, Roumanians, and Bulgarians. Russia, after 
 having reached the very gates of Constantinople, had retired 
 with praiseworthy disinterestedness, and in exchange for all 
 her sacrifices had obtained nothing but a few remote and 
 unimportant advantages. But a new principle was now 
 proclaimed by Europe, namely, that the provinces of the 
 Ottoman empire might at any moment be claimed by the 
 various European powers. If Austria established herself 
 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, why should not Italy seek to 
 do the same in Albania, Russia in the territory immediately 
 below the Balkans, and England in Constantinople 1 — a grave 
 problem, which is not yet solved, but which will certainly force 
 itself into prominence some day with serious risk to the cause 
 of justice and of peace. The only equitable solution of the 
 Eastern question is that which assures to each and every of 
 the peoples, so recently under the dominion of the Turk, the 
 peaceable and complete possession of that soil which is theirs 
 by every right conferred by history or race. 
 
 Moreover, Article Twenty-nine of the treaty of Berlin 
 raises further apprehensions of disturbance. When we find
 
 6o6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Austro-Hungary established in the sandjak of Novibazar, at 
 the head of the railway and the military road which run 
 from Mitrovitza to Salonica by the valley of the Vardar, we 
 cannot help fearing that Viennese statesmen dream of some 
 day seizing this highway, and so securing most valuable outlets 
 into the Egean Sea and the East.^ But the forcible possession 
 of Salonica could not be effected without seriously disturbing 
 the equilibrium of the Balkan peninsula, and, as a natural 
 consequence, of the peace of Europe. 
 
 The moment Austria was in possession of the mandate, 
 confided to it by the congress of Berlin, the government began 
 to put it into execution. On the 31st of July and the ist 
 of August, 1878, the troops, commanded by field-marshal 
 Joseph Filipovic, crossed the Save and entered the new domain 
 of the empire. It was expected that the occupation would be 
 effected without striking a blow, but difficulties wholly unlooked 
 for were encountered. 
 
 The Mahomedan inhabitants of Bosnia, who joined the 
 aristocracy of the country, could not see the links which 
 bound them to their co-religionists in Constantinople snapped 
 asunder without regret ; they could not unconcernedly watch 
 the reversal of a state of things by which they had profited 
 for centuries, or reform abuses to which they owed all 
 their prosperity. The Orthodox Greeks mourned for the loss 
 of their hopes of union with the other Servian countries. The 
 Catholics alone could feel any real sympathy with the Austrian 
 occupation. 
 
 In order to take complete possession of the two provinces, 
 
 one entire army corps, as well as a division of infantry, were 
 
 put into requisition. The Turkish government could not 
 
 officially refuse to obey the commands laid upon it by Europe, 
 
 but it secretly conveyed arms, ammunition, and food to the 
 
 Mahomedans in the two provinces. Several companies were 
 
 * It has been not unreasonably supposed that Prussia has a strong 
 interest in forcing Austria towards the East, partly that it may be a check 
 on Russia, partly that so the German elements of Cisleithania may be the 
 more readily detached from it and annexed to Germany.
 
 OCCUPATION OF BOSNIA. 607 
 
 soon organized under the command of a brave and fanatic 
 chief, Hadji Loja, every strong man between the ages of 
 fifteen and seventy being enlisted. A revolution broke out 
 at Serajevo, and a provisional government was organized for 
 the purpose of resisting the foreign occupation, with Hadji 
 Loja for its head, under the title of First Patriot of the land. 
 The Austrians had crossed the Save without meeting with 
 any resistance, but as soon as they reached the first mountain 
 defiles they found themselves confronted by well-armed troops, 
 who thoroughly understood how to profit by those natural 
 obstacles with which the country abounds. They were re- 
 pulsed at Maglaj, and again at Gradac. They soon found out 
 that they had before them, not merely a few hastily impro- 
 vised bodies of militia, but twenty-six battalions of the Turkish 
 army, provided with artillery, and that it was no mere show 
 of military strength that would win the day. The inhabi- 
 tants of the country for the most part fled from the towns, 
 which they were powerless to defend against the cannon of 
 the enemy, and took shelter among the natural fastnesses, 
 from whence they were able to inflict considerable losses on 
 the army of occupation. More than five thousand Austrians 
 were killed, and it became needful to send for reinforcements. 
 It was the 19th of August before they were able to take 
 Serajevo ; and even with the fall of the capital of Bosnia, 
 hostilities did not cease, for war was still carried on among the 
 mountains. Herzegovina was not completely occupied before 
 the end of September, and Bosnia not until a month later, 
 and before they could secure possession of the two provinces, 
 the Austrians had been obliged to bring into the field three 
 entire army corps, and to spend sixty-two millions of florins. 
 
 The occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, nothwith- 
 standing its apparently temporary character, is evidently re- 
 garded as a definite conquest by Austro- Hungary. Though 
 the sultan remains the nominal sovereign of the two pro- 
 vinces, yet it is Austro-Hungary who administers them, and 
 most certainly she has no intention of abandoning her prize.
 
 6o8 HISTORY OF A USTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 Their possession opens to her, as we before had occasion to 
 remark, the route to Salonica, and other large and important 
 outlets for her commerce, and it secures safe and easy com- 
 munication between Hungary and Dalmatia. In short, this 
 last acquisition is ample compensation for the loss of Venice. 
 The two provinces together measure 19,985 square miles 
 (23,877 with the addition of the sandjak of Novibazar, occupied 
 but not governed by Austria). They contain a population of 
 about 1,400,000, all speaking Servian or Croatian dialects, but 
 divided by religion into three groups — 500,000 Mahomedans, 
 571,250 of the Orthodox Greek Church, and 265,710 Catholics. 
 The various religious bodies maintain a tolerably even balance 
 of power, and enable Austria to act on her favourite maxim — 
 divide in order to govern. 
 
 Ready instruments have been found among the Slav, Chekh, 
 Servian, and, above all, among the Croat subjects of the older 
 Austrian possessions, to carry out the work of organization in 
 these her latest acquisitions. Clearly the new province does not 
 rightly belong either to Hungary or to Cisleithania; it has no 
 claim to be represented either in the parliament of Vienna or 
 in that of Pesth ; it is therefore governed in the name of the 
 emperor-king by the minister of finance common to the whole 
 empire, by means of a special chancery. We shall see later on 
 how this administration is organized. The Mahomedans have 
 retained their peculiar privileges and laws. 
 
 In the year 1881, the Austro-Hungarian government intro- 
 duced compulsory military service into the two provinces, and 
 this innovation, the possibility of which had been quite over- 
 looked by the treaty of Berlin, provoked an ofificial remon- 
 strance on the part of Turkey, and occasioned several promptly 
 suppressed insurrections. In a material point of view the 
 country has made great progress ; railways have been made 
 between Brod and Serajevo, and between Mitrovitza, Mostar, 
 and Serajevo. This last-named town tends to become more 
 and more European, and its economic conditions have been 
 greatly changed for the better. Nevertheless, we ask ourselves
 
 CONSEQUENCES OF THE OCCUPATION. 609 
 
 whether these improvements have not been too dearly bought, 
 and whether the two provinces would not have been the greater 
 gainers by submitting to a few more years of Ottoman rule, 
 which might have been followed by real and entire inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 Political Consequences of this Occupation. 
 
 Prior to the treaty of Berlin the wishes of Servia were in the 
 direction of annexation with Bosnia, while those of Montenegro 
 tended towards union with Herzegovina. The disappoint- 
 ment of their hopes deeply angered the two small Servian 
 states, but the policy each has since pursued has been widely 
 different. Montenegro has remained faithful to Russia, her 
 natural protectrix. At the same time prince Nicholas has 
 endeavoured to make it clear to the other states that it is his 
 wish to preserve an attitude of absolute religious tolerance 
 towards all his subjects. By a recently concluded agreement 
 with the Holy See, he has established a Catholic bishop at 
 Bari (Antivari) ; he has done more, for he has obtained from 
 Leo Xni. an authorization enabling the Catholics of the 
 Montenegrin states to celebrate the mass henceforth in the 
 Slavonic tongue. On the other hand, his eldest daughter has 
 married a prince Karageorgevitch, a member of one of the two 
 royal houses who contended for the possession of Servia for 
 sixty years, and who at one time laid claim to the throne. 
 Montenegro, small as it is — for it cannot number more than 
 two hundred thousand inhabitants — backed by Russia, is not 
 incapable of inspiring some uneasiness in the mind of the 
 Austrian government. 
 
 It seemed as if Servia, exasperated by the loss of Herze- 
 govina, would also throw herself into the arms of Russia, and 
 thus, by means of close alliance with that power, in conjunction 
 with Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece, obtain sufficient 
 influence to be able to insist on an addition to the pitiful 
 concessions made to her by the treaty of Berlin. Backed by 
 such allies, Servia would have succeeded in making herself 
 
 2 R
 
 6lO HISTORY OF A USTRO- HUNGARY. 
 
 sufficiently dangerous to the Austrian interests in the peninsula. 
 Austria, however, hastened to recognize the title of king 
 assumed by prince Milan towards the end of 1882, while, 
 on the other hand, its policy was directed towards detaching 
 the newly-created kingdom from the small neighbouring states, 
 as well as from any alliance with Russia. This was all the 
 easier to do because the feelings of the Servian nation were 
 deeply wounded by certain declarations of the late emperor 
 Alexander II. In order to fulfil the obligation laid on her by 
 the treaty of Berlin, Servia was forced to have recourse to 
 foreign capital to enable her to construct the stipulated line 
 of railway from Belgrade to the Bulgarian and Ottoman 
 frontier. She found ample credit at Vienna, but this placed 
 her, in all economical matters, completely under the tutelage 
 of Austro-Hungary. Gradually this tutelage extended to 
 matters of policy, and during the years that have elapsed 
 between 1878 and 1889 the kingdom of Servia has practically 
 become the vassal of its powerful neighbour. When, at the 
 end of the year 1885, notwithstanding the treaty of Berlin, 
 Roumelia united itself to Bulgaria, Servia, instead of following 
 the good example set her by her fellow Slavs, thought it 
 her duty to take part against them. Under the pretence 
 of maintaining the equilibrium of the Balkan peninsula, king 
 Milan declared war against the Bulgarians, and announced 
 his intention of annexing a portion of their territory. For- 
 tune, however, deserted him. The Austro-Hungarian cabinet, 
 which was certainly answerable for his interference in the 
 quarrel, could not, without seriously compromising the peace 
 of Europe, take up arms in his defence. Yet, though it was 
 unable to go so far as this, its policy was made sufficiently 
 plain by the imperious manner in which it intervened between 
 the belligerents. At the very moment when prince Alexander 
 of Bulgaria, already master of Pirot, was preparing to march 
 on Nich, and, perhaps, even on Belgrade (November, 1885), 
 the Austrian envoy at that city interposed, and conveyed to 
 him an injunction to cease hostilities. Prince Alexander
 
 FRESENT TRIPLE ALLIANCE. 6ll 
 
 obeyed, and Servia was saved. It is very possible that king 
 Milan might have been completely overthrown, had he not 
 been well protected by his dangerous ally. 
 
 If Austria has been unable to prevent Bulgaria from 
 enlarging her boundaries, at least she has seen with satisfaction 
 the fall of prince Alexander of Battenberg, to whose daring 
 and bravery the new state owes its existence. She is clearly 
 more in sympathy with his successor, Ferdinand of Coburg, 
 who has risked the experiment of going to Sofia, and who, 
 looked askance at by Russia, ought plainly to seek at Vienna 
 for that encouragement which is refused him at St. Petersburg. 
 Austria has over and over again declared her intention of 
 preventing any second occupation of the Balkan peninsula by 
 a Russian army. Her foreign policy ever since her own 
 occupation of Bosnia has been resolutely in favour of peace. 
 The only act of a warlike character in her recent history has 
 been the naval demonstration before Dulcigno, when the 
 Austrian fleet united with those of the other great powers in 
 compelling Turkey to surrender the town to the Montenegrins. 
 
 By a secret treaty, concluded in 1879, and published at the 
 beginning of the year 1888, at a time when Russia seemed to 
 be assuming a threatening position, Austria and Prussia have 
 agreed to maintain the state of things created by the treaty 
 of Berlin, and to aid each other in case of attack on either by 
 Russia. Italy has since joined the two great central powers of 
 Europe. The object of this triple alliance is, to all appear- 
 ances, the maintenance of peace throughout the continent ; it 
 has certainly contributed to affirm the hegemony of Germany. 
 
 In 1886, both parts of the monarchy gave their assent to a 
 law with regard to the organization of the landsturfn, which 
 raised the number of the soldiers to four hundred and fifty 
 thousand. It is doubtful whether this force will ever be directed 
 against Prussia. Austria appears to have completely forgotten 
 Custozza and Sadowa, and has behaved towards the new 
 German empire with a friendliness which has sometimes 
 astonished the rest of the world.
 
 6l2 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUXGARY. 
 
 The Taaffe Ministry and the Policy of Conciliation towards 
 Bohemia. 
 
 The annexation of Bosnia brought about the fall of the 
 Auersperg ministry. The German party, of which he was the 
 representative, was opposed to it, while the federalists and the 
 ultramontane parties highly approved of it. On the accession 
 to office of count Taafe, who succeeded Auersperg, the former 
 announced his intention of treating all the nationalities with 
 impartial justice. His appointment as minister was a great blow 
 to the so-called constitutional party, whose chiefs were Herbst 
 and Giskra, and whose real aim was the maintenance of 
 the German influence throughout Cisleithania. Count Taaffe 
 has succeeded in persuading the Chekhs to take part in the 
 Austrian Reichsrath, a task which had been beyond the power 
 of all his predecessors. Declaring that they did not intend 
 to sacrifice the principle of nationality, and did not renounce 
 their claims, they nevertheless cordially lent their aid to the 
 new cabinet, and count Taaffe made M. Prazak, one of the 
 Moravian deputies and the friend of all the political leaders 
 of Bohemia, one of his ministers without portfolio. Later 
 on M. Prazak became minister of justice, and two Galician 
 Poles, Ziemialkowski and Dunajewski, were made members 
 of the Cisleithanian cabinet. His alliances with the Chekhs 
 and Poles secured a firm majority to the minister, and enabled 
 him to overcome the resistance of the German so-called 
 liberal or constitutional party, and the hostility of the Vien- 
 nese, which at times makes itself felt in the sittings of the 
 Reichsrath. 
 
 Though the coronation of the sovereign has not yet been 
 granted to Bohemia, she has, at any rate, received a national 
 university. This institution supplies a real need, and already 
 has enrolled more than two thousand students. It was opened 
 at the same time as the national theatre at Prague, which 
 latter building had been raised by national subscription, and 
 may be looked upon as a sign of the triumph of Slavism in
 
 POLICY OF CONCILIATION TOWARDS BOHEMIA. 613 
 
 Bohemia. Another new and interesting institution is the 
 tnatice skolska, or national fund for schools, whose object it is 
 to provide funds to enable Chekh schools to compete with the 
 German schools, and to increase the means of education in 
 those parts of the country where they are still insufficient. 
 This matice skolska is to the Chekhs what the Schulvereiii, or 
 School Society, is to the German patriots of Austria. The 
 latter is supported also by subscriptions from Germany, and 
 its aim is to create or aid German schools in Slav or Magyar 
 districts. 
 
 Notwithstanding the resistance of the German party, 
 count Taaffe has been able to proclaim the complete equality 
 of the Chekh and German languages, both in the administra- 
 tion and in courts of law. The lowering of the amount of 
 taxes which must be paid to qualify for voting, and a new 
 division of the electoral districts, have at last secured to the 
 Chekhs that majority in the parliament at Prague which is 
 their due; they have 176 votes to 75. The Germans have 
 ceased since 1886 to take any part in the deliberations of this 
 assembly. They demand that the kingdom of Bohemia shall 
 be subject to two administrations, the one German, the other 
 Chekh ; a dangerous proposal, if it were possible, as it would 
 mark out beforehand that portion which might become part of 
 Germany, in case of any future annexation. Wurmbrand, one 
 of the deputies, also endeavoured, in 1884, to have German 
 proclaimed by the Reichsrath the official language of Cis- 
 leithania. He did not succeed, his proposal being negatived 
 by 186 votes against 155. In the elections of 1885 the German 
 party lost fifteen votes. 
 
 On the whole, the Slavs of Bohemia owe a certain debt of 
 gratitude to the Taafe ministry, as it has endeavoured as far 
 as possible, and often in difficult circumstances, to put into 
 practice the motto, '■'■ Justitia ergo omnes nationes est fimda- 
 mentuin AustriceJ" It is strongly the interest of the Chekhs 
 to be patient, and up to the present time their deputies seem 
 to be willing to concentrate their energies on what is practi-
 
 6l4 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 cable, and to content themselves with whatever concessions 
 they can from time to time obtain in favour of their language 
 and their nationality. They are divided into two well-defined 
 parties — that of the young Chekhs, who are more radical and 
 exacting in their demands ; and that of the old Chekhs, who 
 are moderate in their wishes and more inclined to wait their 
 opportunity, seeking support at need from the nobles and 
 priests, and earnest in their endeavours to live peaceably with 
 all men. Both parties are seeking the same end by different 
 means, that end being the recognition of the historical rights 
 and autonomy of Bohemia, and neither of them dreams of 
 severing the ties which bind that kingdom to the rest of the 
 Austro-Hungarian state. 
 
 Hungary. 
 
 Notwithstanding the attacks which have been aimed against 
 the dual government by the Slavs and Roumanians, Hungary 
 has continued to enjoy that privileged position which was 
 bestowed upon her by the Ausgleich of 1867. The compact 
 was renewed in the years 1877 and 1887, only one important 
 modification being agreed upon. The military frontiers, no 
 longer necessary, owing to the enfeebled condition of Turkey, 
 have been placed under ordinary civil government. When 
 this was done the Magyars agreed to pay two per cent, more 
 to the budget of the empire. In 1867, it was settled they 
 should pay thirty per cent. ; they now pay thirty-two per cent. 
 An Hungarian, count Kalnoky, has been the Austrian minister 
 of foreign affairs since 1881. Tisza has continued minister 
 of the interior ever since 1875. On the death of Deak, in 
 1876, he succeeded in forming a government party which has 
 assured him a majority. During his ministry the two most im- 
 portant measures passed have been a law concerning secondary 
 schools and the reformation of the Chamber of Magnates. 
 This venerable assembly, which has at certain times included 
 as many as eight hundred members, has, indeed, as we shall 
 see later, been very considerably reduced.
 
 AfA GYARIZA TION. 6 1 5 
 
 As regards Croatia and the other non-Magyar races, the 
 work of Magyarization has been carried on ceaselessly. Every 
 manifestation of national life among the Servians, Slovaks, 
 Roumanians, Ruthenes, and Saxons has been repressed, and 
 these races are hardly represented at all in the parliaments 
 at Buda-Pesth. In order to diminish the number of the 
 Slovaks and to increase that of the Magyars it has even been 
 proposed to carry off Slovak orphans and bring them up in 
 purely Hungarian districts. At the present time the ban who 
 governs at Zagreb, Kuhn Hedervary, calls himself the huszar 
 of Tisza. On the other hand, Hungary has herself been 
 unsuccessful hitherto in her repeated endeavours to obtain 
 a national army distinct from that of Austria. 
 
 While strongly opposed to all Germanizing influences within 
 their kingdom, the Hungarians, in their attitude towards foreign 
 countries, have maintained the policy by virtue of which 
 Austria remains attached to Germany. In 1888, Tisza went 
 so far as to pronounce from the tribune during the session 
 words which he knew must annoy France, and which never 
 would have been used in the parliament of Vienna. The 
 incident was, at any rate, of use in proving that the present 
 representatives of the nation do not share the opinions of the 
 revolutionists of 1848. On the 2nd of December, 1888, the 
 emperor Francis Joseph celebrated the fortieth anniversary of 
 his accession. Of a truth, Austro-Hungary is now very different 
 from what she was when the poet could find her nowhere 
 represented except in the camp of Radetsky. Her people are 
 at peace, her credit is restored, and her citizens are governed 
 by laws which secure to them individual liberty, the inviola- 
 bility of their homes, and sound relations between Church and 
 State. The Austria of Francis I. and Metternich is no more ; 
 but at the same time she is surrounded by difficulties, which 
 have not been lessened by the abdication of king Milan and 
 the present state of afifiiirs in Servia. Incapable of an inde- 
 pendent policy of her own, she is at the mercy of formidable 
 neighbours, who insist on her alliance, while they try to obtain
 
 6l6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 for themselves some fragments of her territory; and at the 
 present time we may end our labours with the same words 
 which closed the first edition of our history. Unless some 
 unforeseen event occurs, the situation of the Austrian state 
 must remain precarious, and its future inspire with grave 
 anxiety the minds of those who consider the maintenance of 
 a powerful Danubian State necessary to the peace of Europe. 
 
 It only remains for us to draw up a summary of the organi- 
 zation of Austro-Hungary, the elements of which it is composed, 
 and the resources which are at its command.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 ORGANIZATION AND STATISTICS OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Common Affairs. 
 
 We have already explained the dual organization of Austro- 
 Hungary, as it was settled in 1867, and the formation of Cis- 
 and Trans-Leithania. We will now consider how this com- 
 plicated system of government with its double parliament 
 works. Emperor at Vienna, the monarch is only apostolic 
 king at Buda-Pesth ; in each portion of his dominions he 
 enjoys the ordinary privileges of crowned heads, inviolability, 
 the right to make peace and war, and the right of pardon. On 
 his accession he swears that he will respect the constitution, in 
 Vienna before the two chambers, at Buda-Pesth at the time 
 of his coronation. In all matters of common concern the legis- 
 lative powers belong to the representative assemblies of the two 
 portions of the empire, and are exercised through Delegations, 
 who are nominated each year and meet together alternately 
 at Vienna and Buda-Pesth. Each part of the empire delegates 
 its authority to sixty members.^ In Cisleithania these sixty 
 are made up of twenty from the chamber of the lords, and 
 forty from the Reichsrath^ of whom ten represent Bohemia, 
 seven Galicia, four Moravia, and the rest the other provinces. 
 In Transleithania also twenty are taken from the chamber of 
 magnates and forty from that of the deputies. 
 
 ' See Government Year Book for 1888, by Lewis Sergeant, pp. 
 362-380 : Fisher Unwin ; also England's Case against Home Rule, 2nd 
 edition, pp. 58-65 : A. V. Dicey : Murray
 
 6l8 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 The two representative bodies meet, as we have said, 
 alternately at Vienna and at Buda-Pesth, and deliberate by 
 correspondence ; if they cannot come to an agreement after 
 the interchange of three messages, they then meet in full 
 conclave and vote without further debate. Besides those 
 matters which are called common affairs, there are certain 
 other questions, such as laws concerning customs, coinage, 
 railways, and military contingents, which require that a 
 preliminary understanding shall have been arrived at by the 
 two portions of the empire. In such cases the two cabinets, 
 at the suggestion of the common ministry, propose similar laws 
 to the parliaments of Vienna and Buda-Pesth, and these bodies 
 record their votes ; or else two commissions are appointed to 
 draw up the laws required. The Delegations have the right 
 to demand explanations from the common ministry and to 
 call them to account. When met in full conclave, the sessions 
 are presided over alternately by the one or the other president. 
 The Viennese Court of Accounts examines into the expenses 
 of the common budget. 
 
 Organization of Cisleithania. 
 
 In official language the Cisleithanian group is sometimes 
 called the group of states or provinces " represented in the 
 Reichsrath" while the Hungarians are contented to be known 
 as " the other countries belonging to his majesty." The bases 
 of the constitution are the two patents of October, i860, and 
 February, 1861 (see Chapter XXXIV,), and various laws relating 
 to the national representation. Cisleithania is a representative 
 state, the Reichsj-ath, or Council of the Empire, being the organ 
 of national representation. It is divided into two chambers, 
 the house of lords {Herrenhaus) and the house of deputies 
 {Abgeord7ietenhaus). The house of lords is formed of the 
 princes of the imperial family who are of age, and the members 
 of those great families on whom the sovereign has conferred 
 hereditary peerage, nine archbishops, seven bishops, and certain 
 persons nominated for life by the emperor. The number of
 
 THE REICirSRATir. 619 
 
 members is not limited, the emperor having power to add to 
 it at will. It contains at present one hundred and ninety 
 members. According to a law passed on April 2, 1873, the 
 house of deputies is composed of three hundred and fifty- 
 three deputies, who are chosen for six years. These are elected, 
 not by universal suffrage, which does not exist in Austria, but 
 by various electoral bodies, large landowners, towns, villages, 
 and rural parishes, and the system works in favour of the towns 
 where the German element prevails, and against the rural 
 districts where it does not. This chamber of deputies at 
 Vienna can by no means be looked upon as fairly representative 
 of the country. In 1885, out of three hundred and fifty-three 
 members, one hundred and ninety-four were German, twelve 
 Italian, three Roumanian, and only one hundred and forty-four 
 Slav; these Slavs were fifty-eight Chekhs from Bohemia and 
 Moravia, sixty-five Poles, three Ruthenians, nine Slovenians, 
 and fourteen Dalmatians ; a curious proportion, if we remember 
 that in Cisleithania the Slavs are at least twice as many as the 
 Germans. In the electoral bodies which fall within the first 
 three classes, the bodies, namely, of the large landowners, of 
 towns, and of chambers of commerce, elections are direct ; in 
 the rural district they are indirect. 
 
 The Reichsrath meets every year ; in the house of lords the 
 president and vice president are elected by the emperor, in 
 the lower house they are chosen by the members. The two 
 chambers have control over all matters common to the various 
 countries which are represented in them, with the exception of 
 those which are within the jurisdiction of the delegations. All 
 other questions are left to the provincial assemblies. Cis- 
 leithania is not, like France and Italy, a uniform, centralized 
 state divided into departments ; it is made up of many countries, 
 each of which has its separate historic traditions and provincial 
 institutions. Each of them, except Trieste, where the muncipal 
 council holds the same position, possesses a provincial diet. 
 Some of these diets, such as those of Bohemia and Galicia, are 
 as important as real parliaments. They are composed of
 
 620 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARV. 
 
 members by right of office, and members chosen for six 3'ears 
 by the electoral bodies. Archbishops, bishops, and rectors of 
 universities are members by right of office, and in Tyrol to 
 these are added four representatives of the abbots and priors. 
 The president, who takes the title of the marshal of the land, 
 and the vice-president are appointed by the emperor, while the 
 permanent committee {Latidesaiisclniss), which is the executive 
 body, is elected by the diet from among its own members. 
 In some of the countries there are, besides, councils oi circles 
 which somewhat resemble the general councils of France. Each 
 parish has a municipal council and elects its own burgomaster. 
 The general direction of affairs in Cisleithania is confided 
 to seven ministers, those of the interior, justice, public education, 
 trade, agriculture, finance, and defence ; this last must not be 
 confounded with the minister of war who holds office from the 
 whole empire. Besides these the emperor reserves the right 
 of nominating one or more ministers who hold no portfolio, 
 but represent the rights of certain countries to self-government, 
 or their historical traditions, such as are possessed by Bohemia 
 and Galicia. At the head of each state or province there is 
 placed a lieutenant or governor; and each province is again 
 divided into circles {Bezirke), having each at its head a captain 
 (^Bezirkshauptmann). Each parish governs itself so far as 
 concerns its internal affairs, except with regard to education, 
 the schools of both parishes and circles being subordinate to 
 a provincial council of education, which also manages the 
 financial arrangements of the schools. Justice is administered 
 by the high court of Vienna, which is at the same time a court 
 of appeal, by nine superior courts {Oberlandsgerichte), sixty-two 
 provincial courts, and eight hundred and ninety-six lower courts. 
 Trial by jury exists both for ordinary crime and press offences; 
 but in so polyglot a state as Austria, where so many races are 
 in perpetual conflict, trial by jury does not guarantee justice to 
 the same extent as it does in other lands. In Bohemia, for 
 instance, if the writer of a Chekh article written against the 
 Germans is tried before a jury in a Chekh town, he is almost
 
 ORGANIZATION OF HUNGARY AND CROATIA. 621 
 
 certain to be acquitted ; but if he is sent — as has happened 
 more than once — by the higher authorities to be tried by a 
 jury in a German to.vn, he is equally certain to be condemned. 
 The Cisleithanian countries are divided among three 
 hundred and twenty-seven captains of circles. Thirty-two 
 royal cities hold a privileged position. There is a Court 
 of Accounts at Vienna for the whole of this part of the empire. 
 
 Organization of Hungary. 
 
 In Hungary, as in Austria, there are two chambers which 
 meet every year ;— the chamber of magnates, which used at 
 one time to consist of more than seven hundred members, and 
 which now contains about three hundred — three of these are 
 archdukes, forty are bishops, thirteen palatines, seven hereditary 
 princes, one hundred and fifty-nine counts, thirty-seven heredi- 
 tary barons, and seventy-eight are members chosen by the king 
 and by the chamber itself — and the chamber of deputies, con- 
 taining four hundred and forty-four members who are elected 
 for three years. Croatia-Slavonia has an organization of its 
 own, with a diet which meets at Agram. It sends thirty-nine 
 deputies to the parliament at Buda-Pesth, in which city it is also 
 represented by its own special minister. Hungary, like Cislei- 
 thania, has seven ministers, besides the minister for Croatia, and 
 a minister attached to the emperor who represents the general 
 interests of the kingdom. I'he cabinet may also be presided 
 over by yet another minister without portfolio. The king (in 
 Hungary the emperor is only known as the king) nominates the 
 president and vice-president of the chamber of magnates \ the 
 second chamber chooses its own officers. The official language 
 is Magyar, and the thirty-nine Croat deputies have also the right 
 to use their own language. Croatia's right of self-government 
 within the Magyar state is represented by the Croat deputies 
 to the diet meeting at Buda-Pesth, and by a special governor 
 of the land, the ban, who is directly nominated by the king. 
 A special convention regulates all matters between Hungary 
 and Croatia. Croatia is, however, the only province attached
 
 622 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 to Hungary which possesses these privileges. Hungary, 
 properly so-called, is divided into com i tats which enjoy a 
 considerable amount of autonomy, but the administration, the 
 office of prefect, and the posts of deputy are almost entirely in 
 the hands of the Magyars, who do their best to stifle the Slav 
 and Roumanian spirit of nationality. 
 
 The institutions of Austro-Hungary are in truth much more 
 liberal in appearance than in reality ; they do not secure to the 
 various nationalities that place in the national representative 
 bodies which should be theirs by right of their majority ; and, 
 moreover, certain promises contained in the 'Cisleithanian 
 constitution are still far from being realized. For example, 
 notwithstanding all the progress which has been made in the 
 last few years, no loyal attempt has yet been made to bring 
 about perfect equality among the languages in either schools, 
 courts of justice, or in the administration. 
 
 We have already enumerated the various titles borne by the 
 emperor. The arms of the empire are a two-headed eagle, 
 black, with extended wings, the tongues red, the talons golden ; 
 it holds in one talon a sword, in the other an orb of gold ; on 
 each of its heads rests the imperial crown, and on its breast 
 are the arms of the house of Habsburg-Lorraine. The national 
 colours are black and gold, whence comes the name Schwarz- 
 gelb, and the title of Schwarzgelber applied to the partisans of 
 an absolutist and Germanizing policy. The Austrian flag is 
 barred with white and red. 
 
 In all matters of excise the two nations are administered 
 as one, and the small principality of Lichtenstein is included 
 in the customs-union as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
 
 Army and N'avy. 
 
 The law concerning the army which is now in force is the 
 one passed in December, 1869, and completed by the acts of 
 1883 and 1886. It makes service obligatory, and divides it 
 into three years of active service, seven with the reserves, and 
 two with the landwehr or territorial army. The common army
 
 ARMY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 623 
 
 of the two portions of the empire is under the control of the 
 common minister of war, but the miUtia in each portion obeys 
 a national authority. In Austria this force is called the land- 
 tvehr ; in Hungary the Honveds. German is the official 
 language of command ; but the training of recruits is neces- 
 sarily at first given in the national idioms, and this use of 
 German has repeatedly led to difficulties both in Hungary and 
 Bohemia. Men may, under certain conditions, volunteer to 
 serve for one year, and these volunteers, except in case of 
 poverty, are expected to support themselves, to buy their own 
 equipments, and even their own horses. Volunteers may also 
 join the auxiliary services, the medical or commissariat de- 
 partments, etc. The emperor is the supreme head of the 
 army, and exercises his authority by means of the ministers 
 already mentioned, communicating with them through the 
 royal and imperial military chancery. The commander-in- 
 chief is under his immediate control, but he holds no com- 
 munication with him except through the minister of war. 
 There is an inspector-general of the army, an office held at 
 present by the archduke Albert, the victor of Custozza. The 
 cost of the army figures in the different budgets of Austro- 
 Hungary as ^^i, 200,000, of which ;^48o,ooo are paid by Cislei- 
 thania, and ;,{^5 20,000 by Hungary, the remainder being made 
 up from the common budget. The yearly contingent to the 
 army in active service was fixed in 1868 at 95,474 men, in order 
 that the permanent force should be maintained at 800,000 men. 
 All recruits belonging to the liberal professions have only to 
 serve eight weeks, and are then drafted into the reserves ; 
 seminarists are granted leave of absence, but as soon as they 
 become priests their names are inscribed on the list of military 
 chaplains. The recruit-reserves {Ersatz-Reserve) number 9000 
 men, who remain for three years at the disposal of the military 
 authorities, and from their ranks are filled up the vacancies 
 which occur in the contingent. Those who have neither 
 been drafted into the contingent nor into the Ersatz-Resett'e 
 are immediately enrolled in the landioehr, and may be called
 
 624 H-ISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 out for drill every second year. The landstiirm was organized 
 throughout the empire by a law passed in June, 1886; every 
 able-bodied man between the ages of nineteen and forty-five 
 belongs to it. The total war establishment consists of 1,532,215 
 men, and 217,034 horses, while the peace-footing is 271,161 
 men, and 50,362 horses. In Hungary the Honveds form a 
 permanent force, even in times of peace, each battalion being 
 obliged to have in readiness a certain number of men who 
 are either volunteers or are obliged in turn to bear arms. In 
 T5T0I and Vorarlberg every able-bodied citizen from the age 
 of eighteen to that of forty-five has to join a special provincial 
 force which numbers 40,000 men, but which can only be 
 called upon to fight in defence of those provinces. 
 
 Officers are supplied by the sixteen military schools for 
 cadets and by the two academies at Vienna, one for infantry 
 and cavalry, the other for artillery and engineers. Besides 
 these establishments there are also at Vienna three higher 
 schools for officers. The infantry is divided into one hundred 
 and two regiments of the line of four battalions each, one 
 regiment of Tyrolese chasseurs of ten battalions, and thirty- 
 two other battalions of chasseurs ; besides these, four infantry 
 regiments have to be furnished by Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
 Each regiment is known not only by its number, but also by 
 the name of its colonel, who may be some great foreigner, 
 some king or prince, whose name is taken as a compliment 
 and whose colonelcy is a purely honorary one. In time of 
 peace each battalion consists of three hundred and fifty-two 
 men, in time of war of nine hundred. The landwehr consists 
 of one hundred and seventeen battalions from Cisleithania, of 
 one hundred and eight battalions of the Honveds of Hungary, 
 and twenty of the carabineers of Tyrol. The war-footing of 
 the whole infantry is composed of eight hundred and seventy- 
 five battalions, forming a body of seven hundred and eighty- 
 five thousand effective troops. 
 
 The cavalry comprises twenty brigades and forty-one 
 regiments, of which fourteen are dragoons, eleven hulans, and
 
 THE NAVY. 625 
 
 sixteen hussars. The dragoons are furnished by Bohemia and 
 the German states, the hussars by Hungary, and the hulans 
 by GaUcia and Transylvania. All are light cavalry. The 
 cavalry of the land^vehr of Cisleithania comprises twenty-seven 
 squadrons, the Honveds forty squadrons of hussars. The 
 artillery is composed of fourteen brigades, and when on a war- 
 footing is made up of 1888 guns; Germany has 2934 at her 
 disposal, and Russia more than 4000. The landwehr has no 
 artillery; that belonging to the fortresses contains twelve 
 battalions of five companies each in time of peace, six in time 
 of war. The corps of engineers consists of two regiments, to 
 which are added one regiment of pioneers and one attached 
 to the railways and telegraphs. Since 1883, the land has been 
 divided into fifteen military districts, whose head-quarters are 
 Vienna, Gratz, Prague, Josefstadt, Briinn, Cracow, Lemberg, 
 Innsbruck, Zara, Buda-Pesth, Pressburg, Kassau, Temesvar, 
 Hermannstadt, and Agram. Bosnia and Herzegovina now 
 form a sixteenth whose head-quarters are at Serajevo. In 
 Cisleithania the generals in command of the district are at 
 the same time in command of the landivehr ; in Hungary the 
 two are separate. The infantry carry Werndl rifles, with a 
 range of more than one thousand yards ; and the artillery are 
 provided with Uchatius cannon of bronze. The guns in the 
 fortresses are also of this make. 
 
 Notwithstanding the Austrian reverses of 1859 and 1866, 
 the army is a fine one, and it is officered by men full of that 
 pride in the service Avhich is the best guarantee of the unity of 
 the empire. 
 
 The natural defences of Austro-Hungary are to be found 
 in the mountains which surround her on almost every side 
 (except that they leave Galicia outside), the sea, and the 
 Danube ; and these natural defences are supplemented by a 
 complete system of forts and fortresses, of which the chief are 
 Teresin in Bohemia ; Olumouc in Moravia ; Cracow and 
 Premysl in Galacia ; Eperjes, Komaron, -Buda, Petrovaradin, 
 Ijraschau (Kronstadt), and Osjek (Esseg) in Hungary ; 
 
 2 s
 
 626 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 Franzens Festung and Kufstein in Tyrol ; Salzburg and Linz 
 in Austria, and Pola on the Adriatic. 
 
 The roads which cross the Tyrol are also well defended. 
 Vienna is not fortified ; her only protection lies in some 
 outworks on the left bank of the Danube. There is in Vienna 
 a remarkable institution for military geography, which is en- 
 trusted with the execution of works of geodesy and topography, 
 the making of maps and plans which are carefully brought 
 up to date, and the publication of such information connected 
 with their department as may wisely be made public. 
 
 The navy consisted in January, 1888, of no ships of 
 183,285 tons, or 26,786 horse-power, armed with 301 guns, 
 and manned by 11,309 sailors. In time of war the officers of 
 this navy are three vice-admirals, three rear-admirals, forty 
 captains of ships, forty-four captains of frigates, and twenty-five 
 captains of corvettes. Fifteen hundred sailors are recruited 
 each year. The length of service is nine years, four of active 
 service and five in the reserves. The fleet is entirely manned 
 by the sailors of Istria and Dalmatia ; it distinguished itself 
 at Lissa in 1866, and has had some distinguished men as its 
 leaders, as, for example, Admiral Tegetthof The principal 
 naval post is Pola. There are two schools for the navy ; one 
 at Fiume for sub-officers, the other at Pola for the higher 
 officers. Two moniteurs for the police of the Danube are 
 included in the number of ships given above. The flag of the 
 Austrian navy has three horizontal bands of red, white, and 
 red; the flag of the mercantile marine bears in addition a 
 band of green, which is one of the national colours of Hun- 
 gary. The mercantile marine numbered in 1886, 9728 ships 
 of 287,267 tons burden, manned by 29,568 sailors. 
 
 Populatioti. 
 
 Austro-Hungary ranks at present third as to population 
 among the European states ; Russia, with her vast territory, and 
 Germany are the two countries which are more populous. 
 The census of 1885 gave the following figures : —
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 627 
 
 POPULATION ACCORDING TO CENSUS OF \\ 
 
 
 Square miles. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Per sq. 
 mile. 
 
 Lower Austria 
 
 7,722 
 
 2,468,898 
 
 320 
 
 Upper Austria 
 
 4,680 
 
 767,779 
 
 X62 
 
 Duchy of Salzburg ... 
 
 2,799 
 
 166,925 
 
 59 
 
 Duchy of Styria 
 
 8,771 
 
 1,241,651 
 
 142 
 
 Duchy of Carinthia 
 
 4,051 
 
 353,485 
 
 87 
 
 Duchy of Carniola 
 
 3,859 
 
 491,562 
 
 127 
 
 Istria, Trieste, Gorica, and Gradisca 
 
 3,120 
 
 664,534 
 
 213 
 
 Tyrol 
 
 10,422 
 
 801,859 
 
 77 
 
 Vorarlberg 
 
 1,016 
 
 109,107 
 
 107 
 
 Kingdom of Bohemia 
 
 20,295 
 
 5,697,883 
 
 281 
 
 Margraviate of Moravia 
 
 8,682 
 
 2,187,475 
 
 252 
 
 Duchy of Silesia 
 
 2,010 
 
 581,977 
 
 290 
 
 Kingdom of Galicia 
 
 30,662 
 
 6,219,660 
 
 204 
 
 Duchy of Bukowina ... 
 
 4,082 
 
 610,335 
 
 149 
 
 Dalmatia 
 
 4,997 
 
 503,694 
 22,866,824 
 
 lOI 
 
 Total ... 
 
 117,168 
 
 195 
 
 Kingdom of Hungary, including 
 
 
 
 
 Transylvania ... ... ... 
 
 109,277 
 
 13,728,622 
 
 125 
 
 Fiume and its territory 
 
 7 
 
 20,981 
 
 2997 
 
 Kingdom of Croatia 
 
 16,579 
 
 1,893,499 
 15,643,102 
 
 114 
 
 
 125,863 
 
 124 
 
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 
 
 24,245 
 
 1,504,091 
 
 62 
 
 The whole population of the empire must now be more than 
 forty millions. The average number of inhabitants to the 
 square mile in the two portions of the kingdom is one hundred 
 and forty-nine. The census of 1857, which was the first to 
 be conducted on really scientific principles, gave a population 
 of thirty-two millions, that of 1869 thirty-six millions; the 
 annual growth of the people seems to be about three hundred 
 thousand. The average number of births seems to be about 
 four per cent. ; that of deaths, three per cent. The following 
 table shows the number of births and deaths for the years 
 1 880-1 88 7 for Cisleithania, for those of 18S0-1885 for 
 Hungary.
 
 628 
 
 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 CiSLEITHANIA OR AUSTRIA. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Marriages. 
 
 Births. 
 
 Deaths. 
 
 Excess of 
 Births. 
 
 1 88b 
 
 167,200 
 
 850,009 
 
 676,287 
 
 173,722 
 
 I88I 
 
 176,983 
 
 855.937 
 
 698,976 
 
 156,961 
 
 1882 
 
 183,378 ■ 
 
 897.437 
 
 710,902 
 
 185.571 
 
 1883 
 
 176,016 
 
 882,654 
 
 701,199 
 
 181,445 
 
 1884 
 
 179,171 
 
 902,771 
 
 690.973 
 
 211,798 
 
 1885 
 
 175,233 
 
 885,201 
 
 714,030 
 
 171,171 
 
 1886 
 
 180,791 
 
 901,003 
 
 703.398 
 
 197,605 
 
 1887 
 
 182,088 
 
 915,555 
 
 688,379 
 
 217,176 
 
 
 Transleithania or Hungary, 
 
 
 1880 
 
 147.314 
 
 674,761 
 
 585.578 
 
 89,183 
 
 I88I 
 
 162,128 
 
 724,428 
 
 566,366 
 
 158,062 
 
 1882 
 
 124,860 
 
 597,591 
 
 529,213 
 
 68,578 
 
 1883 
 
 145,004 
 
 640,235 
 
 461,667 
 
 179,168 
 
 1884 
 
 144,416 
 
 660,086 
 
 449,621 
 
 214,465 
 
 1885 
 
 165,169 
 
 750,200 
 
 535,740 
 
 210,460 
 
 The most populous towns are Vienna (1,103,857 inhabitants), 
 Prague (177,026), Lwowor Lemberg (109,746), Gratz (97,791), 
 Brno (82,660), Trieste (74,544), Cracow (66,095), Buda-Pesth 
 (360,551), Szeged (72,675), Debreczin (51,122), Hosszomezo 
 Vasarhely (50,966), Pozsony (48,006) ; but these figures being 
 taken from the census of 1880 are generally below the reality. 
 There only remains for us to give some information about 
 those Austro-Hungarian subjects who dwell in foreign lands. 
 The empire has no colonies, but every year a considerable number 
 of its inhabitants emigrate, most of them without hope of return. 
 We have no accurate statistics of emigration ; the official list 
 enumerates only 7366 emigrants from Austria, and 1301 from 
 Hungary, in the year 1883, but it only includes those who had 
 taken out passports, and that these are but a small number of 
 the whole is proved by the emigration lists of Hamburg and 
 Bremen for the same year, 8883 Austrian emigrants from the 
 former port, and 9968 from the latter having been entered. 
 That large numbers, especially in Bohemia, do leave their 
 country, is an important fact. Emigration agents from Hamburg
 
 NATURAL RESOURCES. 629 
 
 are to be found in all the large towns of the empire, and every 
 transatlantic steamer carries with it some Austrian subjects 
 who never mean to return. Those who are of German origin 
 are easily confounded with the natives of a Greater Germany, 
 but the Slavs are always to be distinguished, and no less than 
 200,000 Chekhs are known to be resident in North America. 
 Their principal centre is Chicago. Others of the race emigrate 
 to Russia, especially to Volyhnia and the Caucasian districts ; 
 a certain number of them become converts to the Orthodox 
 Greek Church. Poles and Ruthenians have colonies in 
 America, Slavs and Dalmatians are numerous in San Francisco, 
 and Magyars also are to be found in various parts of the New 
 World. 
 
 Natural Resources. 
 
 The natural resources of Austro-Hungary are as varied as 
 its climate. The chief industry is agriculture, and it occupies 
 about three-fourths of the population. The land in cultivation 
 comprises about eighty-nine per cent, of the entire surface of 
 the empire, thirty-two per cent, being given up to cereals, one 
 per cent, to vines, twenty-six per cent, to pasture, twenty-nine 
 per cent, to forests. The principal crops are — i. Grain, ;vheat, 
 oats, barley, and maize, which are sufficiently abundant to be 
 largely exported ; 2. Potatoes ; 3. Tobacco, especially in 
 Hungary ; 4. Hemp and flax, which are produced by Galicia, 
 but not in sufficient quantity to supply the wants of the 
 empire; 5. Wine, of which 173,480,912 gallons were produced 
 in the year 1884 (the vine is cultivated in Hungary, Croatia, 
 Slavonia, Dalmatia, Tyrol, Bohemia, and Moravia ; some kinds, 
 as, for instance, the Tokaj of Hungary and the wine of Ofen 
 and Voslau, are renowned throughout Europe) ; 6. Hops, which 
 produce the excellent beers of Bohemia and Vienna, of which 
 the beer of Saaz in Bohemia ranks the highest ; 7. Fruit; this, 
 without being in any way remarkable, is yet of a satisfactory 
 character ; and 8. Spices, especially cummin and paprica, or, 
 the red pepper of Hungary. There is a considerable export
 
 630 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 trade in cattle. Sheep are raised all over the empire, horned 
 cattle especially in the mountainous districts, horses on the 
 vast plains or pusztas of Hungary, and buffaloes in Tran- 
 sylvania. The last census of animals taken in 1880 gave the 
 following results : — 
 
 Horses 3,541,810 
 
 Asses and Mules 83,364 
 
 Oxen I3!893,455 
 
 Sheep 13,679,437 
 
 Goats 1,339,809 
 
 Pigs 6,881,668 
 
 Game is most abundant, especially in Bohemia. Bees are success- 
 fully cultivated in Bohemia, Moravia, Galicia, the two Austrias, 
 Carinthia, and Carniola ; silkworms in Southern Tyrol, Istria, 
 and Dalmatia. Excellent fish is found in the Tisza and the 
 Danube, as well as in the Adriatic. 
 
 The mineral riches of Austro-Hungary are very great, and 
 include every kind but platinurru Gold is found in Tran- 
 sylvania and Tyrol ; silver in Hungary ; mercury in Carniola ; 
 iron in Styria, Carinthia, Hungary, and Bohemia ; lead in 
 Carinthia, Tyrol, and Bohemia ; zinc in Galicia and the 
 Croatian Alps ; copper in Hungary, Transylvania, Tyrol, and 
 Salzburg. Coal is obtained in large quantities, and numerous 
 mines throughout the empire have not yet been worked. The 
 best coalfields are in Bohemia, but it is found everywhere 
 except in Salzburg and Bukowina. In 1884, no less than 
 19,000,000 tons were raised. The best salt-mines are in 
 Galicia ; those of Wieliczka and Bocknia supply most of the 
 salt used throughout the empire ; this article is a government 
 monopoly, and in 1887 produced ;^i, 108,300. There are 
 mines also in Hungary and Transylvania, and salt is extracted 
 from springs in Upper Austria, Salzburg, and in Styria at Hall- 
 stadt, in the district called the Salt-region {Sahkammergut), 
 where the mines which have been worked ever since the Iron 
 Age have given rise to the busy life of Ischl, Ebensee, Avensee, 
 Hallein, and in the neighbouring town of Hall. There are 
 also salt-works on the coast of Dalmatia and Istria.
 
 INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE. 63 I 
 
 Building-Stone and marble are found abundantly ; and the 
 many precious stones of the empire are renowned, especially 
 the Hungarian opals, which are known in trade as eastern opals, 
 and the garnets of Bohemia. Beryls, amethysts, rubies, 
 sapphires, and emeralds are also found. Another source of 
 riches lies in the mineral springs of Austro-Hungary ; noother 
 state possesses so many or of such varied qualities. The 
 principal are Karlsbad, Marienbad, Franzenbad, and Piillna in 
 Bohemia ; Rohitsch in Styria ; Balaton Fiired in Hungary ; to 
 which we may add Gastein, Baden, Ischl, Aussee, and Mehadia. 
 Some of these springs have aij important export trade. Galicia 
 possesses petroleum mines of great value. 
 
 Meajis of Commwiication. 
 
 Cisleithania, together with Hungary and Bosnia, possessed 
 in 1 8 88, 14,354 miles of railway. The navigation of the 
 Danube is most important. The Privileged Imperial and Royal 
 Danubian Steamboat Company possesses 189 steam-boats, and 
 741 iron lighters, and performs the service on the Danube from 
 Ratisbon to Sulina, on the Tisza, the Save, Drave, and on the 
 Black Sea from Sulina to Odessa. In 1885, the number of 
 post-offices in Austria was 4263, in Hungary 3613. In 1883, 
 the post-office receipts were for Austria 20,002,730 florins, for 
 Hungary 7,908,397 florins. By 1887, Austria had 24,490, and 
 in 1886, Hungary had 11,100 miles of telegraph wires. There 
 are but few canals in the empire ; the chief are that from Vienna 
 to Neustadt in Lower Austria, the Francis canal in Hungary, 
 which unites the Danube to the Tisza, and the two lateral 
 canals of the Bega and the Temes ; but none of these are of 
 great length. 
 
 Industry afid ConiDierce. 
 
 About eight millions of men, or a quarter of the whole 
 population of the empire, are occupied in manufacturing 
 industries, which have made rapid strides since 1859, when a 
 law was passed doing away with the monopolies of the guilds 
 and making all industry free. In Dalmatia, Bukowina, and
 
 6^2 HISTORY OF AVSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 along the old military frontiers there is hardly any business 
 carried on, but in Lower Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, and 
 Silesia it is highly developed, the spinning of cotton, v^rool, 
 hemp, and flax being common throughout the whole of these 
 provinces, and having great centres at Rumburg and Reichen- 
 berg in Bohemia, Brno and Olomouc in Moravia. At Vienna 
 and Prague there is a large trade in articles of scented leather, 
 which rival those of Paris and are largely exported. The iron 
 trade is most highly developed in Styria, Carinthia, Bohemia, 
 Hungary, and Moravia ; Vienna, Waidhofen in Lower, and 
 Steyer in Upper Austria are the principal depots. Villach in 
 Styria has a large trade in lead, Prague and Brno have one in 
 machinery. Pottery, porcelain, paper, and glass of a high value 
 are all made in Bohemia, while the trade in beetroot sugar is 
 very active both in Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, and Galicia. 
 Beer is the national drink throughout a large portion of the 
 empire, especially in Bohemia, Moravia, Galicia, and some parts 
 of the German provinces. The most important breweries are in 
 Vienna, Prague, Buda-Pesth, and Gratz, but especially at Pilsen 
 in Bohemia, whose breweries produce 4,400,000 gallons, and 
 supply great part of the demand in the East and along the 
 Mediterranean. In 1885, there were 797 breweries in Bohemia, 
 and in that year the beer made in Cisleithania alone amounted 
 to 275,000,000 gallons. The greater number of the distilleries 
 in the land are owned and worked by the cultivators of the soil 
 themselves, and are calculated to be about 100,000 ; there are 
 also more than 5000 brandy distilleries. In Southern Hungary 
 and in Croatia a particular kind of brandy is made from plums, 
 and is called Slivovitsa ; it is much used by the people along 
 the Danube. Dalmatia is celebrated for its maraschino and 
 Goritz for its rosoglio. 
 
 The smaller industries are tobacco, which is worked by the 
 state, and is largely produced in Hungary ; candles, matches, 
 jewellery, trinket-making, and paper-making. The Viennese 
 articles of leather, wood, and meerschaum are cheap, fanciful, 
 and in good taste. Printing has its largest centres in Vienna
 
 FINANCES. 
 
 633 
 
 and Prague ; the imperial printing-press at Vienna is one of the 
 finest in Europe. Musical instruments are also made in 
 Vienna and some parts of Bohemia, and Viennese furniture is 
 exported all over the world. 
 
 The imports and exports were as follows during the years 
 1880-1886 :— 
 
 i'ears. 
 
 Imports. 
 
 Exports. 
 
 
 Florins. 
 
 Florins. 
 
 1880 
 
 613,500,000 ... 
 
 ... 675,994,430 
 
 1881 
 
 631,844,790 ... 
 
 ... 731,470,615 
 
 1882 
 
 654,173,746 ... 
 
 ... 781,892,772 
 
 1883 
 
 624,890,339 ... 
 
 ... 749,920,513 
 
 1884 
 
 612,900,000 
 
 ... 708,700,000 
 
 1885 
 
 557,900,000 ... 
 
 ... 672,100,000 
 
 18S6 
 
 539,200,000 ... 
 
 ... 698,600,000 
 
 In 1 886, the principal exports were cereals, wood, sugar, 
 hardware and clocks, cattle and woollen goods. In 1887, the 
 direct imports from Great Britain amounted to ;^i,228,777, 
 and the direct exports to Great Britain ^1,586,172. 
 
 Finances. 
 The standard coin of Austro-Hungary is the florin, which is 
 nominally worth two shillings, but, in consequence of the forced 
 circulation of paper money, is actually worth about one shilling 
 and ninepence. Pieces of eight and four florins are struck for 
 international use. As we have already seen, the condition of 
 the finances is anything but prosperous. A disastrous bank- 
 ruptcy was the result of the wars which marked the beginning 
 of the century, and the crash of 1873 caused most serious loss 
 both to the state and to individuals. The stock exchange of 
 Vienna is one of those where speculation is most rife. The 
 budgets of 1888 for Austria gave ;^4i,335,ooo as the amount 
 of revenue, and ^48,030,000 as that of expenditure, and the 
 public debt as ^83,09 1,660. For Hungary, the revenue was 
 in 1887 _;^28,937, 630, and the expenditure ;^29, 547, 853. The 
 public debt for the whole of the empire is twenty-seven millions 
 of florins. Austria has three budgets ; one for both divisions of
 
 634 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 the empire together, another for Cisleithania, and a third for 
 Hungary. The empire has adopted the metric system. 
 
 Religion. 
 
 The variety of nationalities which go to make up the 
 Austro-Hungarian empire are necessarily divided amongst a 
 variety of religions, and tolerance is one of the principles most 
 vital to such a state. In theory, the sovereign must belong to 
 the Catholic Church ; as king of Hungary he takes the title 
 of apostolic prince ; and there is no instance of a member of 
 the imperial family having belonged to any other than the 
 Roman Church. Both the emperor and the empress take 
 part in the great ceremonies of Catholic worship. Ctergy of 
 all persuasions enjoy a position of considerable dignity and 
 possess large property, as they did in France before the revolu- 
 tion. It is said that some bishops have very large incomes. 
 They, and sometimes also the abbots, have a right to seats in 
 the diets. Their large revenues are used in a great measure for 
 the intellectual development of the various nationalities, and, 
 it being consequently the interest of the people to have rich 
 bishops, there is hardly ever any question of the separation of 
 Church and State. The larger part of the population, about 
 twenty-five millions, are Catholics ; but besides the Latin 
 Catholics there are in Hungary, Galicia, and Croatia a certain 
 number of U7iited Catholics, that is to say, persons who originally 
 belonged to the Orthodox Greek Church, and who have pre- 
 served their right to celebrate the liturgy in their national 
 language (Slav) and to have a married clergy. Most of the 
 Protestants are in Hungary, in which country their number 
 reaches three millions. The Orthodox Greek Church has 
 most members among the Servians and Roumanians. The 
 following were the numbers in 1888 : — 
 
 Roman Catholics ... ... ... ... ... 30,000,000 
 
 Protestants ... ... ... ... ... 3,616,000 
 
 Greeks and Armenians ... ... ... ... 3,500,000 
 
 Jews ... 1,648,000 
 
 Mohammedans, Tziganes, etc. ... ... ... 493,000
 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 635 
 
 There are Catholic archbishops at Salzburg, Vienna, 
 Prague, Olomouc, Lwow, Goritz, and Zara ; also at Gran, 
 Kalocsa, Eger, and Zagreb. There is an archbishop of the 
 Uniate Greek Church at Gran for the Ruthenians, and a 
 Roumanian archbishop of the Uniate Catholics at Balasfalva 
 in Transylvania. The Servians have an Orthodox Greek 
 archbishop at Karlovci, and the Orthodox Roumanians have 
 one at Sibin, The two Servian bishops of Zara and Cattaro 
 are under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Archbishop of 
 Cernowic in Bukowina. The Catholic clergy, including monks, 
 numbers fifty thousand persons. The Protestant Churches of 
 the Augsburg Confession are under the direction of a con- 
 sistory, meeting at Vienna, while those of the Helvetian Con- 
 fession are ruled by a general synod of their own in the 
 capital ; and the Unitarians of Transylvania have a consistory 
 which meets in that province. 
 
 Intellectual Culture. 
 
 In an empire which is a very mosaic of races there can be 
 no hope of finding a common standard of civilization ; a vast 
 abyss lies between the wealthy peasant of Salzburg and the 
 rude mountaineer of Cattaro or the shepherd who roams the 
 pusztas of Hungary. Some figures will enable us the better to 
 understand this. A few years ago, among one thousand con- 
 scripts, there were found of those who could not read, 15 from 
 Lower Austria, 190 from Bohemia, 900 from Bukowina, 957 
 from Dalmatia ! In Austria there was hardly any elementary 
 education before the end of the eighteenth century, and it was 
 not till 1848 that a minister of public education was appointed. 
 The concordat of 1855 in replacing all schools un4er the care 
 of the priests, brought them under so adverse an influence 
 that in i860 this department of government was suppressed, 
 and it was not restored till 1867, when ministers of education 
 were appointed both far Vienna and Buda-Pesth. On the 
 suppression of the concordat, primary instruction, which then 
 was placed in the hands of laymen and made free, made rapid
 
 6^6 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 progress ; but this progress has necessarily varied with the 
 previous condition of the various provinces. Teaching in 
 Austria is carried on in the national language ; but elsewhere, 
 in the mixed provinces, the strongest race politically en- 
 deavours, and usually with success, to force its tongue on 
 the weaker ones ; this is the case among the Slovenes, where 
 the Germans have got possession of the schools, and in Istria, 
 where the Italians make the Slavs teach in Italian. The 
 Germans everywhere are apt to look upon themselves as 
 intellectually the privileged race, but it is only in Upper and 
 Lower Austria and in Silesia that this is actually the case. 
 There is no doubt that the Chekhs of Bohemia are in 
 advance of the Germans of either Tyrol or Carinthia. 
 
 In Hungary also the organization of schools dated from 
 the. time of Maria Theresa, but all progress was paralysed by 
 the constant efforts of the government in Vienna to substitute 
 German for the national languages. The revolution of 1848 
 led to the formation of a ministry of public education, and 
 proclaimed all primary education free and compulsory — reforms 
 which, however, were not carried out. When Hungary recovered 
 its independence elementary education was again made com- 
 pulsory, but the law has never been rigorously enforced, and 
 there are about three hundred parishes still without schools. 
 
 In 1 880-1 88 1, in some comitats the average attendance 
 was ninety per cent, while in others it was only thirty-four per 
 cent. Some schools in the mixed provinces are still denomi- 
 national, and the difficulties of education are increased by the 
 need of learning or even of forcing the Magyar language on 
 children to whom it is not the mother-tongue. In 1882, there 
 were in Austria 34,172 elementary schools, 144 normal schools, 
 114 professional schools, 63 professional ^w^^j'/wwi', and nine 
 polytechnic schools ; the latter were in Vienna, Prague (2), 
 Brno, Gratz, Cracow, Lwow, Trieste, and Buda-Pesth ; besides 
 these there were 285 classical gymnasiums. In Hungary the 
 numbers were 1545 elementary, 30 professional schools, and 
 146 gym7iasiinns. There are universities in Vienna, Prague (2),
 
 UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLS. 637 
 
 Gratz, Innsbruck, Cernovic, Cracow, Lwow, Buda-Pesth, Ko- 
 losvar, and Zagreb. The universities of Vienna, Gratz, Inns- 
 bruck, and Cernovic teach in German ; the Chekh universities 
 of Prague in Chekh ; that of Cracow in PoUsh ; that of Lwow 
 in Polish and Ruthenian ; those of Buda-Pesth and Kolosvar 
 in Magyar ; that of Zagreb in Croatian. The Slovenes have no 
 university. It is often asked what a German university has to 
 do in Bukowina in the midst of a population of Roumanians, 
 Ruthenians, and Poles. It was long considered that all Jews 
 frequenting the universities were Germans, but since national 
 universities have been established it has been found that 
 numbers of them are ready to learn in other languages than 
 German. The university of Prague, which was founded in 
 1348, is the most ancient in the empire. It was first Latin and 
 then German, and recently has been divided into two univer- 
 sities, one teaching in German, the other in Chekh ; the latter 
 is in a very flourishing condition. The university of Cracow 
 was founded in 1364, and that of Vienna in 1365. There is 
 no Chair of Medicine either at Lwow, Cernovic, or Zagreb. 
 The proportion of German universities is higher than that of 
 the other languages, and the Slovenes of Cisleithania, and the 
 Slovaks, Servians, and Roumanians of Hungary have still no 
 place of higher education where they can study in their mother- 
 tongues. There are a large number of technical schools, 
 especially for mines and forests, throughout the country. There 
 are also an oriental academy at Vienna, academies of the 
 fine arts at Vienna, Prague, Gratz, Cracow, and Buda-Pesth, 
 and excellent co?iservatoires in Vienna, Prague, and Buda-Pesth. 
 The principal learned societies are the academy of science at 
 Vienna, the royal scientific academy of Prague, the Hun- 
 garian academy, the Polish academy at Cracow, and the 
 Southern-Slav academy at Zagreb. As we have said before, 
 there can be no Austrian literature, properly so-called ; the 
 German writers of Austria, among whom there are some 
 remarkable men, belong to German literature, and the Magyar 
 and Slav writers to the literatures of their various countries.
 
 TABLE OF SOVEREIGNS WHO HAVE REIGNED 
 OVER THE STATES WHICH EITHER NOW 
 COMPOSE THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MON- 
 ARCHY, OR HAVE BELONGED TO IT 
 
 AUSTRIA PROPERLY SO CALLED. 
 
 "HQUSE OF BABENBERG (973-1246). 
 
 Leopold I. (Margrave) 973 — 994 
 
 Henry 1 994-1018 
 
 Adalbert the Victorious 1018- 1056 
 
 Ernest the Valiant ... 1056-1075 
 
 Leopold IL .. ... 107 5-1096 
 
 Leopold IIL, the Saint 1096-1136 
 
 Leopold IV 1136-1141 
 
 Henry Iasomirgott(Duke)i 141-1 177 
 Leopold v., the Pious 11 77-1 194 
 
 Frederic 1 1194-1198 
 
 Leopold VL, the Proud 1 198-1230 
 Frederic IL, the Fighter 1230-1246 
 
 STYRIA. 
 
 Otokar I. (Margrave) 
 
 Otokar II 
 
 Otokar III 
 
 Otokar IV 
 
 991 
 
 991-1038 
 
 I 038- I 092 
 
 1092- I 122 
 
 Styria is united to Austria. 
 
 Leopold the Strong 
 Otokar V. 
 Otokar VI. (Duke) 
 
 1122-1129 
 
 1129-1164 
 1164-1192 
 
 TYROL. 
 
 The dynasty of the Counts of Andechs, Dukes of Meran, comes to an 
 end in 1248 : their domains pass to the Counts of Tyrol under ; 
 
 Albert III. 
 
 1253 
 
 Henry of Carinthia ... 
 
 1295-1335 
 
 Menhardt III. 
 
 ... 1254-1258 
 
 Margaret Maultasche 
 
 1335-1363 
 
 Menhardt IV. 
 
 ... 1258-1295 
 
 Menhardt V. 
 
 1363 
 
 Tyrol is united to Austria.
 
 TABLE OF SOVEREIGNS. 
 
 639 
 
 Borut 
 Karat 
 
 CARINTHIA. 
 
 SLAVONIC PRINCES. 
 748-750 I Chotimir 
 750-753 I Vladuc 
 Rule of the Franks (788-976). 
 
 753-769 
 772-788 
 
 INDEPENDENT DUKES (976-1335). 
 
 Henry of Scheyer ... 976-978 
 Otho of Wormsfeld ... 978-982 
 Henry I. (2nd time) 982-989 
 
 Henry H 989-995 
 
 Otho of Wormsfeld (2nd 
 
 time) ... ... 995-1004 
 
 Conrad I. of Wormsfeld 1004-1012 
 Adalbero of Eppenstein 1012-1035 
 Conrad I. of Wormsfeld 1035-1039 
 
 {Interregnimi) ... 1039-1047 
 
 Welfof Altorf ... 1047-1055 
 
 Conrad HI 1057-1059 
 
 Berthold of Zoehringen 1059-1073 
 Markhardt of Eppenstein, 
 
 Hereditary Duke ... 1073-1076 
 
 Liutold 1076-1090 
 
 Henry, Margrave of 
 
 Istria 1090-1122 
 
 HOUSE OF ORTENBURG (1122-I269). 
 I122-II24 
 
 Henry IV 
 
 Engelbert, Margrave of 
 
 Istria 1124-I134 
 
 Ulrich I. , 1134-I143 
 
 Henry V 1143-I161 
 
 Hermann 1161-1181 
 
 Ulrich II 1181-1201 
 
 Carinthia is annexed to Austria. 
 
 Bernard 1201-1256 
 
 Ulrich III 1256-1269 
 
 Premysl Otokar II. ... 1269-1276 
 
 Rudolph of Hapsburg 1276-1285 
 Menhardt, Count of 
 
 Tyrol 1 286-1 295 
 
 Henry, Count of Tyrol 1295-1335 
 
 
 BOHEMIA. 
 
 
 DUKES 
 
 (family OF 
 
 THE PREMYSLIDES). 
 
 
 Premysl (Libusa) 
 
 750 
 
 Spitihnev II 
 
 1055-1061 
 
 Pagan Princes 
 
 750-870 
 
 Vratislav II. (King) ... 
 
 1061-1092 
 
 Borivoj 
 
 870-894 
 
 Bretislav II 
 
 1092-1110 
 
 Spitihnev I. ... 
 
 894-9 I 2 
 
 Borivoj II. 
 
 1110-1120 
 
 Vratislav 
 
 912-925 
 
 Vladislav I. ... 
 
 1120-1125 
 
 Vacslav the Saint 
 
 925-935 
 
 Sobeslav I. 
 
 1125-1140 
 
 Boleslav I. 
 
 936-967 
 
 Vladislav H. (King) ... 
 
 1140-1173 
 
 Boleslav II 
 
 967-999 
 
 Sobeslav II. ... 
 
 1173-1189 
 
 Boleslav III 
 
 . 999-1003 
 
 Konrad Otho 
 
 1189-1191 
 
 Jaromir 
 
 . IOO4-IOI2 
 
 Vacslav II. 
 
 1191-1192 
 
 Oldric 
 
 . IOI2-IO37 
 
 Premysl Otokar I. 
 
 1 192-1230 
 
 Betislav I 
 
 ■ IO37-IO55 
 

 
 640 
 
 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 KINGS. 
 
 Vacslav 1 1230-1253 Vacslav III 1305-1306 
 
 Premysl Otokar II. ... 1253-1278 Rudolf of Habsburg ... 1306-1307 
 
 Vacslav II 1278-1305 Henry of Carinthia ... 1307-1310 
 
 HOUSE OF LUXEMBURG. 
 
 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 John 
 
 Charles I. (IV.) 
 Vacslav IV. ... 
 
 I 3 10-1346 
 
 I 346- I 3 78 
 1378-1419 
 
 Sigismund 
 Albert of Austria 
 Vladislav the Posthu- 
 mous 
 George of Podiebrad 
 
 1419-1437 
 I 43 7- I 439 
 
 1439-1457 
 1458-1471 
 
 Wladyslaw II. 
 
 THE JAGIELLOS. 
 1471-1516 I Louis II. 
 
 The dynasty of the Habsburgs from Ferdinand I. 
 
 1516-1526 
 
 KINGDOM OF HUNGARY. 
 
 Arpad 
 Geiza I. 
 
 Stephen the Saint 
 Peter I. 
 Andrew I. 
 Bela I. ... 
 
 Ladislas the Saint 
 Koloman 
 Stephen II. ... 
 Bela II., the Blind 
 Geiza II. 
 
 HOUSE OF ARPAD. 
 
 972—997 
 997-1038 
 I 038- I 046 
 I 046- I 060 
 1060- 1063 
 1063-1095 
 1095-1 114 
 II14-II31 
 1131-1141 
 II41-I160 
 
 Stephen III. and IV. 1161-1173 
 
 Bela III 1173-1196 
 
 Emerich 1196-1204 
 
 Andrew II 1204-1235 
 
 Bela IV 1235-1270 
 
 Stephen V 1270-1272 
 
 Ladislas the Cuman ... 1 272-1290 
 
 Andrew III 1290-1301 
 
 Vacslav III. of Bohemia 1301-1305 
 
 Otho of Bavaria ... 1305-1307 
 
 Charles Robert 
 
 HOUSE OF ANJOU. 
 1 308- 1 342 I Louis the Great 
 
 1342-1382 
 
 ELECTED KINGS. 
 
 Sigismund of Luxemburg 1382-1437 
 Albert of Austria ... 1438-1439 
 Wladyslaw of Poland 1440- 1444 
 
 Vladislavthe Posthumous 1439-1457 
 Mathias Corvinus ... 1457-1490 
 
 Wladyslaw II. 
 
 THE JAGELLONS. 
 1490-15 16 I Louis II. 
 
 The dynasty of the Habsburgs from Ferdinand I. 
 Szapolyai, anti-king ... ... ... 154° 
 
 1516-1526
 
 TABLE OF SOVEREIGNS. 
 
 641 
 
 GRAND PRINCES (VOIEVODES) OF TRANSYLVANIA 
 1526-1540 
 
 John Szapolyai 
 
 John Sig^mund Sza 
 
 polyai 1 540-1 57 1 
 
 Stephen Batory ... 1571-1575 
 Christopher Batory ... 1 575-1 581 
 Sigismond Batory ... 1581-1599 
 Andrew Batory ... 1599-1604 
 .Sigismond Batory (se- 
 cond time) ., ... 1601 
 Stephen Bocskai ... 1604- 1606 
 
 Sigismund Rakoczy ... 1606-1608 
 Gabriel Batory ... 1608-1613 
 
 Gabriel Bethlen (Bethlen 
 
 Gabor) 
 George Rakoczy 
 George Rakoczy II. 
 John Kemeny 
 Michael Apafy 
 Emile Tokoly 
 
 Austrian occupation from 1691 to 1706. 
 Francis Rakoczy, 1706-17 11. 
 
 1613-1629 
 I 629- I 648 
 1648-1660 
 I 660- I 662 
 I 662- I 689 
 1 689- 1 69 1 
 
 
 CROATIA. 
 
 
 
 PRINCES. 
 
 
 Ljudevit 
 
 823 
 
 Kresimir 
 
 900-9 I 2 
 
 Borna ... 
 
 823 830 
 
 Miroslav 
 
 912-917 
 
 Porin ... 
 
 8^0 836 
 
 Tomislav 
 
 917-940 
 
 Zdeslav 
 
 868-S79 
 
 Godimir 
 
 940-958 
 
 Branimir 
 
 ... 879-892 
 
 Kresimir II. ... 
 
 958-970 
 
 Mutimir 
 
 892-900 
 
 
 
 
 KINGS. 
 
 
 Drzislav 
 
 970-1000 
 
 Slavisa 
 
 . 1074-1076 
 
 Kresimir I. ... 
 
 ... IOOO-1035 
 
 Demeter Zvonimir .. 
 
 . 1076-1087 
 
 Stephen I. 
 
 ... 1035-1056 
 
 Stephen II 
 
 . 10S7-1090 
 
 Peter Kresimir II. 
 
 ... 1056-1074 
 
 
 
 
 Personal union 
 
 with Hungary 
 
 
 HOUSE OF HABSBURG. 
 
 Rudolph I., Emperor 
 of Germany 
 
 Albert I., Duke of 
 Austria (Emperor in 
 1298) 
 
 Leopold (1326), and 
 Frederic the Hand- 
 some (1330), Dukes 
 of Austria. 
 
 1273-1291 
 
 1 283-1 308 
 
 Frederic, King of the 
 Romans from 1 3 14, 
 with Louis of Ba- 
 varia. 
 
 Albert the Wise 
 
 Rudolph the Founder 
 
 1330-1358 
 1358-1365 
 
 2 T
 
 642 
 
 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HVWGARY. 
 
 Ai.BERTiNE Branch. 
 
 Leoi'oldine Branch. 
 
 Austria, 
 properly so called. 
 
 Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Tyrol, Outer Austria. 
 
 Leopold HI. 
 
 Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, 
 
 Trieste. 
 
 Capital : Gratz. 
 
 AlbertllL.with 
 
 the Plaited 
 
 Hair ... 1365-1395 
 Albert IV. 1395-1404 
 Albert V. (in 
 
 1438 King of 
 
 Bohemia and 
 
 Hungary, and Ernest ... 1411-1424 
 
 Emperor of Albert VI. 1424-1463 
 
 Germany) 1404-1439 ' Frederic V. 1463-1493 
 Vladislav thePos- 
 
 thumous,King 
 
 of Bohemia 
 
 and Hungary 
 
 I 439-1457 
 
 1365-1386 
 
 Tyrol, Outer 
 
 Austria. 
 
 Capital: Innsbriick. 
 
 Frederic IV. (Empty 
 
 Purse) 
 
 Sieismund 
 
 1411-1438 
 
 1438-1487 
 
 The Emperor Frederic V., of Styria, under the title of Frederic IV., 
 reunites all the domains of his House. 
 
 Maximilian, Emperor of Germany 
 
 1493-1519 
 
 Spanish Branch. 
 Charles V, 1517-1556 
 
 Austrian Branch. 
 
 Philip II. 
 Philip III. 
 Philip IV. 
 Charles II. 
 
 1556-1598 
 1598-1621 
 1621-1665 
 I 665- I 700 
 
 The second son of the 
 House of Habsburg- 
 Lorraine inherits the 
 throne of Tuscany. 
 
 Francis of Lorraine 
 (Emperor in 
 I74S) .- 1737-1765 
 
 Ferdinand I. (King of Bohemia 
 
 and 
 
 Hungary in 1526, Emperor in 
 
 1556) 1519-1564 
 
 Bohemia, Hun- 
 gary, Austria. 
 
 Styria, Carinthia, 
 Carniola, Gorica. 
 
 Tyrol and 
 Outer Austria. 
 
 Maximilian 
 
 Charles II. 
 
 Ferdinand 
 
 II. (Em- 
 peror) 
 
 1 564-1 590 
 Ferdinand 
 
 I 564-1 595 
 
 I 564-1 576 
 Rudolph II. 
 
 1576-1612 
 Mathias 
 
 (Emperor 
 in 1619) 
 
 
 1612-1619 
 
 
 
 Ferdinand of S 
 all the Austr 
 
 tyria (Emperor 
 ian domains exce 
 
 n 16 19) reunites 
 pt Tyrol.
 
 TABLE OF SOVEREIGNS. 
 
 643 
 
 Tuscany. 
 
 Leopold I. (11.) 
 (Emperor in 
 1790) ... 1 765- 1 790 
 
 Ferdinand III., 
 
 1790 and 1814-1824 
 
 Leopold IL 1824-1859 
 
 Ferdinand IV. 1859 
 
 House of Habsburg- 
 este at modena. 
 
 Ferdinand 1S03-1806 
 Francis IV. 1814-1846 
 Francis V. 1846- 1859 
 
 Austrian Branch. 
 
 Bohemia, Austria, Hungary. 
 
 Ferdinand III. 
 
 1637-1657 
 Leopold I. 1657-1705 
 
 Joseph I. 
 Charles VI. ... 
 
 Tyrol. 
 
 Leopold V. 1623-1632 
 Ferdinand Charles 
 
 1632-1662 
 
 1705-1711 
 
 1711-1740 
 
 Habsburg-Lorraine 
 
 jMaria Theresa and Francis I. 
 Joseph II. (Emperor in 1765) 
 Leopold II. ... 
 Francis II. (Emperor of Austria ii 
 
 1806) 
 
 Ferdinand IV. (ist) 
 
 Francis Joseph ( I St) 
 
 1 740- 1 780 
 1780-1790 
 1 790-1792 
 
 1 792-1835 
 1835-1848 
 
 HOUSE OF AUSTRIA IN PARMA. 
 
 Charles IV. (Emperor) 
 Maria Theresa 
 Maria Louisa 
 
 1735-1740 
 1740-174S 
 1814-1847 
 
 HOUSE OF AUSTRIA IN MILAN. 
 
 From Charles VI. to Francis II. ... ... 1 713-1796 
 
 And from 1815 to 1859. 
 
 HOUSE OF AUSTRIA IN VENICE. 
 
 Francis II ... 1797-1805 
 
 Francis II. , Ferdinand IV\, and Francis Joseph 1S15-1866
 
 LOSSES AND GAINS OF THE HOUSE OF HABS- 
 BURG FROM RUDOLPH OF HABSBURG TO 
 THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 1282. Rudolph I. invests his sons 
 Albert and Rudolph with Aus- 
 tria, Styria, and Carniola. 
 
 1 291. Albert I. unites to these pro- 
 vinces the hereditary domains of 
 Outer Austria (the Vorlande). 
 
 1 30 1. He acquires the Margraviate 
 of Bureau in Suabia. 
 
 1324. The County of Ptirt or Fer- 
 rette. 
 
 1326. The Domains of Kyburg. 
 
 1330. Leopold acquires Breisach, 
 Schaffhausen, Rheinfelden, Neu- 
 burg, and Rappenchwyl. 
 
 1335. Carinthia. 
 
 1363. Tyrol. 
 
 1365. The County of Feldkirch. 
 
 1367. Breisgau. 
 
 1374. The property of the Counts of 
 
 Gorica in Carniola. 
 1376. The County of Bludenz. 
 1379. The Baillywick of Suabia. 
 
 1 38 1. Hohenberg. 
 
 1382. Trieste places itself under the 
 protection of the Habsburgs. 
 
 1401. Frederic IV. of Tyrol inherits 
 the County of Seckingen. 
 
 1451. Part of Bregenz. 
 
 1315. The Forest Towns throw off 
 the Austrian yoke. 
 
 1332-1351. Lucerne, Claris, and 
 Zug gain their freedom. 
 
 1415-1416. Argovia, Bremgarten, 
 
 Sursee, and Baden. 
 1423. Kyburg pledged to Zurich.
 
 LOSSES AND GAINS OF THE HOUSE OF HABSBURG. 645 
 
 1456. The County of Cilly. 
 
 1461. Thurgovia. 
 
 1465. The Landgraviate of Nellen- 
 burg. 
 
 1482. Maximilian occupies the Bur- 
 gundian States in the name of 
 his son, Philip the Handsome. 
 
 1500. The Counties of Gorica, of 
 Mitterburg, and the Pusterthal. 
 
 1503. Tyrol enlarged in conse- 
 quence of a treaty with Bavaria. 
 
 1 5 16. Enlarged in consequence of a 
 treaty with Venice. 
 
 1519. Ferdinand I. buys the County 
 of Wurtemberg. 
 
 1523. The rest of Bregenz. 
 
 1526. The Kingdom of Bohemia, 
 the Margraviate of Moravia, the 
 greater part of Silesia, and the 
 two Lusatias, Hungary, and its 
 dependencies. 
 
 LOSSES. 
 
 1452. The County of Kyberg. 
 
 1687. The Principalities of Liegnitz, 
 Brieg, and Wohlau annexed. 
 
 1699. The Treaty of Carlowitz 
 restores Eastern Hungary and 
 Transylvania to Austria. 
 
 1708. Joseph I. takes possession of 
 the Duchy of Mantua, a fief of 
 the Empire left without heirs. 
 
 1 714. The Treaty of Rastadt gives 
 Charles VI. possession of the 
 Low Countries, Milan, Naples, 
 Sardinia, and Brisach. 
 
 1 718. The Treaty of Passarowitz 
 (Poszarevac) restores the Banats 
 of Temes and of Krajova, and 
 gives part of Servia and Bosnia 
 to Austria. 
 
 1720. Sardinia is exchanged for 
 Sicily. 
 
 1526. Hungary broken up : Sza- 
 polyai, Voievode of Transyl- 
 vania. 
 
 1526-1566. Central Hungary and 
 Slavonia in the hands of the 
 Turks. 
 
 1534. Ferdinand I. gives up the 
 County of Wurtemburg. 
 
 1635. The two Lusatias given up to 
 the Elector of Saxony. 
 
 1648. Cession of Alsace, Briesgau, 
 and Sundgau. 
 
 1690. Ortenau given up 
 House of Baden. 
 
 to the
 
 646 
 
 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 GAINS. 
 
 1735. The Treaty of Vienna gives 
 
 Austria Parma and Placentia. 
 
 LOSSES. 
 1735. The Treaty of Vienna gives 
 Tortona and Novara to Sardinia, 
 and the Two Sicilies to Don 
 Carlos, the Infant of Spain. 
 
 1740. On the death of Charles VI. 
 the Austrian possessionsamounted 
 altogether to 10,07571 square 
 German miles. 
 
 1759-S0. Austria acquires Ho- 
 henems, Falkenstein, the Or- 
 tenau, etc., in Germany. 
 
 1765. Tuscany,which was exchanged 
 for Lorraine in 1 736 by Francis I ., 
 is made the inheritance of the 
 second son of the House of 
 Habsburg-Lorraine. 
 
 1772. The County of Zips (Szepes) 
 and Galicia. 
 
 1775. The Bukovina. 
 
 1779. The district of the Inn. 
 
 1782. Further acquisitions on the 
 Inn. 
 
 1784. The Principalities of Castig- 
 lione and Solferino, and the 
 Lordship of Asch in Bohemia. 
 
 1791. Treaty of Sistova : Leopold 
 gains Old Orsova and the district 
 of the Unna. 
 
 1 796. Third partition of Poland : 
 acquisition of Western Galicia. 
 
 1797. Treaty of Campo-Formio : 
 acquisition of Venetian territory, 
 Istria, Dalmatia, and the Gulf of 
 Cattaro. 
 
 1739. By the Treaty of Belgrade 
 Austria restores Servia, Bosnia, 
 and the Banate of Krajova to 
 the Turks. 
 
 1742. By 
 Maria 
 
 the Treaty of Breslau 
 
 Theresa gives up tlie 
 
 greater part of Silesia and the 
 
 County of Kladsko to Prussia. 
 
 1743. Vigevano and Siccomaria 
 
 ceded to Sardinia. 
 1748. By the Treaty of Aix-la- 
 Chapelle, Parma, Placentia, and 
 Guastalla ceded to Don Philip. 
 
 1797. Loss of Belgium, Briesgau, 
 the Duchies of Milan and 
 Mantua.
 
 LOSSES A XD GAINS OF THE HOUSE OF HABSBURG. 647 
 
 1803. Trent and Brixen. 
 
 1804. Lindau, Rothenfels, Blume- 
 neck, etc. 
 
 1805. Treaty of Pressburg (Pos- 
 zony) : Salzburg, Berclitolsgaden, 
 the Matreithal, Zillerthal, and 
 Brixenthal gained. 
 
 1 8 14. Re-annexation of the northern 
 part of Tyrol and Vorarlberg. 
 
 18 1 5. The Treaty of Vienna gives 
 back to Austria the Lombardo- 
 Venetian Kingdom, Gorica, 
 Gradesca, Trieste, the whole of 
 Istria, Dalmatia, Ragusa, \'ene- 
 tian Albania, Carniola, Ricka 
 (Fiume), Croatia, the Southern 
 Tyrol, the Matreithal, the Circle 
 of Villach, Tarnopol, and 
 Czortkow. 
 
 1816. Treaty of Munich : Salzburg, 
 the Circle of the Inn, and part 
 of the Circle of Hausruck and 
 of the Zillerthal and Brixenthal, 
 are given back to Austria. 
 
 1846. The Republic of Cracow 
 annexed. 
 
 LOSSES. 
 
 1801. Treaty of Luneville : cession 
 of the Adige districts, Falken- 
 stein, and the Frickthal. 
 
 180^. The Ortenau. 
 
 1S05. Treaty of Pressburg (Pos- 
 zony) : Austria cedes Venice, 
 Istria, Dalmatia, and Cattaro 
 to the Kingdom of Italy ; Tyrol 
 and Vorarlberg to Bavaria ; 
 Outer Austria to Wurtemberg 
 and Bavaria. 
 
 1807. Montefalcone ceded. 
 
 1809. Treaty of Vienna : Carniola, 
 the Circle of Villach, Gorica, 
 Trieste, the coast of Hungary, 
 and Croatia as far as the Save, 
 are ceded to France ; Salzburg, 
 Berchtolsgaden, the district of 
 the Inn, and part of that of 
 Hausruck, to Bavaria ; Western 
 Galicia, Cracow, and the Circle 
 of Zamosc, to the Grand Duchy 
 of Warsaw ; the detached po.s- 
 sessions of Bohemia in Lusatia 
 definitely pass over to Saxony. 
 
 1810. Readjustment of the Galician 
 frontier : Russia obtains the 
 Circle of Tarnopol,
 
 648 HISTORY OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
 
 GAINS. LOSSES. 
 
 1859. The greater part of Lombarcly 
 given up to the Kingdom of 
 Italy. 
 1866. The rest of Lombardy and 
 Venetia given up to the Kingdom 
 of Italy. 
 1878. Temporary occupation of 
 Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
 
 Austro-tlungary now contains an area of 261,649 English square miles.
 
 ■ 9liaifiaiid if- ' '■ -A, f 
 
 irlv!^n"% 
 
 Osjefc®* 
 
 Eaat uf la preen 
 Kivinsttons. Waterloo PI
 
 c
 
 IN DE X 
 
 Abdul Keiim Pacha, 60 1 
 Abensberg, defeat of, 433 
 Academy of Sciences at Vienna 
 
 founded, 522 
 Achmet II., 326 
 
 III., 342 
 
 Adalbert (Vojtec), bishop of Prague, 
 
 64 ; baptizes Stephen of Hungary, 
 
 64 ; murdered, 92 ; his remains 
 
 carried to Prague, 93 
 
 the Victorious, 129 
 
 Adalram, archbishop of Salzburg, 42 
 Adam of Veleslavin, 290 
 Adrian II., 44 
 Adrianople, battle of, 21 
 A.E.I.O.U., Monogram of Frede- 
 rick IV., 153 
 ^-Eneas Sylvius, 189, 198, 209, 237 
 Agram (Zagreb), centre of the Illy- 
 
 rian literary movement, 500 
 Agron, king of Illyrian tribes, 12 
 Aguntum, 16 
 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, treaty of, 352 
 Ala, Samuel, 71 
 Alani, 17 
 Albania, 409 
 
 Albert I., 118 ; chosen emperor, 142 
 the Wise, 143 ; treaty of No- 
 
 fels, 144 
 iV., surnamed I\Iirabilia 
 
 Mundi, 149 
 v., chosen Emperor, King of 
 
 Bohemia and Hungary, 150 
 
 , Archduke, 570 
 
 (with the plaited hair), founder 
 
 of the Albertine Branch, 149 
 
 Albertine Branch, 149, 150 
 
 Alboin, 23 
 
 Alemanni, 21, 23 
 
 Alessandria, capitulation of, 412 
 
 Alexander I. (of Russia), 426, 446, 
 459 
 
 II., 558 
 
 VI., pope, 214 
 
 — — of Battenberg, Prince of Bul- 
 garia; war against Servia, 610; 
 his abdication, 611 
 
 the Great, 12 
 
 Almos, 74, 75 
 
 Alvinzy, 406, 484 
 
 Ambras, castle of, 263, 296 
 
 Museum, 263, 276 
 
 Ambrones, 12 
 
 Ampringen, 334 
 
 Anabaptists, 258 
 
 Anastasius Grun, 522 
 
 Ancona, 413, 477 
 
 Andrassy, Julius, 540, 541, 593, 
 594, 601, 602 
 
 Andrew I., King of Hungary, 72 
 
 II., 79 ; joins the crusade, 80 ; 
 
 grants Golden Bull, 81 
 
 III., 86 
 
 of Cesky Brod, 167 
 
 Anjou, House of, in Hungary, 21S- 
 223 
 
 Apafy, Michael, 332, 338 
 
 Apor, Ladislas, Voievode of Tran- 
 sylvania, 219 
 
 Aquileia, foundation of, 12 ; 14, 
 16, 19 ; Council of, 20 
 
 Aquincum (Buda), 15 
 
 Arany, 515 
 
 Arbe, island in the Adriatic, 40S 
 
 Arcadius, 22
 
 650 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Areola, 406 
 
 Arminius, 17 
 
 Arndt, poet, 430 
 
 Arnulf of Pannonia, 48 ; struggles 
 
 ■ against Svatopluk, 57 j alliance 
 with Bohemia, 89 
 
 Arpad, 57 ; death of, 60; dynasty 
 of, 59-88 
 
 Arsenius Tsernoievitch (Cernoje- 
 vic), 338, 344 
 
 Aspern, 434 
 
 Attila, 22 
 
 Auersperg, councillor to Leopold 
 II., 267, 272 
 
 , Adolphus, 594 
 
 , Charles, 580 
 
 Augsburg, defeat of Hungarians, 
 60 ; confession of, 2S8, 289 
 
 Augusta, John, a Bohemian brother, 
 thrown into prison, 288 
 
 Augustus III. of Saxony, 350 
 
 Aurelian, 19 
 
 Ausgleich, 574, 577 
 
 Ausschvveitz (Osviecim), 360 
 
 Austerlitz (Slavkov), 426 
 
 Austria, origin of its name, 127 ; 
 march of Austria, 127 ; the Ba- 
 benbergs, 128 ; a separate duchy, 
 132 , gains Styria and part of 
 Carniola, 132 ; laws under the 
 Babenbergs, 136 ; trade restric- 
 tions, 139 ; house of Habsburg, 
 141 ; early princes, 141-144 ; ac- 
 quires Tyrol and Carinthia, 147 ; 
 division of Austria, 149 ; Alber- 
 tine branch, 149-150; Leopoldine 
 branch, 150 ; loss of Switzer- 
 land, 151 ; Austria an archduchy, 
 152 ; monogram of Austria, 153 ; 
 division of in 1792, 401 ; army, 
 403 ; loses Belgium, 404 ; ac- 
 quires eastern Galicia, 405 ; loses 
 Lombardy, 406 ; gains Venice 
 and Dalmatia, 406 ; Bonaparte's 
 victories, 407 ; preliminaries of 
 Loben, 408 ; peace of Campo 
 Formio, 408 ; congress of Ras- 
 tadt, 410 ; assassination of French 
 representatives, 41 1 ; alliance 
 with Russia, 41 1 ; Marengo, 412 ; 
 Hohenlinden, 412 ; loss of terri- 
 tory,4i3; peace of Luneville, 413; 
 
 condition of Austria after Lune- 
 ville, 414 ; finances, 418 ; law, 
 419 ; Francis takes title of emperor 
 of Austria, 420 ; treaty of Press- 
 burg, 423 ; capitulation of Ulm, 
 425 ; Vienna captured, 426 ; 
 peace of Pressburg, 427 ; sur- 
 render of title of Roman emperor, 
 428; campaign of 1809, 431; 
 insurrection in Tyrol, 432 ; loss 
 of Vienna, 434 ; treaty of Schon- 
 brunn, 436 ; alliance with Na- 
 poleon, 442 ; financial condition, 
 443 ; laws, 444 ; Russian cam- 
 paign, 447 ; treaty with Prussia 
 and Russia, 450 ; campaign of 
 18 1 3, 451 ; Austrians in France, 
 456 ; peace of Fontainebleau, 
 
 457 , treaty of Paris, 457 ; re- 
 storation of Austrian house in 
 Italy, 458 ; congress of Vienna, 
 
 458 ; war resumed, 461 ; Water- 
 loo, 462 ; condition of Austria 
 in 1815, 462 ; second treaty of 
 Paris, 462 ; character of Francis 
 II., 466 ; his reactionary policy, 
 467 ; congress of Verona, 471 ; 
 Eastern affairs, 471-476 ; position 
 towards Poland, 476 ; towards 
 Italy, 477 ; towards Germany, 
 478 ; financial situation, 479 ; 
 public opinion under Ferdinand 
 IV., 521 ; parliament of Vienna, 
 542 ; diet of Kromerice, abdi- 
 cation of Ferdinand IV., 546 ; 
 Francis Joseph, 547 ; Crimean 
 war, 557 ; treaty of Paris, 558 ; 
 battle of Solferino, 559 ; attempts 
 at constitutional government, 
 561 ; appointment of Schmer- 
 ling, 562 ; opposition of the na- 
 tionalities to centralizing reforms, 
 
 564 ; insurrection in Poland, 
 
 565 ; wars against Prussia and 
 Italy, 567 ; Schleswig Plolstein 
 question, 568 ; loss of Venetia, 
 570; peace of Prague, 570; situa- 
 tion after Sadowa, 572 ; the 
 Ausgleich, 574 ; liberal mea- 
 sures, 580; military law, 581 ; 
 continued struggles with the na- 
 tionalities, 582-588
 
 INDEX. 
 
 651 
 
 Austro-Hungary, formation of, 1-3 ; 
 natural frontiers, 3, 4 ; various 
 nationalities, 5 ; titles of emperor, 
 9 ; statistics, 622-637 ; literature 
 of, 598 ; efforts towards federation, 
 589 ; Franco-German war, 589 ; 
 Hohenwart ministry, 590 ; nego- 
 ciations with Bohemia, 59° ; 
 federation checked, 593 ; present 
 condition of Austria, 594-599 ; 
 condition of education, 597 ! 
 Eastern Question re-opened, in- 
 surrection of Bosnia and Herze- 
 govina, triple alliance, negocia- 
 tions with Roumania, discontent 
 of the Porte, 600 ; treaty of San 
 Stefano, 602 ; of Berlin, 603 ; 
 occupation of Bosnia, 603-609 ; 
 aids Servia, 610; her foreign 
 policy, 611 ; alliance with Italy, 
 611; the Taaffe ministry, 612; 
 policy towards Bohemia, 613 ; 
 towards Hungary, 614 ; towards 
 Croatia, 615 ; organization of, 
 617 ; of Cisleithania, 618 ; of 
 Hungary, 621 ; Croatia, 621 ; 
 army, 622 ; navy, 626 ; popula- 
 tion, 626 ; natural resources, 
 629 ; means of communication, 
 631 ; trade, 631 ; finances, 633 ; 
 religion, 634; intellectual culture, 
 
 635 
 Avars, 21, 23, 24, 27, 30, 52. 
 
 Babenberg, house of, derivation of 
 name, 128 ; Austria under the, 
 127-140; Leopold I., 128; 
 Leopold H., the Handsome, 129 ; 
 Henry I., 129; Ernest the Vali- 
 ant, 129 ; Leopold HL, 130 ; 
 canonized, 130; Leopold IV., 
 
 130 ; gets possession of Bavaria, 
 
 131 ; Henry II., lasomirgott, 131 ,: 
 marries Gertrude of Bavaria, 13 1 ; 
 goes on crusade 131 ; the privik- 
 gium }?iinus, 132 ; founds Vienna, 
 
 132 ; Leopold V. the Virtuous 
 gains Styriaand part of Carniola, 
 
 132 ; goes on crusade and 
 
 quarrels with Richard Cceur de 
 Lion, 133; Frederick I., 133 ; 
 Leopold VI., the Proud, goes on 
 crusade, 133 ; his influence, 134 ; 
 improves Vienna, 134; dies in 
 Italy, 134 ; Frederick the Fighter, 
 134 ; wars with Hungary, Bo- 
 hemia, and Germany, 135 ; in- 
 vasion of the Mongols, 135 ; 
 death of Frederick, 136. 
 Bach, Alexander, 544, 552, 554, 
 
 Bacsany, translator of the Marseil- 
 laise, 484, 488 
 
 Bajan, 27, 28 
 
 Bajazet II., 241, 245 
 
 Bakracz, 246 
 
 Balbin, 496 
 
 Ban of Croatia, 75 
 
 Baraguay d'Hilliers, 433 
 
 Baroti, the poet, 482 
 
 Barrier (treaty), 277 
 
 Basle, council of, 193 ; peace of, 
 252 ; treaty of, 405 
 
 Bathyany, 534, 536, 538, 539, 440 
 
 Batory, Christopher, 319, 325 
 
 , Stephen, 321 
 
 , Sigismund, 325 
 
 , Andrew, 326 
 
 , Gabriel, 327-33° 
 
 Baton, 84 
 
 Bavaria, kingdom of, 427 
 
 Beauharnais, 435 
 
 Bedrich of Straznice, 202 
 
 Bela I., king of Hungaiy, 72 
 
 II., the Blind, 76 
 
 — in., 77 
 
 -IV., 83-86; 105 
 
 Belcredi, 566, 573, 574 
 
 Belgiojoso, 326 
 
 Belgium, 403 ; loss of, 404 
 
 Belgrade, captured by Hungary from 
 Servia, 219 ; siege by Hunyadi, 
 234 ; siege by Prince Eugene, 
 343 ; treaty of, 347 ; captured by 
 Loudon, 393 
 
 Bellegarde, 453 
 
 Belle-Isle, Marshal, 349, 365 
 
 Bern, 539, 540, 541, 545 
 
 Benedek, "the Falcon of the 
 Vistula," 507, 569 
 
 Berchtolsgaden, 413, 463
 
 652 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Berebistas, king of the Dacians, 
 
 14, 17 
 
 Berlin, treaty of, 603 ; clause con- 
 cerning Bosnia and Herzegovina, 
 604 
 
 Bernadotte, ambassador to Vienna, 
 411 
 
 Berszenyi, poet, 486 
 
 Berthier, 443 
 
 Bessenyi, poet, 395 
 
 Bethlen Gabor, 299, 300, 307, 325, 
 326, 328, 329 
 
 Beust, 567, 573, 578, 579, 594 
 
 Biberach, 412 
 
 Bismarck, 567, 569, 593 
 
 Bisson, 433, 438 
 
 Blasin (Balasfalva), 535 
 
 Bleiweiss, 501 
 
 Blucher, 461 
 
 Blum, Robert, 545 
 
 Bocchesi, insurrection of the, 585 
 
 Bochnia, 360 
 
 Bocskai, Stephen, heads revolt in 
 Transylvania, 326 ; chosen prince, 
 alliance with Turks, 326 
 
 Boethy, 514 
 
 Bohemia, geography, 4 ; ethno- 
 graphy, 5-7 ; importance of the 
 kingdom, lO ; origin (see Boii, 
 Chekhs), reign of Samo, 28, 30; 
 legendary princes, 40 ; first 
 Christian prince, Spytihnev ; 
 Vratislav, 89 ; St. Vacslav, 90 ; 
 Boleslav I., 91 ; Boleslav II., 91 ; 
 see of Prague founded, 91 ; Bre- 
 tislav, 92; Spytihnev II., 93; 
 triumph of Latin Christianity, 94 ; 
 Vratislav II., first king of Bohemia, 
 gains Lusatia, 94 ; tribute due to 
 emperor, 94 ; granted title of 
 king, 94; Bretislav II. appeals to 
 Germany as a fief, 95 ; Sobeslav 
 I. declares war against empire, 
 96 ; emperor renounces his claims, 
 96; Vladislav II., 96; goes on 
 crusade, 97 ; war with Frederick 
 Barbarossa for Silesia, 97 ; with 
 the Turks, 97 ; abdicates, 97 ; title 
 of king suppressed, 97 ; condition 
 of Bohemia in twelfth century, 
 98 ; Premysl Otokar crowned, 
 99 ; law of primogeniture, loo ; 
 
 Vacslav the One-eyed, loi ; 
 German influence, loi ; wars 
 with Austria, lOi ; invasion of 
 Tartars, loi ; Premysl Otokar 
 II., 103 ; position of Bohemia 
 towards the German empire, 
 120 ; institutions, 122 ; John of 
 Luxemburg, 155-160; Charles 
 IV., 161-164; Vacslav IV., 164; 
 revolts of his nobles, 165, 166 ; 
 condition of Bohemia, 167 ; the 
 religions movement, 168 ; John 
 Hus, 169 ; Council of Constance, 
 173; the Utraquist sect, 177; 
 Council of Prague, I77 > Hussite 
 Wars, 180-200 ; battle of Ousti, 
 190; anarchy in Bohemia, 194; 
 council of Basle, 195 ; battle of 
 Cesky Brod, 198; iheConipactata, 
 199 ; results of Hussite wars, 200; 
 death of Sigismund and extinction 
 of line of Luxemburg, 202 ; Albert 
 v., 203 ; George of Podiebrad, 
 205 ; Vladislav crowned, 206 ; 
 George elected, 208 ; receives 
 investiture from emperor, 208 ; 
 war with Germany and Hungary, 
 210, 211 ; death and character of 
 George, 212; Wladyslawjagiello, 
 213 ; peace of Olomouc, 213 ; 
 Wladyslaw elected king of Hun- 
 gary, 215 ; Louis, 215 ; towns 
 admitted to vote, the Reforma- 
 tion, 216; internal dissension of 
 Bohemia, 217; battle of Mohacs, 
 217 ; rule of the Austrian kings, 
 283 ; growth of royal power, 
 285 ; revolts, persecutions, 287 ; 
 letter of majesty, 291 ; the de- 
 fenestration of Prague, 295 ; the 
 thirty directors, 296 ; Elector 
 Palatine chosen king, 299 ; battle 
 of White Mountain, 300 ; Fer- 
 dinand's revenge, 301-305 ; emi- 
 gration of Protestants, 305 ; 
 Thirty Years' War, 306; Wallen- 
 stein, 307 ; Peace of Westphalia, 
 309 ; Decay of Bohemia, 310 ; 
 reign of Maria Theresa, 364 ; 
 Charles of Bavaria, anti-king, 
 364; reign of Joseph II., 396, 
 397; of Leopold II., 491 ; re-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 653 
 
 vival of Slavonic literature, 493 ; 
 Bohemian diet from 1840 to 
 184S, 510; development of 
 public spirit, Havilcek, 511-513; 
 revolution of, 1848, 527 ; Slav 
 congress, 529 ; bombardment of 
 Prague, 530 ; restoration of abso- 
 lute government, 548 ; return to 
 constitutional government, 561 ; 
 iniquity of new electoral law, 
 563 ; persecution of the press, 
 565 ; Bohemia invaded by the 
 Prussians, 569 ; its protest against 
 the dual government, 578; decla- 
 ration of the Chekh deputies, 
 582 ; negociations with the Ho- 
 henwart ministry, 590 ; the Fun- 
 damental Articles, 592 ; check to 
 federation, 593 ; Bohemia's atti- 
 tude towards the Eastern Ques- 
 tion, 601 ; present condition, 
 617-637 
 
 Bohemian Brothers, union of, 209, 
 215, 290, 291, 302, 303, 386 
 
 Boii, 12, 13, 26 
 
 Boiorum Deserta, 14 
 
 Boldenyi, 23 
 
 Boleslav I., duke of Bohemia, 90 
 
 II., 91 
 
 the Brave, king of Poland, 
 
 92 
 
 Borivoj, duke of Bohemia, 41, 45 
 
 Borut, prince of the Slovenes, 51 
 
 Bosnia, 237, 338, 472, 600 
 
 Bozetech, 125 
 
 Bracislav, Croat prince, 128 
 
 Brandenburg sold to Frederick of 
 Hohenzollern, 190 
 
 Brankovic of Servia, 228, 231, 233- 
 
 235 
 Braunau, 363 
 Bregenz, 16 
 Breisgau, 403, 427 
 Breslau (Vratislav), 207, 208, 210, 
 
 301 ; gives up its old name, 
 
 Brestl, his financial law, 58 1 
 Bretislav I., duke of Bohemia, 92 ; 
 institution of primogeniture, 93 
 
 II., 95 
 
 Brixen, 414, 427 
 Brno, 199 
 
 Brown, Irish soldier in service of 
 
 Austria, 355 
 Bubna, Austrian general, 470 
 Buda, synod of, 88 ; court of, 243 ; 
 
 conquest of, 249 
 Buda-Pesth, diet at, 586 
 Budejovice, 118, 184, 296, 297 
 Bukowina, acquired by Austria, 
 
 361 ; German university founded 
 
 in, 597 
 Bulgaria, 472, 602 
 Buol-Schauenstein, count, 557 
 Buquoi, 297, 299, 301 
 Burgundians, 19 
 Butchery of Eperjes, 336 
 Butler, 308 
 Bytom, 117 
 
 Cahera, priest and friend of Luther, 
 217 
 
 Caldiero, 425 
 
 Calixtins. See Utraquists. 
 
 Campo Formio, peace of, 40S 
 
 Capistrano, the monk, 207, 234 
 
 Carafa, Jesuit, 303 
 
 Caraffa, Italian general, 336 
 
 Carinthia becomes the propert)' of 
 Austria, 144, 251, 259, 438 ; 
 Henry of, 156, 160 
 
 Carlists in Spain, 505 
 
 Carlsbad, congress at, 470 
 
 Carni, 12, 14 
 
 Carniola, 15, 154, 159, 251 ; pea- 
 sant war, 254 ; 255, 259, 438 
 
 Carnuntum, 20 
 
 Carvajal, 205 
 
 Caslav, diet of, 1S5 ; 204, 297 ; 
 agrarian revolt, 312 
 
 Cassano, battle of, 412 
 
 Castaldo (condottiero), 319 
 
 Castiglione, 406 
 
 Catherine II., 357, 392 
 
 of Brandenburg, 329 
 
 Cattaro, 453 
 
 Caulaincourt, French ambassador, 
 
 451 
 Cavour, represents Piedmont at the 
 
 Congress of Paris, 55S ; alliance 
 
 with England, 559
 
 654 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cech, Lech, and Rous, 26 
 
 Celakovsky, poet, 500 
 
 Celeia (Cilly), 15 
 
 Celts, 12, 13 
 
 Cesky Brod, 198 
 
 Cesy de, French ambassador, 320 
 
 Censorship of the press, 419, 468, 
 480, 522 
 
 Champagny, 436 
 
 Champaubert, battle of, 456 
 
 Championnet, 424 
 
 Charles IV., king of Bohemia, 160 ; 
 associated with his father, 160 ; 
 elected emperor, 161 ; reor- 
 ganizes administration of Bo- 
 hemia, 161 ; founds University 
 of Prague, 161 ; the Majestas 
 Carolina, 162 ; creates arch- 
 bishopric of Prague, 163 ; the 
 Golden Bull, 163 ; his con- 
 flicts with Rudolf IV., 146; 
 treaty of inheritance with Austria, 
 164 
 
 " — v., 253, 255 
 
 VI., 277 ; Pragmatic Sanction, 
 
 279 ; treaty of Vienna, 281 ; 
 treaty of Belgrade, 281 ; his cha- 
 racter, 281 
 
 VII. of Bavaria, 350-352 
 
 V. of Lorraine, 348 
 
 X. of France, 475 
 
 Albert of Bavaria, 350 
 
 ■ Albert, king of Piedmont, 
 
 532, 541 
 
 , Archduke, 407, 412, 423, 
 
 426, 429, 430, 431, 433, 435 
 
 , duke of Brunswick, 476 
 
 , duke of Styria, 262 
 
 Emmanuel, of Savoy, 299 
 
 of Durazzo, 220 
 
 of Lichtenstein, 301 
 
 of Schwarzenburg, 424, 446, 
 
 ambassador to France, 448 
 
 Robert (of Anjou), 86, 218, 
 
 219 
 
 the Fat, 48 
 
 the Great, 41, 52 
 
 Theodore, of Bavaria, 391 
 
 Chasteler, 433 
 Chatillon-sur-Seine, conference at, 
 
 456 
 Chaumont, treaty of, 456 
 
 Chekh Museum founded at Prague, 
 497 
 
 Chekhs, 26 ; alliance with Charles 
 the Great, 41 ; become Chris- 
 tians, 41 ; empire of Svatopluk, 
 45 ; his death, 49 
 
 Cherso, island in the Adriatic, 408 
 
 Chotek, Count, description of Aus- 
 trian misgovernment, 416 
 
 Chotusic, 351 
 
 Christianity, 19, 32, 37 ; in Bohemia, 
 41 ; in Moravia, 42 ; in Carinthia, 
 51 ; in Hungary, 64 ; in Poland, 
 91 
 
 Cilly, Count, 234 
 
 Cimbri invade the south, defeated 
 at Noreja, 13 
 
 Cisleithania, 577, 583 
 
 Clam-Gallas, 569 
 
 Clam-Martinitz, 505, 582, 591 
 
 Claudius, Emperor, 19 
 
 Clerfayt, General, 404 
 
 Cobenzel, Joseph, 363 ; at congress 
 of Rastadt, 410; 411, 415, 423, 
 424 
 
 Collin, Austrian general, 507 
 
 Colloredo, 308 
 
 Commodus, 18 
 
 Compadata, the, 199, 200, 205, 
 209, 214 
 
 Confcrenzminisfen'icm, 417 
 
 Conrad of Hohenstaufen, 130, 131 
 
 Waldhauser, 168 
 
 Constance, Council of, 151, 173; 
 breaks up, 179 
 
 Constantine, 20 
 
 Porphyrogenitus, 32, 56 
 
 Constantius, 21 
 
 Convention of St. Vacslav, 216 
 
 Corvina library founded by Ma- 
 thias, 243 ; 601 
 
 Cosmos, dean of Prague, 125 
 
 Councils of Spalato, 53, 54 
 
 Cowley, Lord, 559 
 
 Cracow, 116, 360, 506-510, 531 ; 
 Polish Academy at, 637 
 
 Cressenbriinn, 105, iio 
 
 Croats, statistics, 5 ; geographical 
 position, 8 ; settle in the valley 
 of the Save, 30-32 ; Slav liturgy 
 in use, 44 ; history under national 
 dynasty, 53-56 ; union of with
 
 INDEX. 
 
 655 
 
 Hungary, 74 ; struggle against 
 the Tartars, 84 ; literary revival 
 at Zagrel, 500 ; Illyrism, 501 ; 
 enforced use of Magyar language, 
 518 ; situation as regards Hun- 
 gary, 519 ; discontent under Fer- 
 dinand IV., 534 ; condition under 
 Francis Joseph, 553 ; agreement 
 with Hungary, 577 ; refuse to 
 send deputies to Pesth, 586 ; 
 present grievances, 587 ; attitude 
 of Hungary towards them, 587 
 
 Crown of St. Stephen, 315 ; brought 
 to Vienna, 394 
 
 Csak of Trencsin, 219 
 
 Csaky, cardinal, 280 
 
 Csokonai, 486 
 
 Cumans, or Polovtses, 72, 73 
 
 Cunegunda, 106, 112 
 
 Custozza, 570 
 
 Cyril, 43 ; death of, 44 
 
 Cyrillic alphabet, 44, 47 
 
 Czernowitz, 362, 597 
 
 Cziraki, 494 
 
 D 
 
 Dacians, the, 14, 17, 18, 19, 26 
 Dagobert, 28 
 
 Dalmatia, 19, 23, 31, 54, 56, 81, 
 84, 221, 227, 409, 431, 453, 485, 
 
 585 
 Dalmatians, 15, 17 
 Dampierre, Henry of, 297 
 Danube, 3, 14, 15, 16 
 Danzig, 399 
 Daun, Marshal, 355 
 Davoust, 487 
 Deak, Francis, 492, 494, 514, 515, 
 
 534, 566, 576 
 Debreczen, synod of, 323 
 Decebalus, king of the Dacians, 
 
 17 
 Decius, 19 
 Declaration of the Chekh deputies 
 
 in 1 868, 582 
 Defour, 302 
 Dembinski, 538 
 Devay, 323 
 Dietrichstein, 305 
 Diocletian, 19, 20 
 
 Dissertatio Apologetica, by Balbin, 
 
 a Jesuit, 496 
 DobUioff, 527 
 Doljner, 497 
 Dobrovsky, 497 
 Domitian, 17 
 
 Dosza, king of the peasants, 247 
 Drahomira, 89 
 Dresden, conference at, 556 
 Drusus, 15 
 Drzislav, king of the Croats, 53 ; his 
 
 dynasty, 54 
 Dubravka, Bohemian princess, 91 
 Dubrovnik (Ragusa), 226, 227 
 Durrenstein, castle of, 133 
 
 Eastern Question, 471-475 ; treaty 
 
 of Adrianople, 475 ; under 
 
 Francis Joseph, 557 
 Eckhel, arch^ologist, 378 
 Eger (in Bohemia), 33S 
 
 (Erlau), 319, .324 
 
 Eichstadt, bishopric of, 413 
 Electorate of Salzburg, formation 
 
 of, 413 
 Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, 159 
 Emerich, Saint, 71, 73 
 Emona (Laybach), 16 
 Emperor of Austria, creation of 
 
 title of, 486 
 Engen, battle of, 412 
 England, alliance with, 424 
 Eotvos, 514, 534 
 Eperjes, butchery of, 336 
 Erdbsi (Johannes Sylvester Pauno- 
 
 nicus), 323 
 Ernest of Pardubice, archbishop of 
 
 Prague, 161 
 
 , the Man of Iron, 151 
 
 the Valiant, 129 
 
 Esslingen, 435 
 Esterhazy, 485, 4S8 
 
 -, Nicholas, 328, 331, 332 
 
 Ethico, of Alsace, 142 
 
 Eugene Beauharnais, 435, 452, 
 
 457 
 of Savoy, 272, 280, 342
 
 656 
 
 JNDEX, 
 
 Fadinger, the peasant leader, 264 
 
 Falkenstein, 413 
 
 Fantin de Valle, 210 
 
 Ferdinand I. divides his dominions 
 with Charles V., 255 ; crowned 
 king of Bohemia, 257 ; king of 
 the Romans, 257 ; revolt of 
 Tyrolese peasants, 258 ; progress 
 of reformation, 258 ; establish- 
 ment of Jesuits, 258; divides his 
 dominions among his three sons 
 259 ; his reign in Bohemia, 283 
 growth of royal power, 284 
 monarchy made hereditary, 285 
 persecution of Protestants, 286 
 reign in Hungary, 314 ; the 
 Turks in Hungary, 316; treaty 
 of Varad, 316 ; his death, 320 
 
 n., 263 ; reign in. Austria, 264, 
 
 265 ; in Bohemia, 298-309; revolt 
 of Bohemia, 299 ; battle of the 
 White Mountain, 30J ; religious 
 and political reaction, 302-305 ; 
 Thirty Years' War, 308 ; rule in 
 Hungary, 328 
 
 ni., 266; counter-reformation 
 
 in Austria, 266 ; crowned, 305 ; 
 his reign in Bohemia, 309 ; con- 
 tinuation of Thirty Years' War, 
 309; rule in Hungary, 331 ; 
 Alsatian possessions ceded to 
 France, 266 
 IV. crowned king of Hun- 
 gary, 493 ; agrarian reform in 
 Hungary, 494 ; as emperor of 
 Austria, 504 ; his character, 504 ; 
 the Staats-conferenz, 505 ; affairs 
 in Poland, 506 ; massacres in 
 Galicia, 508 ; occupation and 
 annexation of Cracow, 509 ; pro- 
 gress of public opinion in Bo- 
 hemia, 510; in Hungary, 514; 
 unfitness to rule, 524 ; grants a 
 new constitution, 526 ; conces- 
 sions to Bohemia, 527 ; Slav 
 congress at Prague, 529 ; revo- 
 lutionary movement in Galicia, 
 531 ; in Italy, 532 ; Hungarian 
 revolution, 533-541 ; parliament 
 meets at Vienna, 542 ; the " Oc- 
 
 tober days," 544; diet of Kro- 
 
 merice, 546 ; abdication of 
 
 Ferdinand, 547 
 Ferdinand of Coburg, present prince 
 
 of Bulgaria, 611 
 
 of Este, 508 
 
 of Tyrol, 262 ; founds Ambras 
 
 museum, 263 
 Ficquelmont (minister), 526 
 Fiunie (Rieka), 345 
 Forcheim, treaty of, 45, 47 
 Fontenoy. See War of Austrian 
 
 Succession, 348 
 Francis I. of France, 315 
 V. of Modena, 559, 560 
 
 Joseph, his accession, 537, 
 
 547 ; demand for federation, 549 ; 
 a new constitution, 551 ; period 
 of reaction, 552 ; concordat with 
 Rome, 555 ; financial difficulties, 
 
 555 > policy towards Prussia, 
 
 556 ; Crimean war and Eastern 
 policy, 557 ; war in Italy, 558 ; 
 loss of Lombardy, 560 ; return 
 to constitutional government, 
 561 ; patents of October and 
 February, 562 ; electoral law of 
 Schmerling, 562 ; resistance of 
 the nationalities, 564 ; Polish in- 
 surrection of 1863, 565 ; wars 
 with Prussia and Italy, 567-571 ; 
 Austria excluded from Germany, 
 570; lossof Venetia, 570; Austria 
 after Sadowa, 572 ; negociations 
 with Hungary, 573 ; the dual con- 
 stitution, 573 ; protests of the 
 Slavs against the new arrangement, 
 577 ; liberal reforms, 580 ; de- 
 claration of the Chekhs, 582 ; 
 the Galician resolution, 584 ; 
 grievances of the Servians, Rou- 
 manians, and Croatians, 586 ; 
 attempts at federation, 589 ; the 
 Ilohenwart ministry and Bo- 
 hemia, 590 ; federation checked, 
 
 593 j progress under his reign, 
 
 594 ; Austrian policy towards the 
 East, 600 
 
 Stephen of Lorraine, Francis 
 
 I., 348; marries Maria Theresa, 
 348 ; is made emperor, 352 ; 
 death, 356
 
 INDEX. 
 
 657 
 
 Francis II., 401-504; Austria at the 
 beginning of his reign, 401 ; loss 
 of Belgium, 405 ; acquisition of 
 Western Galicia, 405 ; loss of 
 Lombardy, 406 ; treaty of Campo- 
 
 . Formio, 408; acquisition of Venice 
 andDalmatia,4o8; Marengo, 412; 
 treaty of Luneville. 413 ; policy 
 of Austria after Luneville, 414; 
 takes title of emperor of Austria, 
 420 ; war of 1805, 425 ; battle of 
 Austerlitz, 426 ; treaty of Press- 
 burg, 427 ; Francis renounes title 
 of emperor of Germany, 428 ; 
 campaign of 1809, 431 ; insur- 
 rection in Tyrol, 433 ; Aspern 
 and Wagram, 434 ; treaty of 
 Schonbrunn, 436 ; Illyrian pro- 
 vinces ceded to France, 438 ; 
 Metternich's alliance with Napo- 
 leon, 442 ; Russian campaign, 
 445 ; alliance with Napoleon's 
 enemies, 449 ; campaign of 1813, 
 451 ; battle of Leipsig, 454 ; 
 Austrians in Paris, 455 ; con- 
 gress of Vienna, 458 ; position of 
 Austria in 1815, 462; influence 
 of Metternich, 466 ; Austria at 
 the head of a reactionary policy, 
 467 ; meetings of congress, 470 ; 
 the Eastern Question, 471 ; 
 affairs in Poland, Italy, and 
 Germany, 476 ; development of 
 public opinion in Hungary, 491 ; 
 and the Slav countries, 495 ; 
 death of Francis, 504 ; his will, 
 
 504 
 Frankfort, parliament of, 529, 531 ; 
 
 543. 550, 552, 556, 567 
 Frankopan, 334 
 Frederick I. of Babenberg, 133 
 
 II., the Fighter, 84, 134 
 
 IV. (of the Empty Purse), 
 
 151 ; quarrels with his nobles, 
 
 151 ; aids the Pope, 151 ; memory 
 revered by the peasants, 152 
 
 v., emperor of Germany, 
 
 creates Austria an archduchy, 
 
 152 ; increases dominions of his 
 house, 152 ; quarrels with Tyrol 
 and Styria, 153 ; invasion of 
 Carinthia by the Turks, 154; 
 
 adopts the monogram, A.E.I. O.U., 
 
 Frederick II., king of Prussia, 349, 
 
 351. 352. 354, 355» 357, 39i, 
 
 392 
 
 , elector of Saxony, 308 
 
 , elector palatine, 299 ; 
 
 crowned king of Bohemia, 299 ; 
 
 a fanatical Calvinist, 300 ; battle 
 
 of White Mountain, 300 ; Flight 
 
 of Frederick, 301 
 of Habsburg, the Handsome, 
 
 duke of Austria, emperor of 
 
 Germany, 143 ; battle of Miihl- 
 
 dorf, 143 
 William II., king of Prussia, 
 
 400 
 Frickthal, 413 
 Froushka Gora, 52 
 Fundamental Articles, 592, 593 
 Flissen, treaty of, 352 
 
 Gablenz, 569 
 
 Gabriel Bethlen (Bethlen Gabor), 
 326-330 
 
 Gaj, Ljudevit, 500, 513 
 
 Galicia, war of its Russian princes 
 with Hungary, 77 ; annexed to 
 Austria, 359 ; Joseph JI. refuses 
 to annex it to Hungary, 394 ; 
 annexation of Western Galicia, 
 405 ; state of, in 1846, 506 ; the 
 Polish massacres, 508 ; insurrec- 
 tion of 1848, 531 ; state during 
 Polish insurrection of 1S63, 565 ; 
 concessions to, 566 ; position to- 
 wards the dual government, 
 578 ; the Galician Resolution, 
 
 585 
 Gallas, 302, 308, 309 
 Gara, the palatine, 234, 237 
 Gastein, convention of, 568 
 Gebler, Von, 3S3 
 Geiza I., king of Hungary, 60, 64 
 
 II., 76 
 
 Genz, 423, 425, 429, 446, 475 
 George of Podiebrad, 153, 205 ; 
 chosen- leader of the four circles 
 205 ; takes Prague by surprise, 
 2 U
 
 658 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 205 ; is made supreme captain of 
 Bohemia, 206 ; king, 208 ; re- 
 stores order, 208 ; breaks with 
 Rome, 211 ; makes war against 
 Mathias Corvinus, 211 ; death, 
 212 ; his project of an inter- 
 national tribunal, 212 
 Gepidae, 19, 23 
 
 Germans, statistics of, 5 ; geogra- 
 phical position, 6, 7 ; in Hungary, 
 see Saxons ; defeated by Magyars, 
 60 ; beat back the RIagyars at 
 Merseburg and Augsburg, 60 ; 
 attack Hungary, 71 ; their posi- 
 tion in Bohemia, 94 ; the claims 
 of Germany, 120 ; their colonies 
 in Bohemia, 123, 124 ; partiality 
 shown to them by John of 
 Luxeinburg, 157 ; their literature 
 in Austria, 139 ; influence in 
 Bohemia under Vacslav IV., 
 167 ; reaction against them in 
 Bohemia, 16S, 171 ; their dislike 
 of Federation, 590 
 
 Gesta Hu7igarornin, 22 
 
 Ghika, hospodar of Moldavia, 
 .362 
 
 Gisella, wife of Stephen I., 65 
 
 Giulay, Austrian general, 559 
 
 , prince of Transylvania, 66 
 
 Glagolica alphabet, 47 
 
 Glatz (Kladsko) 351 ; 364 
 
 Gliick, 378 
 
 Godfrey of Bouillon, 74 
 
 Golden Bull of Andrew H., 81, 82 
 
 of Charles IV., 163 
 
 Goltz, 302 
 
 Goluchowski, 562, 584 
 
 Gordon, 308 
 
 Gorgey, 538, 539, 540, 541 
 
 Gos, 407 
 
 Goths, 18, 19, 20 
 
 Gran, created an archbishopric, 66 ; 
 taken by the Mongols, 84 
 
 Gratz {grad, the strong), 35 
 
 Greece, insurrection in, 472 ; battle 
 of Navarino, 475 ; treaty of 
 Adrianople, 475 ; treaty of navi- 
 gation, 505 
 
 Gregory, Brother, founder of the 
 Bohemian Brotherhood, 209 
 
 VII., 54 
 
 Grillparzer, 522, 532 
 
 Gritti, 316 
 
 Grobnik, victory of the Croats over 
 
 the Mongols at, 84 
 Grlin, Anastasius (pseudonym for 
 
 Anthony Auersperg), 522 
 Guastella, 457 
 
 Gul Baba, " father of rose^" 337 
 Gustavus Adolphus, 307, 308, 309 
 
 H 
 
 Habernfeld, historian, 305 
 
 Habetinek, 590 
 
 Habsburg, castle of, 141 ; destruc- 
 tion by Swiss, 152 ; Austria 
 under the first princes of, 141- 
 
 154 
 Haddik, Magyar general, 485 
 Hagenau, treaty of, 143 ; 462 
 Hallstadt, II 
 Hammer-Purgstall, the orientalist, 
 
 522 
 Hanau, battle of, 455 
 Hanka (poet), 500 
 Harant of Polzice, 302 
 Hardenberg, 456 
 Harrach, 272, 373 
 Haspinger, the Capuchin, 432 
 Hassan, pacha of Bosnia, 324 
 Haugwitz, chancellor of Austria, 
 
 373 
 Havlicek, Charles, 513, 554 
 Haydn, 37S 
 Haynau, 540 
 
 Iledwig, queen of Poland, 223 
 I leister, imperial general, 340 
 Helen Zrinyi, 336 
 Heltai, Caspar, Hungarian reformer, 
 
 323 
 Henry II. of France helps the 
 
 Szapolyai, 319 
 IV., 327 
 
 lasomergott, hereditary duke 
 
 of Austria, 131 ; receives from the. 
 emperor the privilegium minus, 
 132 
 
 of Carinthia, king of Bo- 
 hemia,- 156 
 
 of Schweinfurt, 129 
 
 the Lion, 131
 
 INDEX. 
 
 659 
 
 Heraclius, 30 
 
 Hermanduri, 13 
 
 Heruli, 23 
 
 Herzegovina, 600 
 
 Hesse, insurrection in, 556 
 
 Hiller, Austrian general, 452 
 
 Hocher, 267 
 
 Hochkirch, battle of, 355 
 
 Hofer, 432, 437. 43S 
 
 Hohenembs, ceded to Bavaria, 427 
 
 Hohenlinden, battle of, 412 
 
 Hohenwart, 590, 594 
 
 Hollar, the engraver, 305 I 
 
 Holyk, Bohemian theologian, 305 
 
 Holzer, 153 
 
 Honorius, 22 
 
 Honter (Pastor), 323 
 
 Honveds, 538 
 
 Hormayr, 433 
 
 Horvat, Servian leader, 372 
 
 Hrings, 27 
 
 Huber, Tyrolese patriot, 432 
 
 Hubertsburg, treaty of, 355 
 
 Hulin, French general, 426 
 
 Humboldt, 447 
 
 Hungary, position of the kingdom, 
 7, 8 ; invasion of the Magyars, 
 57 ; their invasion of Italy, 60 ; 
 defeat at Augsburg, 60 ; manners 
 and customs of pagan INIagyars, 
 61 ; first Christian king, St. 
 Stephen, 64 ; his successors of 
 the race of Arpad, 71 ; Ladislas 
 the Holy, 73 ; Koloman, 74 ; 
 annexes Croatia, 74 ; his laws, 
 75 ; German colonies, 76 ; wars 
 with Galicia and Venice, 77 ; 
 crusaders cross Hungary, 78 ; 
 Andrew H., 79 ; condition of the 
 kingdom, 80 ; the Golden Bull, 81 ; 
 Bela IV., 83 ; the invasion of the 
 Mongols, 83, 84 ; struggles with 
 Austria, 85 ; Hungary gains 
 Styria, 85 ; extinction of race of 
 Arpad, 86 ; civilization in the 
 thirteenth century, 87 ; kingdom 
 under race of Anjou, 218 ; re- 
 lations with Italy, 219; with 
 Poland, 220; Louis the Great, 
 220 ; obtains Dalmatia, 221 ; 
 made king of Poland, 222 ; state 
 of kingdom under Angevin kings. 
 
 223 ; Sigismund of Luxemburg, 
 225 ; elective kings, 229 ; John 
 Hunyadi governor of the king- 
 dom, 230 ; Mathias Corvinus, 
 236 ; war against Bohemia, 238 ; 
 against the Turks, 240 ; death, 
 241 ; state of Hungary under 
 Corvinus, 242; Wladyslaw II., 
 244 ; loss of territory, 245 ; pea- 
 sants revolt, 246 ; Louis II., 248 ; 
 defeat of Mohacs, 249 ; reign of 
 Szajiolyai, 314; dismemberment 
 of Hungary, 317 ; rule of the 
 Turks, Maximilian, 320; the 
 Reformation in Hungary, 322 ; 
 Rudolf II., 324; condition of 
 Hungary, 321-324 ; war with 
 Turks, 324 ; Leopold I., 332 ; 
 conspiracy of the three counts, 
 334 ; butchery of Eperjes, 336 ; 
 expulsion of the Turks, 337 ; 
 Francis Rakocsy, 338 ; annexa- 
 tion of Transylvania, 338 ; Hun- 
 gary reconciled, 341 ; CharlesIII., 
 342 ; battle of Petervarad, 342 ; 
 siege of Belgrade, 342 ; peace of 
 Passarowitz, 343 ; military fron- 
 tiers, 345 ; Charles VI., 346 ; 
 Pragmatic Sanction, 344 ; revolt 
 of peasants, 346 ; peace of Bel- 
 grade, 347 ; Hungary under Maria 
 Theresa, 366-381 ; moriamur 
 pro rcs;e ■ noslro, 366; policy of 
 Joseph II., 382; concession of 
 Leopold II., 482 ; struggles 
 against Napoleon, 483-490 ; Na- 
 poleon's proclamation, 488 ; de- 
 velopment of public spirit, 491 ; 
 Szechenyi, 493 ; Deak, 494 ; 
 characteristics of Magyars, 514 ; 
 session of 1836, 514; diet of 
 1847, 517; Magyar language 
 imposed on Croatia, 518 ; races 
 in Hungary, 519 ; first Magyar 
 ministry, 533 ; the war, 537; 
 Russian intervention, 539 ; ven- 
 geance of Austria, 540 ; reaction, 
 541 ; return to constitutional 
 government, 566 ; the dual 
 government, 573-576 ; protests 
 of the Slavs, 577 ; attitude of 
 Hungary towards the Eastern
 
 66o 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Question, 600 ; present condition 
 of Hungary, 614 
 
 Huningue, 462 
 
 Huns, 21 
 
 Hunyady, John Corvinus, victories 
 over the Turks, 230 : battle of 
 Varna, 231 ; defeat, 231 ; made 
 lieutenant-general of the king- 
 dom, 232 ; battle of Kosovo, 
 233 ; victory at Krushevats, 234 ; 
 death, 235 ; siege of Belgrade, 
 
 235 
 
 Hus, John, 169 ; preacher at the 
 Bethlehem chapel, 169 ; persuades 
 Vacslav to restore the University 
 of Prague to Ihe Chekhs, 171 ; 
 struggle against indulgences, 172; 
 summoned to the Council of 
 Constance, 173; his death, 174; 
 character, 175 ; proclaimed saint 
 and martyr, 178; anniversary of 
 his death in 1869, 583 
 
 Hussars first formed, 226 
 
 Hussite wars, 176-201 
 
 Ignatiev, General, 601 
 
 Illyria, a Roman province, 13 ; a 
 prefecture, 20 ; kingdom of, under 
 the French, 438-441 ; in 1847, 520 
 
 Illyrians, 12 
 
 Illyrism, 501 
 
 Inn, quarter of, 363 
 
 Insurrection, 234, 485, 488, 489 
 
 Ionian Isles, 409 
 
 Ireland, analogy with Bohemia, 513 
 
 Isonzo, 452 
 
 Istria, 408, 427, 436, 452, 463 
 
 Italia irjxdcnta, 595 
 
 Italians, statistics of, 5; geographical 
 position, 8 
 
 Italy under Austrian rule. See 
 Lombardy, Venice, Victor Em- 
 manuel, 532, 595 
 
 Jach, Mag}'ar general, 485 
 Jacquin, botanist, 378 
 Jagerndorf, 351 
 
 Jakoubek Stribrsky, disciple of 
 
 Hus, 176, 178 
 Jankov, defeat of, 309 
 Japydes, 12, 14 
 Jazyges, 17, 20 
 Jelacic, ban of Croatia,535,537, 545, 
 
 547 
 Jemmapes, battle of, 404 
 Jerome of Prague, 178 
 Jesuits, founding of Society of 
 
 Jesus, 258 ; settled in Gratz, 
 
 262 ; their work in Austria, 262, 
 
 265; in Bohemia, 311; their 
 
 suppression, 376 
 Jews, statistics of, 5 ; in Bohemia, 
 
 124; in Austria, 138, 386; in 
 
 Hungary, 224 
 Jicin, defeat at, 569 
 Jirecek, Austrian minister, 590, 597 
 Jiskra of Brandyse, 233, 237 
 Joan of Arc, apocryphal letter of, 
 
 192 
 
 of Naples, 220 
 
 John XXIII., pope, 151, 152, 172 
 , Archduke, 432, 435, 527 
 
 of Luxemburg, marries his 
 
 son to Margaret Maultasche, 143 ; 
 chosen king of Bohemia, 156 ; 
 his character, 156 ; his wars, 158 ; 
 treaty with Poland, 159; asso- 
 ciates his son Charles with him, 
 160 ; death at Cressy, 160. 
 
 ofPomuk, 165 
 
 of Pribram, 197, 201, 204 
 
 of Rokycana, 197 ; chosen 
 
 bishop, 199, 201, 204 
 
 of Zeliv, 180, 187 
 
 Jokai, 533 
 
 Joseph I., 277, 341 
 
 ■ II. elected emperor, 356 ; 
 
 associated with Maria Theresa 
 in government, 356, 372 ; gives 
 Fiume to Hungary, 372 ; cha- 
 racter of, 382 ; animosity to the 
 Church, 284 ; edict of toleration, 
 385 ; Josephinism, 387 ; encour- 
 ages trade, 389 ; his legislation, 
 390; foreign policy, 391; alli- 
 ance with Russia, 392 ; war 
 against Turks, 393 ; death, 393 ; 
 rule in Hungary, 394 ; in Bo- 
 hemia, 396
 
 INDEX. 
 
 66 1 
 
 Joseph (Palatine), 421, 486, 491 
 Joubert (Marshal), 407 
 Jourdan, French general, 407, 413 
 Juarez, president of Mexico, 570 
 Jiidenburg, 407 
 Judgment of Libusa, 497 
 Juhasz, Calvinist pastor, 323 
 Jupans, or Zhupani, 55, 56 
 Justinian, 23 
 
 K 
 
 Kalnoky, Hungarian minister, 614 
 Kara Mustapha (grand vizier) 268, 
 
 335 
 Karadjitch (Karadzic), Croat 
 
 writer, 500 
 Karageorgevitch, prince of Si rvia, 
 
 609 
 Karloman, 45 
 Karlovac, fortress of, 324 
 Karlstein, castle of, 162 
 Kasso, defeat of, 326 
 Kathvalda, 17 
 Kaunitz, 353 ; treaty of Versailles, 
 
 354 ; 356, 359, 399 
 Kazimir (of Poland), 203, 212 
 Kemenyi, John, 332 
 Kerpen, Austrian general, 407 
 Kesseldorf, defeat at, 352 
 Khazars, 43 
 Khlesl, Austrian bishop, 261, 263 ; 
 
 cardinal, 296 
 Kiniszy, 240 
 Kinsley, 272, 373, 497 
 Kis, 538, 540 
 Kisfaludy, Alexander, 491 
 
 , Charles, 491, 515 
 
 Klapka, Magyar general, 540, 572, 
 
 601 
 Klek, 463, 601 
 
 Kocel, prince of Pannonia, 44 
 Kolcsey, Hungarian poet, 491, 494 
 Kolin, victory at, 355 
 KoUar, poet, 498, 520 
 Koller, in Elba with Napoleon, 
 
 456 
 Koloman, king of Hungary, 74 ; of 
 
 Croatia, 75 
 Kolovrat, 505, 526 
 Komensky (Comenius) , 201, 306 
 
 Koniggratz (Kralove Hradec), battle 
 
 of, 569 
 Konigsberg founded, 105 
 Konigsmarck, Swedish general, 309 
 Koppany, 65 
 
 Kormend, battle of, 333, 426 
 Korner, Theodore, 447 
 Korutanian Slavs, 27, 40, 51 
 Korybutovic, Sigismund, regent of 
 
 Bohemia, 188, 191, 193 
 Koseski, 501 
 Kossuth. Louis, 494, 513, 514. 5i 5 
 
 533, 534, 536-541, 572, 576 
 Kostcher lordship in Moravia, 351 
 Krakovsky of Kolovrat, 364 
 Kralove Dvor, Bohemian MS., 497 
 Kray, Austrian general, 412 
 Kresimir, king of the Croats, 53 
 Kresse!, Von, 383 
 Krisanic, 502 
 Krok, 40 
 
 Kromerice, diet of, 54^ 
 Krudener, Mme. de, 462 
 Krushevats, victory of Hungarians 
 
 at, 234 
 Kuchuk Kainardji, treaty of, 361 
 Kulm, 451 
 Kunersdorf, 355 
 Kurucz, insurrection of the, 247, 
 
 340 
 Kulna Hora, 1 16, 156, 182, 187, 
 
 214 
 Kutuzov, 426 
 
 Laczkovics, 4S4 
 Ladislas the Cuman, 86 
 
 the Holy, 73 ; laws, 73 
 
 La Fayette, 409, 462 
 
 Lamberg, General, hanged by the 
 
 mob at Pesth, 537 
 Landesauschuss, 51 1 
 Landeshoheit, 136 
 Landshut, victory at, 355 
 Language, vitality of, 9 
 Lascy, Irish soldier in service of 
 
 Austria, 355 
 Latour, minister of war, hanged by 
 
 the mob of Vienna, 544 
 Lauenburg, duchy of, 568
 
 662 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Laureacum (Lorch), i6, 64, 
 Laveleye, M. de, his criticism on 
 
 the Magyars, 586 
 Lazarevic, despot of Servia, 228 
 Lazaric, 452 
 Lefebvre, General, 437 
 Legations, the, 477 
 Leipsic, founding of university of, 
 
 171 ; battle of, 451, 454 
 Lemberg (Lwow or Lviv), 360 ; 
 
 court of appeal at, 391 
 Leopold I. of Babenburg, 128 
 IL, the Handsome, 129 
 
 - in., 130 
 
 IV., 130 
 
 V. gains Styria and part of 
 
 Carniola, 132 ; goes on crusade, 
 133 ; quarrels with Richard Coeur 
 de Lion, 133 
 
 VI., the Proud, 133, 134 
 
 the Pious, founder of the 
 
 Leopoldine line, 149 ; ob- 
 tains Trieste, 150; battle of 
 Sempach, 151 ; extent of Aus- 
 tria in his time, 266 ; character 
 of, 267 ; siege of Vienna by the 
 Turks, 268 ; state of Austria 
 under, 271 ; his army, 272 ; 
 fleet, 273 ; finance, 274 ; ad- 
 ministration, 275 ; rule in Hun- 
 gary, 332 ; revolt of the three 
 counts, revenge of Leopold, 334 
 
 n., 398; his reforms, 398; 
 
 revolt of Belgium, 398 ; treaty of 
 Sistova, 399 ; French revolution, 
 400 ; his death, 400 ; his rule in 
 Hungary, 482 ; in Bohemia, 495 
 
 IL of Tuscany, 559, 560 
 
 of Tyrol, marries Claudia of 
 
 of Medici, 265 
 
 William, 265 
 
 Leo Thun, 529 
 
 Liburni, 14 
 
 Libusa, 40 
 
 Lichtenstein, Charles of, 301, 302, 
 
 380 
 Liegnitz, battle of, 355 
 Lipany, battle of, 213 
 Lissa (Leuthen), battle of, 355 ; 
 
 naval victory of, 570 
 Lithuania, 160 
 Lobau, camp at, 435 
 
 Loben, 408 
 
 Lobkovice (Lobkwitz), William 
 
 and Diepold, 295 
 Lobomirski, Chekh, 529 
 Lobosice, battle of, 354 
 Lodomeria. See Galicia 
 Lombards, 23, 24, 29 
 Lombardy, 159, 412, 459, 532, 570 
 Lothar, 96 
 Loudon, General, 355, 393, 407, 
 
 455 
 Louis XVI., 405 
 Jagellon, king of Bohemia, 
 
 215 ; reformation in his reign, 
 
 216 ; king of Hungary, 248 ; 
 marries Mary of Austria, 246 ; 
 death at Mohacs, 249 
 
 the Great, king of Hungary, 
 
 220 ; his wars in Italy, 220 ; 
 acquires Dalmatia, 221 ; pro- 
 claimed king of Poland, 222 
 
 Low Countries, 388, 391, 398, 403 
 
 Lower Austria, condition of, under 
 Ferdinand IV., 510 
 
 Ludmila, 89 
 
 Luneville, treaty of, 413 
 
 Lusatia, 94, 163 
 
 Luther compared to Hus, 174 ; pro- 
 gress of his doctrines in Bo- 
 hemia, 216 
 
 Luxemburg, Bohemia under the 
 house of, 155 
 
 M 
 
 Mack, General, 424, 425 
 Magenta, battle of, 559 
 Magnano, 412 
 Magyar harshness towards the 
 
 Slavs, 586 
 Magyars, statistics, 5 ; geographical 
 
 position, 7 ; invade Moravia, 57, 
 
 58; manners and religion, 61. 
 
 See Hungary 
 Mahmoud, 509 
 Mahomet II. , 234, 240 
 Majestas Carolina, 162 
 Manteuffel, 556 
 Mantua, 406, 413 
 Mansfeld, 297, 299-301 
 Manuscript of Kralove Dvor, 497
 
 INDEX. 
 
 663 
 
 Maradas, 302 
 
 Marchegg, battle of, 1 10 
 
 Marches, the, 477 
 
 Marcomanni, 13, 16, 18, 23 
 
 Marcus Aurelius, 18 
 
 Marengo, battle of, 412 
 
 Maret, duke of Bassano, 488 
 
 Margaret Maultasche, 143, 144 ; 
 gives up Tyrol to Rudolf IV., 
 147 ; her character, 148 
 
 j\Iaria Louisa, 443 ; marriage, 
 443 ; retires to Schonbrunn, 457 
 
 Theresa, 348 ; marriage, 348 ; 
 
 invasion of Silesia, 349 ; war of the 
 Austrian succession, 350 ; peace 
 of Berlin, 351 ; continuation of 
 war, 352 ; peace of Dresden, 352 ; 
 treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 352 ; 
 Seven Years' War, 354 ; partition 
 of Poland, 357-361 ; acquisition 
 of Bukovina, 361 ; war of 
 }5avarian succession, 362 ; treaty 
 of Tesin, 363 ; her rule in Bo- 
 hemia, 364 ; crowned at Prague, 
 365 ; edict on forced labour, 365 ; 
 revolt of peasants, 365 ; her rule 
 in Hungary, 366 ; vioriamur pro 
 re^e nostra, 369 ; disputes with 
 the diet, 370; frontier lands, 371 ; 
 death, 372 
 
 Marie Antoinette, 356, 405 
 
 Marini, 212, 238 
 
 Marmont, General, 441 
 
 Maroboduum, 16 
 
 Maroboduus, 16 
 
 Marseillaise, translated into Magyar, 
 484 
 
 Martinice, Jaroslav of, 295, 296 
 
 Martinovics, 484 
 
 Martinuzzi Utieseno%'ic, 315, 317, 
 318, 319 
 
 Mary, queen of Hungary, 222 
 
 Massena, 407 
 
 Mathias, archduke of Austria, re- 
 volts against Rudolf, emperor of 
 Germany, 261 ; grants liberty of 
 conscience, 262 ; succeeds Ru- 
 dolf, 263 ; makes Ferdinand of 
 Styria his heir ; becomes king of 
 Bohemia, 263 ; remonstrances of 
 the nobles, 292 ; the defenestration 
 of Prague, 295 ; revolt of Bo- 
 
 hemia, 296 ; death, 297 ; his rule 
 
 in Hungary, 327 
 Mathias Corvinus, 211; his wars 
 
 against George of Podiebrad, 21 1 ; 
 
 his reign in Hungary, 236-241 ; 
 
 his laws, 242 
 of Janov, theologian and fore- 
 runner of Hus, 168 
 
 of Thurn, 291 
 
 Matice Skolska, 613 
 
 Matitsa Ceska (Society of Popular 
 
 Literature), 513 
 Matitsa (or Matica), Servian Literary 
 
 Society, 500, 58S 
 Maurice, prince of Manderscheid, 
 
 364 
 
 Maxen, victory of, 355 
 
 Maximilian L, 245 ; war against 
 Hungary, 245 ; unites all the Aus- 
 trian domains, 251 ; peace of 
 Basel, 252 ; his policy and matri- 
 monial alliances, 253 ; wars, 254 ; 
 peasant war in Carniola, 254 
 
 H., 259-261 ; as king of 
 
 Bohemia, 289 ; as king of Hun- 
 gary, 320-322 
 
 , Archduke, 596 
 
 , emperor of Mexico, 570 
 
 Joseph, of Bavaria, 362 
 
 ■ of Bavaria, 300 
 
 Maximus, 19 
 
 Mehemet Aga, 300 
 
 Ali, 509 
 
 Melas, Austrian general, 412 
 
 Memmingen, 412 
 
 Menegatti, 267 
 
 Menmarot, Bulgarian prince, 59 
 
 Menzel, de, Austrian general, 351 
 
 Meran, articles of, 257, 258 
 
 Mercy, de, ambassador at the court 
 at Paris, 356 
 
 Merfeldt, Austrian envoy to Na- 
 poleon, 407 
 
 Merseburg, 60 
 
 Mesid Bey, 230 
 
 Meso Keresztes, battle of, 325 
 
 Meszaros, Magyar general, 538 
 
 Methodius, 43 ; goes to Rome, 44 ; 
 baptizes Borivoj of Bohemia, 45 ; 
 second journey to Rome, 45 ; 
 death, 46 
 
 Metternich, his father at congress
 
 664 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 of Rastadt, 410; his relations 
 with Napoleon, 423, 446, 448. 
 449, 455 ; subsequent policy 
 466 ; birth and character, 468 
 influence over Francis II., 504 
 assists the Porte, 509 ; his fall 
 
 Michael, voievode of Wallachia, 
 
 326 
 Mieczyslav, duke of Poland, 64 
 Milan, 21 ; Chekhs in, 97 ; revolt 
 
 against Austria, 532 
 • Obrenovic, prince of Servia, 
 
 602, 610, 615 
 Milic of Moravia, 168 
 Military frontiers, 324, 345, 371, 
 
 520, 614 
 
 roads, 16 
 
 Militic, 602 
 
 Millesimo, battle of, 406 
 
 Millesimos, Austrian family settled 
 
 in Bohemia, 402 
 Milutinovic, 453 
 Ministeriales, of Styria, 136 
 Minnesingers in Austria, 140 
 Miramar, 571 
 Modena, duke of, obtains Breis- 
 
 gau, 409 ; state of, revolts against 
 
 Austria, 477 
 Mohacs, battle of, 217, 249, 314; 
 
 defeat of Turks, 335 
 Moimir I., 42 
 
 II., 49 
 
 Molwitz, battle of, 349 
 
 Mongols, 30 ; invasion of Hungary, 
 83-85; of Moravia, loi 
 
 Montebello, defeat at, 559 
 
 Montecuculli, General, 272, 333 
 
 Montenegro, independence de- 
 clared, 602 ; present attitude of, 
 609 
 
 Montenotte, battle of, 406 
 
 Montesquieu, extract from, 366 
 
 Montmirail, battle of, 456 
 
 Moravia, 26,40,41 ; its power, 48 ; 
 its fall, 50 ; reunion with Bo- 
 hemia, 100 ; under John of 
 Luxemburg, 157 ; declared an 
 integral part of the kingdom of 
 Bohemia, 163 ; faithful to Catho- 
 licism during the Hussite wars, 
 189 ; persecution of the reformed 
 
 party, 305 ; declaration of the 
 
 diet, 583 
 Moreau, 407 
 Morocco, 389 
 
 Moscow, Slav congress at, 578 
 Moskirch, defeat at, 412 
 Mozart, 378 
 
 Miihldorf, battle of, 143 
 Midler, Adam, 468 
 
 , the Jesuit, 267 
 
 Miinster, treaty of, 266 
 
 Murad, sultan of Turkey, 230, 231, 
 
 233 
 Murat, king of Naples, 457, 461 
 Mutimir, chief of the Croats, 53 
 
 N 
 
 Nachod, defeat at, 569 
 Nadasdy, Magyar patriot, 334 
 Nagy, Paul, Magyar orator, 487, 
 
 492 
 Naples, Austrian intervention in, 
 
 470 
 Napoleon Buonaparte's victories, 
 406, 407 ; peace of Loben, 408 ; 
 success in Italy, 425 ; takes 
 Vienna, 426; battle of Austerlitz, 
 426 ; conduct towards Austria, 
 430; campaign of 1809, 431; 
 Aspern and Wagram, 434-436 ; 
 treaty of Schonbrunn, 436 ; rule in 
 Dalmatia, 439 ; marriage, 443 ; 
 Russian campaign, 445 ; cam- 
 paign of 18 13, 451 ; battle of 
 Leipzig, 454; peace of Fontaine- 
 bleau, 457 ; banishment to Elba, 
 457 ; return to France, 461 ; 
 Waterloo, 462 ; his inquiry into 
 Magyar grievances, 487 ; his 
 proclamation to Hungary, 488 
 
 HI., 559, 560, 565, 570, 
 
 572 _ 
 Navarino, battle of, 475 
 Neerwinden, victory at, 404 
 Neidhard (Nitardi), the Jesuit, 267 
 Neisse, 351 
 Nemecky Bred, victory of the 
 
 Taborites, 187 
 Nesselrode, Russian ambassador, 
 456
 
 INDEX. 
 
 665 
 
 Nessing, Tyrolese patriot, 432 
 Key, Prench general, 426 
 Nicholas, prince of Montenegro, 609 
 , the czar, 474, 509, 539, 545, 
 
 557, 602 
 Nicobar Islands, 390 
 Niegosh, Peter Pelrovic, prince of 
 
 Montenegro, 453 
 Nikolsburg, peace of, 329 
 Nikopolis, battle of, 226 
 Nissa, 19 
 
 Nodier, Charles, 440 
 Nofels, battle of, 144 
 Noreja, 16 
 
 Noricum, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23, 27 
 No vara, 352 
 Novibazar, sandjak, of Bosnia,' 604, 
 
 606 
 Novi-Szad, 604 
 Nymphenburg, treaty of, 350 
 
 O 
 
 Obradovic, Croat wiiter, 500 
 
 Dositei, poet, 392 
 
 "October days" riots in Vienna, 
 
 544 
 Odoacer, 23 
 Olomouc (Olmutz), 96, 102, 155 
 
 , conference at, 556 
 
 Omladina, 588 
 Onod, diet at, 340 
 Oreb, 180 
 Oriental Academy, 379 
 
 of Poland, 597 
 
 of the southern Slavs, 597 
 
 Orphans, the, a Hussite sect, 1S9, 
 
 197 
 Orsova, 400 
 Ortenau, 413, 427 
 Ostrogoths, 19, 21, 23 
 Otokar, Premysl, I., 98, lOO 
 
 , II., 103-111 
 
 Ott, Mavgar general, 485 
 Otto of Brandenburg, 112-115 
 
 of Freisingen, 130 
 
 of Olomouc, 96 
 
 the Gay, duke of Austria, 
 
 143 
 Ousti, 179, 180, 190 
 Ovilabis (Wels), 16 
 
 Pago, island in Adriatic, 408 
 
 Palacky, 500, 522, 528, 549, 582 
 
 Palatine, office of, 82 
 
 , Joseph, retires before Na- 
 poleon, 486 ; 491 
 
 Palestro, 559 
 
 Palffy, General, 485, 486 
 
 , John, 367, 368 
 
 Pannonia, 14 ; conquered by the 
 Romans, 15 ; principal towns in, 
 15; invaded by Goths, 18; di- 
 vided by Diocletian, 20 ; ravaged 
 by Sarmatae, 20 ; attacked by 
 Avars, colonized by Slavs, 27 ; its 
 ecclesiastical organization, 65 ' 
 
 Pannonians, 14, 17 
 
 Panslavism, 502, 509, 528 
 
 Pappenheim, General, 265 
 
 Paques Veronaises, 408 
 
 Parma, 352, 477 
 
 Parthenopian republic, 411 
 
 Pasek, John, 284 
 
 Paskievitch, 540 
 
 Passarowitz (Pozarevac), treaty of, 
 
 343 
 
 Passau, bishopric of, 413 
 
 Paterines, sect of, 221 
 
 Paul II., pope, 210 
 
 Payne, Peter, 195 
 
 Pazmany, cardinal, 328 
 
 Peasants, revolts in Transylvania, 
 229 ; in Hungary, 246 ; in Car- 
 niola, 254; in Tyrol, 257; in 
 Austria, 261, 264 ; efforts in the 
 Hussite wars, 1S3 ; condition 
 under Maria Theresa, 365, 374 ; 
 freed by Joseph II., 395, 390 ; 
 state of, in Galicia, 508 
 
 Peczely, poet, 482 
 
 Pelcel, Bohemian writer, 496, 497 
 
 Perczel, General, 538, 539 
 
 Petcheneguens, 67, 72 
 
 Peter, king of Hungary, 71 
 
 of Mladenovic, 177 
 
 of Vinea, 135 
 
 Urseolus II., doge of Venice, 
 
 53 
 Petofi, Alexander, 515, 533 ; death, 
 
 539
 
 666 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Petovia (Pettau), i6, 20 
 
 Philibert, bishop of Coutances, 
 199, 201 
 
 Philip the Handsome, 255 
 
 Piacenza, 352 
 
 Piccolomini, 302 
 
 Piedmont takes part in Crimean 
 war, 558 
 
 Pilgrim, archbishop of Lorch, 64 
 
 Pillersdorf, 526, 529 
 
 Pilnitz, 400 
 
 Pisa, council of, 170, 172 
 
 Pius II., pope, 210 
 
 VI., 3S6 
 
 Plevna, 602 
 
 Plzen (Pilsen), faithful to Catho- 
 licism during Hussite wars, 191 ; 
 siege of, 196 
 
 Poland, state of, 116; united for a 
 time to Bohemia, 1 17; treaty 
 with John of Luxemburg, 159; 
 partition of, 356-361 ; Western 
 Galicia united to Austria, 405 ; 
 condition during the Napoleonic 
 wars, 459 ; 476, 506, 531, 565 
 
 Poles, statistics of, 5 ; geographical 
 position, 8. See Galicia, Sobi- 
 eski, Poland 
 
 Polovtses, 72 
 
 Pompadour, Madame de, 354 
 
 Porte, 509 
 
 Portugal, 476, 505 
 
 Potocki, 580, 589 
 
 Pragmatic Sanction, 279-281 
 
 Prague, founding of, 40 ; seat of 
 Bohemian court, 126; founding 
 of university, 16 1 ; council of, 
 177; siege of, 183; synod of, 
 185; note on topography of, 197 ; 
 court of appeal established, 288 ; 
 defenestration at, 295 ; university 
 given up to Jesuits, 303 ; bom- 
 bardment, 309 ; conference at, 
 450 ; Slav congress at, 529 ; 
 riot at, 530 
 
 Praguerie, the, 201 
 
 Premysl, 40 
 
 Otokar, 98-100 
 
 II., 103; his successes, 104; 
 
 declines imperial crown, 105 ; 
 struggle with Hungary, 105 ; 
 battle of Cressenbrlinn, 105 ; gains 
 
 Eger, 106 ; gains Carinthia and 
 Carniola, 107 ; again declines 
 imperial crown, 107 ; war with 
 Rudolf, 108 ; gives up territory 
 to him, 109 ; receives investiture 
 from him, 109 ; fresh quarrels 
 and battle of Marchegg, iio; 
 death, no 
 
 Premyslides, 89-126 
 
 Preradovic, 501 
 
 Presern, 501 
 
 Pressburg, peace of, 427 
 
 Primary schools founded in Austria, 
 
 377 
 
 Prmce Eugene, 280, 281, 337, 343 
 
 Privilegium majus, 146 
 
 Probus, 19 
 
 Prochazka, 497 
 
 Procopius the Great, 191 ; invades 
 Bavaria, Austria, and Lusatia, 
 192 ; goes to the council of Basel, 
 
 195 
 
 the Less, 191 
 
 Protestants, in Bohemia, 216; tole- 
 ration of, in Hungary, 481 
 
 Prussia. See Frederick II., Maria 
 Theresa, and Francis Joseph 
 
 Ptacek of Perkstein, 204, 205 
 
 Quadi, 13, 16, 18, 21, 23 
 
 R 
 
 Raab (Gyor), 325, 489 
 
 Radetsky, 449, 454, 532, 559 
 
 Ragusa (Dubrovnik), 226, 410, 439 ; 
 annexed to Dalmatia by Napo- 
 leon, 439 ; 441, 453 
 
 Rakocsy, Sigismund, 327 
 
 , Francis, 339-341 
 
 , George, 331 
 
 , George II., 332 
 
 , Joseph, 347 
 
 Rakos, 232 
 
 Rapp, General, 462 
 
 Rascians, Magyar name for Servian 
 immigrants, 338 
 
 Rastadt, treaty of, 277 
 
 Rausimond, 20
 
 INDEX. 
 
 667 
 
 Rautenstrauch, 383 
 Rechberg, Count, 565, 5^^ 
 Reformation, in Austria, 257 ! in 
 
 Tyrol, Styria, and Carniola, 257 ; 
 
 in Bohemia,2i6 ; in Hungary, 322 
 Regnier, General, 447 
 Reichenbach, congress at, 399 ; 
 
 treaty of, 450 
 Religion of the ancient Slavs, 37 
 Resolution of the Galician diet in 
 
 1868, 5S4 
 Reuss, Austrian general, 452 
 Rhsetia, 15, 18; division of, 20; 23 
 Rhaetians, 13, 15 
 Rheinfelden, 413 
 Richard Cceur de Lion, 133 
 Rieger, 529, 578, 582, 591, 594 
 Rivoli, defeat at, 406 
 Rodich, General, 586 
 Roise, General, 453 
 Rokycana, John of, 191, 197 
 Roman colonies in Dalmatia,3l 
 Romans, their conquest of lUyria, 
 
 13 ; of the Taurisci, 13; wars 
 with the Cimbri, 13 ; triumph 
 over Dalmatians, Liburni, etc., 
 
 14 ; over Rhceti and Vindilici, 
 
 15 ; organization of these con- 
 quests, 15, 16 ; wars against 
 Dacians, 17; Roman emperors 
 born on Austro-Hungarian terri- 
 tory, 19 
 
 Rostislav, prince of Moravia, his 
 struggle against the Germans, 41 ; 
 sends for Cyril and Methodius, 
 43 ; is betrayed by Svatopluk, 45 
 
 Roumanians, 5 ; statistics, 5 ; geo- 
 graphical position, 8 ; position in 
 Transylvania, 520 ; their declara- 
 tion of rights, 535 ; condition 
 under Francis Joseph, 553 ; their 
 grievances at the present time, 
 577 ; their protest in 1868, 588 ; 
 their independence declared, 602 
 
 Rovigno in Istria, 408 
 
 Roxolani, 17 
 
 Royal Society of Prague founded, 497 
 
 Rudolf of Habsburg, 85 ; elected 
 emperor, 107 ; dispute with 
 Bohemia, 108 ; marriage com- 
 pact, 109 ; battle of Marchegg, 
 no; attacks Moravia, 112; his 
 
 compact with Bohemia, 113; 
 invests his sons with Austria, 
 Styria, and Carniola, 142 
 
 Rudolf II., 261 ; peasant war in 
 Austria, 261 ; made king of 
 Bohemia, 289 ; progress nf 
 Jesuits in his reign, 290 ; reli- 
 gious dissensions in Bohemia, 
 290 ; the Letter of Majesty, 291 ; 
 his abdication, 292 
 
 IV., the Founder, 145 ; the 
 
 privikghiDi majits, 146 ; acquires 
 Tyrol, 147 ; founds university of 
 Vienna, 148; Austria is divided, 
 149 
 
 , son of Albert I., king of 
 
 Bohemia, 155 
 
 Rug", 23 
 
 Rusccni, 315 
 
 Russia, begins to share in European 
 politics, 352 
 
 Russian Poland, insurrection in, 565 
 
 Ruthenians, 5; statistics, 5 ; geogra- 
 phical position, 8 ; their situation 
 in Eastern Galicia, 507 ; in Hun- 
 gary, 521 ; their attitude in 1869, 
 585 
 
 Sabaria (Stein-am-Auger ?), 16 
 
 Sadowa, battle of, 569 
 
 Safarik, 500, 520, 522, 529 
 
 St. Gothard (Kormend), battle of, 
 
 333 
 
 St. Julien, 412 
 
 St. Ladislas, 73 
 
 St. Petersburg, treaty of, 405 
 
 St. Simon, 341 
 
 St. Vit cathedral founded, 126 
 
 Salzburg, 409, 413, 427, 436 
 
 Samo the Merchant, 28, 29, 39 
 
 Samuel Ala, 71 
 
 San Stefano, treaty of, 602 
 
 Sarmatae, 17, 20, 21 
 
 Sarmizegethusa, 17 
 
 Saurau, Austrian diplomatist, 417 
 
 Saxons, 7 ; settle in Hungary and 
 Transylvania, "6 ; charter granted 
 to them by Andrew III., 82 ; their 
 undue influence in Transylvania, 
 521; 535
 
 668 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Sazava, monastery of, 125 
 
 Scharnhorst, Prussian general, 449 
 
 Scheldt, 389 
 
 Scherer, French general, 412 
 
 Schlegel, Frederick, in the service 
 of Austria, 468 
 
 Schleswig-Holstein, 568, 569 
 
 Schlick, Chekh leader, 302 
 
 Schmerling, Austrian diplomatist, 
 562-566, 578, 581, 582 
 
 Schmidt, president of Parliament of 
 Vienna 1849, 543 
 
 Schonbrunn,426 ; treaty of, 436 ; 457 
 
 Schwarzenburg, adviser of Leopold 
 I., 267 
 
 ■ , Adolf, takes Raabin 1597, 325 
 
 , Felix, 546, 551 ; his death, 554 
 
 , Karl, 449, 450, 451, 454, 456, 
 
 458 
 
 Schwarzgelber, 543 
 
 Scordisci, 12 
 
 Selim (Sultan), 321 
 
 Selirn Gherai, khan of the Crimea, 
 269 
 
 Sempach, battle of, 151 
 
 Servia, 228 ; does homage to Hun- 
 gary, 228 ; its independence de- 
 clared, 602 ; attitude towards 
 Russia, 609 ; king Milan recog- 
 nized, 610 ; declares war against 
 Bulgaria, 610 ; accepts tutelage of 
 Austria, 610 
 
 Servian emigrants, 338 
 
 Literary Society, 500 
 
 Servians, 30 ; Sorabes, 33 ; in Hun- 
 gary, 324 ; origin of military fron- 
 tiers, 324 ; their privileges, 338 ; 
 treatment by Austria, 342, 343 ; 
 persecutions, 344 ; reduced to 
 serfdom, 346 ; peasant revolt, 346 
 as soldiers, 369 ; emigration into 
 Russia, 372 ; admitted to con- 
 gress, 483 ; foundation of Matitsa, 
 500 ; complaints against Hun- 
 gary, 520 ; declare war, 535 ; 
 they are sacrificed to the dual 
 government, 577 
 
 Shabats, fortress on the Danube, 
 240, 248 
 
 Sicarius, 29 
 
 Sickingen, 340 
 
 Sigismund of Luxemburg, emperor 
 
 of Germany, king of Bohemia 
 and of Hungary, 165 ; gives Hus 
 a safe conduct, 173; Bohemia re- 
 volts against him, 182 ; his reign in 
 Hungary, 225 ; plans war against 
 the Turks, 227 ; his diets at Buda 
 and Temesvar, 226 ; treaty of suc- 
 cession with Austria, 227 ; gives 
 up Szepes to Poland ; Dalmatia 
 joins Venice, 227 ; his relations 
 with the Servian despots, 228 
 
 Sigismund, king of Poland, 297 
 
 Korybutowicz, 188, 190 
 
 Sigovesius, 12 
 
 Silesia annexed to Bohemia in 1335, 
 159 ; becomes an integral part of 
 the kingdom, 163 ; is ceded to 
 Prussia by Maria Theresa, 351 
 
 Silvio Pellico, 470 
 
 Sinelli, 267 
 
 Sirmium, 15 ; 16, 18 ; 22 
 
 Siscia (Sisek), 14, 15 
 
 Sistova, treaty of, 399 
 
 Sitvatorok, treaty of, 325 
 
 Sixtus IV., 213 
 
 Skala, Chekh historian, 305 
 
 Skrzyniecki, Polish general, 509 
 
 Slavata, chief justice of Bohemia, 
 
 295 
 Slav liturgy, 47 
 
 Slavonia, under Francis Joseph, 553 
 Slavs, 8, 21, 24, 25, 33; division 
 of Slav empire, 29 ; character of 
 their migrations, 32 ; religion, 
 32, 37 ; Slav dialects, 33 ; early 
 government, 34; effect of Magyar 
 invasion, 59 ; the Slavism of the 
 nineteenth century, 495-503. Sec 
 also Chekhs, Croats, Servians, 
 Poles, Ruthenians, Slovaks, 
 Slovenes 
 
 of the Elbe, 29, 37, 498 
 
 Slovaks, 5 ; statistics, 5 ; geograph- 
 ical position, 8 ; their complaints 
 against Hungary, 520-521 ; their 
 present condition, 577 
 Slovenes, 5 ; statistics, 5 ; geograph- 
 ical position, 8 ; early history, 32, 
 51 ; conversion to Christianity, 
 51 ; revolt of peasants, 264; the 
 Reformation, 258 ; under French 
 rule, 438-441 ; literary revival.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 66g 
 
 501 ; their attitude in 1867, 
 
 Sniolka, vice-president of parlia- 
 ment of Vienna, 543 ; president, 
 546 
 
 Sobeslav I., duke of Bohemia, 96 
 
 Sobieski, John, king of Poland, 
 269 ; siege of Vienna, 270 ; letter 
 to his wife, 270 
 
 Solferino, battle of, 559 
 
 Soliman the Magnificent, 248, 249 ; 
 makes treaty with Hungary, 315 ; 
 enters the land, 316 ; success 
 before Buda, 317 ; banishes infant 
 king to Transylvania, 317 ; occu- 
 pies central Bfungary, 317 ; siege 
 of Sziget, 320 ; death, 320 
 
 Solomon, king of Hungary, 72 
 
 Sonnenfels, Austrian publicist, 378, 
 
 383 
 Sophia, queen of Bohemia, 169 
 Sorabes (Serbs or Servians), 33 
 Sorr (Zarov), defeated at, 352 
 Spain, war of succession, 277 
 Spalato, etymology, 19 ; capital of 
 
 the Croats, 32 ; council of, 54 ; 
 
 coronation of Zoonimir at, 54 ; 
 
 made an archbishopric, 56 ; 
 
 seized by Koloman, 74 
 Speckbacher, Tyrolese patriot, 
 
 432, 437 
 Spinola, 267 
 Spytihnev I., duke of Bohemia, 89 
 
 — n., 93 
 
 Stadion, Philip, 423, 429, 507, 531 
 
 , Francis, 546, 551, 552 
 
 Stahrenberg, 423 
 
 Stanislas Leszczynski, 348 
 
 Stanko Vraz, 501 
 
 Steinberg, counts of, found Chekh 
 
 museum in Prague, 497 
 Steinbriick built by Leopold of 
 
 Babenberg, 139 
 Stephen I., king of Hungary, 64-70 ; 
 
 canonized, 73 
 
 11., 75 
 
 HI., 76 
 
 , Archduke, 511, 517 
 
 , king of Croatia, 54 
 
 of Moldavia, 238 
 
 Tomasevic, king of Bosnia, 237 
 
 Sternberg, Caspar, memoirs of, 397 
 
 Steyer, 413 
 
 Stockach, victory at, 413 
 
 Stranski, Bohemian writer, 305 
 
 Stratimirovic, Servian general, 535, 
 536, 602 
 
 Strohbach, vice-president of parlia- 
 ment of 1849, 543 
 
 Strossmayer, Bishop, 586 
 
 Stur, Slovak writer, 520 
 
 Styria gained by Hungary, 85 ; 
 included in the inheritance of 
 Leopold in., 149, 150 ; in 
 domains of Maximilian, 251 ; 
 peasant war in, 257 ; Reforma- 
 tion in, 258 ; restoration of 
 Catholicism, 262 
 
 Suevi, 13 
 
 Suvorov, Russian general, 412 
 
 Svatopluk, prince of Moravia, 45- 
 47 ; secures the recognition of 
 independence of Moravia, 47 ; 
 his power, 48 ; defeat, 4.9 ; legend 
 concerning his death, 49 
 
 Swedes in Bohemia, 306-30S, 309 
 
 Swieten, Gerhard van, Dutch pro- 
 fessor of medicine, 377, 378, 383 
 
 Swiss, battle of Sempach, 151 ; 
 peace of Basel, 252 
 
 Sylvester, Pope, 66 
 
 Sylvius, ^neas, 189, 198, 209, 235, 
 
 237 
 
 Syria, expedition in, against Mehe- 
 met Ali, 509 
 
 Szapolyai, Emerich, 240 
 
 , John, defeats the Kurucs, 247 ; 
 
 is proclaimed king of Hungary, 
 314 ; seeks alliance with the 
 Turks, 315 ; his treaty with 
 France, 315 ; treaty of Varad, 
 316 ; his death, 316 
 
 , John Sigismund, 316; voie- 
 
 vode of Transylvania, 321 
 
 , Isabella, 316, 319, 320 
 
 Szathmar, peace of, 341 
 
 Szechenyi, the Great Magyar, 455, 
 
 493> 494, 514, 517, 534 
 Szeged, peace of, 231 
 Szeklers, 8 
 
 Szelpczenyi, Magyar primate, 354 
 Szentmariai, 484 
 Sziget, siege of, 320 
 Sziiagy, 237
 
 670 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Taaffe, Count, 612-614 
 Tabor, 180, 182, 202, 206 
 Taborites, 185, 187, 196, 197 ; 
 their defeat at Cesky Brod, 198 ; 
 202, 204 
 Talleyrand, 412 
 Tarasp, lordship of, 413 
 Tarvis, Col de, 407 
 Taurisci, 12, 13, 14 
 Tegethoff, Admiral, 568, 570, 597 
 Teleki, Ladislas, 540 
 
 , Magyar orator, 514 
 
 Temesvar, defeat of the Kurucz 
 
 near, 247 
 Tesin (Teschen), 351 ; treaty of, 363 
 Teutonic knights, 196 
 Theodoric, 23 
 Theodosius L, 21 ; 
 
 II,, 22 
 
 Theresianuni, 377 
 Thorn, 399 
 
 Thugut, 363, 411, 412, 415 
 Thun, Mathias, 529 
 
 , Leo, 529 
 
 Thuringians, 23 
 
 Thurn, Henry of, 298, 299, 300 
 
 , Mathias, 291, 295, 297 
 
 Thurzo, the Palatine, 328 
 
 Tiberius, 15, 16, 17 
 
 Tilly, General, 300 
 
 Tisza, 614 
 
 Tokoli, Emerich, 335, 372 
 
 Tomasic, General, 453 
 
 Tomislav, king of the Croats, 53 
 
 Tomory, archbishop of Kalocsa, 249 
 
 Torgau, defeat at, 355 
 
 Torbk, Valentine, Transylvania 
 
 general, 317 
 Torstenson, Swedish general, 309 
 Trajan, 17, 18 
 Transleithania, 577 
 Transylvania, formation of the prin- 
 cipality, 321 ; its princes, 325- 
 332 ; accepts a voievode from the 
 Porte, 332 ; insurrection of To- 
 koli, 335 ; annexation to Austria, 
 339 ; treaty of Szathmar, 341 ; 
 condition under Ferdinand IV., 
 521 ; dietat Kolosvar, 535 ; again 
 separated from Hungary, 553 ; 
 
 made a province of Hungary, 
 588 
 Trautmansdorf, 302 
 Trautson, Austrian diplomatist, 272 
 Trebbia, victory at, 412 
 Trent, 402, 427 
 
 Trieste, foundation of, 12 ; condition 
 under Francis I., 379 ; included 
 in Inner Austria, 402 
 Trogir (Trau) conquered by the 
 
 Venetians, 53 
 Troppau (Opava), 351 
 Truber, translator of the Bible into 
 
 Slav, 258 
 Tsiganes, 63 
 Turbigo, 559 
 
 Turks, invade Carinthia and Styria, 
 154; the Balkan peninsula, 221 ; 
 first battle with the Magyars, 222 ; 
 their progress, 225 ; gain battle of 
 Nikopolis, 226 ; capture Sniede- 
 revo, 229 ; are beaten back by 
 Hunyadi, 230 ; treaty of Szeged, 
 231 ; battle of Varna, 231 ; of 
 Kosovo, 233 ; loss of Belgrade, 
 235 ; conquest of Bosnia, 237 ; 
 building of Shabats, 240; invasion 
 of Transylvania, 240 ; defeat at 
 Kenyer-meso, 248 ; truce with 
 Hungary, 241 ; defeat the Mag- 
 yars, 245 ; Soliman the Magni- 
 ficent, 248 ; capture of Belgrade, 
 248 ; battle of Mohacs, 249 ; 
 capture of Buda, 250 ; siege of 
 Vienna, 259 ; their expulsion, 
 337 ; peace of Karlovci, 337 
 Tuscany, duchy of, belongs to 
 Francis of Lorraine, 348 ; 349 ; 
 exchanged for Salzburg, 413 
 Tyrol, Roman conquest of, 13 ; 
 assigned to Austria, 144, 147 ; 
 struggles of nobles with Frederick 
 IV., 151 ; peasant war, 257 ; is 
 ceded to France, 413 ; to Bavaria, 
 428 ; the insurrection, 432 ; revolt 
 against Bavaria, 453 ; condition 
 under Ferdinand IV., 511 
 
 U 
 
 Udine, conference at, 408 
 Ujejski, Polish poet, 508
 
 INDEX. 
 
 671 
 
 Ujlaky, Magyar noble, 237 
 
 Ulm, capitulation of, 425 
 
 Uniate Greek Churcli, 532 
 
 Unna, district of, 400 
 
 Urban IV., 218 
 
 , Slovak writer, 520 
 
 Urseolus, doge of Venice, 71 
 
 Uskoci, Slav refugees, 345 
 
 Utraquists, or Calixtins, formation 
 of the sect, 177-179 ; organization 
 of its clergy, 178 ; negociations 
 with council of Basel, 195 ; decay 
 of the Utraquist church, 204 ; 
 allowed the use of the cup, 288 ; 
 their struggle with the archbishop 
 of Prague, 294 ; reappear under 
 Joseph II., 386 
 
 V 
 
 Vacslav I., the One-eyed, king of 
 Bohemia, loi ; influence of the 
 Germans under him, loi; invasion 
 of the Tartars, 101-102 
 
 II., 102 ; Otho of Branden- 
 burg made regent, 11 2-1 14; re- 
 volt of the nobles, 1 14 ; he be- 
 comes king of Poland, 1 1 7 
 
 III., king of Bohemia, 118 ; is 
 
 assassinated at Olomouc, 1 19 
 
 IV., 164; his character, 165 ; 
 
 rise of legend of St. John of 
 Nepomucen, 166 ; league of 
 nobles against him, 166 ; religious 
 troubles, 167 ; John Hus, 168 ; 
 the Utraquists, 177 ; Taborites 
 179 ; death, 181 
 
 , the Saint, 89, 90 
 
 Valduc, prince of the Slovenes, 51 
 
 Valens, 21 
 
 Valentine Torok, 317 
 
 Valentinian, 21 
 
 Valeria, chief town of Pannonia, 20 
 
 Vandals, 18 
 
 Van Svvieten, 377 
 
 Varad, treaty of, in 153S, 316, 318 
 
 Varna, defeat at, 231 
 
 Vasquez, 302 
 
 Vasvar, peace of, 333 
 
 Vasvary, Magyar orator, 533 
 
 Veldidena, Witten, near Inns- 
 bruck, 16 
 
 Velchrad, capital of Moravia, 50 
 
 Veleslavin, Adam of, 390 
 
 Vends, 28, 34 
 
 Veneti, 12, 34 
 
 Venetians in Dalmatia, 53 
 
 Venice, 77, 78, 79, 408, 409, 410, 
 532, 560, 570 
 
 Verboczy, 246, 247, 248, 314, 317, 
 318 
 
 Verona, diet of, 135 ; congress at, 47 1 
 
 Versailles, treaty of, 354 
 
 Verseghi, Magyar poet, 486 
 
 Vespasian, 16 
 
 Vesselenyi, Peter, Magyarnoble, 334 
 
 Victor Emmanuel, 541, 559, 560 
 
 Victorin of Podiebrad, 21 1 
 
 Vienna founded, 132 ; founding of 
 university, 148 ; insurrection in, 
 153; captured by Stephen Szapo- 
 lyai, 314 ; treaty of, in 1606, 
 326 ; patriotism of Viennese, 407 ; 
 taken by French, 426 ; return of 
 Francis II., 428; second sur- 
 render, 434 ; fortifications de- 
 stroyed, 436 ; Prussian emigrants 
 in, 447 ; congress of, 458 ; state 
 under Ferdinand IV., 522; par- 
 lianxent of 1848, 542-546 ; "Oc- 
 tober days," 544; modern im- 
 provements, 596 
 
 Vigevano yielded to Sardinia, 352 
 
 Vilemov, truce of, 211 
 
 Villafranca, interview of Napoleon 
 with Francis Joseph at, 560 
 
 Villani, 302 
 
 Vindilici, 15 
 
 Vindobona (Vienna), 15, 16 
 
 Visigoths, 19, 21, 23 
 
 Vitold, grandduke of Lithuania, 
 186, 1S7 
 
 Vladislav, duke of Bohemia, 96 ; 
 goes on crusades, takes part in 
 siege of Milan, 97 
 
 , the posthumous king of Bo- 
 hemia, 204, 206 ; king of Hun- 
 gary, 232-236 
 
 Vocel, poet, 500 
 
 Vodnik, lllyrian poet, 440, 500 
 
 Vojtech, or Adalbert, bishop of 
 Prague, 64 ; goes to Hungary, 
 91 ; is murdered, 92 ; his remains 
 carried to Prague, 93
 
 672 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Von Trenck, 369 
 Vorarlberg, 426, 427 
 Vorosmarty, Magyar poet, 515 
 Vratislav I., duke of Bohemia, 89 
 
 II., 94 ; receives the title of 
 
 king, 94 
 
 (Breslau), 93, 182, 239, 351 
 
 Vraz, Stanko, Servian poet, 501 
 Vysehrad, castle of, 40, 183, 184, 
 
 223 
 
 W 
 
 Wagner, the Jesuit, 333 
 
 Wagram, 435 
 
 Wallenstein, Albert of, 298, 307, 308 
 
 Wallis, 302 
 
 Warsaw, revolution in, 495 
 
 Wellington, 461 
 
 Wels, defeat of Magyars at, 60 
 
 Wencelaus. See Vacslav 
 
 Wends, Wihdisch. See Vends 
 
 Weyprecht, 597 
 
 White Mountain, battle of, 300, 301 
 
 Wielicska, salt mines of, 360 
 
 Wiellinger, leader in Austrian pea- 
 sant war, 265 
 
 William de Machaut, French 
 chronicler, 158 
 
 , king of Prussia, 567 
 
 Windischgratz, Prince, 526, 530, 
 
 538, 54S> 547 
 Winzingrode, 425 
 Wladyslaw II., king Dobre, 244 
 
 Jagiello, king of Poland, 
 
 elected king of Bohemia, 213 ; 
 power of the nobles under him, 
 214 ; religious sects reconciled, 
 214 ; he persecutes the Bohemian 
 Brotherhood, 215 ; is elected 
 king of Hungary, 215; his 
 expedition against the Turks, 
 230 ; battle of Varna, 231 ; his 
 death, 231 
 
 Lokietek, king of Poland, 
 
 119; offered crown of- Bohemia, 
 186, 187 
 
 Wolf, Ferdinand, 522 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, 315 
 Wrangel, Swedish general, 309 
 Wrede, Bavarian general, 437, 452 
 WuUersdorf, Captain, 597 
 
 Wurmser, Austrian general, 406 
 Wurtemburg, 428 
 Wurzburg ceded to France, 413 
 Wycliffe, 169 
 
 Ypsilanti, Servian prince, 473 
 
 Zalan, Slovak prince, 59 
 
 Zadar (Zara) seized by Hungary, 
 74 ; captured by Venice, 78 ; 
 ceded to Venice, 80 
 
 Zatec (Saatz), siege of, 186 
 
 Zavisa of Falkenstein, 115, I16 
 
 Zbynek, archbishop of Prague, 170, 
 171 
 
 Zdenek of Sternberg, grand bur- 
 grave of Bohemia, 210 
 
 Leo, of Roszmital, 216 
 
 Zelena Hora (Griinberg), confedera- 
 tion of, 210 
 
 Zerotin, Charles of, 290, 298, 306 
 
 Zinzendorf, 267 
 
 Zips (Szepes) claimed by Maria 
 Theresa, 360 ; attached to 
 Austria, 372 
 
 Ziska, knight of Trocnov, 180 ; 
 goes to Tabor, 182; organizes 
 the Hussites, 183 ; raises siege 
 of Prague, 183 ; conquers the 
 country, 184 ; offers crown to 
 Wladyslaw of Poland, 185 ; 
 defeats Sigismund, 187 ; defeats 
 the Utraquists, 188 ; his death, 
 188 
 
 Zizim, brother of the Sultan Baja- 
 zet, 241 
 
 Zoltan, 60 
 
 Zrinyi, ban of Croatia, 320 ; siege 
 of Sziget, 320; a descendant 
 commands Magyar forces, t,'})'}) 
 
 , Helen, 335, 336 
 
 , Peter, 334 ; execution of, 
 
 334 
 Zurich, peace of, 560 
 Zvenigorod, struggles between 
 
 prince of, and prhice of Kiev, 77 
 Zvonimir, king of Croatia, 54
 
 
 
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